Mark Goldberg

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Mark Goldberg is an English football club chairman and manager, who is currently in his second spell in charge of Bromley. He originally made his fortune in the recruitment industry, becoming a millionaire.

In 1997, he was linked with purchasing Premier League club Crystal Palace, a club he has been a big fan of, from long-time chairman Ron Noades. At first this was thought to be simply speculation but soon developed into a serious story. Noades offered the club and its Selhurst Park stadium to Goldberg for £30million (with a £3million option to be used for playing staff), considered by most to be an extortionate amount for a club that was likely to be relegated from the Premier League. Nevertheless Goldberg had agreed to this deal and went out to raise funds. He came back to Noades after he had run out of time on the £3million option claiming he had only £22.8million, an amount that led Noades to suggest that Goldberg could purchase just the club and not the stadium for that total, and the club would be handed a ten year lease to continue playing there (this continued until 2006, when Noades sold the ground to Paul Kemsley who was a Director of Spurs). However it soon came to light that Goldberg only actually had £18million, gained from promises from investors, and so was loaned £5million from Noades to make up the complete total.

The deal went through and Goldberg was installed as Palace chairman. His first move was to change the manager, with the long-serving Steve Coppell moved to Director of Football and Italy international Attilio Lombardo and the soon-to-retire Tomas Brolin taking over as player-managers. This was considered strange, considering that Lombardo did not speak English, and was the side's star-player, rather than a fringe-player who would be able to concentrate on management more. The duo did not last long in these roles, and, just as bizarrely, Goldberg appointed none other than former owner Noades, alongside coach Ray Lewington, as caretaker manager.

The club were relegated from the Premier League, finishing bottom of the table by a big margin.

In order to "secure further investment" in the club, Goldberg installed former-England Head Coach Terry Venables (who had started his managerial career at Palace, then left in acrimonious circumstances) as Palace Head Coach (no reason has ever been given as to why he was "Head Coach" rather than "manager"). Palace stormed to the top of the First Division with the side putting together some strong performances. However the club was now surrounded in unrest with Goldberg's financial backers withdrawing their support.

The club's highest earners, Venables and Lombardo, were allowed to leave in hope of reducing the wage bill significantly. Steve Coppell resumed the role of manager as the club slid towards liquidation. Goldberg was then replaced by Peter Morley and the club put in administration.

Goldberg himself had lost his entire fortune and was in debt. The Goldberg family helped him climb out of this and he returned to a normal life working in agency.

Goldberg's brother-in-law, Jerry Dolke, had become chairman of non-league Bromley and during the 2005-06 season the pair announced the controversial decision that Goldberg would replace the highly successful and highly popular Billy Smith and his management team, who had led to the Premier Division of the Isthmian League, and then secured survival by a long distance.

Goldberg's start in management was successful, leading Bromley to promotion into the Conference South division via the play-offs. His first pre-season included a tie against the youth team of Crystal Palace and his competitive start was good, with Bromley topping the Premier Division after his first eleven games (even having two games in hand), and managing to reach the First Round of the FA Cup, and a tie at League One side Gillingham. Bromley did lose the game by four goals to one, but they had still made a good job to get to the First Round.

Goldberg left Bromley during the 2007-2008 season, to be succeeded by Simon Osborn, but returned to the club at the end of the season.

Preceded by Ron Noades	Crystal Palace chairman 1998-1999	Succeeded by Peter Morley
Preceded by Billy Smith	Bromley manager 2006-2007	Succeeded by Vacant