Post by durnford on Jun 18, 2015 11:39:47 GMT 1
www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/theres-no-reason-cant-premiership-5904588
It’s all change at Livingston with former head teacher Gordon Ford now the club’s largest shareholder. With the team coming off a season mired by problems off the field, West Lothian Courier sports reporter Callum Carson spoke with the new supremo to hear how he plans to revive Livingston Football Club.
Q. Why Livingston?
A. “I’ve been involved quite heavily in Livingston since I retired four years ago.
“First of all with the Livingston Youth Foundation, which is going very well.
“I’ve been around to advise Gordon McDougall and help various things like letter writing and then understanding how strapped the club had been financially – for a whole lot of reasons – it struck me that what Clyde were doing with North Lanarkshire Leisure at Broadwood is a model we could look at for Livingston.
“So before I’d even done anything, I went along to find out how they operate at Clyde and it really struck me that their kind of model could work at a full-time club.”
Q. How would that model work and be implemented at Livingston?
A. “We’ve set up a stadium company that will be looking to lease the stadium from the council and setting up as a community enterprise.
“You get all the benefits of that for the community and the club can reduce its overheads and concentrate purely on the football.
“Livingston play, even including pre-season friendlies, around 24 home games a season.
“That’s basically all this stadium is used for. Surely there’s some way we can maximise the potential and we feel laying the 3G surface and going down that route will be the best way to do that.
“Queen of the South, Stenhousemuir and Falkirk amongst others have done it successfully .
“If we can do that, the community will have access to it when the football club don’t need to use it.
“So basically from 1pm every afternoon, seven days a week, apart from when the team are playing at home, we can have it open to the community to use the facilities.
“As someone who loves football, I can think of nothing better than having a game of seven-a-side and running off to the terraces to celebrate a goal.
“I’m sure it will take off and be very popular.
“It can be a base for boys and girls clubs and that would all help the community enterprise.
“If clubs are training at night, we can have the cafe open and the parents, on a poor winter night, can sit in the stands or come in and have a coffee.
“We can put 21st century facilities for parents who are here to support their children. That would be important.
“Now that’s just the community enterprise, but what that does is free up the resources and money the club has to focus just on football.
“It’s a win for the community because there will be a brand new asset and a win for the football club because it will remove a pretty heavy burden.
“The stadium will be leased from the council and I understand they are about to enter negotiations and that would hopefully be phased in over the next 12 months for a full start from August 2016.”
Pitching in New management will look at making the stadium a more profitable facility by installing a 3G surface
Q. Yourself, Neil Hogarth and Graham Leslie obviously don’t have much experience in the day-to-day running of a football club. How are you planning on overcoming that?
A. “I totally accept that. I’ve come in to try and get the football club back onto a steady foundation. I don’t plan to hang around for a long time.
“I’ve got experience throughout my career of strategic planning and that’s what we need here. We need a pretty clear strategy of how we’re going to get this club onto that kind of firm foundation.
“Neil Hogarth is a lifelong fan and a successful local businessman, so he does have strong business knowledge as well as a passion for the club.
“You’re right that we’re not ‘football people’ as you might say, but we’ll strengthen the board and bring people on who have got that type of experience.
“Gordon McDougall is still chairman of the club and that’s certainly not a position I’m interested in, not least because I don’t always live in the country.
“That’s how we’ll address that. We’ll be in the background making sure the strategy is implemented fully and we’ll have an operating committee running to try and deal with all the legacy issues.
“Some of those issues aren’t pleasant, but we need to deal with them.
“I like that a lot of the fans on the forums are asking for transparency. Yes, let’s have transparency. When I’m going to be living in Michigan, I still want to know what’s happening at the club. I want to be able to go online and find out what’s happening and I believe fans have that right too.”
Q. Will part of that transparency be more meetings with Livi for Life?
A. “Absolutely, and they have to be regular meetings. We want to do more on that side of things.
“There’s a fan’s football team who are Scottish champions – does everyone in Livingston or West Lothian know that?
“These guys and their partners are the ones who do a lot for the club and their image. That’s another group we need to promote and meet with and work together with. We absolutely need meetings and transparency with the fan groups.”
Looking to the future Gordon Ford hopes to make Livi a success
Q. There are Livingston fans wary of the fact that Ged Nixon holds 20 per cent of the shares. Are you planning on working with Ged?
A. “I’ve not been in touch with Ged. In many clubs the share ownership is diluted and spread.
“All that’s important to myself right now is that Neil Hogarth and I control 60 per cent and that’s enough to get this club onto the firm foundation that I’ve spoken about and back where it belongs.
“I’m passionate about the football club. When you think how we finished the season last year with a cup win and surviving relegation against all the odds, that should have been the launch-pad for a charge into the play-offs this season, but typical of Livingston, you turn the corner and you’re kicked in the guts.”
Q. The short-term plan is clearly to make Livingston viable. What is the long-term plan? Fans compare the club to the likes of Inverness, Ross County and Hamilton. Can Livi be a successful SPFL Premiership club?
A. “They are definitely the models for a club like ours. There’s no reason why we can’t be a Premiership side and a successful one.
“We’ve been there before and we’ve really got everything to do that.
“We’ve got a big town and everything is in place other than the fact that we have so many people leave the county every week to go and watch teams that are in the east and in the west.
“So the product we have to put on show has to be really good to attract people – and maybe not just football. Maybe that’s where the stadium company can add value to the football club by getting people down here to play or to social events and get them thinking ‘let’s give Livingston a chance, let’s head down to a game.’
“I wouldn’t con anybody and say to them ‘here’s the long-term plan.’
Every Livi fan has a vision of one day matching the likes of Rangers, Celtic, Hearts and the big teams.
“Just now we need to get through this season with a bit of stability.
“In 12 months time the future of the club will be very bright because we will be rid of the stadium burden and we’ll be able to focus on the football team.
“Working in partnership with the stadium company brings in revenue and I think that will be very successful.”
Model club Ford believes clubs Livingston have what it takes to match club like Inverness Caley Thistle
Q. There are a large number of Livingston fans who are a bit fed up and who have been through it all. How do you win them back?
A. “I think they’ll be a bit like me. We wouldn’t be Scots if we didn’t have a bit of cynicism in us but people just have to take me at face value, I hope.
“I’m trying my very best to get the club on its feet. I’m impressed with the manager and I think now the embargo is lifted we’ll have an impressive squad of players here.
“The fans will have to come down and see the product and hopefully like what they see.
“Come and give us support and I’m happy to meet fans groups and talk to them about it all.
“Who knows, maybe we should be doing a bit more in terms of increasing fan ownership. I know it’s not spoken about a lot in Scottish football circles.
“There aren’t many clubs embracing it, but to me, in a town like ours where we maybe only have a hard core of 1000 fans, it would be possible for a lot of these people to be very influential if they started to take shares in the club.
“We need to look at that possibly for the future. For me, if I was an ordinary fan, I’d like to have my few shares in the club and have my say in the running of it, if nothing else to stop the club falling back into disputes about investors and their egos.”
Q. Have you met with Mark Burchill and are you happy with him being the manager?
A. “Yes, I spoke with Mark last week and had a really good meeting. We’ll have more discussions going forward and with the embargo being lifted, Mark will have a list of players he wants to sign and we can get on and do that.
“It’s really disappointing that were back to square one and having to build a team after such a good end to last season.
“We clearly have a manager who has something. He got the best out of the players and did a great job last season and I’m confident for this year.”
“Now the embargo is lifted we’re be going at 100 miles per hour to be in a good position for the new season.
“I’m very excited and positive about the future for Livingston.”
It’s all change at Livingston with former head teacher Gordon Ford now the club’s largest shareholder. With the team coming off a season mired by problems off the field, West Lothian Courier sports reporter Callum Carson spoke with the new supremo to hear how he plans to revive Livingston Football Club.
Q. Why Livingston?
A. “I’ve been involved quite heavily in Livingston since I retired four years ago.
“First of all with the Livingston Youth Foundation, which is going very well.
“I’ve been around to advise Gordon McDougall and help various things like letter writing and then understanding how strapped the club had been financially – for a whole lot of reasons – it struck me that what Clyde were doing with North Lanarkshire Leisure at Broadwood is a model we could look at for Livingston.
“So before I’d even done anything, I went along to find out how they operate at Clyde and it really struck me that their kind of model could work at a full-time club.”
Q. How would that model work and be implemented at Livingston?
A. “We’ve set up a stadium company that will be looking to lease the stadium from the council and setting up as a community enterprise.
“You get all the benefits of that for the community and the club can reduce its overheads and concentrate purely on the football.
“Livingston play, even including pre-season friendlies, around 24 home games a season.
“That’s basically all this stadium is used for. Surely there’s some way we can maximise the potential and we feel laying the 3G surface and going down that route will be the best way to do that.
“Queen of the South, Stenhousemuir and Falkirk amongst others have done it successfully .
“If we can do that, the community will have access to it when the football club don’t need to use it.
“So basically from 1pm every afternoon, seven days a week, apart from when the team are playing at home, we can have it open to the community to use the facilities.
“As someone who loves football, I can think of nothing better than having a game of seven-a-side and running off to the terraces to celebrate a goal.
“I’m sure it will take off and be very popular.
“It can be a base for boys and girls clubs and that would all help the community enterprise.
“If clubs are training at night, we can have the cafe open and the parents, on a poor winter night, can sit in the stands or come in and have a coffee.
“We can put 21st century facilities for parents who are here to support their children. That would be important.
“Now that’s just the community enterprise, but what that does is free up the resources and money the club has to focus just on football.
“It’s a win for the community because there will be a brand new asset and a win for the football club because it will remove a pretty heavy burden.
“The stadium will be leased from the council and I understand they are about to enter negotiations and that would hopefully be phased in over the next 12 months for a full start from August 2016.”
Pitching in New management will look at making the stadium a more profitable facility by installing a 3G surface
Q. Yourself, Neil Hogarth and Graham Leslie obviously don’t have much experience in the day-to-day running of a football club. How are you planning on overcoming that?
A. “I totally accept that. I’ve come in to try and get the football club back onto a steady foundation. I don’t plan to hang around for a long time.
“I’ve got experience throughout my career of strategic planning and that’s what we need here. We need a pretty clear strategy of how we’re going to get this club onto that kind of firm foundation.
“Neil Hogarth is a lifelong fan and a successful local businessman, so he does have strong business knowledge as well as a passion for the club.
“You’re right that we’re not ‘football people’ as you might say, but we’ll strengthen the board and bring people on who have got that type of experience.
“Gordon McDougall is still chairman of the club and that’s certainly not a position I’m interested in, not least because I don’t always live in the country.
“That’s how we’ll address that. We’ll be in the background making sure the strategy is implemented fully and we’ll have an operating committee running to try and deal with all the legacy issues.
“Some of those issues aren’t pleasant, but we need to deal with them.
“I like that a lot of the fans on the forums are asking for transparency. Yes, let’s have transparency. When I’m going to be living in Michigan, I still want to know what’s happening at the club. I want to be able to go online and find out what’s happening and I believe fans have that right too.”
Q. Will part of that transparency be more meetings with Livi for Life?
A. “Absolutely, and they have to be regular meetings. We want to do more on that side of things.
“There’s a fan’s football team who are Scottish champions – does everyone in Livingston or West Lothian know that?
“These guys and their partners are the ones who do a lot for the club and their image. That’s another group we need to promote and meet with and work together with. We absolutely need meetings and transparency with the fan groups.”
Looking to the future Gordon Ford hopes to make Livi a success
Q. There are Livingston fans wary of the fact that Ged Nixon holds 20 per cent of the shares. Are you planning on working with Ged?
A. “I’ve not been in touch with Ged. In many clubs the share ownership is diluted and spread.
“All that’s important to myself right now is that Neil Hogarth and I control 60 per cent and that’s enough to get this club onto the firm foundation that I’ve spoken about and back where it belongs.
“I’m passionate about the football club. When you think how we finished the season last year with a cup win and surviving relegation against all the odds, that should have been the launch-pad for a charge into the play-offs this season, but typical of Livingston, you turn the corner and you’re kicked in the guts.”
Q. The short-term plan is clearly to make Livingston viable. What is the long-term plan? Fans compare the club to the likes of Inverness, Ross County and Hamilton. Can Livi be a successful SPFL Premiership club?
A. “They are definitely the models for a club like ours. There’s no reason why we can’t be a Premiership side and a successful one.
“We’ve been there before and we’ve really got everything to do that.
“We’ve got a big town and everything is in place other than the fact that we have so many people leave the county every week to go and watch teams that are in the east and in the west.
“So the product we have to put on show has to be really good to attract people – and maybe not just football. Maybe that’s where the stadium company can add value to the football club by getting people down here to play or to social events and get them thinking ‘let’s give Livingston a chance, let’s head down to a game.’
“I wouldn’t con anybody and say to them ‘here’s the long-term plan.’
Every Livi fan has a vision of one day matching the likes of Rangers, Celtic, Hearts and the big teams.
“Just now we need to get through this season with a bit of stability.
“In 12 months time the future of the club will be very bright because we will be rid of the stadium burden and we’ll be able to focus on the football team.
“Working in partnership with the stadium company brings in revenue and I think that will be very successful.”
Model club Ford believes clubs Livingston have what it takes to match club like Inverness Caley Thistle
Q. There are a large number of Livingston fans who are a bit fed up and who have been through it all. How do you win them back?
A. “I think they’ll be a bit like me. We wouldn’t be Scots if we didn’t have a bit of cynicism in us but people just have to take me at face value, I hope.
“I’m trying my very best to get the club on its feet. I’m impressed with the manager and I think now the embargo is lifted we’ll have an impressive squad of players here.
“The fans will have to come down and see the product and hopefully like what they see.
“Come and give us support and I’m happy to meet fans groups and talk to them about it all.
“Who knows, maybe we should be doing a bit more in terms of increasing fan ownership. I know it’s not spoken about a lot in Scottish football circles.
“There aren’t many clubs embracing it, but to me, in a town like ours where we maybe only have a hard core of 1000 fans, it would be possible for a lot of these people to be very influential if they started to take shares in the club.
“We need to look at that possibly for the future. For me, if I was an ordinary fan, I’d like to have my few shares in the club and have my say in the running of it, if nothing else to stop the club falling back into disputes about investors and their egos.”
Q. Have you met with Mark Burchill and are you happy with him being the manager?
A. “Yes, I spoke with Mark last week and had a really good meeting. We’ll have more discussions going forward and with the embargo being lifted, Mark will have a list of players he wants to sign and we can get on and do that.
“It’s really disappointing that were back to square one and having to build a team after such a good end to last season.
“We clearly have a manager who has something. He got the best out of the players and did a great job last season and I’m confident for this year.”
“Now the embargo is lifted we’re be going at 100 miles per hour to be in a good position for the new season.
“I’m very excited and positive about the future for Livingston.”
