The Canadian musician supersizing Dumbarton FC Women: ‘The players are a megaphone for the team’

‘If I finish one day in a position where our athletes are being paid, that’s a win for me,’ says Dumbarton owner Mario Lapointe. Photograph: Courtesy of Dumbarton

“A lot of people ask me the same thing,” says a laughing Mario Lapointe, on how a Canadian songwriter and entrepreneur became owner of the Scottish lower league club Dumbarton 12 months ago. “When I was looking for a football club, this club kept calling me back – not literally.

“For example, I wrote a song in 1992 which had a lyric about sitting on the rock, and Dumbarton’s stadium is called the Rock. It’s also on the river and I wrote a lot of lyrics about rivers and ships, so it felt meant to be.”