Goals founder gets the boot

THE founder of Goals five-a-side football centres is being given the boot after more than 30 years with the firm.

Keith Rogers is stepping down from the board through ‘mutual agreement’ following a companywide reshuffling.

Less than a year ago he left his role as chief executive to serve as president of the group’s business in America after the firm reported its first annual loss in 12 years.

Rogers was paid £204,000 to set up and run the firm’s US operations where it has two centres in Los Angeles.

Goals, which had reported a £6.2m pre-tax loss last March, appointed the former boss of Grosvenor Casinos, Mark Jones, to lead the company. Now the firm, which said it had successfully ‘turned the corner’ as a result of its restructuring, has announced Rogers will depart once and for all. It added that management of the US business will be run from the UK.

Rogers is a pioneer of the five-aside football industry after opening the world’s first centre in Paisley in 1987 under the brand name of Pitz.

The business eventually grew to 11 centres in the UK and was sold to venture capitalist firm 3i for £ 28m in 1999, eventually rebranding to Powerleague. The following year, Rogers led a management buy-in of an existing local five-a-side football business in Glasgow to create Goals Soccer Centres.

The businessman, 55, grew up in Falkirk and has admitted he’s always had his mind set on running his own business.

His departure is subject to a 12month notice period and is believed to have been decided through mutual agreement.

Goals, which issued a trading update yesterday, said that sales for the year to December 31 increased by 1.3pc to £33.4m while like-for-like sales across sites open for more than a year grew by 0.6pc. Shares fell 1.4pc, or 1.5p, to 105.5p.