Falkirk fans Q&A with Mark Campbell

That's it folks, the Q&A is being wrapped up.

MC: Thank you very much for coming.

Fan; Do you plan to make money personally, or your own company?

MC: Neither, the money will be going back into Falkirk.

Fan: What are your interests business wise?

MC: If we are going to get to the Premier League, then we need to have Premier League facilities. We need to be able to bring more people to the stadium. We are in the middle of Glasgow and Edinburgh, we need to attract more people to this club and players. It's very difficult to atttact players on a plastic pitch, so we need to make it a grass pitch and we might be able to get a better player to come here.

As a businessman what do I see that other people have not seen? I don't want to put millions of pounds into the club and walk away with nothing that is not going to happen. The aim here is to build a legacy.

Fan: What's in it for you?

MC: This is not a short-term project. It's 7-10 years to build facilities around the stadium, around the area, get the team in the Premier League, top six minimum, not to be a yo-yo team. I'm a big football fan. I wouldn't have got into this if I didn't think we could do it. Since April I've been working on this project with John Park. It's very exciting. This is a long-term project and the aim is to make this club a success.

The aim is to build a legacy for the club.

Fan: Gretna, Livingston administration, Dundee, Dunfermline, administration most of us here are sensible, we're not looking for European glory. We just want what we deserve a Premier League club. We don't want to bite off more than we can chew...

MC: We won't completely rush spending on players., We're like any business we have budgets, we won't go iinto debt trying to achieve our ambition.

We're covered on that angle. We won't bankrupt ourselves. We've got someone like John finding those little gems. We will give this 110 per cent of our effort.

Fan: Rumours online Con-man, fraud, why are you being called that?

MC: We've gone through due diligence with EFL, we were spending £60m with Sunderland. If those things were true, we wouldnt have got that far in the process. There are things that are posted that are nothing to do with me.

There's a thing there about my company having £2000 in the bank account but it's not even my company - they've spelt it wrong so whoever that person was..

I've got nothing to hide. I've came up twice here today to let people know that you can ask me anything about anything about me. If I've not explained much about who I am then trust me you will get to know who I am in the coming months when we are having fun at this football club.

I can't stop what people post on social media. I only had 22 followers I don't like to promote myself on social media, the only thing that got on my nerves about that information was that they were using my daughter and that is something which I think is unacceptable.

Fan: What about the state of the pitch?

MC: Yes, it will become a grass pitch very soon. We want to bring concerts to the club next year which we are working on. The priority from day one, to get players in for the manager, not journeyman and get that team playing on the pitch.

Fan: Can you buy players without falling foul of FFP?

MC: Yes we can.

Fan: Where's the money coming form?

MC: It's my money. There are no Asian backers, I said before that we were looking to buy Sunderland. I'm not the owner of PSG or the Sheik at Manchester City but there is capital investment which I'm going to be putting in the next two to three years that will be able to deliver on those facilities that I want in play.

There's a large chunk of land here with not much happening. We need to talk to the local authority and say what can we do with this. We've got to buy this stadium, I don't know what office block we own, we've got bars that we don't make any money out of and that's got to change.

The money the supporters spend is got to come back into this club. The stadium set up has to change, we have to own that stand and that is on our 90-day wishlist.

Fan: Development strategy, timescales what are your priorities?

MC: The priority has to be the pitch. We are languishing in League One, We need to get back up to the Championship as quickly as we can. Our business plan allows for worst case scenario - that we don't get up. We hope to be in the Premier League two to three years' time.

Fourth stand - won't build it from day one, but we are looking at it. Safe standing? We're looking at. The academy should never have gone but it has but we will get it back.

Longer-term we are looking at building a hotel in one of the corners if teams are coming over and playing Celtic for example.

We should be aiming for that sixth spot in the Premier League. You've got clubs like Motherwell, Hamilton that's what we should be aiming for.

Major shareholder group want to sell so there should be no problem.

Fan: Scarce number of players...willl there be additions to players, manager situation?

MC: We've had a quick chat with Ray McKinnon. He wants more players in. We have 18 in, two are injured - one quite serious.

If we get club by August 31 - we have three days before transfer window closes. There's a young lad on trial who starts tomorrow. We know he needs new players.

Fan: We want to hear more about you, there isn't a great deal of information about you online...

Campbell admits there isn't a lot of information about him. He says he went through a messy divorce a few years back which is behind the reason.

He lives in New York and has a girlfriend from Mexico. Most of his life is real estate, he has sold hotels

Fan: How confident are you that it will go through?

MC: Yes, I'm very confident. Not the same turnover as Sunderland. I've had inital conversation with Scottish FA. Issue over dual ownership, we've kind of got there in the end.

"'90 per cent, we're very confident it is going to go through.."

He will be major shareholder, wants to add four people including John Park. He won't be taking a salary from the club. Promises there will be changes. Communication will be much better - bottom to top.

Club governance has not been very good, how do you propose to govern and structure the board?

Campbell says he wants to buy the 62 per cent owned by the MSG.

MC: The earlier this takeover will happen is August 31. We didn't lose out on Sunderland because we didn't have enough money, we lost out because of certain things in the Due Diligence that weren't in our best interests.

I've got a great relationship with the current owners of Sunderland, they've been brilliant to me they knew from day one about our plans to buy Falkirk.
Although we have lost Sunderland we are still 100 per cent committed to this project.

Falkirk has a great fanbase, 11th best supported club in Scotland. There is so much potential here. A bit of magic dust, and a smile and things could change. There's a lot of work to do. We will have complete control of the MSG shares. We're not after the supporters shares.

Campbell begins by introducing himself.

MC: I don't have the keys to this club yet I was merely accepted as the preferred bidder. The deal has a long way to go yet.

My name is Mark Campbell, I'm not American, I'm based in the US just under four years. I'm not a stockbroker and yes I was aiming to buy Sunderland FC that now has passed away. From day one when we were in the position to buy Sunderland there was the plan to buy a team in Scotland we could use the facilities that Sunderland has got and Scottish team to move players round from one club to the other. It was never going to be a feeder club.

I'm passionate about the academy and passionate about giving young players a chance. John Park has a very good reputation in this area.

Anything to do with the football side of things will be John Park's remit. He will run the business side of things. I'm 46, I have one child. I'm moving from New York to Edinburgh - you've got to be part of the community. I've spoke with Back the Bairns this morning - we have to unite. We will fully work with supporters of this club. We have to unite.

I'm not the owner, I'm just the custodian. This is your club. I want you to have an input on where this club is going. First thing is to get a better team on the pitch and hopefully that will bring in happy fans.

Hello and welcome to Falkirk Herald's live coverage of the Q&A with Mark Campbell.

It's standing room only in the Behind the Goals room.