GERS DROPPED THE FOOTBALL

Have all the commericial success you want but it is irrelevant if team are not performing on park says former Ibrox hero

- BY FRASER WILSON

DAVE MacKINNON spent the best part of five decades at the sharp end of some of Scotland's biggest clubs - on and off the park.

From changing rooms in a playing career at Rangers, Kilmarnock, Dundee, Airdrie and Partick to boardrooms as general manager of Killie and chief executive of Dundee and latterly Morton.

Few have as comprehensive a view of exactly what the politics look like inside Scottish football from both the pitch and the directors' box.

And one thing MacKinnon reckons is missing too often in the modern-day boardroom is a grasp of the most fundamental aspect of it all.

That no matter how much the sport has become big business these institutions are still FOOTBALL clubs first and foremost.

It's something the 68-year-old fears has been lost on Rangers in recent years.

Filling key positions with figures more skilled in securing commercial deals and investment than a knowledge of what it takes to be rich in success and silverware.

MacKinnon made 177 appearances for the Ibrox club between 1982 and 1986, playing under greats such as John Greig, Jock Wallace and, for a short while, Graeme Souness.

His contacts in the game stretch the length and breadth of Britain and beyond.

That includes to Elland Road, Leeds, where 49ers Enterprises have successfully restored their first UK soccer venture to the Premier League.