Part 2 of Saturday’s meeting got underway with Society Secretary Fraser MacDonald talking about the "bigger picture". He began “Football’s about tradition. Things stay pretty much the same. But everything changes eventually, and there’s something happening in football right now. It doesn’t matter whether you look at the Premiership, the SPL, the Championship or the SFL, clubs are in deep trouble. Rangers are under pressure from the taxman. Even yesterday Livingston’s chairman described clubs as “destitute.” There have been over 80 insolvencies in the last 25 years in the UK. That’s eight-zero, EIGHTY. It’s not a question of if, but when, the current model stops working.”
Speaking from a bit closer to home, Fraser turned his attention to the predicament Dundee FC have found themselves in, as he went on “for us, things have come crashing down not once, but twice. Quite rightly, we talk about lessons being learned, and there’s no way this can happen a third time. And the only sure-fire way to be sure of this is to control our own destiny.
“Football is not a business. The richest league in the world posts a combined loss every year, with only 4 or 5 clubs making any money. In Scotland, things are worse – clubs don’t make money, because there’s always pressure to bow to the demands of matching the next club’s spending, gambling just a little bit to get promoted, to avoid relegation, to get into the top six, or Europe, or the Champions League, and this happens all the way up to the likes of Man Utd and Chelsea.
“Let’s take a step back – this is Dundee Football CLUB. That’s an important word, club. It’s not a company in the traditional sense. It doesn’t make a profit. It doesn’t exist to reward investors with dividends or higher share prices. What is it that makes a club? The players come and go. Managers too. Directors, chairmen, they change as well. Just look across the road and we see that clubs can change their name, their colours. They can move to a new ground. But one thing is constant – the fans. Without fans, there is no football. There is no club.
“So when we say it’s OUR club, it is! Morally, it has always been ours. I read Stephen Thompson in the paper last week talking about Rangers’ bids for David Goodwillie, he said, “I did what was in the best interests of my company, and Craig Whyte did what was in the best interests of his company.” His company?! – it just doesn’t sound right.