ROLLING WITH THE PUNCHES
Eight years after the anguish of administration at Ibrox, Gordon Smith tells how he’s learned to survive life’s blows
THE bells, the bells. Warning bells, alarm bells, boxing bells, barbells. Gordon Smith has heard them all. And come out swinging. It seems every day or month carries the weight of an anniversary for Smith. He turned 65 in December.
It will be ten years in April that he walked away from his post as chief executive of the SFA. This week saw the eighth anniversary of administration day at Rangers where he was employed as director of football.
‘I am still sad over that,’ he says. ‘I feel my reputation is tainted. I was there when Rangers went into administration. I can’t get over that. I had a good time there as a player, so to be labelled as part of that…’
His voice tails off but Smith, of course, was collateral damage in a car crash not of his making. The publication of Craig Whyte’s autobiography this week revives a sorry saga that ended in liquidation for Rangers. It also revived unhappy memories for Smith.
First, the warning bells. Smith had met Whyte shortly after the businessman had taken over at Ibrox.
‘He wanted to pick my brains and we had a chat in the Hilton in Glasgow,’ says Smith, who had already compiled an intriguing CV as a former player, agent and financial advisor, as well as his post at the SFA.
Smith outlined his support for a director of football strategy that he had witnessed abroad in his spells as a player in Austria (Admira Wacker) and Switzerland (FC Basel).
‘We had a follow-up meeting where he said he had looked at my ideas and wanted me as director of football,’ says Smith.
The tenure lasted barely eight months. The warnings came early. Rangers went to Germany on pre-season and Smith became friendly with the owners of the hotel that was its base.
A couple of months later, he received an email from them stating they had not been paid.
‘The bill was about £32,000,’ he says. ‘I immediately went to the financial people and they said that Whyte was holding back on payments. I told them: “These people must be paid”. Two weeks later, I got a nice letter of thanks from them.’
There was another alarm. ‘I always remember when we lost to Malmo,’ recalls Smith of the night of July 26, 2012, when the Swedish side defeated Rangers 1-0 in a Champions League qualifier.
‘I saw Whyte’s reaction. I thought: “He is a big Rangers man and he is disappointed”. But later I surmised it was the loss of up to £25million in revenues. I realised he was not a football guy as time went on.’
Rangers drew in Sweden and went out of the competition. Maribor subsequently dismissed the Ibrox side in Europa League qualifying.
Whyte, and Rangers, were in trouble. His gamble was predicated on revenue from Europe. Rumours of financial calamity spread like a virus in Glasgow and beyond.
‘I asked him straight out if there was a problem with finances and if there was any chance of administration.
‘He told me it depended on the “big tax case”. That was the only time I spoke to him individually.’
Smith had been starved of resources for his plans and felt both frustrated and isolated. Then the alarm bell sounded.
‘The day of administration,’ he says wearily when asked of the events of February 14, 2012.
‘We had a meeting with young players, youth teams, reserves,’ he says of being enlisted with Ali Russell, the chief executive, to accompany the owner on a tour of the training base at Auchenhowie.
‘He told them: “Administration is not going to happen, we are going to get out of this”.’ The group then moved on to a meeting with the first team and staff.
‘Suddenly his phone rings and he goes into a corner,’ adds Smith. ‘It takes a while. He speaks to Ali privately. Ali then comes over to me and says: “That is the club in administration”. That is precisely when it happened.’
Smith left the club promptly when the administrators arrived.
He says: ‘I told them: “I am leaving, I don’t want money”. It was obvious the club was in dire straits.
‘I had never been able to do the job because he had not provided the funds, so there was no way I could do it now.’
Eight years on, the pain lingers. ‘That is one of my biggest regrets, that I was considered a part of it when I was really not,’ he says.
Did he ever speak to Whyte again? ‘No.’
He adds: ‘I don’t have any feelings towards him, positive or negative. I still feel he was put in there by someone else. He was a patsy. He was a front.’
THE bell rings. ‘Once a week, 12 three-minute rounds on the pads,’ he says. Smith contracted the boxing bug almost 20 years ago when he fought and defeated Tommy Sheridan, left-wing politician, and George Bowie, disc jockey, in charity bouts.
It is still part of his training regime that includes two runs a week and a spell on the weights on another day. He is continuing a training regime that started professionally almost half a century ago at Kilmarnock. His career is lazily characterised by a miss in the 1983 FA Cup final for Brighton against Manchester United. Yet it is forgotten Smith scored on that day and in a League Cup final against Celtic at Hampden in 1978. His Rangers career include a domestic Treble in the same year but he is most proud of playing at the highest level in four countries: Scotland, England, Austria and Switzerland.
He is the grandson of Mattha Smith, who won the Scottish Cup for Kilmarnock in 1920 and 1929. He credits his mother, however, for helping him to create a career.
‘She was determined to get me educated. She shaped me in that, right up to doing a business degree while at Kilmarnock. Education made me think I could have other interests rather than playing,’ says Smith.
University also taught him a lesson on the field. ‘I realised then that reputation meant nothing,’ he adds.
‘I have never told anyone this but my biggest concern in a match was how I played. That was the most important thing. Sometimes when we got beat and I played well, I could cope with that better than me playing badly and winning.’
But footballers routinely say the
I don’t have any feelings towards Whyte... I still think he was a patsy
opposite. ‘Absolutely,’ he says. ‘But I thought that if I played well, I was making my contribution. It is how everyone else does that affects the result and I can’t control that. My own performance was my motivation.’
He eventually graduated to the chief executive’s chair at Hampden but became disillusioned.
He says: ‘Ernie Walker (secretary of the SFA from 1977-1990) once met me and told me I was doing well. I replied: “You wouldn’t think so from the stick I am getting”. Ernie said: “When I was there, I was slaughtered but wait until I die and see what they say about me”. He was spot on. Everyone was full of praise for him.’
Smith became tired of announcing decisions he did not agree with and finding his role was often limited to executing strategy rather than forming it.
It is a decade since he left but he still seeks to reform Scottish football through his role in the media and lectures. He produces from his case a well-argued plan to split the bottom two divisions on the basis of geography and include B teams from clubs in the highest division.
There are obvious financial advantages for the clubs but Smith believes the crucial aspect is improving the domestic game.
‘I am still concerned about youth development. I have never bought into the idea of development squads. I think it’s a mistake to have players of the same age playing against each other. I was in the Kilmarnock reserves at 16, in the first team at 17 playing against men. You develop quicker that way,’ adds Smith.
‘I would like to see Scottish clubs as a force in Europe again. I would also like to see a winter shutdown in January and February, and the season extended into June.’
His analysis of the fallibilities of the development league strategy and the desirability of an extended shutdown is backed by research and detailed figures.
‘I always analyse what is currently in place and I like to be judgmental. I want to see where it can be improved. People go on about best practice but sometimes it has to be better practice first,’ he says.
There is a restlessness in him. His reflections on the past can be sombre.
‘That miss for Brighton hurts more now than it did at the time,’ he admits. ‘The Rangers situation still bothers me.’ But he brightens almost immediately: ‘You do your best. Mistakes or bad situations can offer the best lessons.’
And the future? ‘I still give advice when I am asked,’ he adds. ‘I still have my ideas. I am of the age when people are thinking about retirement but I don’t think I’ll ever stop.’
This is the essence of Smith the striver, the eternal boxer who gets knocked down but always gets back up.