Four years into the job, Aberdeen FC Vice-Chairman George Yule recently took time out from his busy schedule to speak to RedMatchday (as part of the Pittodrie People feature) about his time at the club so far, and just what lies ahead in the next four years.

“It is hard to believe it is four years. The time has passed so quickly. Too quickly!

“It remains work in progress. I am quite satisfied with how things have gone and I am pleased that our staff have seen some return on their efforts, but I also recognise there is an awful lot of work still to do off the park. There is a lot of ambition and vision at the club but that leads to us to want to do even more.

“There have been good strides made. For example, in some of the business systems we use on a daily basis. Possibly one of the most visible off the park changes has been the formation of the Aberdeen FC Community Trust which has been a huge success for the club. We were recognised last season as the best community club in Scotland and, just this week, were shortlisted for a top European award. Staffing levels at the Trust have increased significantly in the past year to keep up with demand from the local population.   

“The club has always been a community role model without necessarily promoting this. I think in the modern day, the extent of the work the AFCCT do is varied across all the age groups and as a one club city it is very important we have a very visible community involvement.

“Being the only professional club in the North East of Scotland, there is a real role for the club to play in this area. When I started, I felt we needed to reinstate pride and ownership in the club at all levels, whether it be for supporters as they came through the turnstiles, whether it be the corporate supporters. That piece of work needed to continue win, lose or draw.

“I am an Aberdonian who grew up in Mastrick and I am very passionate about the Dons and want to see the club doing well at all times. Although I am an Aberdeen fan, I realised very quickly sitting in the Directors box that you need to try and temper some of the stuff you say because you never really know who is listening! I have learned how to react to game situations in a controlled manner, although sometimes it is difficult particularly if you feel the referee is having an off day or the opposition players are roughing up our star players! The biggest thing I have learned that if the result does not go your way, don’t dwell on it, get it behind you, because there is another game coming up.

“Any business that has customers needs a product. Our customers are our supporters and our product is the 90 minutes on the field of play. It is great to see what the manager, coaching staff and players have done on the park over the past three years and they’ve done tremendously well. They have such a good work ethic and that rubs off on everyone here both on and off the park”.

What does a typical day look like?

“I can honestly say that every day is different. Some of that is self-inflicted because I love working with people and some of that just goes with the territory. Myself and Duncan Fraser share and divide the day to day responsibilities and we also cover for each other. Pittodrie as a business is very family friendly. We are very local, so a lot of what we do puts the emphasis on people and forming positive relationships with people.

“Every day is about trying to engage with different stakeholders and improving everything we do at the club. Every band needs a leader, but you also need people who can play the instruments as well. It really is a united front we have here at Pittodrie. People see the vision, they see the ambition, there is a lot of energy. We are a team of fighters on and off the park, and we don’t feel too sorry for ourselves when things don’t go our way.

“The hardest part of the job is being patient with some of the things that you want to happen overnight. The lack of dedicated training and community facilities is an Achilles heel, a big bugbear for not just the players and manager but for everyone associated with the club – however we’re really working hard to secure this.

“There are things you can just push on each day with but there are a lot of things that need to be thought through. I never realised till I came into this job how many people could do my job better than me! Everyone has got a piece of what they know about Pittodrie and everyone knows better without having the complete picture. But that is just part of working at the football club.

“With consistent performance comes a heightened expectation of what we can do. There is nothing wrong with that. it just means we have to aspire to it. So as a club, whether it be on the park or off it. we need to make sure we raise our standards every day, that we are consistent and any problems that we meet along the road we meet them head on – it’s all about providing our supporters with success, something to cheer about.”

Having worked in the oil industry, and also recently received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Aberdeen for his work in city and the building of the Sports Village and Aquatics Centre, George understands the problems the city faces better than most.

“I think there is still a complacency across the area that oil and gas is here forever. What the last 18 months have shown is that life after oil and gas does not look particularly bright unless we change our habits and be more open-minded to new ventures.  There is life left in oil and gas in the North Sea if we get our act together and I think we will eventually see investment coming back into the industry – but possibly not until 2017.

“In a city that, over the last 40 years, has had so much economic upside, it is actually pretty poor that sporting facilities in Aberdeen, Scotland’s third largest city, have been so hard to come by in comparison to other Scottish cities. That is a clear message to the Council, we desperately need to improve our sporting facilities in this region and to provide the local youngsters with every opportunity to fulfil their potential. It’s not enough in the current age to send kids out to a rain swept Sheddocksley, Aulton or Inverdee for training sessions or matches.

“The building of the proposed new stadium will play a massive part in helping the club over the next four years but first we have to build the training and community facilities, we have got to push ahead with that, not just for the professional level but for youth and community activity as well. Our supporters also have a massive part to play.
We need to take them on this journey with us. As a club we need to both inspire and aspire.”