Putting the data into Dunfermline: the club's owners think it will be transformative

The US-based Park Bench LLC, headed by London-born James Bord, took control of the Pars in January, and the firm has lofty ambitions to make them serious contenders

Dunfermline Athletic have a proud record of incubating talent, from former managers Jock Stein and George Farm to former players Alex Ferguson and David Moyes.

They could now be incubating owners who will revolutionise the Scottish game via Artificial Intelligence (AI). At least that’s the selling point of the club’s recently installed new owners, the US-based Park Bench LLC — not that they are keen to talk about it in public, yet, more of which shortly.

Dunfermline have a rich history. Stein (below) won the Scottish Cup as manager of the Pars in 1961 and went on to be the manager of the first British club to lift the European Cup in 1967 when Celtic beat Internazionale in Lisbon. He won 10 Scottish titles as Celtic’s manager including nine in a row from 1965-66 to 1973-74.

George Farm was the Blackpool goalkeeper when they won the 1953 FA Cup in the “Matthews final”, and was manager of Dunfermline when they won the Scottish Cup in 1968, and then reached the semi-finals of the European Cup-Winners’ Cup the following season.

You’ve probably heard of Alex Ferguson. The crowning achievement of his footballing career was winning the Scottish Second Division title as a player in 1962-63 with St Johnstone, although he later played for Dunfermline and then won more than 30 major trophies as the manager of Aberdeen and Manchester United.

David Moyes was a Pars centre-half from 1990 to 1992 and went on to become a distinguished manager at Preston, Everton, West Ham and Everton (again). He has also managed at Manchester United, Real Sociedad and Sunderland.

Dunfermline currently sit in seventh place in Scotland’s second division, the Championship. They have bobbed between the second and third tier in Scotland since being relegated from the Scottish Premier League in 2012 (which led to financial administration in 2013) but had spent much of the few decades before that in the top flight.

From 2020 until early this year, the club’s majority ownership group was a consortium of German investors, DAFC Fussball GmbH, who put the club up for sale in August last year.

Five serious bidders came forward, Sporting Intelligence can reveal, despite the club having recently played in Scotland’s third tier. This led to a competitive auction in which the club changed hands for a larger sum than anyone anticipated.

The two key figures at Park Bench are Las Vegas-based north Londoner James Bord and his business partner Evan Sofer.

Neither Bord nor Sofer responded to requests to speak to me about their plans for Dunfermline; sources close to the pair insist they want their stewardship of the club to do the talking.

But Bord in particular has a fascinating CV, both as a former poker champion who has won in excess of $1million at individual tournaments, and as someone who has worked for both Tony Bloom (of Brighton fame) and Matt Benham (Brentford).

Both Brighton and Brentford have had journeys from England’s fourth tier to the Premier League under the ownership of Bloom or Benham, in no small part because of the “secret sauce” data / analytics that their owners have honed.

Can Bord do the same at Dunfermline?

Today’s piece will explore:

• The work of Short Circuit Science, a company founded by Bord that uses data science to facilitate medical prescription technology and climate adaption analysis, and purports to give sports teams an edge. I’ll later reveal one of its clients, a major football club that reached a European semi-final this season.

• The involvement of Bord and Sofer in Córdoba, and why Bord also has a minority stake in a Bulgarian club, Septemvri Sofia, that might prove useful to the Pars.

• The USP of Park Bench’s AI model, which one source with knowledge of the tech says will be “game-changing”.

• Bord’s financial commitment to the project and the results of the due diligence carried out independently ahead of the deal.

• How there is confidence at East End Park that Dunfermline will gain promotion back to Scotland’s top flight, if not next season then soon.