Rangers: To Be A Club Again

Last updated : 29 January 2009 By Number Eight
Almost imperceptibly, time moves on, and while the Rangers support enjoys the occasional wallow in glorious nostalgia, harking back to sweeter times, it is readily bracing itself to face the future squarely and robustly, but with the past in mind.

The Rangers Family of every vintage, from the youngsters to the youthful, from the aspiring adult to the middle years man, to the chap in his prime to the fellow contemplating his autumnal years, and on to the most senior group of all, those ladies and gentlemen for whom grandparenthood is a well-worn path, a new type of thinking is permeating the legions of Rangers-minded types, and it is here to stay.

Finally, the top table at the club is being held accountable rather than being quietly trusted to plot the right course. Some members of the Rangers Family are aghast at this prospect while others are relieved that the self-imposed head of the house is finally having his authority questioned.

The democratisation process has begun and although it could be a tortuous period ahead, the rewards will make it worth the gargantuan effort to deliver beneficial change. The people`s club will once again do what it says on the tin, and transform itself from being an unenlightened dictatorship into a new and thrusting democratic Scottish sporting institution.

Instead of enduring years of interminable frustration sniping from the wings, ignored and unheard, the support will be empowered to have responsibility for the well-being of the club. This will involve debate, disagreement and sometimes disappointment, but this is the imperfect state that is democracy, the very ethos of club, and it should be enthusiastically embraced.

Somewhere along the way the club has drifted from the membership era to become the personal property of whoever possesses enough wealth to own it. Theoretically, Rangers could become the plaything of mafia types, degenerate and corrupt politicians, irresponsible egotists looking for a high profile and unscrupulous business people with unknown motivations.

The present chairman noted an interest from Robert Maxwell in the past, and one has to wonder what the fate of the club would have been had this possibility become the new reality.

The Rangers support is no longer maintaining an undignified dignified silence or embracing a make-believe unity, it is approaching readiness to embrace a new age and see power dispersed from the top down, scattered liberally across every nook and cranny to each and every Rangers community.

This craze, this fashion, of having one-person ownership of the identity of more than a million Rangers supporters is coming to an end. This is the road we are on now - to be a club again.



Discuss this article on our message boards.


http://forum.followfollow.com/showthread.php?t=513722