Hibs owner Ron Gordon calls on Scottish clubs to 'do more' to promote game amid SPFL review

One of the five clubs to instigate a review of the SPFL, Hibs are calling on Scottish clubs to stop allowing others to define football in this country and to take a more proactive approach to promoting our game.

Hibs owner Ron Gordon is overseeing an Easter Road refurb that includes the initials HFC being installed into the East Stand. Pic: Lisa Ferguson

Fed up of the infighting and self-interest which has held progress back in the past and is ongoing thanks to things like the row over sponsorship, Hibs owner Ron Gordon says it is time to focus on the collective power of a game that plays such an intrinsic role in Scottish society.

The Easter Road chairman, who was elected as one of the Premiership representatives on the SPFL board this season, has been a positive force since assuming control of the Leith club in July 2019 but, coming from the US and still a relative newcomer to the Scottish football environment, he cannot understand the reluctance to talk the product up.

He is hoping that the independent review, conducted by Deloitte and commissioned by Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen, Dundee and Dundee United will pinpoint improvements that can be made in the running of the game and ways to inflate finances but he insists everyone involved in the industry can do more to bolster Scottish football’s standing.

“We can all do more. We need to tell our story. If we don’t tell our story and say just how good we are, and how exciting it is, and the great clubs that we have, nobody is going to say it for us,” Gordon stressed.

“It’s our responsibility to tell our story.

“We can let other people define who we are, or we can take the front foot and define who we are and the kind of league that we want to be. That’s part of the branding work that we need to do.”

And while the Scottish game is often overshadowed by the bigger, wealthier leagues south of the border, Gordon said it is important not to lose sight of Scottish football’s positives. And, crucially, not leave others in the dark.

“We’re a great league, but if we don’t tell people that we’re a great league, or people don’t feel that it’s a great league, then it’s not a great league.

“We need to do that.”

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