Back at the start of the year, rumours started flying around Bedfordshire football circles about the takeover of a small tenth-tier football club by a Bedford-based podcaster with ambitions for the Premier League.
National media took interest in the story, not only because of the new owner’s outlandish claims to reach the Premier League in a decade but also because he said he would do it using Bitcoin. That podcaster was Peter McCormack, and the club was Step 6 side, Bedford FC.
Fast forward ten months and the club has been renamed Real Bedford FC and sits at the top of the Spartan South Midlands Division 1 table having won 11 out of their first 12 league games. It looks like the plan is working.
“It’s been an incredible first year in football for me,” says McCormack, from his comfortable open-plan kitchen on the outskirts of Bedford.
“I initially hoped to take over Bedford Town FC, who are a couple of leagues higher than we are but they didn’t want to sell. So we went for the next best thing, which was Bedford FC,” says McCormack.
Bedford FC was originally formed all the way back in 1957 as the footballing team of Bedford printing company Diemer & Reynolds. Over the next half a century it had various mergers with other clubs, changed its name half a dozen times – including a long spell as Bedford United – and called a number of different grounds home. However, although it saw the odd relegation and promotion it never really rose up the leagues and languished around the bottom of the English football pyramid.
“It was much more complicated than I anticipated because most clubs at this level are actually membership organisations with committees, rather than companies with boards,” he says. “We had to untangle a lot of accounts and relationships to be able to rename and take over the club.”
McCormack and his new team, eventually took over the club in time for the start of the 2022/23 season, renaming the club Real Bedford – “Like Real Madrid, but in Bedford.”
“During the second half of last season, I learnt a huge amount about football and made a lot of mistakes during that time too,” he confesses.
“But the learnings I took from that period have stood us in really good stead for the start of our new campaign.”
McCormack explains that he introduced wage caps to ensure “we attracted players who believed in the mission and aren’t just after money,” and brought in exciting young manager Rob Sinclair.
Sinclair was already building his reputation by turning around nearby club Eynesbury when he joined Real Bedford at McMullen Park.
“We knew when we met Rob that he was our man. He’s played professionally at a high level and has a great network locally to tap into, plus he’s just a really solid guy,” McCormack says.
And it seems it has worked wonders so far. Real Bedford had won every league game bar one, under Rob Sinclair so far this season, leaving them with 33 points, and comfortably top of the league.
Off the pitch Real Bedford has invested extensively on the ground and its infrastructure, and has partnered with Bedford Ladies and Girls – giving the Ladies a new home, a new kit and a new incentive to join the men in their pursuit of climbing the leagues.
Another partnership with Bedford Park Rangers has created a pathway for young players to have the chance to play the adult game, as Real Bedford has also provided them with kits, facilities and support to enable any young child in Bedford the chance to play football. And as if 45 teams under their banner weren’t enough, they are next setting up a disabilities team.
But Real Bedford’s success will very much lie on the success or failure of the Bitcoin community that McCormack is very much a key figure in.
“I have a podcast all about Bitcoin that has an audience of over a million Bitcoiners around the world. These people love anything to do with Bitcoin so having Bitcoin on our shirts and Bitcoin sponsors around the pitch, really enables us to tap into an international audience that many local teams simply can’t do,” he says.
McCormack live streams the games to audiences around the world, many of whom go on to buy Real Bedford merchandise and spread the word of the club that is increasingly being nicknamed the Pirates due to its Skull and Crossbones logo.
Over 1,500 shirts have been sold so far this season to new fans – many who are discovering football for the first time and most who had previously never even heard of Bedford.
And it’s not just an international crowd who are following this new team – the community in Bedford seem to be loving it too. With gates of only 20 or 30 last season the average attendance so far this season has been around 200, with a younger, family-friendly crowd, it is fast becoming a major weekend event for many Bedford families.
“We’re on the start of a very exciting journey,” says McCormack. “And we’re going to be putting Bedford on the map!”
Get daily FREE news here:
Sign up to get your own daily update of Bedfordshire News — It’s free.
