Football needs charismatic characters – and Marc White is certainly one of them.
Chances are you’ll see one of his rants circulating on social media. In this respect, it is unique.
But there’s no equal when he founded Dorking Wanderers with a group of friends in 1999 – and it’s still there, 27 years on. Chairman, manager, face of the club.
After a recent FA Cup second qualifying round win over Southall FC, he wrote on the club’s X account: “Thank you to all our loyal supporters for tonight and never forget we are in Crawley and District Division 5. Step 17.”
It’s been a long, long journey. One who cost millions and won an incredible 12 promotions.
Dorking finished 16th in the National League for the 2022/23 season – their best ever finish and the closest they’ve come to the EFL, a stated aim. Why not at this point?
For now, they’re back in the National League South – but now White has significant extra support.
US entrepreneur Frank Villares first got involved with Dorking through his Rise With Us 2024 campaign, which allowed the public to buy shares in the club to help them achieve their goals. A target of £180,013 was set, with the actual figure raised by 746 investors being £333,180.
Over the summer, he and his wife, Debra Tucker, were announced as co-owners and growth investors.
“Frank and Debra are big English soccer fans, and there’s a huge passion for the English pyramid in the U.S. because it’s the one thing that U.S. money can’t buy,” White said. Sky Sports in a room overlooking the club’s Meadowbank home.
“They were actually looking for a bigger interest in a club. They wanted to be more involved and I was actually helping them with that, telling them what to focus on.
“They had gone to four or five clubs and the deal fell through at the last minute, so I just said, ‘Remember, there’s always Dorking Wanderers!’ It just felt like everything was going wrong for a positive reason. Then they said, ‘You know what, we already told ourselves we love Dorking, why are we doing this?!’
“They’re both 40s plus VAT and now at a stage in life where they really want to enjoy themselves and have a project and win – Frank even put a picture of the team at Wembley on the AI vision board!
“They’re perfect because they trust us to run it, but they also want to be involved. This is just the beginning.”
In addition to Villares and Tucker, a consortium led by former professional ice hockey player James Sixsmith acquired a stake in the summer.
“We want to surround this club with people who want to succeed and want to win, and James is very much like that,” added White.
“We’re really lucky. James and Daryl [Cumberland] from his consortium is part of this mechanism behind all this. As you move up the divisions and have more success, their presence will become more and more.
“I want to say to the people involved in this, ‘Listen, this is what it’s all about.’ If we put in another X million, we can actually get to the Championship or build a stadium and do X, Y and Z. We have great players in our structure, not only financially, but also in terms of decision-making and having the right mindset towards growth.
“The legacy of Dorking Wanderers is to find a way to progress. What people love about the club is the story of coming from nowhere. We have to find a way to keep that going.”
Dorking have climbed from 17th to 2nd in the non-league pyramid (Image: Dorking Wanderers)
What does this look like in practice?
“Investment has made things easier. But everything you do in football, whether it’s on or off the pitch, costs a lot of money. We’re by no means ready for life, not in a million years. We’re just in a position to add some things, mainly off the pitch.
“But this kind of off-field investment can generate more revenue, which we can put into the field, hopefully. That’s where the cycle of success comes in; more games, more fans, promotion, more fans.
“There isn’t a football club in the world that really makes a profit. You can get the odd one, but generally someone somewhere puts time, effort and money into a football club. Off the pitch is the biggest part of a football club.
“You’re in the entertainment business and normally you only have one show a week. The rest is a lot of hard work.”
Speaking of which, White is naturally one of the main faces of Bunch of Amateurs, the YouTube channel documenting all the behind-the-scenes goings-on at Dorking.
Currently, the channel has more than 200,000 subscribers and a global audience.
“We had half a billion unique views at the club last year. Half a billion. Ten times more than the average Premier League club. My job is to capitalize on that a bit, but it’s partly to deliver. Imagine what happens to that with more promotions?
“As a result, it’s either Australia, New Zealand or America in every match. They’ll be the top three in every game.
“I went to Costa for a coffee one morning. It opened at 7am and I felt like I’d been dug out. Two guys walked in with these Dorking Wanderers shirts on. They were American and they’d just got off the plane and they couldn’t believe they’d seen me.
“It’s a bit surreal, but it’s all positive. I like the recognition I get. I don’t get any bad words about me from anyone who knows the game. I like the recognition of a lot of hard work because it would be easy to think I’m just swearing at the referees. There’s obviously more to me!”
Throughout the interview, White keeps coming back to the V2 – the next version of the club.
“The V1 took us from parkland to where we are today,” he says. “Everything is preparing this club to have V2. We are now better equipped.
“I think we need to get promoted again soon. Next year or two years at least. Then we need to do a bit of a double and then try to get into the Football League.
“I think getting into the Football League will make us one of the biggest sporting successes in the world. As big as it sounds. I don’t know about anyone else!”
One potential obstacle is that White, while highly successful at Dorking, does not have the coaching credentials needed to manage in the EFL.
“We’ll deal with it, okay,” he says. “The dream is to actually be there. I’d love to.”
Dorking finished 16th in the National League 2022/23 – their highest ever finish (Image: Dorking Wanderers)
But the ambitions go far beyond the EFL.
“I feel like we really want to be the local club of the whole world,” White said.
“We believe we’re the pioneers of real, relatable content as much as a local football team. It’s given us this global stage and to try to take advantage of that and make people feel like they’re part of the local community, even if they live in Mississippi.
“Frank tells me he can’t believe how many times he’s been stopped in America – even in Texas where someone has told him ‘I love Dorking!’ he said.
“We want to continue to position the club globally – and we are determined by the fact that winning will be part of that. So we have to find a way to win.”
As of this season, Dorking are currently eighth in the National League South, three points behind leaders Maidstone United. A trip to Dover Athletic – a point and a place above them – beckons on Saturday.
“Standard stuff, really. Stressful. We did a good job. Lots of injuries, everything is bad. Standard modern football,” White said, picking up his bag and preparing to hit the podcast record.
“Dorking is always a mess so we’ll be there again.”
No time for sentimentality – just the next challenge.