Could todays events be as simple as this?

[BILLYSNOVO 5]

Alistair Johnston - Rangers FC chairman -vice chairman of IMG

chairman of IMG -American Billionaire Mr theodore j. forstmann.

IMG is a match in heaven for us whom trough the sporting side of its company returned Billions in profit to its investors.

Read this article from 2004 with Alistair Johnston talking to the Telegraph.

DIRECTORS CUT; In an exclusive interview with theSunday Herald, IMG

Sunday Herald, The, Jan 11, 2004 by Alan Campbell

1234Next »..THE garage of Alastair Johnston's weekend home in Florida contains the evidence of where his passion lies. His neighbours on the ultra- exclusive Isleworth estate in Orlando may include Tiger Woods and a clutch of the world's top golfers, but just as important to Johnston are the registration numbers of his two cars - RFC1 and 1BROX.

Which also explains why the president of the International Management Group was to be found watching the Old Firm match on January 3 with fellow members of the Rangers Supporters Club in Cleveland, Ohio. Without denegrating Johnston's company, it's unlikely any of the expatriate fans were the millionaires or superstars with whom he usually mingles.

The death of legendary IMG founder Mark McCormack last May elevated Johnston to the position of president and co-chief executive. The vast amount of top-of-the-range sports personalities and organisations he represents includes Woods, Serena and Venus Williams, Michael Schumacher, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and Wimbledon. To be frank, this is not the client list of a man you expect to find in the Ibrox - or any other Premierleague - boardroom.

Yet the 55-year-old is so devoted to his home city club that he looks up to the man who was appointed a director alongside him last month. "He was the guy who epitomised Rangers for many of the years I was following them from the early 1960s and onwards," he says of the greatest living Ranger.

John Greig was a member of the side which Rangers fans of Johnston's vintage reel off without thinking as the greatest to have worn the club's colours: Ritchie; Shearer, Caldow; the new board member, McKinnon, Baxter; Henderson, McMillan, Miller, Brand and Wilson. The IMG president recalls taking supporters buses to Ibrox from Partick to watch that side and others.

In 1968, the year after Celtic won the European Cup and Rangers lost to Bayern Munich in the final of the Cup Winners Cup, Strathclyde University accountancy student Johnston was a volunteer steward at the Open Championship in Carnoustie. He manoeuvered a brief meeting with McCormack, who had founded his empire on the basis of a handshake with Arnold Palmer, and the upshot is that he has spent the last 30 years working for IMG in America.

His appointment to the Rangers board was a surprise, but only because it was hard to comprehend how a man in charge of the world's most influential sports marketing company would have the time or inclination to be the director of a football club, no matter his attachment to it. Johnston had already done his bit for Rangers by investing a seven-figure sum in Murray Sports, the club's holding company, and smoothing the way for Joe Lewis ((pounds) 40m) and Dave King ((pounds) 20m) to bankroll the club through the years of David Murray extravagance.

I put it to Johnston that the Rangers debt now stands at between (pounds) 68m and (pounds) 80m, depending on who you listen to. He doesn't demur. Yet he bristles when told that some supporters were turning on his old friend Murray, and that former director Hugh Adam had described the honorary chairman as a showman rather than a businessman, see story above.

"David Murray is an extremely successful and adept businessman," Johnston replies. "Anybody who suggests otherwise is not looking at his record. He's one of Scotland's greatest entrepeneurs and the country needs a lot more David Murrays in terms of the big picture, so I reject that out of hand.

"David at no time passed on anything he wasn't prepared to undertake himself in terms of the risk and his commitment to the club. The fans quite rightly look at the performance on the field because that is what is first for them, but to second-guess his stewardship when he was only guilty of too much ambition on their behalf is somewhat incongruous."

Nevertheless, Johnston does agree the bursting of football's bubble means the days of spend, spend, spend are over. "Under John McClelland's stewardship there's going to be a lot more fiscal responsibility, put it that way," he says. "Throughout Europe there has to be a wholesale change to the business models of clubs. I believe the model Rangers have introduced will allow the debt to be downscaled. I think they can perform as a business and as a club in the short term to regain, or retain, whichever word you want to use, their dominance in Scottish football.

"Rangers' first agenda is to be the champions of Scotland and win every domestic trophy because if they don't do that the next level is not accessible. Despite the present situation, Rangers are a huge football institution in the world of sport. They're a terrrific brand name, have a terrific following and support, and my agenda as a director is to represent the stakeholders of the club - by which I mean the fans, employees and the shareholders.

"There are a lot of different elements in terms of Rangers' role, or potential role, in the big football picture. I have a fairly good idea of how various clubs exploit media rights, plus sponsorship opportunities and how to exploit branding. I'll be able to offer some counsel in that area."

« Previous1234Next »..Will that mean Rangers moving in a new broadcasting direction, given the disastrous SPL negotiations which saw BBC Scotland take over the rights from Sky for a relative pittance? "Rangers' position with the Premierleague is well documented," Johnston responds. "I've absolutely no agenda to change that, but everything is moving fast and as we move to the future my finger is probably closer to the button than most people's. In terms of what the opportunities might be in the future, these will be things I can explore for Rangers."

Inevitably, it will be assumed that Johnston will use his IMG contacts to benefit the club he has joined, but equally that might lead to charges of conflict of interest.

"I'm on the board," he replies, "as an individual with a lot of passion for the club, although my 30 years of experience in the sports world is something I'd like to think is acceptable to Rangers. But quite clearly in any situation where there was any conflict of interest, everybody understands what my day job is."

Eight days ago Johnston suffered alongside his fellow Rangers fans in Cleveland, where IMG have their global headquarters, as his side were abjectly thumped 3-0 by Celtic. Given the circumstances on and off the field, surely there must have been better times to join the Ibrox board?

"Six months ago we were treble winners," he protests. "We all know that sport is the ultimate reality show - you never know what the ending is. That's why it's so exciting.

"Rangers fans, and I'm one of them, don't have a high degree of patience because they've been used to success over the last 120 years or so. I have an understanding of that, but I lived in Partick at the time of [Celtic's] nine-in-a-row and I don't think anybody thought Rangers were going out of business then.

"I don't think there will be nine years to wait before we are back on the ascendancy this time."

Nor does Johnston accept he will be an absentee director. Although previously responsible for Australasia, Japan and the Pacific area at IMG, his new status as president has seen him travel more to Europe.

IMG's next global meeting just happens to be at Gleneagles in three weeks. The Rangers board will convene around the same time. It is the sort of happy coincidence which Johnston hopes will allow him to be an active player in his club's business.

The new man was asked to become a director in October, when he was in Glasgow for the Champions League game against Manchester United. "We discussed it," he explains, "and there were certain issues we needed to clarify on both sides, but the reason for the delay in making the announcement was that people wanted to make it at the same time as John Greig's appointment."

Despite the scoreline at Parkhead, Johnston, as one would expect, sees the commercial benefits which can accrue to the Old Firm if they work together in certain areas.

"It is extremely important that there is the competiton between Rangers and Celtic on the field," he says. "That's what gets the juices of the fans going, and is the lifeblood of the game. But off the field there is more that unites Rangers and Celtic than separates them - both are dealing in the same economy with the same circumstances and the same parameters."

Johnston and Greig bring the number of Rangers directors up to 10 - a very large number for a football club. Like the team on the park, the boardroom side is also struggling for credibility with supporters; the man from IMG will need to make his mark quickly.

I am really excited with this gentleman taking the reins from SDM.

he wont have to purge out millions to SDM to actually buy the club,effectively he is just going to run it far more proficiently

for SDM and for what??? his love of this club!.

[TheHammerBear 0]

with a new sponsor needed and a kit deal to be signed, Alastair Johnston as chairman might just get us the sort of exposure the club badly needs

[alexceerfc 1]

good post bud im really starting to like the sound of this guy hopefully he steeres us in the direction we so badly need .first time post btw people

[WilliamFyfe 1,438]

loving the sound of this guy, heres hoping he delivers some goods

[WATPRFC1872. 220]

:D

[weeblu 0]

read this and a few other reports on him earlier definately sounds like a match made in govan

[Sgt. Pepper 117]

good post bud im really starting to like the sound of this guy hopefully he steeres us in the direction we so badly need .first time post btw people

Welcome

[brissyger 8]

Well there's three possibilites. The pessimistic one being touted by a lot of people is that this means the shit is about to hit the fan and Murray wants no part of it.

The optimistic view is that he has stepped in as Chairman as the preferred option of a takeover.

The most likely is he's here to give a fresh face to the club and provide us with some valuable links. Would be great if his influence with IMG is able to secure us a decent sponsorship and kit deal. Hopefully as a lifelong bear he'll be more inclined to stick up for us as well.

[brissybear 50]

Alistair Johnston - Rangers FC chairman -vice chairman of IMG

chairman of IMG -American Billionaire Mr theodore j. forstmann.

IMG is a match in heaven for us whom trough the sporting side of its company returned Billions in profit to its investors.

Read this article from 2004 with Alistair Johnston talking to the Telegraph.

DIRECTORS CUT; In an exclusive interview with theSunday Herald, IMG

Sunday Herald, The, Jan 11, 2004 by Alan Campbell

1234Next »..THE garage of Alastair Johnston's weekend home in Florida contains the evidence of where his passion lies. His neighbours on the ultra- exclusive Isleworth estate in Orlando may include Tiger Woods and a clutch of the world's top golfers, but just as important to Johnston are the registration numbers of his two cars - RFC1 and 1BROX.

Which also explains why the president of the International Management Group was to be found watching the Old Firm match on January 3 with fellow members of the Rangers Supporters Club in Cleveland, Ohio. Without denegrating Johnston's company, it's unlikely any of the expatriate fans were the millionaires or superstars with whom he usually mingles.

The death of legendary IMG founder Mark McCormack last May elevated Johnston to the position of president and co-chief executive. The vast amount of top-of-the-range sports personalities and organisations he represents includes Woods, Serena and Venus Williams, Michael Schumacher, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and Wimbledon. To be frank, this is not the client list of a man you expect to find in the Ibrox - or any other Premierleague - boardroom.

Yet the 55-year-old is so devoted to his home city club that he looks up to the man who was appointed a director alongside him last month. "He was the guy who epitomised Rangers for many of the years I was following them from the early 1960s and onwards," he says of the greatest living Ranger.

John Greig was a member of the side which Rangers fans of Johnston's vintage reel off without thinking as the greatest to have worn the club's colours: Ritchie; Shearer, Caldow; the new board member, McKinnon, Baxter; Henderson, McMillan, Miller, Brand and Wilson. The IMG president recalls taking supporters buses to Ibrox from Partick to watch that side and others.

In 1968, the year after Celtic won the European Cup and Rangers lost to Bayern Munich in the final of the Cup Winners Cup, Strathclyde University accountancy student Johnston was a volunteer steward at the Open Championship in Carnoustie. He manoeuvered a brief meeting with McCormack, who had founded his empire on the basis of a handshake with Arnold Palmer, and the upshot is that he has spent the last 30 years working for IMG in America.

His appointment to the Rangers board was a surprise, but only because it was hard to comprehend how a man in charge of the world's most influential sports marketing company would have the time or inclination to be the director of a football club, no matter his attachment to it. Johnston had already done his bit for Rangers by investing a seven-figure sum in Murray Sports, the club's holding company, and smoothing the way for Joe Lewis ((pounds) 40m) and Dave King ((pounds) 20m) to bankroll the club through the years of David Murray extravagance.

I put it to Johnston that the Rangers debt now stands at between (pounds) 68m and (pounds) 80m, depending on who you listen to. He doesn't demur. Yet he bristles when told that some supporters were turning on his old friend Murray, and that former director Hugh Adam had described the honorary chairman as a showman rather than a businessman, see story above.

"David Murray is an extremely successful and adept businessman," Johnston replies. "Anybody who suggests otherwise is not looking at his record. He's one of Scotland's greatest entrepeneurs and the country needs a lot more David Murrays in terms of the big picture, so I reject that out of hand.

"David at no time passed on anything he wasn't prepared to undertake himself in terms of the risk and his commitment to the club. The fans quite rightly look at the performance on the field because that is what is first for them, but to second-guess his stewardship when he was only guilty of too much ambition on their behalf is somewhat incongruous."

Nevertheless, Johnston does agree the bursting of football's bubble means the days of spend, spend, spend are over. "Under John McClelland's stewardship there's going to be a lot more fiscal responsibility, put it that way," he says. "Throughout Europe there has to be a wholesale change to the business models of clubs. I believe the model Rangers have introduced will allow the debt to be downscaled. I think they can perform as a business and as a club in the short term to regain, or retain, whichever word you want to use, their dominance in Scottish football.

"Rangers' first agenda is to be the champions of Scotland and win every domestic trophy because if they don't do that the next level is not accessible. Despite the present situation, Rangers are a huge football institution in the world of sport. They're a terrrific brand name, have a terrific following and support, and my agenda as a director is to represent the stakeholders of the club - by which I mean the fans, employees and the shareholders.

"There are a lot of different elements in terms of Rangers' role, or potential role, in the big football picture. I have a fairly good idea of how various clubs exploit media rights, plus sponsorship opportunities and how to exploit branding. I'll be able to offer some counsel in that area."

« Previous1234Next »..Will that mean Rangers moving in a new broadcasting direction, given the disastrous SPL negotiations which saw BBC Scotland take over the rights from Sky for a relative pittance? "Rangers' position with the Premierleague is well documented," Johnston responds. "I've absolutely no agenda to change that, but everything is moving fast and as we move to the future my finger is probably closer to the button than most people's. In terms of what the opportunities might be in the future, these will be things I can explore for Rangers."

Inevitably, it will be assumed that Johnston will use his IMG contacts to benefit the club he has joined, but equally that might lead to charges of conflict of interest.

"I'm on the board," he replies, "as an individual with a lot of passion for the club, although my 30 years of experience in the sports world is something I'd like to think is acceptable to Rangers. But quite clearly in any situation where there was any conflict of interest, everybody understands what my day job is."

Eight days ago Johnston suffered alongside his fellow Rangers fans in Cleveland, where IMG have their global headquarters, as his side were abjectly thumped 3-0 by Celtic. Given the circumstances on and off the field, surely there must have been better times to join the Ibrox board?

"Six months ago we were treble winners," he protests. "We all know that sport is the ultimate reality show - you never know what the ending is. That's why it's so exciting.

"Rangers fans, and I'm one of them, don't have a high degree of patience because they've been used to success over the last 120 years or so. I have an understanding of that, but I lived in Partick at the time of [Celtic's] nine-in-a-row and I don't think anybody thought Rangers were going out of business then.

"I don't think there will be nine years to wait before we are back on the ascendancy this time."

Nor does Johnston accept he will be an absentee director. Although previously responsible for Australasia, Japan and the Pacific area at IMG, his new status as president has seen him travel more to Europe.

IMG's next global meeting just happens to be at Gleneagles in three weeks. The Rangers board will convene around the same time. It is the sort of happy coincidence which Johnston hopes will allow him to be an active player in his club's business.

The new man was asked to become a director in October, when he was in Glasgow for the Champions League game against Manchester United. "We discussed it," he explains, "and there were certain issues we needed to clarify on both sides, but the reason for the delay in making the announcement was that people wanted to make it at the same time as John Greig's appointment."

Despite the scoreline at Parkhead, Johnston, as one would expect, sees the commercial benefits which can accrue to the Old Firm if they work together in certain areas.

"It is extremely important that there is the competiton between Rangers and Celtic on the field," he says. "That's what gets the juices of the fans going, and is the lifeblood of the game. But off the field there is more that unites Rangers and Celtic than separates them - both are dealing in the same economy with the same circumstances and the same parameters."

Johnston and Greig bring the number of Rangers directors up to 10 - a very large number for a football club. Like the team on the park, the boardroom side is also struggling for credibility with supporters; the man from IMG will need to make his mark quickly.

I am really excited with this gentleman taking the reins from SDM.

he wont have to purge out millions to SDM to actually buy the club,effectively he is just going to run it far more proficiently

for SDM and for what??? his love of this club!.

Great Post and a great read, I like the cut of this man johnsons jib!

[CanadianBacon 2,088]

Well there's three possibilites. The pessimistic one being touted by a lot of people is that this means the shit is about to hit the fan and Murray wants no part of it.

The optimistic view is that he has stepped in as Chairman as the preferred option of a takeover.

The most likely is he's here to give a fresh face to the club and provide us with some valuable links. Would be great if his influence with IMG is able to secure us a decent sponsorship and kit deal. Hopefully as a lifelong bear he'll be more inclined to stick up for us as well.

Given that your first option is the pessimistic one, let's get it out of the way first.

If the figures that are being reported are correct (£21m) then the shit shouldn't be hitting the Rangers fan any time soon.

In the scheme of things £21m is small change for a club the size we are.

Still remaining on the pessimistic tone, it could be that Murray's other core businesses are teetering and his departure puts Rangers FC more at arms length from any potential fall-out. Given that his empire is vast, diverse and spread over many countries there could be factors here that we don't know about - for example, he does have a lot of property on the books and property values have plummeted - so who knows??

Of the remaining two, I'll go for you second option.

I think Johnston could be at the heart of a possible takeover and his American links could be crucial.

Then again.............what the fukk do I know?

[BILLYSNOVO 5]

Well there's three possibilites. The pessimistic one being touted by a lot of people is that this means the shit is about to hit the fan and Murray wants no part of it.

The optimistic view is that he has stepped in as Chairman as the preferred option of a takeover.

The most likely is he's here to give a fresh face to the club and provide us with some valuable links. Would be great if his influence with IMG is able to secure us a decent sponsorship and kit deal. Hopefully as a lifelong bear he'll be more inclined to stick up for us as well.

Given that your first option is the pessimistic one, let's get it out of the way first.

If the figures that are being reported are correct (£21m) then the shit shouldn't be hitting the Rangers fan any time soon.

In the scheme of things £21m is small change for a club the size we are.

Still remaining on the pessimistic tone, it could be that Murray's other core businesses are teetering and his departure puts Rangers FC more at arms length from any potential fall-out. Given that his empire is vast, diverse and spread over many countries there could be factors here that we don't know about - for example, he does have a lot of property on the books and property values have plummeted - so who knows??

Of the remaining two, I'll go for you second option.

I think Johnston could be at the heart of a possible takeover and his American links could be crucial.

Then again.............what the fukk do I know?

a takeover from SDM by IMG's owner would be a dream!

Billionaire owner,Billonaire friends and business associates,sport management connections at the very highest level.

if carlsberg did takeovers.....