Generation game

McGill has watched City for 51 years from all four sides of the ground and, along with his children Jason and Sophie, felt compelled to get involved when the Minstermen's continued existence was under threat.

He initially became a life Trust member, was heavily involved in the 2003 rescue package to bring the club out of administration and has now joined the board of directors.

McGill is also a five per cent shareholder in JM Packaging - the Malton-based firm run by his son Jason - who became the club's new owners this summer after taking over from the Supporters' Trust.

When asked what he hopes to achieve in his new position, McGill said: "I want to put the club on a stable financial footing.

"I've got two grandchildren Toby and Gabriel, one is nine and one is six. The youngest Gabriel is York City mad and goes to bed in his kit and even puts his shin pads on for matches in case he gets a game.

"When Sophie and Jason first started watching football they were following teams like Liverpool and Manchester United but I told them if they were going to be interested in the game, they should support their local team.

"I encouraged it and we have enjoyed good times and bad times together.

"It might seem a bit over-sentimental but I would find it an absolute disaster if this club ceased to exist so people like my grandchildren could not support their local team."

McGill moved to York from North London in the 1950s and was a senior manager at Nestl Rowntree before leaving to help set up the family business.

He is hoping that his commercial experience will benefit the club in his new role and also feels he already has a strong understanding of the club's recent history because of Jason and Sophie's presence in the boardroom over the last three years.

McGill believes the provision of a carvery service in the newly-refurbished VicePresident's Lounge will be popular with supporters and also prove a new matchday revenue stream.

He also feels the club need to consult fans on how the Social Club's facilities can be improved and is pleased that, because of his semi-retired status, he will be able to dedicate the time to help commercial general manager Elliot Stroud attract new sponsors to the club.

McGill added: "I see my new role as a strong opportunity to carry forward what has already been achieved by the big contribution supporters have made. I'm fortunate in my day job to have the time to make a contribution.

"We are lucky to have a good, hard-working full-time staff, including a commercial manager and a club secretary, but the only way we can go forward is to get a big, working contribution from our board of directors.

"We have had some very good people on the Supporters' Trust board who have made a big effort and had a big input but several have had to resign because they just could not commit their time.

"Since I joined the board, I have attended five different meetings involving the football club and they have all needed to be in normal business hours. At Rushden, the Trust were handed £33million by Max Griggs when he left the club.

"They also have a super stadium but there is a lot of resentment about the situation the club are in now and you have to manage football clubs in a professional manner although that is not to say you can't do that in a community spirit and in the best interests of the supporters.

"We have not got the resources to pay highpowered chief executives but the club are benefiting from having experienced, qualified people on the board who are actually putting money into the club not taking it out.

"We want to avoid cut-backs because we have aspirations of getting back into the Football League so we need to look at how we operate and see whether we can do things better. We also need more sponsors to get interested in the club."

JM Packaging came under fire from a section of fans over the summer who felt it was wrong for the Trust to surrender their 80 per cent majority shareholding.

There were also accusations of an aggressive takeover but McGill is hoping past and future actions will provide assurances for supporters, whose concerns he understands after the actions of previous regimes.

He said: "I'm so emotionally tied up in the club that I did not want to see it fail and that's why my family have got involved.

"I've been involved through all the traumas and was in the Social Club for three days of negotiations with the Inland Revenue to secure the CVA when the club came within 20 minutes of closing down.

"We are all out-and-out York City supporters. When the crisis occurred, Sophie had a good working knowledge of what was going on as she had been working at the club.

"She became a Trust board member very quickly so she was the catalyst and encouraged Jason and myself to become more active.

I can fully understand fans' concerns because of the past but all I would say is look what's happened since our family have been involved with the club.

"The whole emphasis is on getting things right for the future. We are not in it for the profits. We are there to make a contribution.

"There's no other benefit elsewhere from a commercial point of view and that's because of the safeguards that have been put in place that we agreed to over Bootham Crescent. We don't get paid and we don't want salaries.

"We were invited to look at the circumstances, we were not pushing to become the club's owners and we really do only have the best interests of the football club at heart and I mean that very sincerely.

"There's been a change in ownership balance but the situation has been safeguarded and we now have a better focus and management drive to push forward."