Dumbarton Football Club was founded in December 1872 and recently celebrated its 150th anniversary.
Sons Supporters Trust Statement
The Sons Supporters Trust is saddened but not shocked by today’s developments at Dumbarton Football Club. For some time it has been evident that the club has been operating under straitened circumstances, and whilst the appointment of an Administrator is a very serious undertaking, it is to be hoped that an end can now be brought to both the club’s opaque ownership model and the Boardroom tensions which have characterised affairs at Dumbarton FC since the purchase of the majority shareholding by Cognitive Capital Limited in April 2021. It is our opinion that the local Directors have reached a brave and sensible decision.
Furthermore, the Trust would hope that any legal due diligence associated with the Administration process would encompass the provenance and detail of the funding arrangements for that purchase, also the suspected transfer of a portion of land previously belonging to the football club to a shell housing development company created by Cognitive Capital Limited, done without either the knowledge or approval of the Dumbarton FC Board of Directors in place at that time. We are also acutely aware that there is a very human aspect to today’s announcement with a risk to people’s livelihoods, and that is a matter for deep regret.
Dumbarton Football Club was founded in December 1872 and recently celebrated its 150th anniversary. However, for almost twenty years now the controlling interest in the club has resided with parties whose principal aim has been to employ Dumbarton FC as a vehicle to enable housing development on the club’s iconic site at Dumbarton Rock. Today’s announcement marks the continued failure of that endeavour.
The Sonstrust believes that there remains considerable potential for community benefit in re-energising Scotland’s fifth-oldest football club through an ownership model which firmly places football as its core activity, and we stand ready to work with the Administrator and any interested third parties who can help realise that objective.
The Chairman and Board of the Sons Supporters Trust