SA
South African money leads to an‘impish’ revival
Thousands of people in the city of Lincoln lined the streets on Monday to cheer their heroes – the Lincoln City football team, nicknamed the Imps, who finished top of the table of the National League. They sealed the title when they beat Macclesfield 2-1 at their home ground of Sincil Bank and confirmed their return to the Football League after six years away.
JACK MILNER
The club’s promotion caps a remarkable debut season in charge for manager Danny Cowley and his assistant, his brother Nicky, who led their side to the FA quarterfinals, the first non-league side to do so in more than a century.
However, the success of the team in recent years has been attributed in the main to an investment from South African businessman Clive Nates who decided to get involved in soccer after retiring after a successful career in money management with Libam and Peregrine Capital.
Nates, who lives in Cape Town, picked the struggling amateur club because its chairman, who has a holiday home in Hout Bay, was prepared to allow him to be more than just a financial investor.
Nates invested a reported £300,000 in the club for which he received a 25 per cent stake, but his role has been even more pivotal to the resurgence of the club. It was he who helped entice Danny and Nicky Cowley to the club and he has also helped find the new players who have been instrumental in the turnaround.
“We are extremely fortunate to have been able to entice Danny and Nicky to Sincil Bank in their first year as fulltime managers,” said Nates in an interview. “The boost we have seen in season ticket sales and the positive reaction of fans to their appointment, has been extremely encouraging.
“There were other opportunities for them, but they saw the potential at Lincoln City. They did exceptionally well at Concord Rangers and continued that in their first season at a higher level with Braintree.
To get a part-time team that had finished 14th in the previous season up to third place and then only to lose in extra time in the play-off semi-final, was a fantastic achievement.
“That achievement was recognised with Danny being named Manager of the Year at the 2016 National Game Awards.”
Speaking about his role in the buying of players, Nates added: “Although we discuss the various players who are being targeted, it’s not really about what I want but what Danny and Nicky feel is necessary to improve the team.
“It’s up to me and the rest of the directors to support them as much as possible to get the players they want within the constraints that we operate under. Danny has stated that he is looking for young, hungry players preferably under the age of 24.”
Nates commented that he was not averse to looking towards South Africa for possible players. “We are trying to establish a relationship with SuperSport United in South Africa that would be mutually beneficial and which could see some younger players come on loan. There are, however, a limited number of players in the country with UK or even EU passports.”
Their FA Cup season was quite sensational and had the fans in raptures. The run is no small feat. It’s the first time a non-league side has made the quarterfinals since Queen’s Park Rangers did it all the way back in 1914.
In the fourth round they beat Brighton 3-1 at home and then travelled to Burnley for a fifth round clash and beat them 1-0. That triumph was truly historic. Squaring off against a Premier League side, most pundits expected the Imps, as Lincoln City are known, to be overmatched. But that wasn’t the case.
Lincoln City battled and kept Burnley off the board all match long. A corner in the 89th minute gave the Imps the opportunity to score and they capitalised on the set piece. A looped corner found Luke Waterfall all alone in the box; he headed the ball to the far post, and Sean Raggett netted to put his side ahead. Turf Moor, which Burnley had turned into a fortress of sorts, was stunned.
In the quarterfinals in March they came up against Arsenal and the match was played at the Emirates Stadium in London. It was a massive occasion for the Imps and their fans, but this time they were outplayed, going down 5-0.
They held out until the first Arsenal goal, from Theo Walcott in first-half injury time, and then crumbled after the break.
It is worth noting that Lincoln City’s entire salary bill is only one tenth of that paid to a single player in that night’s opposition Arsenal team. “Nates is clearly taking value investing to a new level,” commented Alec Hogg of BizNew