Owner Matt Ford back in the UK 'to play a different role' at Poole Pirates

Poole Pirates owner Matt Ford insisted he would play a “different role” on his return to running the club back in the UK.

The businessman, who first took control in 1998, has spent the past seven years living in France at his Chateau La Briance base while son Danny took over the day-to-day running.

But with Ford now set to return to the UK permanently, he insisted he would be running the business alongside his son as Poole look to add more success to their trophy-laden history in the Ford era.

Speaking to the Bournemouth Echo, Matt Ford said: “Dan and I have had a long chat about this because there's parts of the business that he's clearly much better at running.

“In terms of all of the social media presence and getting the club out there. At some point each month we've had a million impressions on social media and we need to capitalise on that fact.

“Danny can help me, when I'm meeting new people now to hopefully become involved with the club, Danny can give me all of those facts and figures and he's ran the club very well in a very successful period.

“Since we've been into the Championship, of course I've been away so we went into Championship just after the pandemic and it's been an incredibly successful period.

“He's won 10 trophies out of a possible 13. It's been a very successful period for the club and I hope that Dan and I, whilst I'm sure there will always be those points of just the father-son relationship that we may not agree on everything.

“I'm really coming back to play a different role to that that I played before. It's more to try to build the club and the structure of the club and Dan can take care of the everyday running of the club as he has done and he's still the hands on but I'll be around all the time also now.”

Pirates, who were set to meet with sponsors this weekend, have confirmed their on-track line-up for 2026.

Richard Lawson, Zach Cook, Lewis Kerr, Dan Gilkes, Fraser Bowes, Will Cairns and Cooper Rushen will fly the flag for Poole next season.

(Picture: Taylor Lanning Photography)