Scunthorpe United: How chair Michelle Harness is leading the Iron back from the brink

Saturday October 5 marked 12 months since Michelle Harness took over as chair at Scunthorpe United.

Anniversaries are always special, but this one was of extra significance to her and everyone else involved with the club.

It had been a transformative year - one that saw Scunthorpe return from the brink of the abyss.

The Iron were relegated from League Two in 2021/22, the National League in 2022/23 and were staring at the possibility of collapse less than three months into the 2023/24 National League North campaign.

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For a club that had played in the Championship as recently as 2011, this was a terrifying new low.

When businessman David Hilton completed a takeover in January 2023, and settled a tax debt that had brought a winding up order, things had been looking up.

Harness - who had worked as the club's commercial manager from 2000 to 2015, then spent the next seven years working as director of her family's structural engineering business - returned and took a seat on the club's board.

But, just over eight months later, on September 28 2023, a statement on the club's website announced Hilton had "recently notified the board of directors of his decision to withdraw his funding from the club moving forward".

For a change, things were going well on the pitch; Jimmy Dean had overseen five wins and three draws in his first eight league games. Developments off it, though, put everything in jeopardy.

It was a bleak situation. To make matters worse, ongoing issues surrounding the ownership of Scunthorpe's Glanford Park home meant fans were primed for the visit of Brackley Town on October 7, 2023 to be the last game they saw their club play there.

Until Harness took the plunge and stepped in, that was.

"We came to an arrangement that, providing he [Hilton] paid his legal bills, I would take on the shareholding in the club," she says, speaking to Sky Sports, in a very matter-of-fact manner.

"I only thought I would be doing it temporarily until somebody came in because I just didn't want to see it close. Then people just said we had to keep it going.

"I recently split the majority shareholding between me and the three people who originally gave me the money for the shares - George Aitkenhead, Roj Rahman and Ian Sharp - so we've now got four owners.

"It was always my intention from day one was to do that. But on day one, I was just giving them 20 per cent of an absolute nightmare. When you take on any business, you're taking on debt, but this was on another level.

"Iron Bru and Iron Hour [two Scunthorpe United podcasts] had a GoFundMe, which raised £70,000 and paid 50 per cent plus of the initial wage bill, which was a kickstart for me.

"But there's no getting away from last year, our playing budget - because of what I inherited - was five times that of anybody in the league. We had a squad of 31."

That day Brackley visited Glanford Park will live long in the memory of the players, staff and the 5,053 who packed into the stadium to mark the dawning of a new era - not least because of the free-kick Jacob Butterfield scored to seal a 1-0 win.

It's one of Harness' favourite moments of the journey so far.

"I've got eight grandkids - I only had seven at the time - and I took five of them, aged between three and 14/15 at the time, down onto the pitch," she recalls.

"They were fist-pumping the crowd and it's a massive memory for me and for them to have done that.

"One of my grandsons came to another game with a friend and the friend said to me: "Is it all right if you be my nana as well?!"

It is testament to her dedication than the younger generation even have a club to enjoy, 13 months down the line.

By resolving the ownership matters, one significant hurdle had been overcome, which bought the new board extra time to formulate a plan for buying back Glanford Park.

It was still owned by Hilton's predecessor Peter Swann, and a total of £3m was needed to purchase the stadium and the land around it.

The £500,000 raised by the board, combined with the £2.5m government funding delivered by Holly Mumby-Croft - Conservative MP for Scunthorpe until May - did the job and saw Glanford Park placed into the ownership of a not-for-profit Community Interest Company with a long-term future.

It was a huge victory and one that allowed Scunthorpe to start looking forward again.

Now, the buzzword at Glanford Park - or the Attis Arena as it has become known - is sustainability. The last year has been about paying bills and settling; the future is about avoiding any chance of a similar plight.

"Does a club have to be owned by multi-millionaires? It can be, but they're just throwing the money at it, whereas I'm trying to make it affordable," Harness adds. "Debt-free and sustainable is where I want to be.

"We've got a budget, a cash flow and I've got people who produce this sort of thing to keep me on track now. Before, I was micro-managing it every day thinking I've got to pay the electric because they're going to cut us off or somebody's coming for this or that.

"Now, we're getting our gates, our sponsorship, it's all coming in. The playing budget, the staff costs, the running cost of the stadium has got to be within our means. It's being pulled back every month as we're doing more things to make it sustainable, like full solar panels."

She has had to call in favours, but people are only too happy to help. Harness may be at the helm, but there are countless minor players - this common cause has united the community.

"Success on the pitch, I believe, breeds from a lot of the things off the pitch; the fanbase, the community, who you embrace. As support comes to you, you've got to show that you're willing to accept it.

"Local businesspeople and companies came on board pretty quickly to support us, then fans, and volunteers were just flooding in to support us with donations, people supplying carpets, paint - the stadium now looks better than 15 years ago. The amount of work that has gone into it is immense.

"That embracing of local businesses, businessmen, fans and community is everything. When you go out there on a Saturday and you see them singing the hearts out because they've got a club, they've got the stadium back, they're saved."

Harness was acting CEO until November 4, when sports presenter Matt Roberts took on the role on a permanent basis, which has further eased the burden upon her.

In fact, only recently has she allowed herself to enjoy the fruits of her labour.

"What you've got to imagine is most of the inherited debt has become my debt. With most of it, I got onto the people and I asked them to split the payments over nine or 10 months.

"I still have one or two things left, but every day something comes up and it's their last payment, so I feel a little more relieved. My husband reminded me recently that I really have to start enjoying what we've done and where we are, and not being so overwhelmed with it all."

Things on the pitch have no doubt helped.

Scunthorpe have won only one of their last five games in the National League North, but sit fourth at present, three points behind current leaders Chorley ahead of their next league game away at Leamington on November 23.

• National League North table

They finished second last term, but were beaten by eventual winners Boston United in the play-off semi-finals.

"When I first came in, what a great guy Jimmy Dean was to me. He supported me through the good and the bad. But going on to a new season where the club was mine, he was the previous owner's manager.

"It was touch and go whether we continued with Jimmy or looked for a reset button after being disappointed we didn't go up.

"We had 55 applicants in for the job. Then I looked at Andy Butler - who was a youth team player when I was first here - his work ethic and the way he's trained these guys. He was out of contract and why wouldn't I give the guy a chance?

"I ended up here by chance and when I worked here as commercial manager, I was given a chance. It's all about that.

"With the players that he's got, they are 100 per cent bought into what he's doing and where he's going, so hopefully, we stay where we are."

The aim? That goes without saying.

"Well, I would like to think we'll be back in the EFL," Harness adds.

"Once we've got rid of the debt and become sustainable, it's going to be the fans that rocket us to another level.

"I've got a plan going to the end of this season, the number one priority is promotion. Last year, it would have been brilliant; first year, what a rollercoaster.

"Whether or not we were ready for it, I would have tackled it because I've tackled this. This year, we're there, we're ready. When teams come to this stadium, and we take fans away, we look like we're in the wrong league."

Whether promotion comes this season, the one after or even the one after that, Scunthorpe will get there. There is a drive to do better, build and progress the right way.

And it might not have happened had it not been for Michelle Harness.

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