How Swindon Town's new Australian owner Clem Morfuni is rebuilding a fallen club

Josh Thomas

•
How Swindon Town's new Australian owner Clem Morfuni is rebuilding a fallen club image

Relegated to League Two. A paper-thin squad. No manager. 

Historic English club Swindon Town seemed destined to spiral into oblivion this season - that was until Australian plumbing magnate Clem Morfuni stepped in.

Already boasting shares in the team, Morfuni decided to go all in last month as he completed a takeover of the club in an attempt to get Swindon back on track. 

While it's still early days, the Aussie has wasted no time reinvigorating the side on and off the pitch. 

Bolstered by the appointment of manager Ben Garner and numerous player signings over the past month, Swindon have started the new season in solid fashion. 

They won their first game back in League Two against Scunthorpe 3-1 last weekend and took League One club Cambridge United to penalties before bowing out in the Carabao Cup this week. 

That Scunthorpe victory came away from home with 800 loyal Swindon fans making the 640-kilometre trip to support a club that has been reclaimed by supporters since Morfuni's arrival. 

A die-hard fan of the Robins himself, the plumber-turned-businessman is putting far more than just his money into the club.

This week Morfuni personally drove a truck around the town to engage with fans and promote the club's push to sign up 6,000 season ticket holders. 

The Swindon owner even got behind the ticket booth himself at one stage as the club surged past the halfway mark of its membership target. 

“I think the momentum is good right now, so we just need to make sure we maintain it. That shouldn’t be an issue for us because we’ve got so many good people at the club," Morfuni told the Swindon Advertisor on Thursday. 

“I’ve always got ideas about what else we can do, but it will be a case of going through them and seeing when is the best time to do it. We have ideas all the time, and usually when we have an idea we get on and do it.

“You can see over the past three weeks what we’ve done, we have ideas, and we act on them quickly. We don’t procrastinate, and that’s why we are where we are today.”

Swindon host their first home game of the new season at the County Ground on Sunday morning (AEST) against Carlisle United, who drew 0-0 with Colchester last weekend. 

While it's too soon to say how the Robins will go on the pitch this season, it's safe to say they're heading in the direction off it with a passionate Aussie owner at the helm. 

Josh Thomas