Paraag Marathe on how Rangers can benefit from Leeds United and San Francisco 49ers learnings as new Ibrox era begins | Football News
The Vice-President of the Rangers, Paraag Marathe, believes that the Ibrox club will benefit from new links with the 49ers of San Francisco and Leeds United.
Marathe is president of the investment branch of the NFL team – 49ers Enterprises – which are part of the American consortium which has taken over in Ibrox.
He is also president of Leeds United, which belongs to the 49ers, and helped guide the club in the Premier League.
Andrew Cavenagh (L) directs the American consortium which took over at the Rangers
After this success in Elland Road, and also in the United States, Marathe is confident that the Rangers can achieve more of the same thing under the new regime.
He said: “The short, medium and long-term objective is to win. It is to win the League, these are cups of victories, that is all that precedes. Do we think we have what we have to win? Absolutely. We would not be there if we did not do it.
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“We certainly have a great belief in kev [Kevin Thelwell] and Russell [Martin] To direct football. It’s about building the right base and doing it intelligently and thoughtful, not just to throw money.
“The money throwing could solve something in the short term, but it is a question of trying to build something that will last, and to survive our mandates with the club and to keep the rangers on a large trajectory which it deserves to be lit.”
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Paraag Marathe took over as president of Leeds UTD after taking control of the 49ers in Elland Road
During the UK visit from San Francisco, Marathe should share his time between Leeds and Glasgow. However, it was not long in rejecting any conversation that the Ibrox team will become a feeder club in Leeds.
He added: “It would be a bad service for Leeds and the Rangers to consider one as a food club to the other. Consider them both closed loop universes which deserve appropriate attention and care – we will designate and affect resources appropriately.
“Listen, there are opportunities to learn from each other, whether in trade or competition in the field.
“I mean, it could be simple things. If Ibrox has a plumbing problem and we go through some plumbers who are terrible and some who are good, if Elland Road had a plumbing problem, we want to call and determine who is the best plumber! You can apply this analogy to an agent, so there are a lot of things you can share.
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“So being able to sit on both means that I can help sail in these two. In my mind, it’s a real positive to have two clubs like that.
“As far as my time is concerned, I don’t see it as hours a day, days in a week or weeks in a year. I really don’t do it. For me, I hate losing and I want to win. Everything I have to do to keep myself on the winning side of the big book in any club is all I hold.
During the buyout talks, which started last October, some thought that Marathe’s involvement in Leeds could break the rules of conflict of interest.
The Rangers and Leeds both hope to play European football, but Marathe said: “We checked the box with those we need, to make sure that if and when there is even a situation where there is a perception of a conflict, we resolve this. This has already been resolved, so we are good there.”
“The Rangers will gain 49ers Global Gravitas”
The 49ers of San Francisco won five Super Bowl titles
The 49ers Enterprises were valued at 5.1 billion pounds Sterling ($ 6.8 billion) last August, the franchise winning five titles from the Super Bowl and Marathe explained why being associated with the NFL giants will benefit Rangers.
He said: “I think it is quite objectively true that the 49ers of San Francisco are one of the biggest sports brands in the world, and certainly one of the most recognizable. Rangers is a jewel of European football.
“What the 49ers can bring is a certain global gravity and a rangers awareness. Now take the states or other places where the 49ers are in the lead, now suddenly, the rangers are in this same sentence. Why does it count, how many times their name will appear. This monetary value.
“In terms of one which is not subject to the other, selfishly speaking, it also helps the 49ers.
“It is important for the players we recruit. Oh wait, a second, the 49ers are involved in this.
