The curious case of the former internationals turning out in the eleventh division
Former pros turning out in the non-league game has a lengthy history, but whatever is going on in Doncaster at the moment?
The Central Midlands Alliance is not a league that many will be familiar with. Until 2020, it was considered to be at Step Seven of the non-league pyramid, the 11th tier of the game, but that year it was redesignated as a feeder league to the National League System. It has two divisions—North and South—and features Chesterfield’s youth team, five reserve teams, and such exotically-named luminaries as St Josephs Rockware of Worksop, Wirksworth Ivanhoe and Derby Singh Brothers.
So, why was one of its clubs throwing money at former professionals to play in a top of the table league match, and how does this relate to the trials and tribulations of a League Two club which has been having a difficult season on the pitch? The answer to both of these questions seems to be Willie McKay.
You may remember him from his involvement at Doncaster Rovers a little over a decade ago, when he was given the transfer reins while the club was in the Championship during the 2011/12 season. McKay signed 12 French-speaking players on short-term deals in what was called—with the benefit of hindsight somewhat ominously—“The Experiment.” Rovers were relegated on the last day of the season.
Or perhaps you’ll remember him better as the ‘unlicensed intermediary’ involved in the transfer of Emiliano Sala from FC Nantes to Cardiff City during the 2018/19 season. This story ended in tragedy when, two days after the transfer had been completed the plane carrying Sala to Cardiff crashed into the English Channel, killing the player and pilot David Ibbotson. It later emerged that Ibbotson was unlicensed and unqualified to fly at night, and had an expired rating to fly the single-engine Piper Malibu aircraft. Both had been exposed to high levels of carbon monoxide during the flight.
McKay was an ‘unlicensed intermediary’ at the time because he had been declared bankrupt in 2015. Questions were asked about this at the time but no action was taken. In an e-mail leaked to the media soon after the transfer, it was shown that he’d written to Sala to inform him of his role in the transfer and the arrangements he could make, while also informing the player that he had generated fake interest from Premier League clubs West Ham United and Everton in order to raise the asking price, generating more money for all of the involved parties.
At the start of March 2019, it was reported that McKay was alleged to have threatened to “kill everybody” at Cardiff City and that he’d confronted senior members of staff both in person and over the telephone. He was issued with a harassment order, though this stopped short of becoming a criminal offence. It wasn’t the first time that he’d had such a close shave with the law. In 2012, he was found to have been driving while disqualified and with a bag of cocaine in his car, but avoided prosecution.
McKay had arranged the flight that killed Sala. The entire story was one from which few emerged with any credit, and one in which the fact that the life of a young footballer had been taken has often felt half-forgotten amid the welter of claims and counterclaims being made between the different parties involved. It was a story which left a sour taste in the mouth, all round.
A new club, Doncaster City, was formed in the summer of 2022 with a sole director, Janis McKay, who just happens to be Willie’s wife, as the sole shareholder in the club, and his son Mark as the chairman. As part of the 2015 bankruptcy, Willie was disqualified from acting as a company director until August 2023, although it should be added that his name no longer shows on the Companies House register of disqualified directors. The new club got on with life in Division Two of the Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior Football League, winning the title at the end of last season. They transferred into the Central Midlands Alliance at the end of last season, moving up from the 13th tier of the game to the 11th.
All of this brings us up to last weekend. Doncaster City groundshare at Armthorpe Welfare FC, and have been enjoying another successful season. Attendances hadn’t been spectacular, averaging at around 130, but on the pitch the league’s Premier Division North has turned into a three horse race between them, Dearne & District, and Dinnington Town, with Dearne & District the top of the table and City in second place.
The 17th February brought a crunch fixture at the top of the table. Doncaster City vs Dearne & District. With Dearne eight points clear but Doncaster having two games in hand, an away win might have just about ended any realistic chance that Doncaster may have had of winning the league, and this seems to have brought about somewhat drastic action on the McKays’ part. On the morning of the match itself, Doncaster announced three new signings which certainly raised some eyebrows.
Ross McCormack is 37 years old, and made over 300 appearances in the Championship for Cardiff city, Leeds United, Fulham and Aston Villa, as well as making 13 appearances for Scotland. Charlie Mulgrew, who turns 38 in a couple of weeks time, made almost 250 appearances in the Scottish Premier League for Dundee United, Celtic and Aberdeen as well as making more than 100 appearances in the Championship for Wolverhampton Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers and Wigan Athletic, and making 44 appearances for Scotland. Wes Hoolahan, who’s 42 in May, made more than 400 appearances in the Premier League, Championship and League One for Norwich City, Blackpool and West Bromwich Albion, as well as making 43 apprearances for the Republic of Ireland.
Former professionals looking to eke a little more out of their careers lower down the game has a long history, including George Best turning out for Dunstable and Jimmy Greaves ending his playing career for Brentwood Town, Chelmsford City, Barnet and Woodford Town. But times have changed. Players are considerably more likely to have earned enough money to retire by the end of their top flight careers than they ever used to be, and the notion of players making ‘guest’ appearances lower down the pyramid isn’t as prevalent as it used to be.
That all three of these old pros should have been making their debuts simultaneously for a top of the table league match wasn’t against the rules—there is nothing to suggest that anything relating to their signings or registration was underhand—although it may be understandable if Dearne Valley were a little put out at such a financial flex at this level of the game. The persistent rumour is that these three players were, after all, paid £3,000 each to play.
Whatever the desired effect of their arrivals at the club might have been, it seems to have worked. Well, in a sense. On the pitch, Dearne took an early lead before City came back to win 3-1. After the match, the Dearne manager Jason Blunt lived up to his name in his assessment of the day: “I don’t think it’s the right thing to be doing but it’s not against the rules so we can’t have any real issues with it. I don’t see those players staying with them all season. It leaves a sour taste but we can’t control what they do or who they sign. They obviously felt they needed those players to beat us and they did beat us."
The attendance for the match was recorded as 923, an astronomical number for this level of the game and a figure likely influenced by the fact that Doncaster Rovers were away from home (they won 5-1 at Grimsby Town), with no other matches of a higher profile taking place that day. How many of those people will return on a more regular basis, of course, remains to be seen, and it should also be added that it was estimated that around half of this attendance was believed to include around 400 away supporters.
But it’s not difficult to see how the McKays might have considered it a reasonable investment to spend £9,000 on these three old pros in order to get the level of publicity that they did, especially if they could recoup a substantial proportion of it in gate receipt and other incoming money from such a big crowd.
Dearne remain in the driving seat in the league. They remain seven points clear, although Doncaster City have two games in hand. It’s reasonable to say that what happens in the eleventh division of English football isn’t of a great deal of consequence, and that the involvement of three former international footballers is little more than a curio that will one day be little more than the answer to a particularly fiendish pub quiz question. But Willie McKay’s return to football should cause concern based on his history alone, no matter what level of football he’s involved at; even if his name isn’t on the paperwork.