Alan Pattullo: Somers stokes flames at Rangers AGM
This was not the main topic for discussion yesterday morning, however. “Welcome to Ibrox” ran a message along the electronic scoreboard. But little else suggested the hosts for the day, the Rangers board, were relishing coming into contact with the shareholders, some of whom looked aye ready to use the electronic voting devices they’d been handed on entry as weapons.
A stage had been constructed on a raised ‘island’ positioned at an angle on the pitch, about 15 yards from the near byline. It had the effect of making the board appear even more isolated from the supporters and shareholders. If the directors could have got away with asking Ally McCoist, the erstwhile manager who is currently on gardening leave, to dig a temporary moat between them and the growling attendees, they might have done.
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Hide AdA gazebo was erected on the platform to shelter the suited and booted from the rain. It looked faintly ridiculous. Mats marked out a path to the stage – to protect expensive leather brogues from the muddy pitch rather than to conserve the pitch, one suspects.
Football is an after-thought here these days. Judging from yesterday, AGMs are more eagerly attended than actual games. They were streaming in from shortly after 9am, 90 minutes ahead of the scheduled “kick-off”. Rangers had at least opened the kiosks for a warming cup of Bovril. As one shareholder later noted while asking a question, it was “apt” that the shareholders were housed in the Broomloan stand, traditionally thought of as the away end at Ibrox. There was distinct a sense of two tribes going to war.
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The directors and legal representatives entered stage left. The disapproving whistles were enough to inform anyone who had failed to spot them that the start of proceedings was imminent. It was as if Celtic had run on at Ibrox at the start of an Old Firm fixture.
Chairman/pantomime villain David Somers explained – while trying to underline his credentials to recruit new chief executive Derek Llambias – that he has spent his entire career in the City, at major London firms. But we can be certain Somers has never experienced an AGM like this before. It was even stormier than the one he fronted a year ago, shortly after his appointment. And, as several fans noted on the way out, there were even fewer answers. Somers seems to have learned little. He started by trying to introduce the others on stage – “the Four Tops”, someone sneered. James Easdale. Boooo. Llambias. Boooo. Sandy Easdale. Booo. But Somers bore the brunt of it.
He was accused of being contemptuous, arrogant and disingenuous – the last charge was made by Paul Murray, the former Blue Knight consortium member who queried the persistent claim from Somers that Dave King, the South Africa-based businessman, had consistently refused to offer proof of funding when attempting to come on board earlier this year.
“Please refrain from disruptive action, including interrupting,” Somers urged. But then he almost seemed to will on such aggressive behaviour with his haughty manner. “When you get to be the chairman of Rangers, you can do it your way,” he said at one point. Cue the loudest outbreak of dissent yet. For some reason, Somers’ chairman’s rights meant he had decided to take questions two-at-time, which only infuriated many of those in attendance, who felt he was stalling for time.
One familiar figure stood up to rapturous applause. Strange though it might once have seemed, John Brown is the spokesman for the disaffected majority. Remarkably, that rant on the Ibrox steps of a few years ago now stands as one of the more well-informed contributions to the on-going debate. His banning from the Ibrox directors’ box on Saturday before the game with Livingston has simply endorsed his credentials.
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Hide Ad“My name is John Brown,” the former Rangers defender announced, when the microphone had been passed to him, to the evident dismay of those on stage. “I was refused directors’ box tickets from youse on Saturday,” he continued. “I think I have given the club enough that I can ask one or two questions.” His question(s) involved Ticketus, Charles Green, Imran Ahmad, the usual cast-list of characters. “What involvement do they have?” he asked. None, Somers replied – “to the best of my knowledge”.
“I am not finished,” Brown said, when Somers attempted to move on. “For a chairman, you did not even have a good word to say about the departing manager, who has given this club everything!” It was true.
Somers made only cursory mention of Ally McCoist in his opening statement, which took barely a sentence a two. He tried to excuse this by suggesting he knew the subject would come up later. Brown had a few words of welcome, too, for Llambias: “I hope you are a better quality guy than the other rats at the table!”
There were spells of calm, times when the jeering died away to be replaced by something approaching decorum. Surprisingly, it was one of the seemingly reviled Easdales who managed to elicit something approaching a warm response. The usual jeers accompanied Sandy to the lectern.
At first, he appeared to adopt the same slightly aggressive, hectoring-style as Somers. “Settle doon,” he demanded. “I don’t need to answer questions, but I will.”
He attempted to shed some light on Margarita and Blue Pitch, those mysterious groups of investors. “A wealthy foreign-based entity,” he said, which was hardly stunning new information. “Can someone tell me what they have done wrong?” he asked. In a catastrophically misguided move, Somers had already suggested (twice) that Maragarita and Blue Pitch were his favourite kind of shareholders, because they “didn’t ask questions”.
On the way out, shareholders continued to grumble about Somers’ style. “Are you running out of questions?” the chairman smirked at one stage. “Your chairmanship is abysmal,” thundered one shareholder into a microphone. If Somers is still in position this time next year, it will be remarkable.
One shareholder even made repeated attempts to confront the board as they scurried back up the stairs of the Sandy Jardine stand. He was held back by security. This is the new reality at Rangers. AGMs held on a platform a comfortable distance from pesky shareholders. Heavy security. Booing. Jeering. Expletives. It is what happens when you get the feeling you’ve been had.
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