Football needs charismatic characters – and Marc White is certainly one of those.
It is more than likely you will have seen one of his rants go viral on social media. In that respect, he is one of a kind.
But he also has no equal in the way that he set up Dorking Wanderers with a group of friends in 1999 – and is still there, 27 years on. The chairman, the manager, the face of the club.
After a recent FA Cup second qualifying round win over Southall FC, he posted from the club’s X account: “Thanks for tonight to all of our loyal supporters & never forget we were in Crawley & District Division 5. Step 17.”
It has been a long, long journey. One that has cost millions and taken in an incredible 12 promotions.
Dorking finished 16th in the National League in 2022/23 – their best ever finish and the closest they have come to the EFL, which is the stated goal. At this point, why would it not be?
Currently, they are back in the National League South – but now White has significant additional backing.
US entrepreneur Frank Villares had first become involved in Dorking in 2024, through the ‘Rise With Us’ campaign, which allowed the public to buy shares in the club to help them achieve their goals. A £180,013 target was set, with £333,180 the actual figure raised by 746 investors.
In the summer, he and his wife Debra Tucker were announced as co-owners and growth investors.
“Frank and Debra are massive English football fans and there’s this huge enthusiasm for the English pyramid in the US as that’s the one thing the US money can’t buy,” says White, speaking to Sky Sports in a room overlooking the club’s Meadowbank home.
“They were actually looking around for a bigger interest in a club. They wanted to be more involved and I was actually helping them with that, telling them what to watch out for.
“They’d gone to four or five clubs and a deal fell through last minute so I just said: ‘Don’t forget, there’s always Dorking Wanderers!’ It just felt like everything had gone wrong for a positive reason. Then they were like, ‘You know what, we’ve already said to ourselves we love Dorking, why are we even doing this?!’
“They are both 40 plus VAT and they’re in a position now in life where they want to really enjoy and have a project and they want to win – Frank has even put a picture of the team at Wembley, an AI job, on his vision board!
“They’re perfect because they trust us to run it, but they want to be involved as well. This is just the beginning.”
In addition to Villares and Tucker, a consortium led by former professional ice hockey player James Sixsmith acquired a shareholding in the summer.
“We want to surround this club with people that want to succeed and want to win and James is very similar,” adds White.
“We’re really lucky. James and Daryl [Cumberland] from his consortium are part of that mechanism behind it all. As we go up the divisions and as we find more success, their involvement will become greater and greater.
“I want to say to the people involved: ‘Listen, here’s the thing. If we put in another X million, we could actually get to the Championship or we can build a stadium and we can do X, Y and Z. We’ve got big players in our setup that are going to enable us, not just financially, but also in terms of decision-making and having the right mindset towards growth.
“The legacy of Dorking Wanderers is to find a way to progress. What people love about the club is the underdog story of coming from nowhere to somewhere. We have to find a way for that to continue.”
Dorking have climbed from step 17 of the non-League pyramid to step 2 (Image: Dorking Wanderers)
What does that look like in practice?
“The investment has made things easier. But in football, everything you do, whether it’s on or off the field, costs a lot of money. We’re by no means set for life, not in a million years. We’re just in a position where we can add some things, largely off the field.
“But that kind of off-field investment can generate more income, which we can invest on the field, hopefully. That’s where the success cycle comes; win more games, more fans, promotion, more fans.
“There’s not one football club in the world that really profits. You might get the odd one but, in general, someone somewhere is putting time, effort and money into a football club. Off the field is the largest part of the football club.
“You’re in the entertainment business and you’ve only got one show a week normally. The rest is all hard work.”
Speaking of, White is, naturally, one of the central figures on the YouTube channel Bunch of Amateurs, which documents all the behind-the-scenes goings-on at Dorking.
The channel currently has more than 200,000 subscribers and a global audience.
“We had half a billion unique views last year of the club. Half a billion. Ten times the average Premier League club. My thing is to part capitalise on that, but part deliver. Imagine what happens to that with more promotions?
“As a result, every single match there’s someone from Australia, New Zealand or America. They’d be the three top places every game.
“I went down to Costa one morning to get a coffee. It opened at 7am and I looked like I’d just been f*****g dug up. Two people came in with these Dorking Wanderers shirts on. They were American and had just got off a flight and they couldn’t believe they’d seen me.
“It’s a bit surreal like that, but it’s all positive. I like the recognition I get. I don’t really get any bad words about me from anyone that knows the game. I quite like the recognition of the hard work that’s gone into it because it would be easy just to think I just swear at refs. Obviously, there’s a lot more to me!”
Throughout the interview, White keeps coming back to V2 – the next version of the club.
“V1 took us from the park fields to where we are today,” he says. “Everything is teeing up this club to have a V2. We’re better equipped now.
“I think we need to get promoted again really soon. Next year or two minimum. We then need to try and do a bit of a double and then try and break into the Football League.
“I think breaking into the Football League genuinely will make us one of the world’s greatest sporting successes. As big as that sounds. I don’t know f*****g any others!”
One potential obstacle is that, while White has been so successful at Dorking, he does not hold the coaching badges necessary to manage in the EFL.
“We’ll take care of that, that’s fine,” he says. “The dream really is to be in there. I’d love it.”
Dorking’s finished 16th in the National League 2022/23 – their highest finish to date (Image: Dorking Wanderers)
But the ambitions extend far beyond the EFL.
“I feel like we really want to be the whole world’s local club,” White says.
“We believe we’re the pioneers of like real, relatable content with a local football team. It’s given us this global stage and that trying to capitalise on that and people feeling like they belong to a local community, even if they live in Mississippi.
“Frank tells me he can’t believe how many times he gets stopped in America – even in Texas, someone said to him ‘I love Dorking!’.
“We want to just like continue to put the club on a global reach – and we identify with the fact that winning will be a part of that. So we have to find a way to win.”
As for this season, Dorking are currently eighth in the National League South, three points behind leaders Maidstone United. A trip to Dover Athletic – a point and a place above them – beckons on Saturday.
“Standard stuff, really. Stressful. We’ve done alright. Loads of injuries, all that s**t. Standard modern football,” says White as he picks up his bag, ready to dart to a podcast record.
“Dorking are always in the mix, so we’ll be there again.”
There is no time for sentimentality – only the next challenge.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com
