New article at The Athletic

[Apollo11]

For those unable to find it, or see it…

***

Scunthorpe United nearly died. Now they have hope again – thanks to a grandma of seven

Kevin Keegan was back in Scunthorpe last month and, predictably, there was the usual enthusiasm to greet the town’s most famous footballing son.

It all began here for Keegan as a teenage Scunthorpe United apprentice in the late 1960s. Pride in the former England and Liverpool forward, two-time Ballon d’Or winner, ex-Newcastle United and -England manager and top-10 recording artist never diminishes.

At a function held in his name, Keegan was also eager to meet someone from the audience.

“Kevin came up to me — he knew me,” Michelle Harness, Scunthorpe’s unassuming current owner, says with a shake of the head. “He told me he’d been reading about me. I’m a grandmother of seven. And all this got shoved on me, like an unwanted Christmas present.”

This, as Harness says, has been the challenge of reviving a football club some of their employees had begun to fear was past saving.

Scunthorpe were in a parlous state back in the autumn, unable to pay staff wages and facing eviction from their home stadium, Glanford Park. Debts had climbed to more than £1.5million ($1.9m), with crippling losses running close to £100,000 a month in National League North, the sixth tier of English football. They stood on the cliff edge… and they tottered.

A club dying in plain sight begged for a saviour and, against her better judgment, that turned out to be Harness.

In October, the 66-year-old lifelong Scunthorpe fan agreed a £100,000 deal to end the tumultuous reign of David Hilton, and six weeks later, she had secured further funding of £3million to buy Glanford Park from another of the club’s former owners, Peter Swann.

Harness squirms at the suggestion she has been responsible for saving Scunthorpe. She points to the hefty donations of backers, volunteers and well-wishers, as well as the increased revenues driven by a long-suffering fanbase stirring to action. That it is uncomfortable for the club to imagine life without her intervention, though, illustrates her importance.

“I don’t like it being about me,” Harness says. “It could’ve been anyone. If you’re put on that spot, you have to do it. If we failed, then at least we tried. It was about not wanting to close the doors, not wanting to turn the lights off.”

Scunthorpe have unwittingly become one of the season’s most uplifting stories, a financially crippled club saved by the goodwill of their hometown.

They had hoped the final chapter of 2023-24 would be a rousing promotion back to the National League, but that was not to be. Scunthorpe lost, on penalties after a goalless draw, to Boston United in the play-off semi-finals on Saturday. It was a full stop nobody wanted.

Instead, simply being in operation, attracting close to a sell-out crowd, illustrated they were a club who refused to go under.

Last Tuesday morning. Two dozen people queueing at the ticket office. The stream of supporters has been constant ever since the first had arrived at 8am the day before. The eventual result was a crowd of 8,036 for Saturday’s all-Lincolnshire play-off against Boston. Not since hosting a Manchester United side including Rio Ferdinand and Michael Owen in a League Cup tie in September 2010 have so many been packed in for a Scunthorpe home fixture.

Supporters have rallied around Harness, with an average attendance of 4,012 bettering the crowds seen at Glanford Park during the club’s last season in the English Football League (EFL, the second, third and fourth tiers of English football) in 2021-22 — when the average dipped below 3,000. The National League North is not their natural home.

“It’s been two days non-stop,” says Glyn Sparks, the club’s head of partnerships — and formerly the person who played their fuzzy-suit mascot Scunny Bunny — pointing out towards the queue. “Michelle took the players down there earlier to thank the fans.

“There’s such a buzz around the place again. You look in the office and there’s smiles. Actual laughter. That’s the best thing. Everyone is pulling together and looking forward. We can see tomorrow.”

That was not always a given in 2023, when the walls threatened to fall in. The cupboards were bare at the end of Swann’s reign in the January and empty again by the time Hilton’s grand plans collapsed in late September. The relegation from the National League that was confirmed in between, a year after dropping out of the EFL, almost became incidental.

Swann’s wasteful tenure had started the slide but Hilton was the man who took Scunthorpe to the brink.

An investigation by The Athletic had questioned his suitability to own the club after discovering a man believed to be Hilton was sentenced to two years in prison for 15 counts of fraud by false representation under the name of David Anderson in late 2014. The now-46-year-old had also previously gone by David White and David Mellors. An investigation into Hilton by the Football Association, which oversees the owners’ and directors’ test (OADT) at non-League level, is ongoing.

Hilton would eventually admit to supporters and staff that he had served a custodial sentence but in those closing weeks as owner, the fault lines were gaping. Scunthorpe had run out of money less than two months into this season and Hilton, in putting the club up for sale, announced he was withdrawing funding.

The final week of September brought the height of the crisis. A GoFundMe set up by fans raised £76,000 to help cover the unpaid wages of players and staff, some of whom had gone two months without being paid their salary. A 3-0 home defeat against Buxton on September 30 had volunteers shaking collection buckets at the turnstiles. All the gate receipts went to Hilton.

Harness was a board member then, after signing up as a director in last summer. “Things had started creeping,” she says. “You wanted to know what was going on. You didn’t get answers. But I felt I could do more, and help, if I stayed than if I went.”

A local consortium that had included Harness, once Scunthorpe’s commercial manager, had initially proposed taking the club off Hilton’s hands. But by October 4, she had agreed to take on the 90.12 per cent majority shareholding alone.

Ridding the club of Hilton, though, only marked the start of the battle. Every day would bring winding-up orders and county court judgements (CCJs) seeking money the club did not have.

Bailiffs arrived regularly, one taking the leased hand driers from the toilets and another removing the club’s telephone system. Kit supplier Kelme had stopped sending fresh supplies to the club shop after previous orders had not been paid for. Outstanding utility bills ran to six figures. Taxes owed to the Inland Revenue stood at £220,000.

The efforts of Harness and her fellow directors offered no guarantees Scunthorpe would come out on the other side of all that as an operational football club.

“The first three or four months weren’t very good,” she said. “I had advice from an administrator in the first two weeks, because I thought I’d done everything I could. I didn’t have a cash flow and I was going home every day asking how I’d pay this or that.

“I could’ve been here for two or three weeks and said I couldn’t do it but the only thing stopping me was that these people were looking for £150,000 to £200,000 to liquidate a football club. That was the wages, so I thought I’d give it another month, and then another.”

Harness could not have done it alone. She credits the ongoing support of directors Roj Rahman and George Aitkenhead, who helped find the initial funding requirements, as well as Ian Sharp and Tahina Akther, two more of her crutches on a long road. Harness points to two donations of £100,000 that helped clear debts and another of £20,000 from Julie Taylor, a lifelong fan and volunteer member of staff. Taylor says the money was part of her inheritance from her late father, another dedicated Scunthorpe supporter.

“I just wanted to do everything I could to help the club,” says Taylor, who was volunteering again in Scunthorpe’s offices last week. “You could see it gradually fading away. We were just trying to cling on, but it was being taken away.

“I wouldn’t have given the money to previous owners. I’ve known Michelle and I could see what was trying to be done, so I knew it would be in safe hands. It feels totally different now. You can’t compare.”

Scunthorpe’s comeback has illustrated the enduring power of English football’s pyramid. A working-class town in the north of England has rallied around its club, with local money plugging some big holes.

“One of the first people who helped us was Jason Threadgold, a funeral director in the town,” says Sparks, who sold off naming rights for the club’s training pitches. “We’re dying on our arse and it’s a funeral company that helped save us.”

Harness has kept the historic invoices she has cleared stacked in a pile which must be close to six inches high. There are more to be paid yet, with some placed across her desk, but Scunthorpe are slowly getting there. Harness, a self-confessed micromanager who always leaves her office door open, obsesses over cash flow and spreadsheets.

She says: “James (Moody, the club’s long-serving media and ticketing manager) would bring a load of envelopes in every day once the post had been. One day, a bailiff came knocking and at last, I was able to say, ‘I’ve already paid it, mate’. I was so pleased that I’d paid one before they’d come to collect. We also owed 20 clubs, 30 players, agents, former managers.

“It was a big burden to carry, but there was also an expectation of having to save the club. It was wages, back debt, how I was going to pay it all. I look at some of the deals we’ve inherited and wonder how on earth this club was ever going to pay it. But I haven’t got time to look at former owners and say what they did wrong. We know it wasn’t perfect but we’re getting back to being sustainable.”

A victory that offers even greater pride was bringing Glanford Park, Scunthorpe’s home since 1989, back under their ownership. Swann had sold the ground to another of his companies, Coolsilk Property and Investment, in 2021 then leased it back to the club.

Hilton’s pledge to buy the stadium from Swann shortly after purchasing the football club in January last year led only to legal squabbles and an eviction notice. The visit of Brackley Town on October 7, three days after Harness’ takeover, threatened to be the club’s final game at Glanford Park. More than 5,000 spectators were in attendance. A groundshare with seventh-tier Gainsborough Trinity, 17 miles away, had already been lined up by Hilton.

A short-term extension bought Harness time to negotiate with Swann and, on December 1, a £3million deal was struck that ensured Scunthorpe would not be moved. A community interest company (CIC) set up by the club received £2.5m of UK government funding and will avert the threat of Scunthorpe’s home ever being sold again. “Now that’s into a CIC, which means nobody can come and take the stadium away again,” says Harness. “That’s what we wanted.”

It is now called the Attis Arena, after naming rights were sold to a local insurance firm in January. New cladding has been fitted to its frontage by another Lincolnshire firm and solar panels will be added to the roof over the summer. There is also the potential for social housing to be built on nearby land.

Seven months after fears of being uprooted, Scunthorpe are firmly dug in.

The next generation is showing Harness gratitude in different ways.

“I’ve got six grandsons and only one granddaughter but she said to me, ‘When you die, Nanna, can I have the football club?’. They’re vicious, honestly. But they love it.”

There is a determination not to look back as Scunthorpe aim to build a brighter future, but the trauma of the past 18 months ought to deliver stark warnings to others in English football. This was very nearly another Bury or Macclesfield Town, two northern clubs lost to ruinous mismanagement in recent years.

Swann had aimed for the second-tier Championship, incurring heavy losses he was prepared to swallow until his tenure ended with two relegations in four seasons to leave Scunthorpe in the National League. At least one of the former managers employed by Swann remains on the club’s payroll.

Hilton promised ambitious revival plans but only dragged the club further into the mire. Utility bills went unpaid for months and historic debts were ignored, with any money gathered put towards building a squad with a budget four times that of most clubs in the National League North. Winning promotion this season would have seen Harness having to fulfil in the region of £100,000 in bonuses.

The club’s academy was also wound down last summer by Hilton, who remains a deeply unpopular figure with staff. Those who lived through that nightmare cannot forget what came before the harmony of Harness.

Just how dark were the dark days?

“Coming into work when you’d not been paid wasn’t nice,” says Lee Turnbull, the club’s chief executive, who has been associated with Scunthorpe in many roles across 25 years. “The wife’s questioning why you go to work every day, staff are leaving regularly because they have to feed the family and pay the mortgages.

“You go a week or two without wages and it starts to bite. You’re dipping into a little bit of savings and you’re trying to get through it. But you’ve got to come in here and look people in the eye every day too, people that genuinely couldn’t pay the mortgage. That was tough.”

Player wages were prioritised in the months when reserves fell short but strike action was discussed when their salaries were not forthcoming. Manager Jimmy Dean kept the squad together, with a transfer embargo in place until February, which warranted credit.

“We had a pretty frank meeting,” says Turnbull. “There was a point where the players were in a position of being paid late and initially they discussed not training.

“Me and Jimmy addressed the players and said, ‘Listen, you know it’s tough not getting paid, but we’ve got to be respectful to the badge, the club and the fans’. So we said we would stand shoulder to shoulder together and fight the battles we had to fight together.

“There was a stark reality that we might have to lock the gates. I don’t think we quite got to the eleventh hour. But it was 10-plus. We were very, very close to the edge.”

Not that it felt that way on Saturday.

Scunthorpe were back to being a club feeling good about themselves in the hours that led to kick-off. Young fans wore masks showing the faces of Dean and his players, and the buzz of a play-offs fixture was unmistakable. There were wigs in the club’s claret and blue colours, flags and optimism.

Boston, though, were not in town to make up the numbers. Scunthorpe’s Lincolnshire rivals had brought 1,400 fans on the 90-minute road trip north — among them Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, formerly the deputy chief medical officer for England and one of the UK’s most recognisable faces during the COVID-19 pandemic because of his regular TV appearances.

Play-offs bring a uniquely nervous energy and it was evident throughout the single-leg tie. “It makes me feel sick watching,” says Harness, who abandons her seat up in the directors’ box to pace the Glanford Park corridors.

She was not alone.

It was a game with the tightness to induce nausea; one slip or miss offered the potential to decide a season’s fate. Both sides had their chances to squeeze out a victory in normal time but the contest felt destined for penalties long before it got to them.

Boston, just as they had when beating Alfreton Town on penalties in their eliminator the previous Tuesday, held their nerve. Cameron Gregory saved down low to deny Liam McAlinden to seal a 5-4 shootout win and a meeting with Brackley Town to decide promotion. The visitors had spoiled the party, condemning Scunthorpe to another season in National League North.

“It’s very very tough to take,” said Dean. “I’ve been out to talk with the fans and I feel their pain.

“The progress the club has made off the pitch has been fantastic. It’s been an honour to be part of that. I’m just truly gutted we couldn’t give the season a happy ending. The fans were paying our wages at one point, so I’m just devastated we couldn’t get over the line in the play-offs.”

A big summer now begins. The majority of Dean’s squad, expensively assembled by Hilton, are about to reach the end of contracts and budgets will need to be trimmed.

“Every extra penny that comes in, I’m clearing the debt,” says Harness. “What I want to do is be clear of debt before next season starts.

“I’m not saying I can afford to run this football club but I am saying the town can. I went out begging for support to save this club for this town. That’s what it’s been about — and we’re nearly there.”

[ironingboard]

I don’t know if I would recognise Julie Taylor if I saw her but she needs a statue putting outside thr AA. Unbelievable, Jeff!

5 users thanked author for this post.

Plymiron, BigLeftToe, Just Iron, Jackie, lesgeo

[Deereyme66]

Just been reading the article. Yes, very good piece.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Jooles149, Just Iron, Jackie

[64]

wow,Julie has worked there for years,you’d know her face .Good effort

2 users thanked author for this post.

Just Iron, Jackie

[Cliff Byrne’s Right Peg]

Incredible donation from Julie and everybody else.

The club that refused to die.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Jooles149, Just Iron, Jackie

[Iron-awe]

Wow more revelations, thanks for posting Apollo11, remarkable stuff from Michelle and her team and well done Julie what a star you are. The £100,000 in bonuses required to find if we’d gone up is another Hilton legacy issue, what a loon. Let’s hope those new solar panels being fitted continue to light our way forward to a brighter future.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Jooles149, inspector, Just Iron, Jackie

[Apollo11]

Noticeable: Zero mention of Simon Elliott in Michelle’s singling people out for being crucial to saving the club.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Jackie

[MK Iron]

I think proceeds from the playoff semi and the final had we made it would have probably covered any player bonuses.

[Awaywego]

Cant say I’m not allowed to post about it, never mind the censor police must have their way, im not posting on the facebook page am I.

[SD0101]

Maybe the roving reporters of our local rag could cut and paste the article and show how difficult times have been at United. A lot of people will not be aware of how dire the situation was.

1 user thanked author for this post.

inspector

[Awaywego]

Lots called it at 4.5 million to 5 million including the ground, Elliott and Sharp knew that and baulked, what did people expect certainly no shock to me.

[WonderGoals]

As mentioned above, £100,000 in bonuses if promoted ?. Absolutely crazy from Hilton. Hoping to be clear of debt before next season starts is a remarkable turnaround. Pity we will probably have Jimmy at the helm with a drastically cheaper squad. That part doesn’t fill me with joy.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Rene Artois

[Apollo11]

Apollo11 wrote:

Noticeable: Zero mention of Simon Elliott in Michelle’s singling people out for being crucial to saving the club.

Noticeable: Simon Elliott’s name being added in to this article hours AFTER it was originally published.

[ironfromafar]

Apollo11 wrote:

Apollo11 wrote:

Noticeable: Zero mention of Simon Elliott in Michelle’s singling people out for being crucial to saving the club.

Noticeable: Simon Elliott’s name being added in to this article hours AFTER it was originally published.

Indeed i noticed the addition of Elliots name post publishing…obviously after a few hasty phone calls, there are both articles openly kicking about social media with n without.

I wonder if Mr Hilton has read it ???

1 user thanked author for this post.

[inspector]

It is appalling that there has been so little mention of the Iron in the newspaper. Come back, Bob Steels!

[Apollo11]

… Indeed i noticed the addition of Elliots name post publishing…obviously after a few hasty phone calls…

Also worth noting that a volunteer employee seems to have put a lot more money into the club than Elliott.

[RoamingBull]

There’s ones that have
There’s that pretend to have

[Apollo11]

RoamingBull wrote:

There’s ones that have
There’s that pretend to have

… creating a perception of being great by standing next to greatness.

[sufc_not_on_tour]

inspector wrote:

It is appalling that there has been so little mention of the Iron in the newspaper. Come back, Bob Steels!

I seem to remember a falling out between the owners of the Telegraph and the club.
Telegraph owners demanding a fee to cover the clubs matches and news, club refusing to pay them, rightly so IMO.
I assume that disagreement is still in place.

[MK Iron]

Pretty sure it was one of dodgy Dave’s claims that the dispute between the club (Swann) and the Telegraph was resolved.

Doesn’t mean it’s true of course.

Does the Telegraph even report properly on the Cods or do they just copy and paste from other sources.

[Apollo11]

MK Iron wrote:

Pretty sure it was one of dodgy Dave’s claims that the dispute between the club (Swann) and the Telegraph was resolved.

Doesn’t mean it’s true of course.

Does the Telegraph even report properly on the Cods or do they just copy and paste from other sources.

Do they report properly on anything?

[sufc_not_on_tour]

MK Iron wrote:

Pretty sure it was one of dodgy Dave’s claims that the dispute between the club (Swann) and the Telegraph was resolved.

Of course everything that Hilton ever stated was 100% accurate wasn’t it!

1 user thanked author for this post.

BigLeftToe

[CMC]

Apollo11 wrote:

… Indeed i noticed the addition of Elliots name post publishing…obviously after a few hasty phone calls…

Also worth noting that a volunteer employee seems to have put a lot more money into the club than Elliott.

I put more money into the club than said person, and i only do the Monthly draw.

Apollo11 wrote:

MK Iron wrote:

Pretty sure it was one of dodgy Dave’s claims that the dispute between the club (Swann) and the Telegraph was resolved.

Doesn’t mean it’s true of course.

Does the Telegraph even report properly on the Cods or do they just copy and paste from other sources.

Do they report properly on anything?

They don’t have a proper sports reporter for either team. Don’t even carry a match report in the ST anymore.

It’s all run from Leeds with reporters WFH.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Rene Artois

[Apollo11]

I put more money into the club than said person, and i only do the Monthly draw.

It’s just a massive ego trip. Always has been.

[Rene Artois]

Apollo11 wrote:

… Indeed i noticed the addition of Elliots name post publishing…obviously after a few hasty phone calls…

Also worth noting that a volunteer employee seems to have put a lot more money into the club than Elliott.

Has Elliott sunk anything in?

[CMC]

Rene Artois wrote:

Apollo11 wrote:

… Indeed i noticed the addition of Elliots name post publishing…obviously after a few hasty phone calls…

Also worth noting that a volunteer employee seems to have put a lot more money into the club than Elliott.

Has Elliott sunk anything in?

He borrowed a used car showroom and got a few people to sit in it.

[Apollo11]

CMC wrote:

Rene Artois wrote:

Apollo11 wrote:

… Indeed i noticed the addition of Elliots name post publishing…obviously after a few hasty phone calls…

Also worth noting that a volunteer employee seems to have put a lot more money into the club than Elliott.

Has Elliott sunk anything in?

He borrowed a used car showroom and got a few people to sit in it.

… and, while standing on the stage to introduce KK, veered off to talking about himself and making a point of telling us he was not and never had been “a used car salesman”.

[SODIron]

The £100,000 promotion bonuses was another crazy move from Hilton. With that kind of bill, and the level of debt at the club, you couldn’t blame the board if they wanted to go up through the play-offs rather than automatic. The gate receipts from a home play-off semi-final and final would have likely covered the bonus payments.

[Rene Artois]

CMC wrote:

Rene Artois wrote:

Apollo11 wrote:

… Indeed i noticed the addition of Elliots name post publishing…obviously after a few hasty phone calls…

Also worth noting that a volunteer employee seems to have put a lot more money into the club than Elliott.

Has Elliott sunk anything in?

He borrowed a used car showroom and got a few people to sit in it.

They too were my thoughts.

[Anonymous]

Didn’t he do the darts night? I heard the other directors are putting money and keep funding whilst Elliott plays at being the commercial guy.

[Author]

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