Livingston on brink of new ownership as club in 'period of exclusivity'

Following Livingston’s first trophy triumph since 2015, manager David Martindale has revealed that the club is on the brink of new ownership.

The Almondvale club celebrated on Sunday as the team thrashed Queen’s Park 5-0 in the SPFL Challenge Cup final and lifted silverware.

And after success on the park, the club is now on the verge of major change off the park after entering a “period of exclusivity” ahead of a proposed takeover by overseas investors.

The club has been looking for an injection of funds in recent years as it looks to remain competitive, but a series of courtroom wrangles have hampered its progress in finding investment.

That now looks set to change, and Martindale believes that outside help is essential for any team looking to challenge at the top of the Championship or in the Premiership.

“We’re currently in a period of exclusivity just now over investment from sporting professionals overseas,” Martindale told STV.

“So John Ward and John McIlvogue have been keeping me up to date with that one.

“They’re hopeful that they’re going to bring in new investment, new ownership from investment in sporting professionals from overseas. And I think if you want to be up there, challenge in most seasons, and secure the jobs of the people at the football club, I think you need outside investment. You need to think outside the box.

“And I think you can see in modern day football, that’s where it’s going. If you look down south, even if you’re looking up here, now the American investors are coming into Scottish football.

“So I think if you’ve got real aspirations to try and be the top end of Scottish football, and I mean even the top in the Scottish Champ, I think you’ve got a look and think outside the box and what you bring in outside investment because I think that’s the only way you’re going to grow your club.”

Martindale admitted he wasn’t involved in all of the details of the proposed deal but believes that a single voice at the top of the club hierarchy is essential to drive change and put money in the right place.

“I don’t know too much about it but what I do know is that John Ward, John McIlvogue and Dave Black have been working night and day to try and get this deal across the line,” he explained.

“I think it’s hugely important for the football club. I think if you get democracy in football, I don’t always think it works, different shareholders, very small and minority shareholders. I’m not sure it’s the way forward, and for a club like us, you need somebody to come in who’s going to take charge, for want of a better word, to invest in the football club, invest in the people.

“Hopefully with the correlation between that and the product on the park, you’re going to increase your fan base.

“So I think it’s definitely a route we have to go down if we’ve got aspirations to stay in the top half of Scottish football.”

The manager is hopeful that Sunday’s trophy win can also play a part in increasing the fan base. While enjoying the moment it gave the players and staff, Martindale also had an eye on the moment, capturing the imagination of younger supporters and making them regulars.

“I think it’s a fantastic achievement for all the staff at the club, upstairs and downstairs, to be honest, but just really happy for the players,” he said. “I think they’ve put a lot in the season, and it was nice to see them get the rewards.

“We’re a small community club and don’t have a huge fan base.

“I’ve been here 11 years now, and I think there’s always been something going on here in each of those years. So a small community club and I think actually just building the last four years, we’ve gone to the League Cup final, obviously came runners up and now we’ve managed to get this cup here.

“I think we do need to think outside the box in terms of how we go about getting bums on seats, so to speak.

“But I think if you look at yesterday with 3000 fans again, I think we probably could have sold 4,000. So even if you can just get some of them returning, you’ve got to capture that young fan base.

“And I think moments like yesterday are the defining moments in football. You‘ve won a cup, and there were a lot of first-team supporters yesterday. So the young people who are impressionable, you won the cup so hopefully you can get that return of bums on seats in the next season or the next batch of games.”

That next run of games is the Championship run-in, where Livingston are currently eight points behind leaders Falkirk with six games left to play.

Martindale says his side was already an in-form side before Sunday’s triumph, but hopes silverware adds to the momentum after thinking the top spot and automatic promotion back to the Premiership were slipping away.

“I felt it was going, if I’m really, really honest, I felt it was going,” he said. “But I think all we can do is take care of ourselves. Beating Falkirk puts a bit more pressure on them. I think that’s ten points we’ve taken from them this year, from a possible 12. So it shows you the form we’ve been on most of the season.

“But it’s about concentrating on ourselves trying to pick up three points against Dunfermline, which I don’t think is going to be an easy ask.

“We’ll need to be at ourselves to pick those three points up and then we’ll just keep dealing with ourselves.

“Falkirk will deal with themselves, Ayr United too and Partick and Raith who are chasing fourth.”