Ford determined to tap into Livingston's Detroit mentality

The Herald Scotland

21-06-2025

On the streets of the Motor City defiance has become a state of mind. Tommey Walker, a local designer, launched a 'Detroit vs Everybody' fashion brand in 2012. Two years later rapper Eminem produced a song by the same name on his Slim Shady XV album. The phrase is a symbol of the underdog spirit which helped Michigan's industrial capital survive a government bail out of an ailing automobile industry in 2008.
Located 15 miles west of Edinburgh, Livingston has no history of producing cars. Outwith a bewildering number of roundabouts, there is no real history of building anything at all.
Yet, when the great great grandson of Henry Ford began casting around for a football club to buy, he looked at the east of Scotland and found a scaled-down version of Detroit.
Livingston FC were punching above their weight. Their support base was low, their artificial pitch was unpopular, their style of football was unloved, they'd been embroiled in expensive legal disputes with shareholders, cash was short and their only government bail-out came during Covid.
Calvin Ford studied all of this and, the more he looked, the more he liked it. Here was a club which could have slotted straight in to his native city and fitted in perfectly.
(Image: SNS Group)'We have taken a lot of heat in Detroit for being this nasty place,' Ford tells Herald Sport in his first lengthy interview since taking charge.
'The reality is that Detroit is an incredible place. A phoenix continuing the rise from the ashes and I am an incredibly proud Detroiter.
'I love this city and when I look at Livingston I see the exact same mentality.
'I see it as Livingston vs Scottish football. It kind of all plugs into us being the bad-boy team.
'This gritty, hard-working blue collar club led by a team like Davie Martindale and, you know what? That's what attracts me most. I love it.'
The Livingston vs Everybody spirit helped Martindale's team to fight back from two goals down and overcome Ross County to secure promotion to the SPFL Premiership via the play-offs.
After a season in the Scottish Championship there were no flags or banners or fireworks to celebrate their return to the top flight. When other teams speak of Livingston they do so through gritted teeth and Ford, for one, hopes they never change.
'We are gonna come in and we are going to have this blue-collar mentality and I think we are going to surprise a lot of people back in the Premiership,' predicts the new owner.
'I love the grit, I love the hard nose. We are going to be that team that's going to come and track some mud on your nice white carpet and leave some nasty stains.'
His great great grandfather Henry introduced the first Ford assembly line in 1914, revolutionising automotive production and paving the way to mass production. While Detroit never claimed to be part of the wild west, Calvin – son of Edsel Ford II, Henry's great grandson – paints a picture of Lee Van Cleef chewing on a cigar to extend his vision of the New Livingston.
'It's like when you find yourself in this old western saloon.
'Somebody comes through the swing doors and makes everybody stop and look and think.
'And they're going, 'who the hell is that?'
'I kind of see Livingston being that guy at the doors and I like that.
'I like being the disruptor and whether it's social media or wherever there is this phrase that goes around saying that Livingston are not liked, not wanted, not bothered.
'I love that. That's what we represent and I want us to embrace that.'
Calvin Ford with Livingston CEO Dave Black (Image: Alan Harvey - SNS Group) When fans of Celtic, Rangers, Hearts or Hibs think of Livi it tends to be in unflattering terms. An awkward, hard-working, physical nuisance with a worn-out pitch, bigger clubs with more money and trophies walk through the doors of the Set Fare Arena and hold their nose.
Snapping up a majority shareholding from Baycup Ltd – some shareholders still contend that it wasn't Baycup's to sell in the first place – Ford has agreed to replace the old, outdated artificial surface in time for the new season. This time next year he could be forced to rip that out as well, rendering this summer's outlay an expensive waste of money. Premiership clubs have voted to ban plastic pitches and show no sign of relenting, despite talk of a challenge.
Undeterred, brimming with enthusiasm, Ford could really use more hours in the day. A father of three – the youngest is just 20 months – his day job is heading up Pentastar Aviation, the aircraft charter and maintenance operation purchased by his father from Daimler-Chrysler. He also serves on the board of the CATCH charity, working with two local children's hospitals and is a director of Henry Ford Health, a notfor-profit healthcare organisation in Michigan.
With all this going on it comes as a surprise to learn that he ever found the time to watch Succession, HBO's saga revolving around Scots expat media magnate Logan Roy and his squabbling offspring.
'I loved that scene in season two,' he laughs. 'Logan's son Roman buys Hearts and of course Logan Roy was a Hibs fan, so that was a terrible mistake by Roman.
'But, you know, I don't think I'm another American making a terrible mistake at all.
'One of the things that was most attractive to me about Livingston is that you have this club west of Edinburgh sandwiched in between behemoths like Hearts and Hibernian and Celtic and Rangers.
'Livingston are right there kind of in the middle and all I ask myself is, 'what can this become?
'How do we disrupt Scottish football in a really cool way?
'What do we need to do to stay in the Premier League and really be a disruptor?
'Historically speaking that's challenging because you have these traditional classic big Scottish clubs on either side.
'But why can't we disrupt? Why can't we be a club that does something and I think there is a real opportunity there for us to do that.'
Consolidation in the top division is the first target, Europe the next. He texts David Martindale day and night and Livi have been busier than any other Premiership club in the opening days of the transfer market, snapping up Stevie May, Graham Carey, Cammy Kerr, Connor McLennan, Zak Rudden and Shane Blaney.
'I think the Europa Conference League is something that we can do and I think becoming a top-five team is something that we can do.
'I have said that to Davie and he understands that and believes it too.
'Year one I want to be competitive in the Premiership. I want to make sure that we are back there next year and I think we are putting together a team right now that can absolutely do that.'
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He has a vision of a sust ainable club, standing on its own two feet and that's easier said than done when the average attendance can be less than 4000.
Plans to draw sell out crowds to a small town where fans leave for Edinburgh and Glasgow on a fleet of buses every week pose the kind of challenge his great great grandfather might have baulked at.
'There is this enclosed stadium and I immediately thought, 'what's this going to look like when we fill this place with 9000 Livingston supporters?'
'I think we can get there. I really do.
'It's about giving the Livingston community a football club that they can be a proud of.
'A team that can combat the Hearts and Hibs bits of Edinburgh and Rangers and Celtic in Glasgow.
'I'm a realist. I understand that it's going to take a while to build that back but we have the foundations in place.'
The battle for hearts and minds is already underway. His father Edsel is close friends with a legendary Formula One champion who is now the proud owner of a Livingston home shirt.
'Sir Jackie Stewart is obviously a very famous Scot and I think he has a history of being a Rangers fan. I want to convert him into being a Livingston fan.
'I don't think it will ever happen. But I did send him a Livingston jersey as a birthday present...'
The family firm's blue oval is one of the most readily recognisable corporate emblems on the planet and, as a younger man Ford admits to taking his background for granted.
His 11-year-old son has woken up to the fact that being a Ford in Detroit is a little like being a royal in Windsor. The name comes with expectations and responsibilities and scrutiny he once wore with a casual indifference. Older and wiser, he now cares too much about the family reputation to start throwing silly money at Livingston.
'Back in the day I thought my surname was neat and said, 'that's wonderful.' And probably didn't give it much of a second thought. We all grow up, we all mature, we all evolve.
'I understand now that when you grow up in Detroit and you are a Ford that does that comes with some subjective expectations. I guess it does.
'I was an employee of the motor company for a while but now I find myself an advocate of the company and the family and I am very proud of what Ford does and what we stand for.
'And, when I look at what we want to do at Livingston, I keep Ford Motor Company in mind.
'This is an evolution. I'm not going to come in and pump billions of dollars into it, but I do think that we can create and build and sustain something at Livingston much like Ford has done for the 123 years it has been around.'