The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Family warned Eddie Thompson not to buy Dundee United
Eddie Thompson’s family tried to talk him out of his purchase of Dundee United in 2002, his daughter has revealed.
At one stage Justine Mitchell owned a third of the club and was the only female director in the Scottish Premier League.
She was responsible for setting up Dundee United’s women’s team and even sat on the SFA’S judicial panel.
Reflecting on her career and time in football at a Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce business event, she issued a strict warning to others to not invest in football clubs.
It is the same message her family gave her father.
“My family didn’t want my dad to buy the club – it’s stressful and it bleeds money out of you. You’re a fool if you think otherwise unless it’s a big, big club that has lots of money down south behind it or one of the bigger clubs in Scotland”, she said.
“If anyone on this call is thinking about buying a football club, don’t do it, you’d be mad, quite frankly.
“Football has always been a passion but when you go on to a board you’ve got to detach yourself and make business decisions and it’s very difficult.”
Justine had a successful law career and then a property development business. She was chosen by her father to succeed him as club chairman.
But just days before Mr Thompson’s death in October 2008, Justine’s husband Ken was killed in a motorcycle accident.
“I lost both my husband and dad within the space of three days. My whole world imploded,” she recalled.
“My dad was about to die from cancer and we were going up to see him a few days before. Ken was on a motorbike. He was travelling behind us going to the hospital and I saw the whole thing. It was horrific.
“My dad asked me to run the club before he died but obviously with everything that happened, that was never going to happen.”
At the time, her son Monty was 13 months old and Ken also had a 10-yearold daughter from his first marriage to Jill Kinsella.
The two women formed a close friendship and opened beauty salon Chamomile Sanctuary together in Edinburgh in 2010. Justine credits the business for helping her deal with her double loss.
She said: “It’s incredibly difficult dealing with grief. The spa brought me back into the world again, meeting people again and building a life again. The team have been like a second family to me.”
A passionate supporter of Dundee United, Justine became a director at the club in 2013 when she had a 33% shareholding, before resigning in 2016 which took the board by surprise.
She described it as a “very difficult period” and added: “I didn’t agree with decisions that were being made. One thing I wanted to do was add value and make a difference and I think I did.”
Between the board, the woman’s team, the salon, raising her son and the
Dundee United Community Trust, “something had to give”, she said.
She sold her shareholding in the club to Mike Martin the next year.
Ms Mitchell said her passion is now the beauty business, which she now solely owns.
A huge success prior to Covid-19, it has been closed for eight of the last 12 months.
She is hopeful for better trading in 2021, but hit out at regulations in Scotland, not in place in England, which insist on face coverings that cannot be removed for facials.
While grateful for furlough, government grants have not been enough to pay bills, she said, adding that the beauty industry has been “completely forgotten”.