5 key takeaways from Rangers chairman address including Ibrox return date plan, club's finances and CEO search

John Bennett has provided Rangers fans with a comprehensive update on a range of burning topics currently surrounding the club.

In a transparent 22-minute interview, the Ibrox chairman reflected on “the biggest challenge” of his career after the Glasgow giants were forced to leave their spiritual home in Govan due to delayed construction works on the Copland Road Stand. He also explains why a concrete date can’t be set in stone as to when Philippe Clement’s side will be able to return to Ibrox and details the decision to relocate to Hampden Park rather than Murrayfield Stadium.

Bennett then goes on to discuss the current state of play regarding the club’s financial situation, the estimated sum of money spent on transfers since January and their ongoing search to appoint James Bisgrove’s successor as chief executive.

Here, GlasgowWorld dissects the 5 key takeaways from Bennett’s full interview on Rangers TV...

Decision to relocate to Hampden Park

“I think it is important to look at the chain of events. People like to say, quite rightly, nature abhors a vacuum and I am fully aware of the vacuum that seemed to be created. Nobody was straining more than myself for clarity and for certainty. I have wanted to deliver a certainty that we couldn’t deliver. I am going come back to that. I apologise again on behalf of this club for the uncertainty it has caused our fans. I can assure the fans that the people in this club are working tirelessly to get this done. We need to finish the job. We must also not lose sight for whom this job was undertaken – our fans, and in particular our disabled fans. We have to finish the job. We will finish this job and, again, what gives the board and one of the things that gives me personally the will and the strength to get this done, is the people. The people for whom we are doing it, our people, our fans. There are also people in the club. I see what they are doing, I see the work and how they are rising to this challenge. We will finish the job.”

Possible Ibrox return date

“The context is very important here. If you just stand back a minute and look at what we're dealing with. It's a materials delay. We have a delay mid-shipment of our materials and we're not alone because it's happening globally and so many entities. We have three consignments on three vessels making their way to Glasgow. Pinch points are the ports, Singapore probably the biggest. Vessel number one has arrived, those materials are in Glasgow. We await vessels two and three. I've been straining to get certainty on vessels two and three. You can probably see that, I even mentioned that in the statement we put out. The one thing we crave is certainty and I can't give it. My God, it's an understatement for me to say it's frustrating.

“As things stand, when delivery number two gets to Glasgow, you're going to see what I would call the beginning of the final installation. We need those three consignments to hit Glasgow, only one has arrived. When delivery number two comes, you'll see the beginning of what I would call the final stages of installation. That will take time. It's not final, a few days. As things stand, subject to further slippage and it frustrates me that I have to keep caveating it that way. That is scheduled to arrive in Glasgow in the second week of August. Vessel there is scheduled to arrive in Glasgow, as things stand, in the third week of August. Then we can begin to think about timelines. When I think about timelines, it's an aspiration at this stage. Again, I'm caveating it because there's still uncertainty.

“If I think about timelines, it's clearly in terms of a timeline of us returning to our home, which we all desperately want. Clearly after the September international break, and it's a case of how long after the September international break, we can aspire for that to be at the end of September. But it's an aspirational and I am sorry that I have to caveat it, it frustrates me so much that I have to caveat it. But I think I've given the reasons I have to caveat it - the shipment situations. So yes, I can have an aspiration, I can get our people back into our home for the final game of September, but yes it could slip beyond that.”

Hampden over Murrayfield or restricted Ibrox

“When I got the call in June that all those assurances that the board had received both written and verbal that all was all on time, when I was told that wasn't the case, then you have to then get a grip of it, but also then act and implement contingency. What I wanted from that moment when we realised we had to decant - we're not the first club that's had to decant and we won't be the last - but it's happened to us. I said to the board 'the number one aim here as we decant is maximise the number of fans that can follow their team and minimise the disruption to those fans.' So for me, of course the prime choice, and we had some options, for me prioritse Hampden for our fans. We know the geographic dispersion of our season ticket holders etc. A stadium big enough to house them and minimise the disruption. That's why it was all systems go for Hampden.

“I thank our people in the club for what they're doing right now and we can maybe talk about that and the challenges of that, mapping seats etc. I know what Susan and her team are doing in the ticket office. I know what others are doing in security, hospitality. They are working so hard to make this as seamless as they possibly can to minimise the disruption. But the other people I want to thank are our counterparts, specifically at the SFA. They also rose to this challenge and acted like partners with us. That's what you need. In times of crisis you find people out. You find out who stands up and who hides and so many people in the club have stood up and the SFA stood with us like partners, and the SPFL I want to thank as well. I spoke about how nature abhors a vacuum and I was very aware of the vacuum.

“There was nobody straining more than me, I want to give our fans certainty and get the message out as to where are we, you couldn't do that. An element of that was also when you are trying to secure any venue, it's a multi-party arrangement. People talk about stakeholders if I can use that term, it's not just 'Rangers have made a decision and that's the state of it'. You have to have your partners, your counterparts sign up and agree to that and that does take a bit of time. You have to co-ordinate. It's not just a case of Rangers putting out a statement saying 'We're off to Hampden'. You have to get the agreement in place and that does take time. As frustrated as it's been for everyone, there's nobody more frustrated than myself because I was desperate to get it out there to get it done. It's been a challenging summer.”

Financial situation

“I very deliberately called out a number at the AGM and it's not an overstatement to say that upon becoming chairman, my number one mission off the pitch was to rid the club of pre-player trading loses. I called that out at the AGM. That number to June 2023 was £10.5million. It's unsustainable and we should talk about sustainability, financial fair play etc. That right there, is wholly unsustainable and I said that has to go away. Well, you can't just will things to do away. It takes action. If I look at that number, that is well on the way to being eradicated. That's taken a lot of work from a lot of people and I have driven that hard and it's been hard on some people, for example to drive that through and execute it.

“But execute it we must. I'm not having a club - I'll come to the 'famed' player trading model, we need to address that - but first, this club should not be losing £10.5m pre-player trading in a year. My goodness me. When I became chairman, it's not an overstatement to say this required cultural change. Football clubs are brilliant at wasting resources. Really, really good at it. I talked to loads of people around the UK and Europe. We were good at that as well and that's changing big style, and fast, because it had to change fast. That's cultural change that has required people change. We're not done in terms of that cultural change, there's more to come. Eradicate that £10.5m, that is not a sustainable business model if you're sitting there with that kind of number. And that's before you come on to player trading, which we should come on to.”

Estimated figure spent on transfers since January

“There's often talk about the phasing of buying and selling. If you actually look at the facts, not just in this window but prior to this window, how has Rangers operated? I actually want us to get away from how we've operated. But how we've operated, the board has essentially backstopped each window. Yes, I've seen player plans in the past where outgoings will match incomings in financial terms. That's your Plan A. I've rarely seen Plan A execute, it always seems to be that we have to backstop it and that's what we've been doing in 2024. If I take 2024 in the January window and this window, excluding loans, we're double-digit millions in commitments in transfer payables. Excluding loans, we're about £11.5m in thus far on transfer payables. So that is permanent transfers. Loans aren't free, they come with loan and agent fees etc. So that's where we are in 2024, about £11.5m spend thus far.”

Ongoing search for a new CEO

“I wouldn't say that absolutely everything was parked when I got this call in June that we had this materials delay to the stand project, but it kind of was like that. The first priority was dealing with that. So everything else was kind of slowed down, but that's been my other objective, to get that delivered and I hope to have some news pretty soon about our CEO.”