Ron Gordon teases Deloitte review 'wow' factor as Hibs chairman hails Rangers for 'advancing Scottish football more than any other club'

Scottish football has targeted doubling its revenue within three to five years, with all representatives in Europe expected to play a key role in enhancing the game’s reputation and earning potential.

Looking to build on Rangers’ recent form in UEFA competitions, the five Scottish Premiership sides - Aberdeen, Dundee, Dundee United, Hearts and Hibs - who commissioned Deloitte to conduct an independent review of the SPFL, hope that after presenting the findings and the consequent proposals to all top tier clubs in the next couple of weeks, they will be in a position to push forward with their plan, which contains a wow factor, according to Hibs chairman Ron Gordon.

"It's a simple plan,” explained the owner of the Leith club. “It has five building blocks and it's probably got a three to five year horizon with the goal of essentially almost doubling the revenue that comes into the league and is distributed to the clubs.

"Underlying this whole thing about growing the league is the fact that we'll create stronger clubs with a better product, better teams, that hopefully can go deeper in Europe.

"Celtic and Rangers are in a different ballpark but for Hibs, or Hearts, or Motherwell, or Aberdeen to be playing in Europe on a consistent basis in the group stage, and have our co-efficient top eight or top seven, which we could do, that is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"We'll all be generating more income, we'll be able to get better players, the product on the pitch will improve, we'll be able to go further in Europe, we'll be able to make more money so it kind of feeds itself.”

Changing perceptions and selling the game outwith Scotland will be important but Gordon says that Rangers’ European endeavours have already helped.

“A very important part of this is the brand of the league. The league sometimes gets a little beaten up, but it's a great league. For me, probably one of, if not the most exciting small league in Europe; the most engaged fans, historic clubs, the Old Firm, who are powerful clubs that can compete at the highest level.

Hibs chairman Ron Gordon at the recent Premier Sports Cup match against Bonnyrigg Rose. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group)

"The fact that Rangers made it to the Europa League final is amazing. When you think about it, probably no club has contributed to advancing Scottish football on a European level or really in general than Rangers in the last three years. That’s progress.”

The Deloitte review has already informed decisions, such as incorporating the women's game into the SPFL. But there are more headline-grabbing initiatives to follow, states Gordon.

"We have other things that are more significant and a couple of innovative things as part of the plan.

"We have one little piece of business that we're negotiating, and if we get that done, I think everyone is going to think, 'wow, this is good'.”

He warns that some concepts still require work but he wants to make advances when it comes to selling alcohol in stadiums.

"We're still in the Middle Ages here. What is going on? We can manage this, we can do this.

"It’s little things but we need to do the work to get it moving forward.

"We can do better. We just need that different mindset around the game."

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