The Rangers FC Faces a Colossal Challenge with New CEO

The Rangers Football Club is about to enter a highly turbulent period in its history, meaning that the road for the new Chief Executive is going to be an exceptionally tough one. It was not that long ago, in May 2011, when the club managed to become the champions of Scotland once again. However, the following 14 months witnessed one of the biggest collapses in the history of football as the Rangers FC descended into the Third Division. This historical failure has cast a long shadow that is lingering over the club to this day as it is still surrounded by problems of every kind.

They involve clubs’ headquarters, characterized as being unfit for purpose, rapid decline in the customer base, which means that loyal fans are abandoned and the number of new ones is not growing any bigger, evidence of financial mismanagement as the trading record is bad, and key staff keep missing targets. All of the problems have been there and overlapped for long, which became the reason for the controversy when the line manager was given an improved contract. As such, it will be no mean thing to be the CEO at the Rangers FC as it requires a mix of enthusiasm, resilience, and, perhaps, masochism. The scale of the problem is colossal with lousy on-field performance, especially in the decisive moments, a mess in the rebuilding of Copland Road, and the recent sacking of the marketing consultant due to an embarrassing post on social media and heavy financial loss of the Champions League exit. The corresponding low attendance at recent games will not clearly cover operating costs also add to the setbacks. These factors require the new CEO to perform a minor miracle meaning that there is no room for mistakes. There is one major candidate for this post, Jim Gillespie, a former successful chief executive of the Kibble charity and vice-chairman of St. Mirren. He has the right attachment to the club being a competent businessman with a well-established record in charity work. On balance, the challenges faced by the club show that football management is a volatile business that should mix love with a kind of the extraordinary ability to manage corporate affairs.