Jackie McNamara lifts the lid on ‘fare-dodging’ and York City saga

JACKIE McNAMARA last night broke his silence over his shock switch from dugout to boardroom at York City – and insisted he has always wanted to run a football club.

The ex-Celtic and Scotland star and Dundee United boss made UK-wide headlines when he was made chief executive at Bootham Crescent after a disappointing spell as manager.

The unusual move drew criticism from sceptical fans, who quickly sparked rumours that their former gaffer had either invested heavily in the club, or was due a pay-off.

But, after issuing a vehement denial of any such ulterior motive, McNamara opened his heart on a nightmare two years in management that have led him to re-assess his career.

“I understand why me being appointed chief executive has grabbed people’s attention,” he admitted. “But the truth is that this side of the game is something that has always interested me.

“I’ve always had aspirations to help run a club, to help oversee everything .

“The opportunity to do it has come earlier than I thought, but when the chairman (packaging company boss Jason McGill) mentioned it to me, I didn’t hesitate.

“As far as I was concerned, I was about to be finished down here. In my head, I was heading back to Scotland.

“But the chairman phoned me on the Friday before my last game, and we talked about a new role. Over the last year, we’ve been through a lot together and he’s a good person.

“It’s got nothing to do with money – either me putting money into the club or taking money out of the club.

“That’s nonsense. It’s purely about me wanting the best for the club and wanting to help the chairman. And the truth is I haven’t enjoyed my last 22 months in football, since the stuff about my contract came out at Dundee United.

“In management, the things you love get overtaken by the things that are distractions.

“I love football, I love everything about it and everything it has given me. But just now, with everything that has happened, I haven’t been able to get the same satisfaction.

“That has hurt me and I think it’s the right time to step back a wee bit.”

Given what McNamara has endured over the last few months in particular, his desire to retreat is perfectly understandable.

Relegation from the Football League must have been bad enough. It was compounded by York City’s difficult start to life in the National League.

Then, to add insult to injury, along came a court appearance over an incident on a train, embarrassingly characterised by the local York newspaper as “fare-dodging”.

Jackie refutes that claim. But that he has to do so at all lends weight to the feeling that his time as manager at Bootham Crescent had reached its natural end, even before it was made official.

“The train thing was a mess,” he said.

“I was rushing in Edinburgh so jumped on the train with the intention of buying a ticket on board, as plenty of people do.

“When the conductor came round I tried to pay him with three different cards, but he told me they were all declined.

“I knew I had money available and told him his machine must be broken, but he was being quite loud and drawing attention, which I thought was out of order.

“My wife phoned me when the summons dropped through the door. ‘You’re in court!’ she was saying. I couldn’t believe it.

“My lawyer ended up getting the charge that I had tried to avoid payment dropped, because clearly I had tried to pay. But I was done for boarding a train without a ticket, which I didn’t even know was an offence.

“To call that ‘fare-dodging’ is completely wrong.

“I ended up getting a clarification from the paper in York, but by then you’re feeling like the damage has been done.”

Fortunately, a close relationship with York City’s chairman has afforded him a new opportunity, and Jackie insists his work at Tannadice has given him insight into how he wants to do business – and how he does not.

“At United I had a blueprint – a five-year plan – for how we were going to change the club on and off the park,” he said.

“People forget that halfway into that we’d got rid of the debt, having taken over from a manager who said he couldn’t live with the cuts and take the club forward.

“What happened next, with players being sold and details of my contract coming out, was the turning point.

“It has been tough and really frustrating. But I’ve got an opportunity to go down a different avenue here in York, and it’s one I believe I can succeed in.”