While there are still some hurdles to clear before Rangers comes under American ownership, you can scarcely blame the club’s supporters for letting their imaginations run wild.
Come this May, it will be 14 years since David Murray relinquished control to Craig Whyte for the sum total of £1.
By the end of this season, there will have been 42 major trophies contested in Scottish football since that point. Barring a miraculous turnaround in the current Premiership race, Rangers will have won just three of those.
Caught in a cycle of poor recruitment, annual losses, on-field failure and managerial change, the Glasgow giants’ hopes of ever re-establishing themselves as the dominant force in Scottish football seem to be doomed as things stand.
While a takeover from the investment arm of the San Francisco 49ers wouldn’t be an instant panacea to the club’s many ills, it would offer a reason to believe that brighter days lay ahead with new faces at the helm and fresh ideas in the building.
Its appeal to the rank and file is obvious. The so-called Rangers men in the boardroom are eminently preferable to the spivs of yesteryear, but they now seem incapable of guiding the club back to the level they once enjoyed.
Business arm of San Francisco 49ers are currently in advanced talks to take over Rangers
Americans clearly see untapped potential in Ibrox club which has become a sleeping giant
The team’s fortunes have been mixed, and sometimes disastrous, under Philippe Clement
Word that talks between Paraag Marathe, the Leeds United chairman and president of 49ers Enterprises, and major Ibrox shareholders are now at an advanced stage, feels like the news long-suffering fans have been waiting for.
Unlike some of the other parties who have been rumoured to be eyeing control of the Ibrox club, the American deal sizzles with pizzazz and the unlocking of potential.
According to a recent estimate by Forbes, the 49ers Enterprises was the 11th most valuable sporting empire in the world at £4.78bn.
Although the 49ers last won the Super Bowl in 1994, they remain a true behemoth on the sporting landscape.
Their business arm’s outright purchase of Leeds United for £170m in 2023 followed an initial 15 per cent investment in the Yorkshire club in 2019 for £10m.
It’s brought more than a sprinkling of celebratory stardust to Elland Road. Actors Russell Crowe and Will Ferrell both own stakes in the club via the controlling company, as do golfers Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas and swimmer Michael Phelps. Anchorman for Ibrox? We shall see.
Of more interest to Rangers supporters in the here and now are the on-field fortunes of the English side across the past two seasons.
With the Americans having appointed Daniel Farke as manager as their first act, Leeds finished third in the Championship last season then lost the play-off final to Southampton. Yet the owners kept faith in the German coach, and that may well soon be rewarded as Leeds are currently back on top of the pile.
Takeover talks are being led by Paraag Marathe, president of 49ers Enterprises
Leeds United, who are currently under the same ownership, are top of English Championship
Paraag Marathe also serves as chairman of Leeds United as part of 49ers connection
While the jaw-dropping sums of money on offer in the English Premier League go a long way to explaining why the Americans took over Leeds, the cash Rangers routinely earn in Scottish football are paltry by comparison. So why them?
Even though the revamp of UEFA’s club competitions has screwed down the volume on talk of a breakaway European league, football never stands still.
A huge club playing in a small country, Rangers will always be part of any discussion if the tectonic plates shift again.
More immediately, however, the main motivation for the proposed takeover would appear that the purchase of a controlling stake in the Govan institution now looks highly attractive.
Recent figures suggest shares have been traded at roughly 20p, meaning you could get 51 per cent for around £50m. Chelsea spent more than twice that on Enzo Fernandez.
Rangers still attract crowds of circa 50,000, with many more supporters spread far and wide. They are a true global brand. In that sense, £50m does not sound like a lot of money to get your foot in the door.
The club registered a record total income of £94.2m in their last accounts. That’s impressive, but the Americans will doubtless see substantial room for growth. Improving the numbers of underperforming institutions is literally what their investment wing sets out to do.
While the York family, who own the 49ers, are said to be worth a jaw-dropping £6bn, any supporter expecting a return to the days when the club spent money like a sailor on shore leave will be disappointed.
UEFA’s financial sustainability rules restrict spending on wages, transfers, and agent fees. This means that, as of next season, clubs can only spend 70 per cent of their income on the above.
American flags could soon by flying at Ibrox as well as the more traditional banners
The Ibrox club have spent years in the doldrums and could do with fresh investment and ideas
American money could have a transformative effect on the Ibrox club’s fortunes in future
While any money spent on infrastructure, training facilities or youth development is not included, this means the days of transfer ‘war chests’ are at an end – certainly if a club want to play in Europe.
But while they can no longer simply spend their way to success, they can still grow a club and a business. And the more they make, the more they can then spend.
Last May, Leeds United announced a partnership with Red Bull, which saw the energy drink company become the front-of-shirt sponsor while holding a minority ownership stake.
While exact value of the ‘multi-year’ partnership deal wasn’t revealed, industry experts put it in eight figures.
‘The fundamental thing that’s changed with professional sports teams on and off the pitch is they are no longer run as lemonade stands,’ said Marathe recently.
It’s not just the amount of money coming into a club which determines how successful they are. It’s what’s done with it.
For many years, the prevailing feeling has been that Rangers haven’t spent what they’ve had in a wise fashion.
The much-heralded player-trading model has never got off the ground. Too many key decisions have been made on the hop rather than as part of an overarching strategy. Data and analytics haven’t informed dealings.
Chief executive Patrick Stewart was already examining working practices as part of a wide-ranging review before news of the American interest came to light.
Ball is in Clement’s court but will he still remain in charge if the American takeover happens?
It’s intriguing to note, then, that part of the 49ers Enterprises group is Elevate Sports Ventures, which uses machine learning and AI-powered software to help other sporting organisations try to make better decisions.
But this is only part of the company’s modus operandi. When it comes to the big calls, no stone is left unturned.
Marathe spent 31 days interviewing 23 different head coaches for the latest vacancy at the 49ers.
Before hiring Farke at Leeds, Marathe looked at different clubs from different sports across the world to establish how different managers/coaches set the culture.
Despite still being executive vice-president of football operations at the 49ers, he has made a positive impression in Yorkshire, vowing to make Leeds ‘one of the biggest clubs in the world’ and declaring them to be ‘my little brother now’.
‘We transformed the 49ers organisation within a decade and a half, into one of the biggest brands in all sports,’ he said.
‘I see Leeds in the nascent stages, very similar to what the 49ers were 20 years ago.
‘I am confident that what we are building is transforming us from being a train stop to being a destination. For two decades, we were a train stop… I think what we’re building is a place that people want to be.’
It’s legitimate to ask if his existing commitments on both sides of the Atlantic would permit him to take on a third role in Glasgow or if he would need to delegate. But that’s a question for further down the line.
More immediately, Marathe and his cohorts need to gain sufficient notes of intentions from shareholders to sell to them before tackling the issue of dual ownership with the SFA.
Bournemouth owner Bill Foley ploughed £6m into Hibs for a 25 per cent minority stake last year having only been allotted a maximum of 29.9 per cent by the Hampden authorities. Rangers fans can only hope that Article 13 of the governing body’s rulebook is not a potential sticking point.
After so many let downs, seeing the 49ers touch down in Glasgow would be a most welcome sight.
