ON THE face of it, Berwick Rangers and Stranraer have a lot in common.
Hindered to a certain extent when attracting players by having their home in a Scottish football outpost, aspirations realistically not beyond the Second Division and capable of attracting similar crowds. Those who have just taken control of Berwick,
however, are anxious that financial prudence will ensure the comparisons end there.
Stranraer's estimated £250,000 debt have placed their very survival in doubt. Such troubles will send a chill through the boardrooms of all clubs in the Scottish Football League amid these harsh financial times.
There is a new-found impetus at Berwick, however. They may be second bottom of the Third Division and battling to make costs meet income, yet those who now sit round the boardroom table are in a positive mood.
After three months of red tape, banking verification and similar such delays, the share transfer which finally saw a power change at Shielfield has been completed.
"We felt the club needed a change," explained Brian Porteous, formerly a board member at Berwick but now the club chairman. "The previous chairman (Robert Wilson] in fairness had been in place five years and felt he had taken the club as far as he could."
Porteous is one of five board members who are personal guarantors, not only of Berwick's "small" bank overdraft facility but a 10-year loan. It has been inaccurately suggested that the club's Supporters' Trust are now in charge of matters; while John Bell, the Trust chairman, is one of those five men, the group's involvement is not in terms of significant shareholding.
In what is one of Scottish football's more complicated arrangements, Berwick's stadium is leased by their supporters' club from the local council; the football board in turn pay that club for the ground's use. Factor in an agreement with the local speedway team – with whom relations were previously frosty – and you can see why Porteous and the seven-man board have a busy time ahead. Turnover typically sits at some £300,000 against a playing budget in excess of £100,000.
"The situation was that the previous chairman and the trust did not see eye to eye," Porteous said. "There was a split, but we want to work with the Trust and have brought John very much on board. We want to work as one, the club's supporters' club, supporters' trust and the community in and around Berwick. And that community, through sponsorship, can play a huge financial part."
Porteous has progressed from occasional match sponsor to one of the figures Berwick's future will largely rely on. "It is a hobby, it costs me money," he smiled. "But it is addictive, you get hooked easily."
Soon-to-be published financial reports will show Berwick returned a profit of about £20,000 in their last financial year, a matter due in no small part to the sale of Danny Swanson to Dundee United.
That aside, Porteous admits, as is the case with so many clubs in Scotland, those figures would show a loss.
"That cannot keep being the case," he insisted. "We want to run the club as a business over the next two or three years. That means breaking even. Stranraer are in the limelight but various others have problems; banks themselves are not in a strong position.
"On the field, Berwick have endured something of a turbulent time. Having gained promotion to the Second Division after season 2006/07 – they lost out on goal difference 12 months earlier – a disastrous period and subsequent relegation has been followed by struggles in Division Three. Only an impressive December, on account of which Jimmy Crease won manager of the month, has put daylight between Berwick and bottom-placed Elgin City.
"The Second Division problems were a combination of facing a good few full-time teams and our manager, John Coughlin, leaving early in the campaign," Porteous recalls. "We took on a rookie after that in Michael Renwick, things didn't click, and the same happened with Allan McGonigal. In many ways we have to write off this season and use it to get things organised away from the pitch."
Being realistic thereafter, the chairman sees Berwick as competing strongly in the Second Division as a best-case scenario. Full-time football and costs associated with it would be a drawback beyond that.
"I would be telling a lie if I said geography didn't cause us a problem," Porteous said. "We train in Tranent because there are no players from Berwick itself. But if Cowdenbeath or another club in the Central Belt offer the same terms to a player as us, a lot of them will pick the team closer to home."
