Exclusive:The Falkirk fairytale warning for Hearts - from a £1.2m loss to a European plan
SPFL rise brings a traditional club back to Premiership grounds
Two years ago this week, Falkirk visited the humble surroundings of New Central Park, Kelty, for a League One fixture. They beat Kelty Hearts 5-1 in front of 1,128 people in what would become an invincible season in Scottish football’s third tier. Two years later, following back-to-back promotions, it’s proper Hearts at Tynecastle this Saturday in front of nearly 19,000 fans: The reward for two seasons of relentless endeavour.
The Falkirk fairytale is led by John McGlynn, a 63-year-old former Hearts manager and coach eager to prove himself in the Premiership again. Overseeing the transformation is chief executive Jamie Swinney, a 38-year-old Falkirk supporter since childhood who has helped rebuild his club from utter disarray into a serious entity in just four years. They are back in the top flight, determined to stay there and willing to upset the establishment if necessary.
Swinney and McGlynn know the territory having worked their way up the footballing pyramid. Swinney was Stenhousemuir chief executive before joining Falkirk in 2021, while McGlynn’s background includes two spells as Raith Rovers manager and a period at Livingston in addition to eight months in charge of Hearts back in 2012/13. The pair dovetail perfectly; the astute boardroom figurehead and the wily training-ground coach.
Falkirk won at Pittodrie last month and won’t be fazed by Tynecastle’s hostility, or Hearts’ current position joint-top of the Premiership table. Their rejuvenation brings a traditional staple club back to the top table and they are not here merely to make up numbers. Falkirk are fan-owned with 5,700 season ticket holders, a modern ground, an exciting playing style and European ambitions. Resilience is central to their rise, witness last night’s recovery from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Hibs. Dismiss them at your peril.
“I remember saying at my very first AGM years ago that Falkirk are a 'second-six' club,” recalls Swinney, speaking exclusively to the Edinburgh News. “For me, the top six in Scottish football are pretty obvious because it's the big-city teams, two in Glasgow, two in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee United. After that, there is not an obvious seventh club. Kilmarnock and Motherwell are in the Premiership, there are clubs like Dundee, Dunfermline, St Johnstone and St Mirren who have been up and down. The reality is that none of those clubs are actually bigger than Falkirk in terms of fanbase and potential.
“I said our aim should be to become the seventh-biggest club in Scotland. Now, that will take years. However, fast-forward four years and we have already got the seventh-highest season-ticket base in the country. We have the next biggest home support outside those top six clubs, although one season of those numbers doesn't make you a bigger club than a Kilmarnock or a Motherwell. We have to do it consistently in the Premiership with that backing. We have to look at teams like St Mirren finishing in the top six three years in a row and realise that's what is possible. It's an incredible achievement.
“I look at that and think it's absolutely possible for us, but St Mirren didn't go up and do that right away. They consolidated first and gradually grew into a club that nobody likes playing against. I'm sure even Celtic and Rangers managers would say St Mirren Park is one of the venues they don't enjoy because it's so tough there. We need to get ourselves to a point where we are established, but that's for the next five years. We have done the rebuild, the club is back in the Premiership with fantastic commercial numbers and great buy-in from fans. It's now about growth. We want to keep growing the fanbase and income streams.
“John doesn't really get caught up thinking about league positions. He won't say: 'Tenth place would be great this year.' I'll say it, though. I'll be happy with 10th place. However, both of us have the same ambitions in that we want Falkirk, in time, to qualify for Europe. St Mirren did it the season before last and it's got to be an aim for us. If you asked John whether he would accept finishing 10th for the next five years in a row, I think he would be disappointed. From the outside looking in, people would say that's success because Falkirk spent 15 years out of the top flight. We would probably say: 'No, that's not enough.'
“It's not to diminish that because it would be establishing the club in the Premiership again, but I think our ambition has got to be greater than just survival. We want to consolidate but then challenge that middle-to-upper section of the league. That's realistic for a club like Falkirk. It's not going to be any more than that, so can we get into that top six at some point in the next few seasons? Can we get into Europe? Why not?”
There is no reason to suggest they can’t. To understand this restructure fully, we must first rewind to the darkest period in Falkirk’s history. It was less than four years ago while Swinney was still settling in as CEO. He inherited a complete shambles. The disorder and disconnect between club and fans peaked during a disastrous public Q&A session with directors at the town’s Inchyra Hotel. The meeting quickly descended into acrimony and footage spread like wildfire on social media.
SPFL play-off heartache before Falkirk’s rise to Premiership
“I joined just when the club missed out on the play-offs having been top of League One for a while. They fell apart in the final part of the season and ended up finishing fifth,” explains Swinney. “Then, within three months of me starting this role, we had that infamous night at the Inchyra: 'It was a statement, not a question,' and all that stuff. The whole board, bar one director, resigned in the aftermath of that and our investors stepped back because of the predicament the club found itself in. We lost 6-0 against Queen's Park in December so we had to sack [manager] Paul Sheerin and we were hemorrhaging money. We ended up losing £1.2m that year on a turnover of £1.6m. We spent almost double what we brought in.
“On paper, it's the worst season in Falkirk's entire history. Not only finishing sixth in the third tier, the club's lowest ever finish in Scottish football, but also losing those sums of money. I arrived thinking Falkirk were at their lowest ebb and yet, a year later, it was worse. It was incredibly difficult. I remember going to games at the Falkirk Stadium against Cove Rangers, Montrose and Airdrie, and fully expecting to lose. And we did lose all those games. With all due respect to those clubs, Falkirk should never have been in a position where we couldn't beat them at home. But that was the reality.”
Appointing McGlynn in that summer of 2022 proved a masterstroke. It was carefully planned and researched. “I'd watched John's Raith Rovers team on a good few occasions and really enjoyed their play,” says Swinney. “I remember one Friday night turning on the TV to watch a Raith-Dunfermline game thinking it would be half-decent. By the end of the game, I thought: 'Wow, Raith Rovers were really good there.' They just played a brilliant brand of football. I knew who John was but I'd never met him. I did more digging and discovered how meticulous he is. He is one of these people who is absolutely obsessed with the game.
“Everybody knows he worked as an opposition analyst for Brendan Rodgers, travelling round Europe watching Celtic's Champions League opponents and learning from Rodgers and his team. That gave John some added impetus when he came back into management. He probably had a better knowledge of the game and really wanted to play a brand of football that would excite fans. That's exactly what he did at Raith Rovers. We approached him as soon as it was realistically possible. The stars aligned a bit because the situation at Raith Rovers was one where it was probably good for John to move on.
“He was really excited about Falkirk. Right from the first minute, he said: ‘I don't want to be a League One manager, I don't want to be a Championship manager, I want to manage in the Scottish Premiership. I really do believe Falkirk can help me and I can help Falkirk to do that.’ The situation was perfect. John had already won League One and the Challenge Cup, so he had success at the lower levels, but he would also bring an entertaining style. I think Falkirk teams through the years have always been known to be quite attacking and exciting. There wasn't another candidate close to John. When the board asked for my recommendation, I said John met all five of our criteria. There wasn't another manager who did that so I said: 'Go all-in to get John.' Thankfully, he wanted to come here.”
McGlynn won League One with Falkirk in his second season, then claimed the Championship title and Premiership promotion in May this year. He is already a legend. The club are now owned by supporters through the Falkirk Supporters’ Society in the same way Hearts are owned by Foundation of Hearts. Swinney has managed to pull many previously-warring factions together to unite people for a common cause. His club means that much.
“I've been going to games since I was six years old with my grandad. I've seen some really good Falkirk teams and also some really poor teams. I've been to three Scottish Cup finals as a supporter and seen us lose all three [1997, 2009 and 2015]. The fact we've actually had three cup finals in my lifetime shows you Falkirk are a club capable of that. Not many others outwith the top few clubs have been to three cup finals.
“Falkirk fans felt undervalued for years because successive boards had not engaged with or listened to them. The move to fan ownership came around 2021/22 and that was just as important to us as getting the football side sorted. We really pushed it. 'This is your club and you are going to be owners.' It helped bring everybody together.”
Days like this Saturday are the whole point of it all. Swinney and the Falkirk board will sit in Tynecastle’s directors’ box and more than 600 travelling fans will gather in the Roseburn Stand cheering on McGlynn and his team. More than 3,000 supporters entered the ballot for a ticket for Hearts away. “It's exciting. We all worked so hard to get to this level,” says Swinney.
“I woke up with such a buzz of excitement the other week when we were going to Pittodrie. Two years ago, did I have that buzz at home to Peterhead, at home to Cove Rangers or at home to Alloa? I didn't. That's not being disrespectful to those clubs, it's just reality. Last year, there were some big games like Dunfermline, Raith Rovers and Partick Thistle, but going to Tynecastle is a completely different thing altogether. It's a ground everybody in Scottish football loves going to.
“Most of our players were with us in League One. John will want to establish himself as a Premiership manager, but the core of that squad were playing third-tier football two years ago. What an opportunity this is for them and for every member of staff. There is maybe a wee bit of added emphasis for John going back to a club where he coached and managed for many years, but first it's just excitement. This is why we worked so hard - to get to Tynecastle, Easter Road, Ibrox, Celtic Park and Pittodrie.”