Jed York of the San Francisco 49ers has dismissed any prospect of a takeover/ bail out for the troubled 2012 Ibrox Tribute Act.
Since a WORLD EXCLUSIVE by Keith Jackson on February 19 promising than talks over a transformational change were at ‘an advanced stage’ there has been virtually no detail to back up that claim.
Until April 1 there hadn’t been a quote from anyone at the 49ers, on this side of the deal Dave King surfaced in February 21 warning that the publicity for the story didn’t match up to the detail.
No one has gone near Douglas Park for his thoughts despite being the second biggest shareholder for a decade which includes being chairman while they won two of their three trophy successes.
No price has been mentioned for the shares but two days after losing at home to Motherwell, March 1, Sky Sports News were claiming that a deal for 51% of the shares had been agreed in principle with due diligence underway. Sky Sports News haven’t revisited that claim.
Barry Ferguson has provided a useful distraction from the failings of the Ibrox boardroom, impressive results have been delivered but the club remains mired in massive losses which are expected to reach just over £2m a month for the current season.
The transfer window opens in just over two months but as things stand whoever is in charge will have to find replacements for Vaclav Cerny, Ianis Hagi, Tom Lawrence and Leon Balogun to stand still going into next season.
In the NFL, April sees clubs spend heavily on their squad for the new season, that has brought York into the spotlight with a question about the alleged ‘Rangers’ takeover down the menu in an interview with ESPN who reported:
49ers Enterprises already owns the Leeds United soccer team, and it’s been reported that an agreement to buy Rangers FC in Glasgow, Scotland, is also in the offing. That has left some fans wondering whether the Niners are tightening their financial belts with an eye toward preserving funds for that deal. Nothing is done on that front just yet, according to York.
“We haven’t done anything there,” York said. “Leeds is obviously under the umbrella, but those are completely separate from the 49ers. Where we can tie brands together and sort of take our best practices of operating and things like that, [we do,] but in terms of financials, they don’t overlap at all.”
Incredibly, using the exact same quotes Glasgow Times reported under the headline ‘San Fransisco 49ers’ NFL moves fuel speculation over Rangers takeover’:
Many have suggested that the 49ers could be tightening their purse strings in anticipation of splashing out to acquire control of Rangers this summer.
Many of the people thinking like that are employed by Newsquest, the Daily Record or BBC Scotland, all of them hang onto the upbeat moonbeams being dished out across Ibrox social media.
Quite clearly the San Francisco 49ers aren’t about to bring transformational change to the toiling 2012 Ibrox Tribute Act, they won’t be offering a transfer war-chest for the summer but confirmation of that before the Season Ticket Renewal campaign is launched for season 25/26 wouldn’t be a good look.
More than 50% of loyal bears will renew automatically as they are swamped with feel-good reminders of the recent wins over Brendan Rodgers and Jose Mourinho.
Another 30% will renew reluctantly and moan about it on social media but upto 20% of current Season Ticket holders may require some sweet-talking, signs that James Tavernier and Jack Butland won’t be around, that a Player Trading Model is in place under a competent management team and Sporting Director/Director of Football.
All of those wishes require funding, over the last six weeks Ibrox fans have been reassured that the American investors are on their way, war-chests will be overflowing with a genuine, funded challenge being made to win the SPFL Premiership and reach the group stage of the Champions League.
Those comments from York are fairly clear cut, even in the highly unlikely event of involvement from the 49ers, directly or through 49ers Enterprises there will be no financial lifeline. UEFA wouldn’t approve anyway.
Some branding exercises, perhaps help with sponsorship could be available but you’d be hard pressed to see any visibility for Leeds United in the USA.
There has been no transfer war-chest made available to Daniel Farke to reach the EPL with plans to redevelop Eland Road still to involve a brick being laid let alone steel imported from China.
RELATED READING
- Horrific but predictable- Kevin Clancy takes it too far but Celtic beat Hearts
- 3.5p per share, the real value of the Ibrox club revealed
3 minutes 40 seconds- talks at an advanced stage, started back in October
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‘Absolutely appalling’ ‘Horrific but predictable’ ‘utterly dreadful’ Top referee Kevin Clancy called out
In the 3-0 victory over Hearts there was one unifying topic in the thoughts of Celtic fans- Kevin Clancy.
Callum McGregor made a positive impact on his return, Viljami Sinisalo had a clean sheet to mark his SPFL Premiership debut bwhile the continuingly magnificent Daizen Maeda took his goal tally for the season to 30.
On the downside it was a shaky start from Celtic, the second half never really got started before it was over, there were batches of empty seats with the majority of fans on their way home by the time the player took their final bow.
Despite all that and an apparently routine 3-0 home win in the final stretch of the SPFL title race Clancy was trending online for a truly appalling performance- especially during the early stages of the match.
Unlike Alan Muir the Glasgow based official didn’t have one major ‘howler’, these days referees are more discreet in how they influence matches.
How else do you explain a 14-9 foul count with 71% possession?’ Celtic were in control of the game for more than two thirds of the match yet committed 50% more free-kicks than Hearts in the eyes of Clancy.
The tone was set very early, when the scores were level Hearts players fell on contact, Clancy awarded free kicks on demand.
That stopped Celtic from getting off to a fast start, broke up play with regular breaks and frustrated the home players and supporters.
Mission accomplished.
All things considered today, that was an absolutely appalling performance by the match official today .
No doubt he will be rewarded with a high level match before the end of the season. pic.twitter.com/QOFvw6qd8s— Highland__Paddy (@Highland__paddy) March 29, 2025
Clancy had his trademark apologetic face on as he awarded Hearts a procession of free kicks, opposing players know that their luck is in while the scores are level against Celtic.
Either fall over at the slightest contact or manufacture contact, hit the deck and you’ll instantly hear the soothing sound of the whistle.
Clancy isn’t the only one wise to this, against Hearts he took it to extremes with Cameron Carter-Vickers a particular victim.
Either side of Lockdown Clancy was one of the so-called elite referees but it is now almost two years since he was put in charge of a Glasgow Derby.
Nick Walsh got two of them last season, John Beaton has had two this season with just the post split match at Ibrox to go.
The first 20 minutes of the Hearts match looked like Clancy’s application to be in charge for that match, everything possible was done to disrupt Celtic without a major stand-out mistake. If he misses out on that fixture there is a good chance that David Dickinson, Matthew MacDermid or another of the emerging Collum Clones will be added to the rota next season.
Additionally Clancy and others know how to position themselves as an additional obstacle to Celtic’s passing game.
He had to show surprisingly nifty footwork to get out of the way as Arne Engels threaded the ball crossfield to Nicolas Kuhn in the build up to Celtic’s second goal.
As ever there will be no criticism of an SFA official from Celtic, the CEO quietly accepts anything thrown at the club in the knowledge that levelling up keeps the SPFL and the cherished O** F*** rivalry competitive.
RELATED READING
Horrific but predictable
— Highland__Paddy (@Highland__paddy) March 29, 2025
Putting aside all his mistakes and there were plenty he genuinely spoils every game by stopping play for any reason at all ! Games never finish on time with that bell end and no real flow to game
— Steven (@spamcrolla) March 30, 2025
From the very start he was appalling. The one where the hearts player fell in front of main stand assistant and handled the ball and Clancy gives them a free kick was probably the poorest of his decisions but so many to choose from.
— John Trainer (@jct62) March 29, 2025
Agree. Disgraceful
— Badger (@whiterat58) March 30, 2025
hearts best defender the incident in the 1st half where he got in the way on mcgregor i’m sure almost led to a chance for hearts
the positional sense of scottish referees is disgraceful— Mark Mullane (@mmullane75) March 30, 2025
It was atrocious ,unbelievable some of his descion s today
— Stkilda,13 (@13_stkilda) March 29, 2025
Kevin Clancy has had the most horrific 25 minutes of his career today & he still cannot stop Celtic leading 2-0.?
Someone needs to read the rules to this imbecile.????— Setanta’s Dog (@SetantaD) March 29, 2025
#CELHEA Have to admire Kevin Clancy’s creativity in finding a wide variety of different ways of awarding decisions to Hearts.
— ?TheOtherJohnMcDonnell? (@CarlJungleBhoy) March 29, 2025
26 minutes in and comfortable the worst refereeing performance of the season by Kevin Clancy.
Fuck knows what game he is watching here.
— CaI (@caim67) March 29, 2025
Any chance of Kevin Clancy getting subbed off? Absolutely inept.
— Heehaw (@Bagflea75) March 29, 2025
Kevin Clancy is dreadful. Already had enough of him blowing a foul every time two players come together and we’re not even ten minutes in.
— DF. (@DaveF0984) March 29, 2025
