Mark Hateley launches attack on Ibrox board over heartless axing of his Ambassador role

Mark Hateley has launched a scathing attack on the Ibrox board for ditching him from his pay day as a club ambassador. 

Fortunately the former England striker now gets regular pay days from BBC Scotland for sharing his expert views on football. 

Hateley had two stints as a player at Ibrox, after a disastrous stint in management at Hull City he returned to Scotland to live off the Ibrox gravy train, supporting various regimes inside the clubs. 

Whoever was in charge of issuing payments could be sure of Hateley’s support but when Dave King packed his bags in spring 2020 the new regime finally gave the former striker the heave. Hateley reveals that he was offered a seat on the board of directors by King, something that Club 1872 craved as they poured money into the company. 

But not before one cringeworthy stunt where he delivered two bottles of hand sanitiser from a club sponsor to two local care homes. 

? Mark Hateley visited two local care homes to gift them hand wash, thanks to club partner @MoltonBrownUK. #EveryoneAnyone

?? Read more: https://t.co/K9MlEhAZHp pic.twitter.com/GPPOPUScpO

— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) March 20, 2020

 

Picking up on an extract from his book Hitting the Mark: My Story The Sun reports: 

The rationale given for my role falling away was that it was nothing personal, it was purely a financial decision.

Given we were in the grips of a global pandemic, cost-cutting had to be expected, but I still cannot understand why others outside the club were brought in to do the work that was in my job description.

I later heard through the grapevine what the consensus was among the staff when it came to the reason for our departures. Besides being former players, Goughie, DJ and I had another thing in common – we were all the King’s men.”

Dave took a step back and suddenly I was surplus to requirements.

In my opinion, my downfall was that I asked too many questions. I was not looking to undermine anyone; I was just looking to find out why certain decisions were made the way they were.

I always had, and always will have, the best interests of the football club at heart, but voicing my opinions – something I have never been shy to do throughout my life – was perhaps to my detriment. And therein lies one of my big regrets. Had I taken Dave King up on his offer to become a director I would have been an equal, my voice may well have been heard.

My perception was that they were closing ranks within the higher echelons of the club. I was not part of that, hence the morning phone call.

During the call, I was told I would not be cut adrift completely, I would still be retained in an ambassadorial role. I was still in a state of shock.

I made a call to someone higher up in the organisation and he told me that there would be no permanent ambassador role for me. It would only be work on an ad-hoc basis. 

All that did was send me into a tailspin. Not only had protocol been breached – there had been no consultation period prior to the phone call with regards to my role at the club.

It was only then we entered a consultancy process but that was like a circus. There was no intention to reposition me, I was now redundant. After the service and dedication I had given to the club, that was a real sting in the tail.

For nearly 20 years I had hosted some of the lounges on matchday and represented the club at short notice doing things like hospital visits. I loved carrying out those kinds of activities as they kept me connected with the lifeblood of the club, the supporters. But here I was in limbo.

King is expected to return to Glasgow in the coming weeks to step up his bid to rejoin the Board of Directors.