Paraag Marathe believes his consortium purchased “a crown jewel of Europe” when buying Rangers – and they won’t use rivals Celtic as a benchmark as they aim to deliver success at Ibrox.
The American businessman, who is president of 49ers Enterprises and chairman of Leeds United, was confirmed as vice-chairman of Rangers at a club EGM (Extraordinary General Meeting) on Monday, following his consortium’s takeover of the club.
Alongside new Ibrox chairman Andrew Cavenagh, he answered questions about the ambition for the club and the plan to restore the team’s fortunes on the pitch at a time when rivals Celtic have dominated domestic competition.
“Rangers is a crown jewel of Europe”
Paraag Marathe, Rangers vice chairman
While Cavenagh embraced the rivalry and said it was a positive thing that helped Rangers overall, Marathe was direct and clear about the certainty that the club will focus on its own goals and not look across the city.
“We’re not trying to benchmark ourselves against that other club,” he said.
“We’re trying to be as successful as we can be and that is a self-evaluation.
“What that means if we end up winning a title, then we end up succeeding on [the rivalry]. But we’re not trying to compare ourselves or contrast ourselves to other clubs. We’re trying to be as good as we can be.
“The short, medium, and long-term goal is to win. And it’s win the league, it’s win cups, it’s all of the above.
“So do we think we have what we need to win? Absolutely. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t.”
Marathe also dismissed any suggestion that Rangers could become a feeder club to Leeds United, despite him being on the board of both clubs. He said that while the clubs would be entirely separate entities, it would make sense in some areas to use shared information, or the benefit of experience.
“It would be a disservice to Leeds and to Rangers to consider one a feeder club to the other,” he said.
“They’re both considered closed-loop universes that deserve proper attention and nurture and care and will designate and assign resources appropriately. But it’s obvious that there are opportunities to learn from each other, whether it’s commercially or competitively on the pitch.
“I mean just simple things that if Ibrox has a plumbing issue and we go through certain plumbers are terrible and certain ones are good. If Elland Road had a plumbing issue, we’re certain to want to call and figure out who the best plumber is and who not to use.
“You can apply that analogy to an agent, right? And so there’s lots that you can share and me being able to sit across both, I can help navigate those two.
“So in my mind, it is a real positive to be able to have two clubs like that, but there’s not one that is subordinate to the other.”
As multi-club ownership has become more common, questions about regulation and conflict of interest have been common across Europe. Crystal Palace’s participation in the Europa League is still uncertain because of a similar issue but Marathe is certain that there would be no problem with either Rangers or Leeds in the future.
He said: “We have checked the box with those that we need to, to make sure that if and when there was ever even a situation where there’s even the perception of a conflict that we would solve that, or that has already been solved. So we are good there.”
‘The 49ers brand can bring gravitas’
Similarly, the businessman sees nothing but positives about the club now having a direct connection to the San Francisco 49ers, saying their global reputation can help bring “gravitas” when Rangers is talking to potential commercial partners, or trying to recruit players.
“I think it’s pretty objectively true that San Francisco 49ers are one of the biggest sports brands in the world,” Marathe said.
“It’s certainly one of the most recognizable.
“And yes, Rangers is a gem of European football as well. But what the 49ers can bring is a certain global gravitas and awareness to Rangers where now, let’s just take the States or take other places where the 49ers are top of peoples’ minds. Now all of a sudden, Rangers are in that same sentence.
“Why does that matter? That matters when we are out with commercial partners who care about how many times are they gonna be mentioned. How many times will their name come up and their corporate name come up, because that actually has monetary value to it.
“It’s helped us with Leeds. Again, same thing in terms of not one being subordinate to the other. Selfishly speaking, it actually helps 49ers too.
“And so just bringing it more into the conversation globally and bringing that awareness.
“I know from my experience in Leeds, and I’m already seeing some of the early returns with, don’t ask me which players, but it matters to players that we’re out recruiting that, oh, wait a second, the 49ers are involved in this.
“This must mean that there’s a certain extra gravitas that comes to it.”
A philosophy for success
SNS GroupWhile Cavenagh, Marathe and the other investors are hoping for short-term wins and titles in their first season in charge, the focus is on what they have referred to as “sustained and sustainable success”.
Marathe says that can be achieved by putting thought into planning and hiring the right people, then letting them get on with their own jobs and targets.
He outlined his own belief in how things should be done and how that can work for Rangers.
“We definitely have big belief in Kevin Thelwell and Russell Martin to lead the football side,” Marathe said.
“This is about building the right foundation and it’s about doing it intelligently and thoughtfully. It’s not just about throwing money at it.
“Throwing money might solve something short-term, right? But this is about trying to build something that will last and outlast our ten years with the club and keep Rangers on a great trajectory that it deserves to be on.
“It’s just a matter of doing it in a thoughtful way. And as Andrew said, everything that we do is to put right back on the pitch to make us more competitive. I definitely will. And it’s going to sound almost very simple and basic.
“But it’s actually the discipline to stay true to these things of what I think matters. If we are doing a good job, you’re not going to hear from us much, because if we’re doing a good job, then we’ll let our actions speak for themselves and we’ll speak when we have something to say.
“If we are successful at what we are doing, that means that we have hired the right team, we’ve empowered them to make decisions and not be afraid to make challenging decisions and not be afraid of where the idea comes from, however high or however low, inside or outside the club, the best idea comes from.
“We’ve given that team the right resources to be able to succeed and then we’ve held that team accountable for them. So that’s pretty simple and basic and it’s a philosophy that I employed at the 49ers that I employ now at Leeds as well.”
The management model will include the use of data and analytics to make decisions, including on transfer targets, but that doesn’t mean that there will be an over-reliance on numbers when tough calls need to be made.
“Ultimately, that foundation is built upon discipline, thoughtful, analytical, data-based decision making,” Marathe continued. “We don’t want to be in a position where we’re just shooting from the hip and simply making gut decisions.
“Obviously, there is a time for gut decisions. I’m not saying everything is done via a calculator. But I’m just saying the more we can stack the odds in our favor and have proper thought to a decision that we need to make before we make it and the – and the hundreds or thousands of decisions we’re going to make, the more often we could do those, we’re going to be right more than we’re wrong.
“And that’s essentially the blueprint, right? There’s a lot more detail to that and it sounds so basic and simple, but it’s the lack of discipline to that blueprint that probably stops unsuccessful teams or average teams from reaching that pinnacle.”
However, he accepts that the demands at Rangers make it different from many businesses.
“There’s not many, if any, clubs in the world where you every year have the hope and expectation of being able to win the league and play in Europe and win cups,” he said.
“Rangers is a crown jewel of Europe.
“Every year we get to have that hope and expectation and that’s different.”
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