Chris Garland has recently joined the club as Head of Operations, having previously worked at Hull City, Dundee United, Tranmere Rovers and Everton. Chris will provide strategic leadership, direction and support to the Crown Oil Arena operations departments, including Match Operations, Safety, Security and Maintenance. He will lead the management of all facilities operated by the Club to ensure a first-class experience for supporters, visitors and club stakeholders.
George Delves is appointed into the new role of Head of Football Operations and Administration. Working alongside Head Coach Jimmy McNulty and reporting to the Board of Directors, as well as Men’s First Team matters, George will also be responsible for further developing Women’s football at the club, as well as rebuilding Youth football provision. Additionally, there will now be closer liaison with both Rochdale AFC Community Trust and Dale Futures (a soon-to-launch community-focused organisation established in partnership between The Ogden Trust and Rochdale AFC Community Trust) on their respective football-related community and education programmes via this new role.
Day to day, internally, George will continue to oversee areas such as player contracts and registrations, football budgets, and fixture planning, while externally, George will remain the primary point of contact between Rochdale AFC and The National League (and other competitions in which club teams compete), The Football Association, and other football-related regulatory bodies.
Finally, Andy Duff has been appointed as the Managing Director of Rochdale AFC.
In his new role, Andy will be responsible for the management of all areas of the Club’s organisation off the field, including the overall budget of the Football Club, Commercial, Operations and Marketing & Communications departments, as well as implementing key performance criteria across the staff-base, with a view to improving productivity and quality of delivery.
As MD, Andywill be responsible for implementing an effective business model with resources agreed by the Board of Directors, growing the supporter base of Rochdale AFC and expanding revenue streams. Andy will manage and implement the key strategic projects alongside the Board and ownership group and work together with the Director of Rochdale AFC Community Trust to deliver positive outcomes for the Rochdale Community.
Externally, Andy will pick up the responsibility of establishing and maintaining sound relationships with all external stakeholders, including Rochdale Borough Council, Rochdale Hornets and Rochdale AFC’s commercial sponsors.
These changes are effective immediately. We hope all supporters welcome the changes as we work to strengthen the organisation and fulfil the ambitions of the Ogden Family.
