THE RANGERS TAKEOVER: REALITY SETS IN AS MEDIA GOES QUIET AND CELTIC FANS LAUGH
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Mar 31
- 3 min read
It’s been a few days on here since we had a good laugh at Rangers and their delusions of adequacy. So, let’s recap where we actually are with this story, as opposed to where Keith Jackson and company wish we were.
Apart from a couple more “trust me mate, its still happening” type pieces from the Daily Record and other usual suspects, there really hasn’t been much movement at all on the takeover front over the past week or so.
As Celtic March on, Still No Official Interest in Takeover at Rangers
Indeed, from day one the only evidence to even suggest a possible interest in investment in Rangers from these American benefactors has been the sighting of venture capitalist Andrew Cavenagh at a couple of matches.
For context, I’ve been sighted in Rome a couple of times, but I’m fairly sure His Holiness Pope Francis still has no idea who I am, nor am I likely to be buying any property in Vatican City anytime soon.
Speaking of Catholic institutions, there hasn’t been much movement from the San Francisco 49ers side of this story either. An article by Hugh Keevins in yesterday’s Sunday Mail made reference to an “NFL Consortium” buying into Rangers.
However, I’ll give old Shug the benefit of the doubt and assume he just doesn’t know how American Football franchises work rather than anything malicious on his part.
Again, the only link between the 49ers and the proposed takeover of Rangers is that Andrew Cavenagh, who may or may not be interested in buying this basket case of a club, is on friendly terms with one of the 49ers Group’s numerous executives around the world.
Funnily enough though, if the 49ers Group is actually on board with this proposed Rangers Takeover, then one England’s least likeable football clubs could end up unintentionally derailing the whole thing.
The 49ers Group already has a controlling interest in Leeds United. Until recently, they looked like certainties to gain promotion back to the English Premier League from The Championship. However, a recent slump in form has made this less likely.
Ownership rules prohibit the same company or its affiliates from owning two league clubs in the UK at the same time. However, these rules have not been adopted by the EPL.
So, if Leeds fail to go up this season, then the 49ers Group legally can’t take anything to do with Rangers. That’s assuming they were ever daft enough to do so in the first place.
Rangers Get Tough on Bigots, With Predictable Results
In a surprising turn, statements coming out of Ibrox in recent days have taken on a new level of coherence, with a quite dazzling mastery of basic grammar and spelling.
In all seriousness, ever since they scraped past Fenerbahce a couple of weeks ago, the statements coming from the Rangers board have, in some ways, actually been quite sensible.
They condemned the far-right extremism on show at that game, and the general thuggery. Since then there have been two further statements condemning anti-social and racist behavior from fans, imploring them to change their ways.
Predictably, this hasn’t gone down will with the super-staunch brigade. Cries of victimization and disregard for “culture” and “history” have been rife.
Of course these sit well, alongside the usual plethora of spelling mistakes, basic punctuation errors and and outright abuse of the Caps Lock button we are used to seeing on the various Rangers message boards.
The increasingly assertive, or is it desperate, messages from the Ibrox Board with regards fans behavior are clearly a damage limitation exercise.
It remains to be seen if its enough to satisfy any potential foreign investors.
Given the well-known “woke, foreign ideology”, or as most normal people call it: tolerance, that San Francisco is noted for, The 49ers would do well to steer well clear of this car crash of a club.
In the end, will this takeover go through?
Anything is possible, I suppose.
I still don’t think so, but as usual with Rangers fans, it’s the hope that kills them.
