County claim Livingston fan spat in coach's face
Ross County say a confrontation at the end of their Scottish Premiership play-off at Livingston was sparked by a home fan spitting at one of their coaching staff.
Top-flight County scored a 96th-minute penalty to earn a draw in the first leg in West Lothian, which was followed by an irate Livingston fan gesturing and shouting immediately behind the visitors dugout.
A fracas ensued, with County manager Don Cowie saying his assistant Carl Tremarco was spat at amid the row.
"One of their fans overstepped the mark by spitting on our assistant manager's face. There is no place for that," Cowie told BBC Scotland.
Stoppage-time penalty gives County draw at Livingston
"When it happens, our staff members want to protect each other because it's a disgusting thing to happen. I wanted to calm the situation down.
"Livingston have been first class, they have CCTV here so they'll identify who it was and take action."
County's chief executive Steven Ferguson echoed his manager's comments, adding that the Highland club are "not going to accept that".
Livingston manager David Martindale did not witness the incident but said it would be "disgusting if true".
"I'm sure the club will get to the bottom of that," he added. "It's vile. Disgusting. Really, really disappointing."
The game ended 1-1 after Ronan Hale's late penalty cancelled out Danny Wilson's opener, with the sides meeting in the return leg in Dingwall on Monday to decide which of the two will be in the top flight next season.
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New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Why have U.S. owners become so commonplace in Scottish football?
Viewers of TV drama Succession will be familiar with the lengths Logan Roy's children would go to in their attempts to win his affection. In season two, his youngest son, Roman, has a think and decides to buy the football club from the Scottish city of Edinburgh he believes his father supports — Hearts. Advertisement Naturally, it turns out his dad is actually a fan of their bitter city rivals, Hibernian, leading to Logan giving this response to the gift: 'You know, maybe you're right. How would I know what team I supported my whole f***ing life? I mean, maybe I support Kilmarnock. Or F***lechester Rangers? I mean, how can I possibly f***ing know?'. While a piece of the English football cake has become the ultimate soft-power toy for the world's billionaires over the past two decades, Scottish clubs are still being bought up in the real world — and by mere millionaires; ones who do a lot more research than Roman Roy did. This month, Livingston were purchased by Calvin Ford, the great-great-grandson of car-industry pioneer Henry Ford. They were promoted back to Scotland's top division on Monday, after a 5-3 comeback win in a play-off against Ross County. Now a U.S.-based group led by healthcare businessman Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises — the investment arm of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, which already owns Leeds United of the Premier League — is expected to complete a takeover of Rangers, one half of Glasgow's famed Old Firm rivalry, which would see Leeds' chairman Paraag Marathe also become vice-chair of the 55-time Scottish champions. It means that next season, seven of Scotland's clubs will be American-owned, including five of the 12-team Premiership. 'Passion, on steroids,' is the explanation offered by Mark Ogren, who acquired Dundee United in 2018 following their relegation to the second division. Suddenly, this son of Minnesota, previously in charge of his father's oil distribution empire, which had lasted half a century, was responsible for reviving that famous club from the east coast of Scotland. Ogren tells The Athletic: 'At a fan forum after we bought the club, we're sitting among all these fans and they're just asking me tons of questions. Finally, a guy stood up and said, 'I'm sorry, Mr Ogren, if it sounds like we're asking you a lot of personal questions, but you need to know this. This isn't our local petrol station that goes out of business. If that happens, we'll find another one. It's not our local grocery store. If they go out of business, we'll find another one. It's not even our local pub. If that goes out of business, we'll find another one. This is our football club, this is our life'.' Advertisement The first Scottish club to be bought by Americans were Dundee, back in 2013, when Texan duo Tim Keyes and John Nelms invested £650,000 to assume majority control. Dundee's city neighbours, United, whose Tannadice stadium is just 200 yards away from their Dens Park, were next. The following year, Hibernian were bought by Washington, D.C.-based Ron Gordon and his family. The past 12 months have seen a further flurry of investment from across the Pond. Why Scotland, then? The Athletic spoke to the owners of Dundee United, Hibernian, Dunfermline and St Johnstone to try to find out. Dundee United owner Ogren used to find football a little boring and coached his kids to play it without knowing all the rules but, as he took in more and more games from leagues in Europe, his love for the sport grew. In September 2018, he decided to sell the family business and invest in football. He did not have the financial muscle to buy in the top two divisions of the English game, so started looking for mid-tier leagues in Europe which had rich histories and favourable routes into the continental UEFA competitions; a search which led him to Scotland. 'Celtic and Rangers are in a different financial class than all of us, quite frankly, but there's still three European spots in most years that are available,' says Ogren. 'The ramifications of getting into Europe can be really big.' United have indeed qualified to play in Europe next season, clinching fourth place in the Premiership and its UEFA Conference League spot. This marks significant progress from when Ogren arrived almost seven years ago. United were in need of direction but there was some trepidation over this American stranger's intentions. That is no longer the case. Ogren says, 'When we bought the club, it was in a really tough financial position. And to this day, I consistently get thanked by our fans. It's been quite a roller-coaster ride.' Advertisement There was nearly a promotion in his first six months but United lost the play-off final in 2019, having finished as runners-up in the second tier. The pandemic then forced him to fund major losses as matches were behind closed doors due to government restrictions on crowds, designed to limit the spread of Covid-19. They did go up in 2020, as champions of that coronavirus-curtailed season, and in their second year back in the top division, finished fourth to qualify for Europe. They were then relegated again 12 months later. 'As we ended up in fourth place (in 2021-22) and got Europe, we said, 'Hey, let's spend some more money'. On paper, we had one of the best teams that we've ever had, but for whatever reason, it just didn't work out,' Ogren says. 'It was a very difficult time and it forced us to hit reset because the revenue dropped off significantly, but we're one of the bigger clubs in Scotland. We didn't want to cut everything to the bone. When we got relegated, there was some anger, but I'd rather have that, because that's telling me that there's the passion is still there.' United duly came straight back up last season, and Ogren's decision to stick with manager Jim Goodwin has paid off as he has taken them to fourth again this time, while the club boast record season-ticket sales of 7,000 and average crowds of 11,000 at home matches. 'Our fans couldn't celebrate the first promotion, due to Covid,' Ogren says. 'And so when it happened again, although nobody wanted to have to go through that again, our fans were able to experience that. ' Ogren has put in over £13million ($17.5m), having recorded a loss of £2.4m in the club's most recent accounts. He did not expect to reach such a number, but says he has no regrets. Now a relatively experienced owner in Scottish football, he believes the country can capitalise on American investment and improve the profile and revenues of its league. He says, 'I'm hoping the 49ers being involved is going to increase the exposure, but there is definitely scope to increase the revenue. The TV deal is a big thing, but also the culture. The alcohol situation continues to bother me.' Advertisement There is a ban on any alcoholic drinks being served inside Scotland's football stadiums, a government policy that has been in place since rioting at an Old Firm game in the national stadium, Glasgow's Hampden Park, in 1980. Clubs in England can serve alcohol on their stadiums' concourses. 'It's absurd,' says Ogren. 'It's a touchy subject, but it is part of the entertainment value for people who come to matches, and they should be able to buy a beer.' 'It was always the plan for my dad and me to do this together,' says Ian Gordon. The Hibernian executive director is talking about his father, Ron, who bought the Edinburgh club in July 2019 then died from cancer in February 2023, aged 68. 'Towards the end, me and my brother watched the games on the bed with my dad,' Gordon tells The Athletic. 'We kind of knew that was it, that he only had a couple of days left. But he loved that day, sitting there talking about Hibs and everything. 'I wake up every morning with even more pride and fire to drive forward now and make sure we get it to the place that we talked about.' Ron had been born in the South American nation of Peru, where he learned the game, had a period living in Australia and then settled in Washington D.C. From there, he treated his two sons to a childhood filled with football-watching trips across the globe. He also built a communications business, which he sold to NBC Universal for around $200million in 2018. The goal after that was to buy a football club — and one place on the map kept calling. 'We did a very special family trip to Scotland to learn about our ancestry, go up to the Highlands, play a little golf, and have a little whisky,' says Gordon. Hibs have a 20,000-seater stadium and a modern training ground in Scotland's capital city, making them an attractive proposition. Their lack of silverware, relative to their size, excited their American buyers, too. 'We love this club. It's really taken over what our lives are. This is home for our family now,' Gordon says. Advertisement This season, the Hibernian men's team finished third in the Premiership to earn a place in the Europa League's qualifying rounds, the women's side won the Premier League title to secure Champions League football and the under-18 boys also topped their league and will play in the UEFA Youth League (the age-group version of the Champions League) next season. It has made all the trials and tribulations of the past six years worthwhile, but there were plenty of mistakes and lessons along the way. After his father's takeover, Ian was made head of recruitment, despite having limited experience in the sport. It was widely seen as nepotism. 'I wasn't picking the players, it was from a structure standpoint,' he says now. 'The club needed revamping in terms of how it operated. Looking back, we needed more experience, and we needed to bring a certain level of knowledge in.' The Gordons took bold action, ditching manager Paul Heckingbottom within four months. Then, in December 2021, came a controversial move. Despite Heckingbottom's replacement, Jack Ross, taking Hibs to their first third-place finish in 16 years and making it to at least the semi-final stage of four consecutive domestic cup competitions, they sacked him too, a week before the team faced Celtic in the League Cup final. Gordon says, 'We felt we needed to make a change, but I don't think we had the long-term or what's next figured out yet. Looking back, I don't think we would have made that change now. Everything's been a learning lesson.' His father took the public blame for the decision, but the churn continued across three more managers. Gordon never contemplated a sale, even after his dad passed away. In February last year, a potential game-changer occurred when billionaire Bill Foley, a fellow American, bought 25 per cent of the club for £6million. Advertisement Foley's Black Knight Football Club empire already contained Bournemouth, Lorient in France and New Zealand's Auckland FC, with the former having become the poster boys for forward-thinking Premier League clubs. Hibs are now part of the multi-club stable and employ similar coaching, playing styles and profile of players to other teams in the group, which they hope will be their competitive advantage. Foley, who also owns top-flight ice hockey's Vegas Golden Knights back in the States, and Ohio-born Tim Bezbatchenko, who is now the general manager across the four clubs, both have seats on the Hibs board. The new partnership did not result in an overnight transformation. Having filled in as caretaker manager after the previous three sackings, former club captain David Gray, who scored the late winner as Hibs beat Rangers in the 2016 Scottish Cup final, was given the job permanently when Nick Montgomery got fired last May. A dreadful start to this season brought just one win in the first 14 league games, and Foley laid bare the tensions behind the scenes. 'If the other ownership group at Hibernian listens to us, they will do better,' he said. 'There was a disagreement about the coach, but since then, Tim has come in and he's now hired multiple people under him,' says Gordon. 'Black Knight is now really starting to put their network together, and since then the collaboration is daily. The biggest benefit we see now is the exchange of best-practice behind the scenes. We're doing so many things in the background to get the structure that we now have in place, so we can just be a well-oiled machine. 'Ultimately, I decided that Dave was the right guy, and luckily that paid off quite well this season.' Hibs lost just three of their remaining 24 league games after that dismal beginning, picking up 49 points — four more than Rangers over that period and only three fewer than eventual champions Celtic. The appointments of Gray and sporting director Malky Mackay marked a reset in strategy, investing in Scottish experience to provide context to data. Advertisement 'I think Scottish football is unique. It's not like any other league in the world,' says Gordon. In February, Gordon vowed that his family would absorb the accounts' £7.2million worth of losses for the 2023-24 season. With the club expected to lose money again in next year's books, it surely isn't sustainable? 'We know we can't be writing off £7.2million every year,' he says. 'Moving forward, it should be a much better position, but if you want to be ambitious and drive for European football, you know you have to push the budget. With Black Knight, this is our clear plan.' In February, club anthem Sunshine On Leith went viral on social media after the Hibs fans serenaded their team following a derby win over rivals Hearts. They had a pub lock-in to celebrate, too. Gordon also highlights a trip to face Swiss side Luzern in the Conference League's qualifying rounds two years ago, which saw the staff mingle with 3,000 travelling supporters in a local bar from 10am. 'Just being in that and around that and feeling what the European trips do to the fans, what they did to me, it was such a great experience,' he says. Could Hibs, four-time champions of Scotland but not since 1952, one day challenge Celtic and Rangers for the title? 'Step one needs to be consistent years where we're qualifying for Europe, and then you're able to build from there,' Gordon says. 'Then (the goal is) to see this club competing year in, year out in Europe and winning multiple cups — not just one, multiple cups. This club has won just one Scottish Cup in almost 130 years. It deserves more.' When attempting to bring modern methods to football and upend its established order, who better to count among your former bosses than Brighton & Hove Albion's owner Tony Bloom and his Brentford counterpart Matthew Benham? James Bord is a former poker player who built a career in AI and data analytics. Born near London but now dividing his time between the UK and the States, he is leveraging that expertise, alongside his American business partner Evan Sofer, with Dunfermline Athletic in Scotland's second-tier Championship. Bord worked with Bloom — who is trying to buy a stake in Hearts — at data analytics company Starlizard after completing a degree in banking and international finance. He then spent a couple of years under Benham at sports betting firm Smartodds. 'They're both very inspirational guys in their own way, but I was too young and stupid to learn much from them at the time,' Bord says with a wry smile. 'I'd love my Dunfermline to play against Tony's Hearts one day.' Bord discovered he was a talented poker player at a local club. He went broke on his first trip to Las Vegas in 2002 but returned six years later. 'I walked into the biggest game in Vegas and just got really lucky,' he says. 'I had $2,000 when I got off the plane, and at the end of the month, I had $750,000. I bought a house and told my boss I was quitting.' Advertisement Poker is not his career, though. He joined a machine-learning company in the very early days of that technology before setting up his own firm, Short Circuit Science, in 2016. It now employs around 350 people, with around 75 per cent of its business being in sports analytics. The experience of working with elite football clubs exposed Bord to inefficiencies, and the absence of sophisticated algorithms that his company designs. Through an existing relationship with investment fund Infinity Capital, he was able to buy a 37 per cent stake in Spanish second-division club Cordoba last year. Soon after, he added 25 per cent of Bulgarian top-flight side Septemvri Sofia. Both deals are structured for him to assume majority control over the coming years, but Dunfermline already represent that following January's takeover. Bord says of the club based just across the famous Forth Bridge from Edinburgh: 'I bought Dunfermline because I love the underdog. The ambition is to bring back some of their history, but also to change the atmosphere at the club. Optimism. They are a very passionate fanbase that has suffered enough pain, and we'd like to bring them some joy.' He and Sofer had considered clubs in Croatia and Belgium, leagues with a strong track record in youth development, before buying Dunfermline. 'We were looking for an outlet to develop young players,' he says. 'We have three clubs and we don't want to bite off more than we can chew. A step-by-step approach is much healthier, as creating stress hurts performance. We are focusing on Dunfermline.' The golden era for Dunfermline came in the 1960s, when they won the Scottish Cup twice and got to the semi-finals of Europe's since-scrapped Cup Winners' Cup, losing 2-1 on aggregate to a Slovan Bratislava side who then beat Barcelona in the final. They experienced a resurgence in the 2000s, making three more domestic finals and returning to Europe, but ended up entering administration in 2013 before their supporters saved them. Bord vows that he will never take on a debt, but Dunfermline have already broken the mould for Scottish clubs outside the Premiership by paying transfer fees and signing players on multi-year contracts. He has installed three people to work behind the scenes, but the aim is for him and Sofer to leverage what they have built at their company to influence the club's football department, particularly in terms of recruitment. Advertisement 'I think the traditional sporting department, when we look back in 10 years' time, will seem pretty historic,' Bord says. 'You can fail, but myself and Evan feel that we can bring modern methods to the game, which aren't adapted everywhere, and participate in a community team.' Bord pulled off a coup in March by hiring five-time title-winning former Celtic and Hibs manager Neil Lennon, who was in turn able to lure ex-Celtic and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Victor Wanyama back to Scotland to play for him again. 'I wouldn't say it was soulless, but it was lost as a club,' Bord says. 'A big personality can steer the ship back in the right direction. Neil's presence at the club makes everyone's day around the place. Neil's front-foot playing style suits my philosophy, and hopefully we have him now for another two years.' Lennon was able to get Dunfermline to a seventh-place finish in the 10-team division, avoiding relegation, but what are the ambitions for the new regime's first full season in charge? 'In terms of spending, there's a calculation: how long you stay in the Championship and what you lose in cash-burn, against promotion?' Bord says. 'We have concluded that we're happy to spend a little bit more money to give ourselves a better chance of going up as quickly as possible. 'We'd hope to be in the Premiership within two years, but as long as I can see development in the playing style and in the playing squad, I think that comes naturally. With a bit of luck, of course.' Qualifying for Europe every three to five years is the eventual goal, but for now Bord is just enjoying being able to watch his team compete. 'Sometimes, you have to kick yourself, as it is such a fun experience,' he says. 'I might watch 50 games on a Saturday, so I will be watching four games at the same time. But all I will really be watching is Dunfermline. 'I'm not going to be an absentee owner. But I also back my staff, as intervention in the wrong place is bad. You need to give them the confidence that you believe in them, and I believe in these guys.' 'If we get relegated, I view it as a reset,' said St Johnstone's owner Adam Webb, speaking when his Perthshire club were five points from safety with just six games of this season left to save their Premiership status. 'We have done everything we can do and gave our coach the resources in January to get the players he wanted. We improved and have been a top-six club in terms of form since January, but will it be enough?' Advertisement Alas for them, it was not. St Johnstone were relegated for the first time since 2002, just four years on from them winning a Scottish Cup/League Cup double in the greatest season of their 141-year history — indeed, perhaps the best pound-for-pound season football in Scotland has ever seen. Webb, who bought the club from local businessman Geoff Brown last summer after three tough seasons that saw them finish 11th, ninth and 10th in the 12-team Premiership, says he has no qualms about his commitment now they've finally succumbed to the drop. He tells The Athletic: 'It's not that we are going to lose interest, it is that (the fans) are going to be disappointed in us. Are people going to blame us that, in our first year, we got relegated? 'We are fighting our perception as unwise owners to come in and have this happen, but I think people who have been studying it can see that we have been giving the resources to the football people. We are in a pretty good place to succeed and get back up, to reinvigorate the club. 'It is not a positive, obviously, but it is a chance to take the steps that need to be taken to make the future bright. It is an inflexion point. We will be in a league (next season) where we will be expected to do well. Let's use it as a springboard.' Webb grew up in Columbus, Georgia, where he played football in high school before studying law at Harvard University. He then started his own firm in Atlanta. St Johnstone are not his first involvement in British football — he owns 10 per cent of Cambridge United, who have just been relegated to League Two, England's fourth tier. Webb bought the club based in Perth, a short drive west of Dundee, with a group of fellow investors in early July, but just two weeks later received the news he had cancer in his neck. Months of debilitating chemotherapy and radiation treatment, which he is still feeling the effects of, could have been taken as a sign to focus on his recovery and perhaps pass the club on to someone else. Advertisement 'After something like that, you feel high on life,' Webb argues. 'And when you get to my age, mid-fifties, your kids are leaving the roost and you think, 'What are going to be some of my hobbies, goals, aspirations with this phase of my life?' For me, football and St Johnstone are it.' Webb says he's experienced 'universal embrace' and was part of the Scottish equivalent of a 'pep rally' at a local pub before the first game of the season. He now has a home beside the nearby River Tay and plans to spend the bulk of his summer there. 'I could have bought a beach house (instead) and had some very nice vacations,' Webb laughs. The full drama of St Johnstone's season has been filmed as part of a fly-on-the-wall documentary that hopes to project what makes Scottish football so intoxicating. 'It might not have the money, but it's still got the soul,' says Webb. 'We can certainly be the people's club, because we have a lot going for us. A beautiful community in the heart of Scotland, 140 years of tradition and a place that people could come to love and appreciate as they have Sunderland or Wrexham (after those clubs featured in recent documentary series over recent years). 'We don't have a Ryan Reynolds on board. If you know a Ryan Reynolds type — let me know.' The club are working with experts to improve the matchday experience for families to try to get attendances back up to what they used to be. Webb is also planning a club museum and shop in Perth's city centre, next to the building that houses the Stone of Destiny — a block of red sandstone used in the coronation of Scottish and British monarchs for centuries. He has partnered with a U.S. analytics company, is investing in the academy infrastructure and seeking to build St Johnstone's football budget every year, but says he will not be pumping in millions. 'We have to find an edge to compete, because we're a smaller club in a smaller city, and we're going to run a sustainable club,' he says. 'Owners always get tired after a few years of putting in money. I don't know if I would, but I think I would if I were five, 10 years into this and every year I'm putting in a million or more dollars. I might get sick of it. Advertisement 'By then, you've built up a residual cost, staff and systems that are going to sink the club. So it's just better, even if you want to put money in, to shoot to break even.' Webb will be planning St Johnstone's boomerang back into the top division during his stay in Perth this summer, and he may head home to the States with a few local phrases in his increasingly mixed vocabulary. 'The exoticness of a Scot still exists when you hear the accent,' he laughs. ''You cannae score if you dinnae shoot!' (You can't score if you don't shoot) is one I love. Just as well we have subtitles on the documentary!' (Top photos: Ogren, left, and Marathe: Getty Images)
News24
6 hours ago
- News24
Stormers crash out of URC with dismal showing in Glasgow
Defending champions, the Glasgow Warriors once again showed their class with a resounding win over the Stormers in their United Rugby Championship quarter-final clash on Friday evening. Franco Smith's charges ran out 36-18 winners in a match where the Stormers' defence and handling let them down throughout the match. Playing with the wind, the Stormers made a dominant start. After initially turning down a shot at goal, a further penalty, this time from a dominant scrum, saw Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu land the first points of the match through a penalty to give the visitors a 3-0 lead. Glasgow hit back soon after with the first try of the match through Rory Darge. George Horne added the extras as Glasgow took the lead at 7-3. Glasgow, who were willing to keep the ball in hand, were rewarded with another try in the 15th minute, this time through winger Kyle Rowe, who collected a brilliant kick ahead by Sione Tuipulotu to cross over the whitewash. Horne converted from a difficult angle as Glasgow pushed their lead to 14-3. The Stormers were next to score through another Feinberg-Mngomezulu penalty, which cut the Glasgow lead to 14-6 with 20 minutes left in the first half. Seabelo Senatla got the Stormers right back in the contest when he collected an up-and-under from Feinberg-Mngomezulu that Glasgow failed to control to race away under the uprights for a converted score as the visitors now trailed by one point, 14-13. Glasgow, however, extended their lead from the restart, using their fearsome maul to score through Henco Venter. Horne missed a difficult conversion, but the home side had opened their lead to 19-13 with 10 minutes left in the first half. Glasgow had a few other attacking opportunities in the final minutes of the half, but the Stormers' defence held strong as the teams hit the sheds for half-time, with the home side holding a six-point advantage. The Stormers struck first in the second stanza when brilliant handling following a break by Manie Libbok saw Senatla seal his brace. While Feinberg-Mngomezulu couldn't convert, the visitors had cut the Glasgow's lead to 19-18. Glasgow, however, hit back soon after, with Rowe securing his brace by stepping through a few tacklers near the Stormers' line and crashing over under the posts for a converted try and a 26-18 lead. Things got worse for the visitors when Glasgow attacked from deep. Deft handling sent Horne over for a converted score, and the home side suddenly had a handy 33-18 lead with 27 minutes left to play. A Horne penalty then further extended the Stormers' problems as Glasgow led 36-18 with the home side well in control of the game. While John Dobson's charges tried to force their way back into the encounter, forced passes and poor handling scuppered their efforts as Glasgow controlled the remaining minutes to come away with a well-deserved victory. Scorers Glasgow Warriors 36 (19) Tries: Rory Darge, Kyle Rowe (2), Henco Venter, George Horne Conversions: George Horne (4) Penalties: George Horne Stormers 18 (13) Tries: Seabelo Senatla (2) Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ross County relegated: How will it affect people and business in Dingwall?
Highland club Ross County's battle for survival in the Scottish Premiership fizzled out with a 4-2 defeat to Livingston on Monday night. Relegation has left the Staggies - and its home town of Dingwall - facing a potentially challenging season in the Championship, both on and off the pitch. Hotels and pubs have enjoyed a boost to takings from hosting large crowds of visiting fans from teams like Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen. Will a move into the lower leagues have an impact beyond football? Raffael Santos owns The Mallard - a pub on Dingwall Station's platform and a few minutes walk from the stadium. It is regularly packed out on home match days, with about 35-40% of business coming from visiting fans. But like many Ross County fans, he is hopeful their spell in the Championship is short-lived. "A lot of the town's businesses survive from big games like Rangers, Celtic and Aberdeen," Mr Santos said. "We'll need to work hard to make the business keep going, but hopefully next year they are back into the Scottish premier league." Big games were also profitable for The Legion Club. Its chairman Mike Murray said: "We got coaches of supporters booked in - like Hearts, Aberdeen and Hibs. They'd tend to phone two-three weeks before a game. "We could have 150 to 200 supporters through in the function room, and a good Saturday was a boost to the club." Leia Stephen, co-owner of the National Hotel, is experiencing the effects of relegation for the first time. County was last relegated in 2018. Ms Stephen said home games have been helpful to the business during quieter winter tourist seasons. "Football fans usually just stay one night but sometimes make a weekend out of it," she added. "Our bar and restaurant host away and home supporters." The Championship is a highly competitive league, but experts say it will not match the financial benefits of playing in the big league brought to a small club. Kieran Maguire, a University of Liverpool football finance lecturer, said County will miss the revenue near-capacity attendances that visits by bigger clubs brought. He said the Staggies could lose at least £500,000 because of lower gate receipts, having fewer televised games and less prize money. And with an already tight wage bill, he warned there is "not a lot of fat to cut" to help make savings. But councillor Graham MacKenzie said one of County's strengths was that it was deeply rooted in the community. When he worked as a teacher he was impressed by how many young people chose the Staggies over a bigger club. "It's come as a bit of a blow to everyone," Mr MacKenzie said of relegation. "It's not so many months ago we had high high hopes we could finish in the top six." But he believes both town - home to about 5,500 people - and club have the resilience to cope with the coming season. Bruce Ritchie, one of many Staggies fans in Dingwall pondering the future outside the Premiership, said football was important to the town. "I'm really proud of the fact that we've been in the top division for so many years. "It's going to be a big miss." Other Staggies fans might be hurting, but they are far from sore losers. "I just felt Ross County weren't good enough, I'm afraid," conceded fan Panja Bethune. "It's a shame that they've been relegated. "Livingston were the better team on the day." George Meiklejohn agreed his club were beaten by a good, strong team. He added: "But they've bounced back once before and I'm sure they will again." Another fan, County Kebab takeaway manager Alex Toward, says regardless of where the club is in the leagues it should be proud. "This area is not big and not very well-known - yes, everyone knows of Scotland and the Highlands - but not many think of Dingwall specifically," he says. "I think the fact they (Ross County) are trying so hard to make a name for themselves and have come so far, they should be impressed and proud of their achievements." 'Red flags' as County face 'very tough' financial future County 'fell short' and will suffer 'financial hit' Martindale's belief rewarded as Livingston roar back to Premiership in play-off Ross County fans: We can't afford to lose the dream Ross County
