THEY are the people who follow in the footsteps of their team but have no say in what direction Rangers are heading.

With the financial picture at Ibrox once again bleak, fears have grown amongst supporters over the future of their club.

The Light Blue legions have backed Rangers in huge numbers since 'The Journey' began three years ago, but their loyalty has too often been taken for granted by people in positions of power.

But what if it was the fans themselves making the decisions?

If those who watch from the terraces were as influential as those in the Ibrox boardroom?

Here, Chris Jack speaks to the Rangers Supporters Trust and Rangers First over what the future holds off the park and how the rank and file fan could one day be the ones calling the shots.

RANGERS SUPPORTERS TRUST

THE Rangers Supporters Trust was formed in 2003 as a democratic, not-for-profit organisation that seeks to give fans a greater say in the running of their club.

Through their BuyRangers scheme, the Trust already own more than 500,000 shares in Rangers International Football Club plc and will take up their allocation in the new open offer this month.

RST board member Ross McAdam speaks to SportTimes.

1 WHY have you decided to invest in the share issue and how much money will you invest?

As we mentioned in our statement last week, as a board, we unanimously agreed that we would partake in the upcoming share issue.

Despite our deep concerns at the ongoing situation at Ibrox, fan ownership is the raison d'être of the organisation.

We believed it is in our members' interest to maintain our shareholding in the company and the feedback we have received from our membership supports this view.

In terms of monetary value we are going to maintain our shareholding, which currently sits at 0.86%.

We are wary that the board have indicated that they will be looking to implement a much wider share issue in the near future so that has had an impact on our decision.

Fans can join BuyRangers from £11.25 per month at www.therst.co.uk/buyrangers

2 HOW viable and realistic do you think fan ownership is at Rangers and what level of shareholding could you reach?

I think more and more fans are starting to decide that fan ownership is the way Rangers should be run.

Our recent history has demonstrated that we need to be owned by those who care for it most, the fans.

The more exposure the BuyRangers scheme receives the quicker we will reach our targets.

Our immediate goal is to reach 5% due to the benefits this size of shareholding brings, such as the ability to call an EGM.

It would certainly give the board something to think about if the fans, as a collective, held a sizeable stake.

The importance is on being a collective as this is considerably more powerful that individuals holding shares.

3DO the issues with the board and divisions within the support make it easier or more difficult for you to attract members?

I think the recent card protests at matches in the last 12 months have definitely shown there is a lot of anger towards the incumbents at Ibrox.

This should make it easier to attract members and the BuyRangers scheme has definitely seen a big increase in participation in recent months.

My message to the Rangers support would be that the best way to see change at Ibrox is to buy the current owners out.

This is why it is imperative that as many people as possible join up to the BuyRangers scheme.

4 HAVE you had any talks with the club regarding fan ownership and would you welcome dialogue with the board?

Sadly, we have not had any dialogue with the club regarding fan ownership.

In fairness to the board, we would have a much larger bargaining power if we had a substantial number of fans partaking in BuyRangers and this has to be our immediate aim.

Given that the board are 'Ready to Listen', we would certainly welcome any dialogue.

5 INSTEAD of the creation of a fans' board, would you prefer to see a fan appointed to the football or plc board?

The membership scheme is, of course, still in its infancy so it would not be fair to prejudge it. It will certainly be interesting to see the amount of responsibility and power the fan board gets.

Our stance has always been that fan ownership does not equate to fans running the club.

The ideal scenario is that we would seek to appoint the strongest candidates to the Rangers board who would then ultimately be responsible to the fans.

Again, the more fans who join BuyRangers the quicker we build a bigger shareholding and can have a greater say.

Laxey, who own around 12%, have their man Norman Crighton on the board.

This demonstrates the potential that we as a support have.

RANGERS FIRST

FORMED with the help of Supporters Direct Scotland, Rangers First is a Community Interest Company.

The group purchased their first 70,000 shares in RIFC plc earlier this summer.

RF will also take up their option when the 19million new shares hit the market.

Richard Atkinson of SDS speaks to SportTimes.

1 WHY have you decided to invest in the share issue and how much money will you invest?

As a members organisation Rangers First put as much information as it could about the new share issue to the membership as fast as possible and let then democratically vote on what to do.

By a 97% vote the decision was made to take up the pro rata allowance and to apply for as many excess shares as possible.

Rangers First is a democratic organisation, so why buy shares? Well, because the members were polled and that is what they wanted to do.

Rangers First already had enough financial reserves to apply for its pro rata allowance.

However, it was decided to launch the campaign in full at short notice to apply for excess shares.

How much we apply for depends on how much money we raise at www.rangersfirst.org before the offer closes.

2 HOW viable and realistic do you think fan ownership is at Rangers and what level of shareholding could you reach?

Over 3500 fans already own over 12% of the shares as individuals in the plc.

This collectively makes the fans already the largest single shareholder.

So the fans already are owners. However these shares are not able to

speak as one voice and use the plc rules to their advantage.

Rangers First is about providing a way for these shareholdings to work together and for this shareholding to increase.

So I do think it is realistic. The level of shareholding that happens all depends on the fans.

The initial objective is 5% as that enables the calling of a General Meeting and the ability for questions to be asked of any board.

The largest recognised shareholder at the moment owns approximately 12% of the plc. So as you can see influence starts at fairly low percentages, not just at 51%, and this is because of the plc structure.

3 DO the issues with the board and divisions within the support make it easier or more difficult for you to attract members?

Rangers First is not being promoted around any other issue than fans deciding to put Rangers First.

Fans are fundamentally fans and if you can provide a vehicle that has a straight forward message such as RF has then people, as we have seen in recent days, will come to it.

We are not asking anyone to agree on anything other than putting Rangers First and that message is bringing folk from all over the world and all over the support to the RF cause.

4 HAVE you had any talks with the club regarding fan ownership and would you welcome dialogue with the board?

As a Community interest Company it is Rangers First's responsibility to engage with anyone and everyone that wishes to engage with us.

We have written to the club and the NOMAD Daniel Stewart regarding the current share issue and they are well aware of our existence and what we are all about.

5 INSTEAD of the creation of a fans' board, would you prefer to see a fan appointed to the football or plc board?

They are two very different things and are certainly not mutually exclusive.

Any grouping that brings a club closer to the fans will hopefully prove to be a good thing, but what Rangers First is about is taking up the rights that attach to that of the shares that are owned.

If that leads to Rangers First putting a board member forward then great.

But it would all be done through the democratic process and our board member would be equal to any other.

Many "fan representatives" on club boards have failed because they are not legally backed by a shareholding position and so the exercise ends in frustration for all parties.