Deputy chairman Tom Davidson, the man who has primarily been the “face” of new Burton Albion owners NFG, will step down this summer after the club announced a new senior management structure. And while not seeing the well-liked Swede around the Pirelli Stadium quite so much might alarm some supporters, Davidson insists that the next step in NFG’s grand plan to develop the Brewers is logical.
The club have appointed Tom Mahon, previously with Stockport County and Manchester City, as chief operating officer and Richard Dorman, a former player who spent most of his career in the United States and Finland, as sporting director, the latter role an appointment they have been promising for some time. Chester-born Dorman has been technical director for Finnish club SJK since 2018.
In addition, Dutchman Wouter Gudde, a former player who specialises in helping to develop clubs, will be Burton’s interim chairman and chief executive of a new board which also includes Olafur Pall Snorrason and Robert Ulfarsson. Snorrason has led NFG’s sporting committee and acted as interim sporting director since the departure of original sporting director Bendik Hareide. Ulfarsson is a member of NFG’s investor advisory board, dating back before they bought the Brewers.
These moves follow the departure of chief executive Fleur Robinson, daughter of former owner and current honorary chairman Ben Robinson, last week. Davidson is to remain with the club in an advisory role. Ole Jakob Strandhagen, appointed chairman when NFG took over, and Kevin Skabo, who came in as commercial director, are formally stepping down, while former sporting director Bendik Hareide departed for personal reasons last year. Mahon, Davidson, Dorman and manager Gary Bowyer will make up the panel for a club fans’ forum at the Pirelli Stadium on Tuesday night.
Here's what Tom Davidson had to say to us about the developments...
It is closing in on a year now since the big announcement that Ben Robinson was selling Burton Albion to the Nordic Football Group, a company backed by wealthy investors from across Scandinavia. In that time, it was deputy chairman Tom Davidson who became known as the “face” of NFG, fronting up in fan forums, often turning up on the terraces – taking the mistakes the group admit making on the chin.
It has been a turbulent year with many mistakes, as Davidson freely admits, but he is coming out of it as a popular character with supporters because he has so often been around, in the town as well as at the club, always willing to mingle and talk football. There are plenty of stories around from fans who “just bumped into Tom” and came away only after a good chat. That is why it will be seen as a concern that he is stepping away now but, persuasive as always, he asks that it be seen as a positive step – and notes that his family will get to see more of him.
“It’s an exciting next step, I would say,” he insisted. “It’s more sustainable for myself, since I don’t live here. And it’s good for the club, because it should be run by professionals. It was one thing to take a project over the line, create the group, find Ben and the club and then also come here and see what we needed to do. But then, to run it, that’s a completely different thing.”
So there’s nothing for fans to worry about? “No, the contrary I think, because we see this as improvements all along and also part of the plan,” said Davidson. “We hope that you really feel that we are adding a lot of quality people to the organisation and in the top leadership because that is what we believe. There’s still a lot to do, so I’m not saying that we’re there but I think it’s important that we develop the club in different stages. We are coming to the next step.”
Clearly, year one has not been easy. What surprised Davidson about English football? “There have been so many learnings this year...” He pauses: “I think the surprise is that there were so many surprises!” One positive surprise was how welcome he feels NFG were made: “We had a very good reception here in the summer with a very good attendance for the opening game. I think the surprise was the big support and commitment and the character of the people here in Burton.
“It has been so tough (on the field) and obviously people have not been happy. You know that because you see that. But the support, cooperation and understanding to find a new way, we needed that. I think everyone understands and appreciates that we need to go a different route going forward. We need to build a culture where we grow and work together with the supporters and, in a very ambitious way, we want to grow this to be a modern football club. It’s no small task and it will take a couple of years or so but it’s now that it starts and I think everyone should feel excited about it.”
What he is getting at, really, is that the Brewers have been run a certain way for many years. It has worked and got the club to where they are but it could not possibly continue to be sustainable. Davidson credits Ben Robinson with recognising that, which is why the long-time owner and chairman sought a buyer.
“I think it’s totally natural that, basically, one man ran this club, financed it and that was a model that worked before,” said Davidson. “Ben knew, he’s a smart man. Just look at what is happening around us in League One, the size of the clubs here. What Ben wanted, I think, is for Burton to still be a sustainable and successful League One club and, for that, you have to build an organisation where it’s not only one man, basically. The old model was a chairman who is hands-on and the CEO, sporting director and commercial director in one. What is exciting now is that we are building the first version of this new management team.”
He knows, he has admitted it often enough, that NFG have made mistakes, particularly in the first half of the season: “I did an interview for Swedish media and said, you know, too many things happened too fast and when you do that mistakes come. You shouldn’t run too fast – but we did. This year, obviously, was much tougher than we thought, then we had to face it, we are a new group. The board hadn’t worked together, the ownership group was totally new and then we faced all of this adversity and challenge so quickly. It was a massive test for us but we got through it and that also has made us very strong so, overall, the sporting journey, the start wasn’t what we wanted but there have been super valuable experiences.”
He talks about bringing in new interim chairman Wouter Gudde, who has been chief executive of Groningen in Holland: “We wanted someone who is unbiased – we are very emotionally involved, me being front and centre and I come from the fan side, I’m not a professional in football,” he said. “We asked Wouter for his evaluation on what we were doing and if you looked at it on paper in December, it looked very bad. But then he looked at the business plan and the strategies and said ‘I really think it’s super but you just got the execution wrong.’”
And what of his own role in the future? He is not disappearing and fans who have met him will get it when he says he’s not a typical boardroom man: “I will have an advisory role,” he said. “And now I’m going to also take a bit of a break while the team now here can work. We have had a big presence here, myself, Ben and Fleur and now these guys have to be able to work, so I am taking a step back.
“I’m going to spend some time with my family. But I’ll still support in all ways that I can that will be beneficial for the club. I see myself now as a part of the Burton Albion family. I have so many friends here. I love to be with the supporters and I will continue to be here. Hopefully, I can contribute going forward to the journey we’re on but in the right way and another way. No titles. That also fits me more. I’m not actually the typical board guy but now that we have super good guys who can take it further it’s going to be enjoyable to have a bit less of a responsibility.”
All of our Burton Albion news appears daily in the Burton Mail. Much of it can also be found here: www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/all-about/burton-albion and here: https://www.staffordshire-live.co.uk/sport/
