A LOCAL newspaper report about the proposed community buyout of East Fife last week described Paul Goodwin, who has been enlisted by longsuffering devotees of the Methil minnows to assist in their endeavours, as a “fans champion”.
It is one of the nicer things that he has been called during the time he has been helping supporters across Scotland to take control of their football clubs.
Fan ownership is an established part of the game in this country today. No fewer than three top flight outfits, Hearts, Motherwell and St Mirren, now operate that way. There are many more in the lower leagues.
Yet, when Goodwin suggested it was the route that his local club Stirling Albion, who were experiencing off-field difficulties and facing an uncertain future, should go down in 2010 he was very much entering uncharted territory.
The revolution which he started and has done so much to sustain since has, it is fair to say, created a few ripples in hitherto stagnant waters.
The hostility that Goodwin has encountered from ordinary punters to those in the upper echelons of Scottish football in the years since – and on a couple of occasions the fallout to his activities has been so severe the police have intervened - are documented in his new book The Fans’ Guide to How To Buy and Run a Football Club.
His tome offers pages of invaluable practical advice on fan ownership. But his tales also make for uncomfortable reading for a few who have actively resisted the move away from the traditional wealthy benefactor model out of self-interest.
The acrimonious and protracted takeover of his boyhood heroes Partick Thistle last year – which he initiated in 2019 when he approached the late EuroMillions lottery winner Colin Weir – highlighted that those who wield power are often reluctant to relinquish it.
Goodwin has been involved, to varying degrees and with differing outcomes, at Dundee, Dunfermline, East Fife, Falkirk, Hearts, Morton, Motherwell, Partick Thistle, Rangers and St Mirren over the years.
But Stirling Albion was the first. Goodwin, a marketing executive who had previously dealt with Premier League clubs Chelsea, Newcastle United and Spurs as well as the Football Association in England, was contacted by a friend who worked at Prudential.
His associate was concerned that a club which was sponsored by a financial services company had run into financial difficulties and might go out of business. He was asked to cast his expert eye over things and come up with a potential solution.
He decided that a community buyout was the most sensible course of action. He started the BuyStirlingAlbion campaign and attracted numerous donations as well as messages of support from Andy Murray, Nick Nairn, Peter Alliss, Rio Ferdinand, Gordon Ramsay and even Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Forthbank Stadium club was eventually saved from foreclosure with hours to spare when he put up £200,000 of his own money. He had just sold his house and relocated from down south and had the cash sitting in his bank account. “The sharks were circling,” he said.
He then made what he describes in his book as his “biggest mistake in football” by failing to put a democratic structure in place – an oversight which had far-reaching repercussions and was only resolved last year - and resigned in 2011.
He thought that would be an end to his involvement in fan ownership. It proved to be just the beginning.
“When the Rangers crisis happened in 2012, I appeared on Newsnight and a number of other news programmes,” said Goodwin. “I was asked: ‘Could Rangers become community owned?’ I replied: ‘Yes, of course they could. The bigger the club the more assets you have got, the more resources you have got, the more punters you have got’.”
Holyrood soon got in touch. They were concerned about how the Glasgow giants’ meltdown reflected on Scotland, recognised that other clubs were also in precarious situations, were struggling to deal with tsunami of emails they were receiving from the public and wanted somebody to represent ordinary fans. He was made head of Supporters Direct Scotland.
His appointment, though, was not universally applauded. “The first day I turned up at Hampden I was made to feel about as welcome, to use the old Billy Connolly line, as a fart in a spacesuit by the football governing bodies,” he said.
“Why? It is dead easy. They had gone 150 years without having to pay any attention to fans in any shape or form. They had no fans’ council, no meaningful fan interaction. They could do what they wanted. Suddenly they have got somebody saying: ‘Why don’t you try . . .’ They didn’t like it.”
Goodwin helped the Rangers Supporters Trust to set up Buy Rangers, a share purchase scheme designed to give fans a greater say in the running of the Ibrox club, in his new role. Rangers First came later.
He had, like so many others, high hopes when the two joined forces to form Club 1872 in 2016. Their stake, with the calamitous Craig Whyte and Charles Green reigns still fresh in the memory of follow followers, steadily increased following the merger.
But they have since been blighted by numerous director resignations as well as persistent complaints about governance and transparency. The current club hierarchy have refused to engage with them since Dave King stood down as chairman in 2020. King this week announced he had withdrawn from his agreement to sell his major shareholding due to a poor response.
Goodwin has been saddened but not surprised at what has transpired. “As is so often the case, it just took a slight wrong turn,” he said. “Sadly, it wasn’t to be. There were so many factions and splits that there was always a danger it would unravel.
“Looking at it from the outside, I suspect it became a club vehicle rather than a fan vehicle. You can’t have a fan vehicle that is run for fans by a club. We have seen that at many clubs. It has to be run independently by fans for fans.”
The Foundation of Hearts has, in stark contrast, gone from strength to strength since being launched during the dark days of the Vladimir Romanov era. They have over 8,000 members who contribute over £140,000 every month. Their total contributions are set to pass the £15m mark in the coming weeks.
There were, however, deep divisions at the outset. Goodwin reveals that it very nearly failed to get off the ground. “They were a whisker away from imploding,” he said. “The original foundation people were fine. But there were all kinds of grievances and rifts elsewhere. It was all bickering, in-fighting and conspiracy theories back then.
“Some scurrilous accusations about me started circulating. I had the police at my door telling me my identity had been stolen. I had to change all of my personal contact details. I was getting putrid, vile, sectarian bile directed at me online.
“The fans still didn’t trust the foundation because it was a new organisation. George Foulkes, the former Hearts chairman, suggested that Ian Murray, the local MP, could help. It proved to be a masterstroke. He was a Jambo through and through.”
It was no great shock to Goodwin when, after myriad run-ins with owners and high-ranking officials, his funding was suddenly withdrawn in 2014.
He recounts in his book how he was once physically chased around the boardroom of a Premiership club by an irate director. Was he was chased out of Scottish football as well? He is adamant that some of those who were opposed to his crusade conspired to bring about his removal.
“What it boiled down to was they didn’t want community ownership,” he said. “I was threatened continually. It was all about power. All I did was tell the fans ‘of course you can’ when they asked if they could buy their club.”
Goodwin went away, licked his wounds and helped to set up the Scottish Football Supporters’ Association a few months later. He has continued to offer his advice free of charge to anyone who asks for it. His opinions have been sought in Belgium, England and the Republic of Ireland. Just this week he was contacted by a former La Liga club in Spain.
The success of Hearts, Motherwell and St Mirren has been heartening for him. He is optimistic that fan ownership will continue to evolve and grow despite the scepticism that still exists in some quarters. Indeed, he thinks it is something that even Celtic should explore.
“I wouldn’t say a bad word against Dermot Desmond,” he said. “He is a genuine benefactor. But what is the Dermot Desmond legacy going to be? When he steps down he has either got to pass his shares on or sell his shares. Whoever comes in might not have the same vision, passion, hunger and affinity that he does.
“Could Celtic become the next fan owned club in Scotland? If you crunch the numbers, absolutely. Potentially, Celtic could bring in £7.8m in additional revenue from their fans each year. Why wouldn’t they want that? Dermot Desmond isn’t putting £7.8m of his own money in each year.
“Fan ownership could give them a competitive edge. It is not that different from the way that Eintracht Frankfurt or Borussia Dortmund operate. They work with a membership scheme. It is a huge opportunity for them.”
Pie in the sky? A pipe dream? A crazy idea that will never get off the ground? Paul Goodwin has heard it all before in the past 13 years. And just look at how dramatically the landscape of Scottish football has changed.
The Fans’ Guide to How to Buy and Run a Football Club by Paul Goodwin is being published by Luath Press and will be available to buy in the spring.
