Raith Rovers insist fans will have the final say after confirming ‘co-operation’ discussions have taken place with Rangers.
The Stark’s Park side have been linked with a tie-in with the Ibrox outfit under new rules encouraging clubs to enter into partnerships with teams in different divisions.
The initiative, for players under the age of 21 who qualify for Scotland, is designed to expose more youngsters to first-team football through flexible loans.
However, the Kirkcaldy outfit have confessed a collaboration could also involve players who fall outside the terms of the ‘co-operation’.
Director Ruaridh Kilgour says Raith recognise some supporters may not agree with such a formal agreement, with some fearing Barry Robson’s side could lose out as a ‘feeder team’ for a Premiership club.
However, with talks having stalled following Rangers’ takeover, he has reassured fans they will be consulted if there are any developments.
“We first heard about this [co-operation system] probably at the tail end of last year,” he explained. “And then it’s become a bit more popular in conversation in the last two months as clubs are starting to now look at who they could potentially partner with.
“If I’m being honest it’s not kind of one of [technical director] John Potter’s priorities right now. There’s a lot of other things going on, like just basically building a squad through the transfer window.
“But, completely out of the blue, Rangers contacted John and asked him to go for a meeting at Murray Park with Nils Koppen, the then technical director.
“They said that they’d pinpointed Raith Rovers as someone they would like to have a partnership with to develop their young players.
Kilgour: ‘Rangers impressed with Raith’
“They then came to Stark’s Park the week after to have a look around and see what the facilities are like, which again they were really impressed with.
“The way it was left was that we asked them to come up with a proposal of what this could look like.
“They saw this as something where they could potentially send us other players. So players who are maybe a bit older than 21 and also players who weren’t Scottish.
“It was left with Rangers to draw up a proposal.”
Raith are awaiting a formal response and Koppen has since left his role following Rangers’ takeover.
In an interview with Raith TV, Kilgour added: “The way we will then approach that is decided on three factors.
“Number one will be a football factor where Barry [Robson] and John would make a decision based purely on the playing side of it.
“We as a board would make a financial decision on it about how this can help us with our budget, in terms of what the cost would be to bring in these players – or maybe they would be free, who knows.
“And then finally – and most importantly – there’d be a kind of brand perspective where we would put it to supporters.
“Because this is one of those decisions where we feel supporters should be consulted. And the reason for that is we know that some supporters will not like the potential to be partnered with other clubs.
“So we would present all the facts, we’d present the opinion of Barry, we’d present the opinion of us as a board and we would let the supporters make the final decision.”
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