Marc White is the kind of football figure who divides opinion. His social media outbursts have gone viral countless times, and he is instantly recognisable to anyone who follows non-League football closely. Yet his track record speaks louder than any controversy.
For 27 years, White has been the driving force behind Dorking Wanderers. He founded the club alongside friends in 1999, and remains its chairman, manager and public face. The journey from park pitches to the second tier of the non-League pyramid represents one of English football's most remarkable underdog stories.
After a recent FA Cup second qualifying round victory against Southall FC, White posted a reminder of how far the club had travelled.
Thanks for tonight to all of our loyal supporters & never forget we were in Crawley & District Division 5. Step 17.That post encapsulated the scale of the achievement: 12 promotions across more than two decades, each one harder than the last.
In the 2022/23 season, Dorking finished 16th in the National League—their highest finish to date and the closest they have come to the English Football League, which remains the stated objective. The momentum seemed unstoppable. Yet the club has since dropped back to the National League South, where they currently sit eighth with 16 points after 10 matches.
Now, however, White has secured the backing he needs to push forward again. US entrepreneur Frank Villares and his wife Debra Tucker have joined the club as co-owners and growth investors, bringing both capital and international ambition to Meadowbank.
Villares first became involved through the 'Rise With Us' campaign in 2024, which allowed supporters to purchase shares in the club. The initiative aimed to fund football operations, youth development and long-term infrastructure projects. The target was £180,013, but the response exceeded expectations: 746 investors raised £333,180 in total.
Speaking to Sky Sports at the club's Meadowbank home, White explained how the partnership came about.
Frank and Debra are massive English football fans and there's this huge enthusiasm for the English pyramid in the US as that's the one thing the US money can't buy,he said.
They were actually looking around for a bigger interest in a club. They wanted to be more involved and I was actually helping them with that, telling them what to watch out for. They'd gone to four or five clubs and a deal fell through last minute so I just said: 'Don't forget, there's always Dorking Wanderers!' It just felt like everything had gone wrong for a positive reason.
The couple's involvement extends beyond financial investment. According to the club's official announcement, Villares and Tucker's stated areas of involvement include football operations, infrastructure development and community growth, including making grassroots football more accessible and affordable locally.
White painted a picture of two individuals at a particular stage of life, ready to commit to a long-term project.
They are both 40 plus VAT and they're in a position now in life where they want to really enjoy and have a project and they want to win - Frank has even put a picture of the team at Wembley, an AI job, on his vision board!
They're perfect because they trust us to run it, but they want to be involved as well. This is just the beginning.
Villares and Tucker are not the only new shareholders. A consortium led by former professional ice hockey player James Sixsmith also acquired a shareholding in the summer. White sees this as part of a deliberate strategy to surround the club with ambitious, success-driven individuals.
We want to surround this club with people that want to succeed and want to win and James is very similar,White explained.
We're really lucky. James and Daryl [Cumberland] from his consortium are part of that mechanism behind it all. As we go up the divisions and as we find more success, their involvement will become greater and greater.
The chairman outlined his vision for how the new investment would be deployed.
I want to say to the people involved: 'Listen, here's the thing. If we put in another X million, we could actually get to the Championship or we can build a stadium and we can do X, Y and Z. We've got big players in our setup that are going to enable us, not just financially, but also in terms of decision-making and having the right mindset towards growth.
The legacy of Dorking Wanderers is to find a way to progress. What people love about the club is the underdog story of coming from nowhere to somewhere. We have to find a way for that to continue.
Investment and the off-field game
White was careful not to overstate the impact of the new funding.
The investment has made things easier. But in football, everything you do, whether it's on or off the field, costs a lot of money. We're by no means set for life, not in a million years. We're just in a position where we can add some things, largely off the field.
But that kind of off-field investment can generate more income, which we can invest on the field, hopefully. That's where the success cycle comes; win more games, more fans, promotion, more fans.
He reflected on the economics of professional football more broadly.
There's not one football club in the world that really profits. You might get the odd one but, in general, someone somewhere is putting time, effort and money into a football club. Off the field is the largest part of the football club.
You're in the entertainment business and you've only got one show a week normally. The rest is all hard work.
Much of that hard work is documented on the YouTube channel Bunch of Amateurs, which captures the behind-the-scenes reality of running a non-League club. The channel has grown to more than 200,000 subscribers and attracts a genuinely global audience.
The scale of that reach is staggering.
We had half a billion unique views last year of the club. Half a billion. Ten times the average Premier League club. My thing is to part capitalise on that, but part deliver. Imagine what happens to that with more promotions?
That global audience has tangible consequences.
As a result, every single match there's someone from Australia, New Zealand or America. They'd be the three top places every game.
White shared an anecdote that illustrated the surreal nature of the club's international profile.
I went down to Costa one morning to get a coffee. It opened at 7am and I looked like I'd just been f*****g dug up. Two people came in with these Dorking Wanderers shirts on. They were American and had just got off a flight and they couldn't believe they'd seen me.
It's a bit surreal like that, but it's all positive. I like the recognition I get. I don't really get any bad words about me from anyone that knows the game. I quite like the recognition of the hard work that's gone into it because it would be easy just to think I just swear at refs. Obviously, there's a lot more to me!
V2: the next chapter
Throughout the interview, White repeatedly returned to the concept of V2—the next version of Dorking Wanderers. V1 had taken the club from park fields to the second tier of non-League football. V2, he believed, would take them into the Football League and beyond.
V1 took us from the park fields to where we are today,he said.
Everything is teeing up this club to have a V2. We're better equipped now.
I think we need to get promoted again really soon. Next year or two minimum. We then need to try and do a bit of a double and then try and break into the Football League.
The ambition is bold, but White believes it is justified.
I think breaking into the Football League genuinely will make us one of the world's greatest sporting successes. As big as that sounds. I don't know f*****g any others!
One practical obstacle remains: White does not hold the coaching badges required to manage in the EFL. However, he dismissed this as a minor hurdle.
We'll take care of that, that's fine,he said.
The dream really is to be in there. I'd love it.
Global ambitions
Yet White's vision extends far beyond the Football League. He articulated an ambition that captures the essence of what Dorking has become: a local club with a global following.
I feel like we really want to be the whole world's local club,he said.
We believe we're the pioneers of like real, relatable content with a local football team. It's given us this global stage and that trying to capitalise on that and people feeling like they belong to a local community, even if they live in Mississippi.
Villares has experienced this phenomenon firsthand.
Frank tells me he can't believe how many times he gets stopped in America - even in Texas, someone said to him 'I love Dorking!'.
We want to just like continue to put the club on a global reach - and we identify with the fact that winning will be a part of that. So we have to find a way to win.
The immediate challenge
For all the long-term planning, the immediate focus remains on the current season. Dorking recently progressed in the FA Cup, with the club beating Chatham Town 1–0 in the third qualifying round on 3 October 2026.
In the league, the task is to climb back towards the top of the National League South. White acknowledged the familiar pressures of the season.
Standard stuff, really. Stressful. We've done alright. Loads of injuries, all that s**t. Standard modern football,he said as he prepared to leave for a podcast recording.
Dorking are always in the mix, so we'll be there again.
The next test arrives quickly. Dorking are scheduled to visit Dover Athletic in the National League South on 10 October 2026, with Dover sitting a point and a place above them in the table.
There is no time for reflection or sentiment at Dorking. Only the next challenge, the next promotion, and the next step towards a vision that once seemed impossible but now feels within reach. With Villares, Tucker and Sixsmith's backing, and a global fanbase that continues to grow, the club has the resources and the platform to make V2 a reality.
