“It’s all a bit strange, but it’s fantastic. It’s a massive honour.”
At 33 years old, Kyrk Macmillan is one of the youngest chairman of a football club in Britain – and the youngest in Scotland.
His route to the Fir Park boardroom has been via Paris, Berlin and Copenhagen – with the ‘Well fan also becoming the CEO of a fashion company.
Macmillan also has links to the Hertha Berlin boardroom and is hoping to learn from the German model to help take Motherwell forward.
After his first week in charge he spoke exclusively to Sky Sports News about taking the role, his plans for the club, the future of star man Lennon Miller, and if Motherwell will remain a fan-owned club…
“I started coming here as a four-year-old boy with my father and my grandfather, so I haven’t quite got used to being in the stadium with nobody else here, to be honest,” he said. “It’s all a bit strange, but no, it’s fantastic. It’s a massive honour, for sure.
“I was about four years old (when I first came to Fir Park), we were playing St Johnstone, which, funnily enough, was the first match in this role on Saturday. We lost that 1-0, right enough, so Saturday’s result was obviously a bit better. It’s been a big part of my life.
“I left Scotland to move from East Kilbride to Paris, which was a bit of a culture shock – it’s been part of a fun journey. I then moved from Paris to Berlin, and eventually after about 10 years in Copenhagen, I then moved back to Scotland last year. I then came along in January, February time this year to some open forum meetings.
“It’s just really been a very organic journey from there. Taking this last step has been a big, big jump, but a really fun and exciting one at the same time.”
‘Fan ownership is a priority’
Motherwell became the first fully fan-owned club in Scotland in 2016. But, back in January they launched a video appealing for investment – targeting celebrities like Taylor Swift.
Fast-forward a few months and they were in talks with former Netflix vice president Erik Barmack.
However, the near £2m deal that would have seen him buy a 47 per cent stake in the club fell through after anger from a large number of supporters. Macmillan insists he wants fans to remain in control of the club.
“For me growing up Motherwell has always been very big into the community, into youth development and I think those things are quite in keeping with fan ownership,” he said.
“I think that’s not to say that we’re not interested in fresh investment, fresh development of the football club. Of course we are, that’s the name of the game ultimately but it’s how do we tie those things together with fan ownership. I think one doesn’t negate the other.
“Obviously there was the vote (on Barmack’s deal) that happened with the supporters. There were some circumstances regarding the withdrawal of the bid but I think the results really showed that the supporters are in favour of fan ownership.
“It’s fair to say there probably was a division to some extent within the support. I think what has to definitely happen is we have to provide a platform for unity. At the end of the day we’re one club, we all want ultimately the same thing which is success on and off the pitch for Motherwell Football Club.
“I think it’s important that we still be very, very respectful and very mindful of different opinions and that we give them a platform as well and again ultimately learn from what people are putting forward to us and what we can take away from it in action as well.
His links to Hertha Berlin
As well as having his own plans for Motherwell, Macmillan has links to the Hertha Berlin boardroom and plans to use learnings from the German club at Fir Park.
He explained: “My wife is German, her father’s been involved with Hertha Berlin and the board there for a number of years. He was involved in the transition of ownership with the club as well.
“It’ll be interesting along the way listening to his experiences. I think German football in particular, there’s so much that they get right – in terms of match-day experience, fan engagement and those kind of things.
“I think with everything you try to learn a little bit along the way and take some good lessons and learnings and hopefully bring that to Motherwell. We want to make sure that the match-day experience is as strong as it can be. We’re talking about some potential facilities upgrades within the stadium, talking about how do we engage different elements of the sport as well.
“The time is right and the momentum is there to bring everybody together and create that sense of unity in and around the club.”
What is his aim at Motherwell?
Motherwell last won silverware in 1991 – clinching the Scottish Cup after a 4-3 win over Dundee United – and Macmillan is targeting similar success, as well as focussing on the club’s development of youth players.
He said: “We probably have punched above our weight financially for a number of years. We’ve had a fantastic start to the season – I think we’re seven points better off than we were this time last season.
“We’ve got incredible youth talent coming through. Lennon Miller and Ewan Wilson have obviously had great starts to the season, there’s a lot being made of that.
“I think we’re the club with the most minutes for youth players in the top flight in Scotland, which is obviously a big part of what we want to do. Motherwell’s always been a club that’s really focused on youth development. I think as a pillar of what we want to build here, that’s something that’s really central that we maintain.
“We’re very fortunate as well, with players like Stephen O’Donnell and Paul McGinn that we’ve got – guys that have been in and around Scottish football for a number of years. I’m sure they’re offering good guidance as well along the way.
“Speaking as a younger person in the role as well, I think that’s important for myself and I’m sure it’s important for the young players to lean on experience, but at the same time bring that energy, bring that vibrancy into what you do.
“It’s been a long time since we won trophies and of course I think we all share the same ambition to be successful as a football club.
“There’s ultimately a limit from what we can do in the stands to that end, but at the end of the day we’re all here to support Stuart (Kettlewell), to support the players, but of course we want to bring success to Motherwell, there’s no escaping that.”
What does the future hold for Miller?
One of the big decisions for Macmillan and Motherwell will be around the future of Miller, who at the age of 18 has already made over 50 first-team appearances and captained the club in their League Cup semi-final.
He’s also Motherwell’s youngest appearance holder and goalscorer, and is being linked with clubs in Scotland and England.
“I think Lennon has done incredibly well since he came into the first team,” said Macmillan. “Obviously he’s now captained the club over the last couple of matches, and did it at Hampden as well for the semi-final.
“I think ultimately it’s about Lennon’s growth journey and we want him to stay at Motherwell as long as possible. It’s great watching him every Saturday, he gets supporters excited.
“There may come a time where Lennon decides ‘I want to try something new’, but ultimately we want to make his time at Motherwell as successful as it can be and that is who we are as a football club. That will be the same for Lennon as it will be hopefully for players in the future as well.
“The club has been successful with that in the past in terms of moving on younger players and being able to bring strong revenue to the football club. We’ll see what happens, there’s no confirmed conversations as yet but we’ll see what happens and we’ll take the appropriate conversations at that time.
“I’m convinced that the club is in a really good place and I’m convinced that what we’ve got here is there to be leveraged and hopefully that will allow us to be even more successful before we even start to talk about things like player transfers or those more intangible elements at this moment in time.”
