Manager excited for the club’s future

09/09/20; SC - “What we now have is guys who are passionate to try and identify players that we think can play for Dunfermline.

Last week it was announced that DAFC Fussball GmbH, had made a significant investment into Dunfermline Athletic Football Club to hold 30% of the enlarged share capital of the club with an option to acquire a further 45.1%, by no later than 31 May 2022. Manager Stevie Crawford revealed how he had been kept abreast of developments and looks forward to reaping the benefits of this investment from the Hamburg based group.

Stevie’s initial meeting with Thomas Meggle, one of the group of investors, was placed on hold with the Covid lockdown but the investment didn’t come as a surprise to him.

“The relationship I have with the chairman is a very close and very trusting relationship, he kept me in the loop all along with the interest and that there were potential investors looking to come to the club. It is something that is exciting for the club moving forward.

“Ross and I spoke last week to Thomas on FaceTime and the biggest thing that comes across is that they are here to support the possible infrastructure. They are experienced in the scouting network and Thomas has lots of contacts, successful businessmen in their own fields and the experiences that they hold open up a lot of doors.

“They had done a lot of homework on the club and Ross had done his on them. I know Ross was really excited by the quality of the guys who were willing to invest in the club that we are passionate about.”

Stevie does not expect the investment to immediately see things thrown at the club but a measured approach taken.

“There are things that I have seen at other clubs during my coaching career and roles within the football side alone. We have been grateful that we have been able to add Steven Whittaker and Owain Fon Williams to that because there is a lot in modern day football that goes on behind the scenes.”

Stevie instanced video analysis as playing an increasingly important role and recruitment is another way that the knowledge of the investors can help:-

“We have Davie Honeyman doing that, putting his heart and soul into it but he has another job as well. I’d imagine things like that are things that we can address.

“Jackie McNamara has been great since he came in and has probably not been given enough credit in terms of the work that he has done behind the scenes. Credit for the way that we have gone about our business in the last three (transfer) windows. I have had a great relationship for a number of years with Jackie and he will still be very much part of things.

“Initially I think we will keep going in the direction in which we are going and the things that are exciting are the talk of training grounds and our own academy. If you are looking to develop people, and that word kept coming up in the discussion that I had with Thomas, not just players but coaching staff and everybody around about the club then that makes for exciting times.

“It is what every club strives for. We find it very difficult to find the right training facilities for clubs but it gives you a foundation to try and build up your own players and also attract players from other clubs.”

The new investors not only value the football club but also the club’s supporters. Stevie explained:-

“When you consider where the club found itself when near to winding up and came close to not being here. Thomas touched a number of times on how the fans had put their hands in their pockets and again recently during Covid-19, on how the chairman and the board of directors had gone about their business over the number of years that they have been in place. They want to give their experiences to grow the club.”

Asked about when he will be signing his first German player, Stevie smiled since he had anticipated the question.

“We spoke about a number of things last week and that was just in one conversation. There are doors going to be opened to look into different parts of the world, not necessarily just Germany. They are going to bring a great amount of contacts and expertise in the football field. I can only see that as beneficial. It does not mean that if there are names put to us that we have to sign these boys.

“What we now have is guys who are passionate to try and identify players that we think can play for Dunfermline. That is the important thing and you can identify a football player that is a good football player but is he right for your club? They have got to be able to come to our culture, got to be able to go and play at places we have to play away from home not just at East End Park which is a terrific venue to go and play. There are tough places to go and play in Scotland and different weather conditions.

“I just think that it will be invaluable that we have another door that has opened to explore and communicate in a way that we can bring decent players into the club.”

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