Having offered 40 per cent of influencer advertising company, Goat, in 2021, Harry Hugo had made his fortune at 26 – and he realised that, by the age of 30, he would have the uncommon luxurious of not needing to work once more.
So, by his personal admission, he chased moments of “instant gratification”. However he additionally knew he wanted to discover a objective.
Sooner or later, he and his pals – who had labored with him since he began his first enterprise aged 16 – visited a Ferrari storage. He had his eyes on a 458 Spyder in black.
“My mate asked me why I was considering buying it,” he tells Sky Sports activities.
“My solely reply was that it might be enjoyable. That wasn’t a ok reply, so I challenged my mates to provide you with one thing that would supply as a lot enjoyable for the cash.
“The first suggestion was, why don’t we buy a football club – and I thought that was quite a good idea!”
The group constructed a matrix to rank the non-League golf equipment inside a 50-mile radius of his residence. Leatherhead got here out on high, so Hugo adopted the Tanners – then within the Isthmian Premier Division, one under the Nationwide League South – for six months.
Hugo offered 40 per cent of influencer advertising company Goat in 2021 and the rest two years later (Picture: LJP Pictures)
When he met the board, there was scepticism, he says. “I get that as, one, it’s unusual for a young guy wanting to go and spend loads of money on a football club and, two, there have been a lot of negative stories in non-League, where people have put loads of money in then walked away.”
Hugo was left deflated when a deal to take over didn’t materialise, but he quickly realised he had not fallen in love with Leatherhead, however non-League on the whole and “the raw emotion, the old-school nature of football in its purest form.”
City takeover results in back-to-back-to-back
Quantity two on the matrix was Farnham City. Hugo had grown up in native space attended college within the city – which is round 11 miles from Guildford, Surrey – so there was a tie-in. The one draw back? They had been one other two tiers down the pyramid.
However the board had been immediately receptive and a deal was accomplished inside 5 weeks.
Quickly, the fact of what he had inherited caught up with him.
“When we walked in, it cannot be understated how s*** it was here,” he says, overlooking the pitch at The Memorial Floor, which is trying in wonderful situation, regardless of the extreme latest heatwaves.
“It was the clubhouse, a stand behind the goal… and that was it. A concrete block wall around the side of the pitch and a fence across the top. I was embarrassed to bring my wife down here!”
At the moment, it’s nearly laborious to imagine it’s the similar stadium. However extra on that shortly as, to know why that’s the case, one should take a look at Farnham’s unimaginable rise, led on the pitch by supervisor Paul Johnson.
In 2022/23 – Hugo’s first season – Farnham completed sixth within the Mixed Counties Premier Division South.
In 2023/24, they gained that very same division with 108 factors.
In 2024/25, they gained the Isthmian South Central Division with 102 factors.
Paul Johnson has been in command of Farnham City since November 2022 (Picture: LJP Pictures)
And in 2025/26, they completed second to Walton & Hersham within the Southern League Premier Division South, earlier than beating Gloucester Metropolis 5-1 within the play-off remaining to achieve the Nationwide League South.
Earlier than Hugo’s arrival, the membership had by no means performed above the ninth tier of English soccer. In 2026/27, they are going to play within the sixth.
Wrexham hyperlinks and the worth of socials
Naturally, there have been comparisons to Wrexham, who’re essentially the most high-profile instance of a membership reaching back-to-back-to-back promotions, from the Nationwide League to the Sky Wager Championship.
“I’m OK with that!” says Hugo, with fun.
“Like them, we additionally care about media, model, picture, expertise and the largest factor is that they introduced individuals up; they made extra Nationwide League and EFL groups take a look at themselves and suppose they could possibly be doing it.
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Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac replicate on their 5 years as Wrexham homeowners.
“We’re having the same impact on teams at step three, four, five and wondering, if they did it, why can’t we?”
Whereas the Purple Dragons have their Disney+ collection ‘Welcome to Wrexham’, Farnham produce ‘Non-League Diaries’, which is launched weekly on YouTube.
Hugo harnessed his connections to get social media collective The Sidemen to sponsor the staff in his first season, whereas final September, the membership went viral after former Liverpool and England striker Peter Crouch walked out as a mascot as a forfeit for shedding his Fantasy Soccer League.
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Resulting from a forfeit, Peter Crouch agreed to turn into Farnham City’s mascot – and drew a file attendance for the non-League aspect!
From 2023 till earlier this summer season, Love Island runner-up Harry Cooksley was a key member of the squad and, on TikTok, they boast over 150,000 followers.
“Social media is huge commercially, from a fan engagement and brand-awareness point of view. It’s weird the amount of people that know about Farnham Town,” Hugo provides.
Harry Cooksley (left) of Love Island fame performed a key function in Farnham’s rise (Picture: LJP Pictures)
“They might not have ever come, but they know Crouchy walked out in a full kit as a mascot or we won the play-off final 5-1 or we hold the British record for the most wins in a row in a league campaign. Other clubs have done things like it, but they can’t get the message out; they can’t tell the story.
“We have achieved a very good job of doing that and it has been a significant focus as a result of it is my background. It is the proper distribution channel that permits us to inform that story.”
Rapid rise forces need for rapid growth
Online, some accuse him of just throwing money at it. He accepts that was “a reputable level” in his second year as getting out of the ninth tier became imperative.
“Individuals who hold the lights on do a tremendous job and ensure these non-League soccer golf equipment exist, then there’s the people who find themselves making an attempt to push it ahead. That is good for everyone,” he says.
“Farnham doing issues for the primary time and being as profitable as we have now been on and off the pitch drives all people to be higher. Individuals have gone from hating us to admiring us as a result of they’ve seen somebody who’s genuinely invested on this and desires to do it sustainably for the long-term.
“I don’t hide in a corporate box and I genuinely love football. I’m Farnham’s number one fan, and the chairman second. I’ve never been an anxious person, but I hate the 90 minutes because it means so much to me, which is why I do commentary. It’s like therapy to me because I’m so nervous!”
Farnham’s rise on the pitch has put pressure – a welcome one at that – on Hugo and people off the pitch. Every promotion has introduced a nine-month deadline for the membership to deliver their stadium as much as the necessities for that stage. The official capability is at present 2,300, however by March 31 2027, it must be 3,000.
However they haven’t centered solely on that this summer season. There are spectacular new stands, however the entire membership has acquired a makeover of the best order. The transformation is placing.
“It’s constant money, but also planning. I love that, but I think it’s really important for people to understand it’s not just about winning on the pitch,” Hugo says.
“There’s so much you have to think about off the pitch if you’re as successful as we’ve been. It’s not just about throwing money at it; it’s about being strategic.
“The great factor is we’ll have introduced a fanbase via that take nothing with no consideration as a result of they’ve seen the place we have come from. Hopefully everybody comes right down to assist the soccer membership as a result of we’ll must put plenty of money again within the coffers with the work we have achieved.”
Speaking of cash, Hugo is incredibly transparent on social media with the financial side of things. He often posts details on X, highlighting the importance of the spend-per-head metric. Why?
“Because moving the dial from an average attendance of 1,000 to 1,500 is disproportionately harder than getting someone to spend £18, not £15, inside the ground. Once you get someone in and you give them opportunities to spend, that is way easier than trying to get someone brand new in.
“That is not essentially about placing costs up, extra giving them alternatives to spend on higher issues.
“That metric has improved massively since we’ve been involved, without the ticket prices going up much at all. We are a cheap day out.”
The EFL is not only a pipe dream
Farnham’s rise has been so fast that it’s laborious to imagine they’re solely two promotions from Sky Wager League Two. The ambition to get there may be important – and rising.
“The biggest thing that drives me is that Surrey doesn’t have an EFL team. That’s ridiculous,” says Hugo. “How doesn’t one of the most affluent counties, so close to London, not have one of the 92 EFL teams?!
“Woking and Sutton are in the league above us and when we started, Sutton were in the EFL and we were in step five. Now there’s one league between us. Who’s to say Farnham can’t get in ahead of all the others? Three years ago, I didn’t even consider that.
“We all know how one can get promotions. I do know it takes every thing, a lot stuff that individuals do not see, however we will really arise and say we predict we will get to the EFL and we have confirmed we all know how one can do it, although we all know it’ll get tougher.
“We are obviously going to try and get promoted again this season because that’s in our nature, but would it be the end of the world if we didn’t? Absolutely not. But we’ve only ever been promoted, so it’s going to be a weird feeling if we get to the end of the season and we don’t have a pitch invasion!
“Some clubs will go through a chairman’s lifetime and never have one – we’ve had four in four years. I’m OK with our pitch not being invaded this year! It means we’d have time to figure out our facility, get it ready, so it would be National League, EFL ready.”
A protracted journey undoubtedly lies forward, however it might take a courageous particular person to wager in opposition to Hugo and Farnham, who’ve already modified perceptions of what a contemporary non-League membership may be.
A number of years on from that day within the Ferrari storage, it’s definitely honest to say Farnham’s younger chairman has discovered the aim he was looking for.
