Mormon’s £100m faith in Dundee

After years of careful stewardship in the hands of the Gellatly family, the club have attracted a variety of intriguing suitors, from Angus Cook, the Dundee chairman who attempted to buy Dundee United, to Ron Dixon, the Canadian who thought greyhound racing was the way forward at Dens Park. From Giovanni Di Stefano, the businessman with links to Serbian war criminal Arkan, to Prince Obie Okehi, the African linked to the club in the mid-Nineties. The current large-as-life owners, the Marr family, have ensured that the cult of personality is alive and well at Dens Park.

The latest man to declare an interest in the team might yet prove the most colourful of the lot, however. And probably the most incredible. Already committed to investing 250,000 in a shirt sponsorship deal and a further 250,000 should Jim Duffy’s side win a cup or qualify for Europe, McCallum yesterday said this figure could yet rise to an unimaginable 100million. This, of course, will never happen, but yesterday McCallum spoke of his mission with a religious zeal - quite fitting for an avowed Mormon.

McCallum, who spent his first 18 years in the city, prides himself in being known as "Britain’s answer to Bill Gates". Having apparently accumulated a fortune through Jini Global, an internet service provider that is only a year old, he wishes to pass on his wealth to those less blessed. And Dundee, who recently announced losses of 2.5million for the last financial year, seem as needy a cause as any.

It is not simply benevolence which brings the 47-year-old McCallum back to Dundee from his base in Chorley, where he lives next door to a Mormon temple. He says a certain sense of guilt has urged him to return home, having also admitted to sneaking into Dens as a boy in order to watch the team play, his parents being too poor to offer him the money required to gain legitimate entry.

He lived on the Mid Craigie estate in the city, and his father Robert - a Dundee United supporter - lives in Dundee to this day. "He understands what I am doing," said McCallum, who admits to knowing next to nothing about football, but a lot about the world wide web. He only started his present company last year, and claims it was valued at 45million. "One of our men recently came back from the States, where they are talking now of trillions!" he gushed.

There are few hard facts about Jini Global in the public domain. The company is not listed on the Stock Market, and no accounts have been filed yet at Companies House. According to one of the company’s own websites, "in the six months leading up to 31 March 2002 they (Jini Global plc) turned over 1.4million with some of the products that Jinibiz [an arm of Jini Global] are marketing".

The same website describes Jini Global as "one of the largest internet service providers in the north west of England".

Even if the sale of Jini Global raised millions - or indeed trillions - gifting huge amounts of cash to a football club for no stake in return would be a new phenomenon.

McCallum says his religious convictions inspired him to create a porn and alcohol-free internet search engine. He says a famous brand of whisky and a downmarket publisher wished to become associated with him at the start, but he said no. Dundee, however, fit his moral profile, it appears.

"I know this does not add up," he said yesterday. "But I am from a religious background which does not work on logic. We pray about things, then make a decision. The company has a video called The Miracle. That is what we believe in."

When not citing Bill Gates as a reference point, McCallum points to Jack Walker, the Lancashire based steel magnate who financed Blackburn Rovers to the tune of millions and who saw them win the Premiership title before his death last year. Asked whether 100million is a feasible sum to invest in a club such as Dundee, without a major trophy over 30 years, McCallum said: "Absolutely!"

He continued: "What we have realised is that the club is not going to go anywhere fast without money. We are a global company. One of the things we are looking at is selling our company for a billion, and then putting money back into different things. One of these things is Dundee Football Club, and it would have to be a figure of about 100million. We realise that putting in 2million or 3million would not make much difference."

Aside from his own boyhood affection for the team, McCallum says he was drawn back to Dens by a friend, Tom Anderson, who died last year. An avid Dundee fan, Anderson would constantly pester McCallum about putting money into the club, and the businessman has now honoured his memory with this financial commitment to the club, although surely even his friend would have been astonished by the proposed scale of this involvement.

"We were both Mormons," said McCallum of Anderson. "We went to the same church. I came up to a game against Dundee United last year. He died, but the club kept on asking me aboard. Eventually I said, ‘oh well, we’ll give them some cash’."

A club spokesman yesterday confirmed the club had been chasing McCallum for over two years. "This is an extremely significant development," said the spokesman. "I have to be measured in what I say, but he is a lovely guy to deal with, and he appears to have fallen in love with the club again. We will just take it one step at a time."

McCallum was at Dens for the opening day of the season, and will attend most games. With a new office opening in Dundee, he intends to "look around" and see where else could benefit from his generosity.

Before his religious conversion, McCallum was a heavy gambler, and he admits this might be a sign of a relapse. "From a gambling point of view, you can’t win unless you do something. Everything is wide open just now. We will see how it goes, explore all the avenues. We looked at the club’s last five years, and decided something big had to happen. We are going to run with Dundee and they with us."

The Old Firm are of course in his sights, and he believes Dundee can in time become realistic competitors. "Look at Prince Naseem Hamed. He was apparently unbeatable, then was knocked out. Look at the internet, you can go from being a small player to being a global player very, very quickly."