Scottish Football - Worst Owners/Chairmen

[Dindeleux]

We’ve had plenty of threads about best and worst players, signings and managers but never really a thread dedicated to the people at the very top who are running the clubs.

 

I could’ve made this a positive “best owners” thread but the negative stories are always better.

 

No voting here just a place to reminisce about the people who wrecked your club and could’ve pushed you away.

 

I’ll start with a few names.

 

David Murray - Presided over what I’m guessing was the most successful period in Rangers history and brought the fans pleasure for 10-15 years. However, and to avoid any arguing from Rangers fans I will use the term company, he had clearly built this success on sand. Led to the downfall of the company and the banter years.

 

**for everyone else I will of course just use club because........well you know why**

 

Brookes Mileson - Can never really remember due to the poster on this site if his name was Brookes Mileson or Miles Brooksen.

 

Anyway it’s a stupid name for any human to have and his idea of turning Gretna into a force was also stupid. Portrayed as a hero in the press but lower league fans view him and Gretna in a different light.

 

Similar to Rangers they couldn’t pay what they owed when the golden goose passed away and the club died.

 

Claude Anelka - what a f**k up at Raith Rovers. Don’t know enough details to say much more but it was total Football Manager. Although he is I think responsible for bringing in a few players to Scotland who had good careers here.

 

Michael Johnston - completely alienated the Kilmarnock fans and was the most hated figure I can ever remember at our club. I actually think if he had sold the club to Henry Templeton we would’ve preferred it.

 

Sucked old firm cock at every opportunity and seemed like he was intentionally trying to kill our club.

 

I will play slight devils advocate here and give MJ credit for the deal to get rid of our bank debt and bringing Billy Bowie in but I’m sure numerous others will shoot me down on that.

[SweeperDee]

The moment any Dee has time to regale everyone about the time We had the Marrs/Di Stefano running Dundee, you can close the thread. Couldn’t make half the stuff up.

[Netan Sansara]

[Dindeleux]

The moment any Dee has time to regale everyone about the time We had the Marrs/Di Stefano running Dundee, you can close the thread. Couldn’t make half the stuff up.

I’m sure Romanov would come close.

[Toby]

Hugh Scott was a c*nt. 

[SweeperDee]

8 minutes ago, Netan Sansara said:

 

Whenever anyone brings up a "big money fraudster", he's the archetypal image that pops into my head. Completely bonkers charlatan. 

[senorsoupe]

Worst Current chairman: Dave King

Worst owners I can think of: Vladimir Romanov, Brooks Mileson, Craig Whyte.  Thee 90's and 2000's saw a whole generation of shysters, criminals, and incompetents running clubs in Scottish Football, especially from about 2000 to 2013 where there was an administration/liquidation event pretty much every season.  

Fortunately for Scottish football most clubs are now sensibly run, fortunately for us fans (for comedy/banter purposes) the one club that is still in that mindset plays at Ibrox.

[senorsoupe]

2 minutes ago, SweeperDee said:

 

Whenever anyone brings up a "big money fraudster", he's the archetypal image that pops into my head. Completely bonkers charlatan. 

Based on that picture alone I would never do business with him

[Thistle_do_nicely]

The Italian con job at Livi. Massimo Angeloni or something like that.

edit: a quick google shows I was, as usual, miles away and close to doing a mubtumbo. Angelo Massone was the charming guys name.

[tamthebam]

Bill "Blobby" Hunter for ruining a good 1st division team and then moving them to a shitehole.

David Duff and Jim Gray for almost killing off the Hibees.

The pre-Bunnet Celtic board. I mean let's face it most people could make money running Celtic. They didn't seem to be able to.

Willie Harkness at QOS wasn't universally loved toward the end of his time as a penny pinching b*****d.

 Cliftonhill is a monument to Tom Fagan's Albion Rovers chairmanship.

and Edinburgh City's fascist dictator James Lumsden for presiding over our meteoric rise to league status. What a b*****d....  

[tree house tam]

4 minutes ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

The Italian con job at Livi. Massimo Angeloni or something like that.

edit: a quick google shows I was, as usual, miles away and close to doing a mubtumbo. Angelo Massone was the charming guys name.

Brilliant bloke. Gave us Dave Mackay and Murray Davidson for a combined total of £50,000.

[ah-dee]

calum Melville has to be mentioned. used dundee to stroke his ego. us fans fell for his bullshit promises.

[ICTChris]

Our current board are fairly useless but that's just general incompetence rather than actual malice.

Of the people mentioned so far, only Giovanni Di Stefano  actually ended up in prison.  I think Romanov is now living in Russia but has outstanding warrants if he were ever to return to Lithuania.

 

[realmadrid]

Our current board are fairly useless but that's just general incompetence rather than actual malice.
Of the people mentioned so far, only Giovanni Di Stefano  actually ended up in prison.  I think Romanov is now living in Russia but has outstanding warrants if he were ever to return to Lithuania.
 

That is true. The first thing our Uber driver at our Europa league qualifier asked this summer was why did we let him go to Russia.

[Radford]

11 minutes ago, tree house tam said:

Brilliant bloke. Gave us Dave Mackay and Murray Davidson for a combined total of £50,000.

And one of the directors turned up in person looking for the money, the story goes. You can imagine how that went down with Geoff Brown and Stewart Duff.

As a total aside, was the poster Brooks Mileson/Miles Brookson (I also forget) not meant to have been, the now passed away, Ronnie MacKay of The Sun?  @Rugster

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Romanov's flamboyant, exotic and eccentric nature distracts attention from Chris Robinson who was arguably the real problem

[Thistle_do_nicely]

More of a near miss, but I remember we were linked with a takeover quite a while back led by Barry Hughes which thankfully never materialised:

10th April 2007:

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/12860721.Thistle_reject__pound_5m_buy_out/

19th September 2008: story mentioning Barry Hughes being found guilty of carrying a knife in a club and being a target of Glasgow City Council:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/exclusive-glasgow-city-council-bids-991021

12th  March 2014: The same Barry Hughes, jailed for mortgage fraud a few years later:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-26545119

 

in all likelihood we'd have gone the way of Gretna or Rangers if it had gone through. Bullet a dodged.

edit: I think QotS and others were being targetted in a scam by some dodgy types fairly recently too.

[kristov]

In my time going to Dundee games:

Angus Cook. Not sure of his actual (off-field) incompetencies. I know he had a bad rep in the Dundee business community. I don't know when he actually took over but Dundee had a very good side in the late 80s and he allowed them to regress into a yo-yo side. I vaguely remember some weird merger/takeover talks with Utd. He allowed Dens (then a great arena with a capacity of 21,000) to run into decline.

 

Ron Dixon. Came in. Paid off Cook's debts. Saved the club. Promised a Superderry South Enclosure. Buggered off leaving the club to fend for itself. Apparently consorted with shadowy characters and mysterious circumstances apparently surround his death in a car crash.

Superderry/ice rink plans never saw the light of day.

 

Marr Brothers. Came in. Saved the club. Unceremoniously fired Cowboy despite promotion being a stick-on. Two seasons of stability and first phase of Dens redevelopment completed. Then went nuts and raked up £23m in debts chasing a few top six finishes, cup final and 4 UEFA Cup games. Admin 1. Lauded as heroes by the more gullible of our support for sticking around to help clear up (their own) mess. Returned the club in a worse state than they found it and almost gave it to Gio (above). Phase two of Dens redevelopment never saw light of day.

 

Bob Brannan. Came in. Used his contacts and power to somehow save the club from perpetual, crippling debt repayments. Went nuts and brought in Calum Melville. Personal issues caught up with the Aberdonian and he used HMRC money to fire management team. Refused to pay HMRC. Admin 2. If that wasn't enough he is a Ruth Davidson fan boy whose Twitter bio shows an amazing lack of self-awareness "nothing is free, someone else is always paying the bill" or words to that effect. Has an unhealthy hatred of the Dabs- even for my tastes.

 

Fan ownership. Came in saved the club. Went nuts and took the community club model to the extreme. Bought shares with funds derived from fund raising activities - an activity which the Supporters Trust distanced themselves from.

 

The Americans. Good guys thus far. Everything seems to be running smoothly. Gate prices are horrific and the altruism in their acceptance they will have to cover losses until a new ground is built is not ideal but a far cry from the above. After 30 years of a soap opera there might be a period of stability...

 

 

[Ya Bezzer!]

2 hours ago, tamthebam said:

The pre-Bunnet Celtic board. I mean let's face it most people could make money running Celtic. They didn't seem to be able to.

To be fair pre-Bunnet Celtic had about 40,000 less supporters.

[kennysmassiveego]

Pre Fleeting/Moffat at Killie we had the Laughlans et al , literally the butcher the baker the candlestick maker types At an AGM they were arguing about the best way to sell more  club ties to boost club funds. And they nearly sold out to Hugh Scott !!