A San Francisco chief has kept his cards close to his chest on the talks to buy Rangers, but it's not quite as it seems
07:20, 02 Apr 2025
San Francisco 49ers' CEO Jed York(Image: Getty Images)
San Francisco 49ers' chief executive Jed York kept his cards close to his chest when quizzed on a potential Rangers takeover.
But the supremo's coy update has minimal bearing on Andrew Cavenagh's ambitions to wrap the deal up this month.
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We exclusively broke the story last month that an American consortium, led by businessman Cavenagh and backed by the investment group of the NFL giants, are in talks to buy a controlling stake of the Ibrox side.
A closely-related group already own Leeds United down south and, as has been consistently reported by our man Keith Jackson, the owners-to-be hope to have the deal wrapped up this month.
That will leave them a window to make a number of key decisions, including whether to trigger a buy option in Vaclav Cerny's loan deal, and who to appoint as the club's next permanent manager, before pre-season preparations get underway.
As has regularly been the message on Hotline Live last month, it is in fact Cavenagh, not the 49ers primarily, who has led the talks from the start and continues to be the point man on the takeover.
That explains why, when 49ers CEO York was asked about the talks, he was keen to play down the NFL side's role for now.
“We haven’t done anything there (yet)," he said. "Leeds is obviously under the umbrella, but they are completely separate from the 49ers. Where we can tie brands together and sort of take our best practices of operating, we do, but in terms of financials, they don’t overlap at all.”
The Rangers takeover is slightly different to the one at Leeds, where Paraag Marathe – who currently serves as President of 49ers Enterprises – is the direct chairman at Elland Road.
But they are still expected be heavily involved and have input, hand in hand with Cavenagh, once the takeover is rubber-stamped in the near future.
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