John Gilligan: EGM win topped Barcelona and Helicopter Sunday – I feared Rangers could lose Ibrox

Attending a European Cup game against Real Madrid as a boy of just 11 back in 1963 is a cherished memory. As is the European Cup Winners’ Cup final victory over Dynamo Moscow in the Nou Camp in 1972. And the final day Scottish title triumph in 2005 still raises a smile.

Yet, when Gilligan, Dave King and Paul Murray wrested control of their beloved Ibrox club from a reviled regime at an extraordinary general meeting five years ago today it topped any league win or cup success he had ever enjoyed.

“I could take Barcelona and Helicopter Sunday and roll them into one and that was still the greatest thing that ever happened to me outside of my daughters being born,” he said.

“I could nearly cry just now talking about it. I actually mean that. I fill up when I think of that day. Knowing that we had got the club back. Oh wow! I remember it vividly. I will never forget coming out of Argyle House and seeing all the supporters there celebrating. It was just fantastic. It was sheer relief as well.”

Followers of Govan club may be disgruntled just now – and Gilligan, who still goes to Rangers matches home and away, understands their disappointment – at the prospect of finishing another season trophyless.

The unhappiness they are currently feeling, though, is nothing compared to their mood in the dark days of 2015. Fans were deeply concerned at the make-up and motives of the hierarchy. They had refused to buy season tickets in large numbers. Attendances at home games had plummeted.

A £10 million funding deal with Sports Direct, which gave the Mike Ashley-owned retail group the floating charge over the Rangers Training Centre, Edmiston House, the Albion Car Park and the registered trademarks, sparked mass protests.

Gilligan, a former managing director of Tennent Caledonian Breweries and a prominent member of the Rangers Supporters Trust, shared their alarm.

“I felt that the stadium was at risk,” he said. “I always felt uncomfortable that we were increasing our debt position to people who could, if it came to it, get control of the stadium. That was my biggest fear.

“I just couldn’t get my head around that. It had happened in England at Leeds United, Bournemouth, Coventry City. If you own your stadium and you lose it life is never the same again.”

King, the South Africa-based businessman and former director who had bought a 14.57 per cent stake from hedge fund managers Laxey Partners in December, joined forces with Murray, another ex-board member and a vocal critic of his successors, and Gilligan and called the EGM in January.

So how did he come to be part of it? “It went back to the supporters’ trust,” he said. “Because of my job, I tended keep a slightly lower profile. But we started to get concerned about certain things. I became politically active. Once I chose to do that there was no way back. I was going the distance then.

“I worked for McEwan’s at the time and made some contacts within the club. I also sat in the members’ section for 17 years. So I was very active within the club as well. Because of that, I met Dave and I met Paul.

“Dave felt he had enough support to win the club back and he and Paul asked me to get involved – I think due to my connection to the fans’ group and my business background.”

Gilligan joined the board after an EGM that saw the trio receive around 85 per cent of the votes cast. He quickly realised the hard work was simply beginning. The season ticket boycott had taken its toll. They also inherited a raft of complex historical problems caused by years of heinous mismanagement and corporate vandalism.

“We had felt the people who were in charge weren’t running the club properly,” he said. “The only way we could stop that was to starve them of money. Financially, it was a challenge to rebuild. The stadium was a mess. The offices were really not good. The windows hadn’t even been cleaned. The place had been deprived of proper maintenance.”

The 67-year-old knows that huge strides forward have been made on and off the park since that troubled period. The growth of Club 1872, which was formed in the months after the EGM when the Rangers Supporters Trust merged with Rangers First, has been particularly pleasing for him.

“It was always a dream of the fans to become shareholders in a bigger way,” he said. “We achieved that with Club 1872. It was quite important that. Another objective was for the fans to have a bigger say in the running of the club without necessarily controlling it. We achieved that too. Dave and the board allowed that to happen.”

Some Rangers fans still long for a Sheikh Mansour-type figure to come in and invest the sort of vast sums which would enable them to dominate their city rivals Celtic. Not Gilligan.

“I am completely opposed to a sugar daddy,” he said. “I know some of the younger guys might be for it, but I don’t ever want to go there. Even if it meant we won the league or whatever.

“What we have got now is a board or directors and investors who are supporters with a financial commitment to the club. We have also got Club 1872 with a bigger and bigger shareholding every year. I think that model is pretty much as good as it gets for us.”

Gilligan served as a director for over two years before standing down of his own volition in 2017. “I had my eyes opened after years on the periphery,” he said. “The intensity of being at a big club was the biggest challenge. The intensity is amazing, just crazy.”

He has great admiration for those who have remained involved and invested millions of pounds for no return, for John Bennett, Dave King, George Letham, Douglas Park and George Taylor, and helped Rangers to reach a level where they have progressed to the last 16 of the Europa League.

“It has been disappointing on the domestic side this year,” he said. “But it has still been an amazing turnaround. As somebody with a business background, I have an awareness of what has been involved. But I think the majority of our supporters do.

“What Douglas Park, Dave King, John Bennett, George Letham and George Taylor have committed to the club in terms of money and time and effort has been phenomenal.

“I still talk to them a lot. None of these guys are putting in money to make money. That is the biggest punchline. They put money in because they want to help Rangers. They are all supporters.

“Of course, they don’t want to lose their money and they won’t. But they could make a lot more money somewhere else. Their commitment is fantastic. They have been wonderful for the club.

“It is a fantastic feeling when you see the team beating Braga in the Europa League. In the first game after the EGM we drew 0-0 with Cowdenbeath. Look at where we were and where we are now.”