EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - FEBRUARY 01: Hearts chief executive Andrew McKinley during a cinch Premiership match between Heart of Midlothian and Rangers at Tynecastle, on February 01, 2023, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Mark Scates/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Andrew McKinlay of Hearts is being linked with a switch to Ibrox to take over from James Bisgrove as CEO.
That task looked demanding enough before Thursday’s confirmation that Ibrox will be closed for the start of the 24/25 season with no details given on the extent of the problems or likely opening date.
McKinlay has been CEO at Hearts for four years after a stint with Scottish Golf, prior to that he held a variety of senior roles inside the SFA including the title of Director of Football Governance and Regulations between April 2012 and December 2015.
Central to that period was the Five Way Agreement and the creation of ‘conditional membership’ as the SFA, SPL and SFL and all member clubs bar Raith Rovers bent over backwards to accomodate Charles Green’s Tribute Act in the senior game.
Like Neil Doncaster, McKinlay knows the fingerprints that are all over the document that Peter Lawwell told the Celtic AGM in 2019 and 2023 that he hadn’t looked at.
EXCLUSIVE! Andrew McKinlay on Rangers next chief executive radar as Hearts supremo considered to replace James Bisgrove | @ScottBurns75 https://t.co/2UmjjmCXZc pic.twitter.com/FRXXKL0jr0
— Daily Record Sport (@Record_Sport) June 23, 2024
The Daily Record reports:
Rangers are considering a move for Hearts power-broker Andrew McKinlay.
The Light Blues have been impressed with the job the chief executive has done at Hearts. Rangers are currently going through the process of looking for their own chief executive after James Bisgrove stepped down last month. McKinlay has done a top job in his four years in Gorgie and is among the candidates they are looking at.
Someone ‘well connected’ inside the SFA and SPFL will be very useful in the coming weeks as the Ibrox club try to find a home venue and sympathy from others for their construction problems.
At least one UEFA Champions League qualifier will be played away from Ibrox with a temporary home needed for at least one month with many folk suspecting that October is the earliest that Ibrox will be hosting 50,000 crowds again.
The relocation is going to be a costly business, likely to bite deep into Phil Clement’s transfer war-chest with signs that fans are starting to lose confidence and question the competence of their Chairman and directors.
McKinlay could be using the leak to improve his salary at Tynecastle but given his background inside the SFA in 2012 he would be an ideal candidate to take over from the salesman that was Bisgrove.
CLICK HERE for McKinlay’s Linkedin profile.
Doesn’t he just look like a Hun.
He looks like Fat Bastard from Austin Powers.
Looks as though he has just seen a Four Leaved Clover!
Man, that’s a physique that could accommodate a sash and a big Lambeg drum.
I’m guessing that physique was developed by a good few ludge dinners!
Wid need sum size a ‘Bowler’ for that napper Owen.
Long time no hear Owen.
See the scourge of ‘TGM’ has laid waste to the old site. Shame.
It was one of the best. Can well understand how Ralph seems to have thrown in the towel. He’s gone all Twaatter / X now.
I baled out of Twitter when Musk moved in. It’s a racist’s paradise now.
Funnily enough I just quit twitter tonight Jimboh. I used to follow Ralph on it and he did tell me he’d be back at some point but I guess events have overtaken him.
For reasons I never found out I was blocked by the official etims site.
I see Michael Gannonn trying to sugar-coat sevco problems with their stadium by calling out Celtic fans and the board for laughing at sevco’s issues.
Apparently we should be concentrating on our our problems regarding Champions League matters,another to whom oh how we feel his pain.
His article mentioned us taking some serious SCUDDINGS in that competition and we should tskingvthings more seriously..
Let’s see how much coverage the Scottish mugs in the media give the latest SHENANIGANS at ipox with those dangers around Asbestos.
Remember your Bisgrove guy and other had been bragging about adding another 10,000 seats to that stadium,well bangs that busted flush should the stadium be riddled with Asbestos,you ain’t getting any thumbs up for any D.I.Y anytime soon.
Infact it may get deemed an unsafe building and be closed down and will need to be DEMOLISHED.
But I dare say some good auld Donald Trump style aka Nigel Farage FAKE NEWS stories will work wonders with the lapdog teaboys in the press.
Can you imagine McCann or that THICK FUD ENGLISH what they would be saying if this was Celtic,no doubt McCann would be out with that famous rule book of his and English would be screaming for the games to be awarded opposition as 3 nil wins.
That Michael Gannon character saying we shouldn’t laugh at sevco. Aye right. You would have to have a heart of stone NOT to laugh at them.
Reminiscent of Frankie Howerd. Ooh err missus cruel to laugh at sevco!
SFA Director of Football Governance and Regulations between April 2012 and December 2015…?!
This guy’s ‘values’ will be fully aligned with those at ibrox then. 🙁
And he might be the only signing Clement gets?
🙂
The Sevco Huns will probably be goin ballastic about his Surname because is McKinlay not a ‘Celticy’ kinda name !