A dream gone up in smoke - Profile: Brooks Mileson

ONCE upon a time there was talk of a Hollywood movie: an epic tale of the rise of the underdog and of a miracle achieved through faith alone. Think Field Of Dreams meets Seabiscuit, set against a backdrop of wedding rings, anvils and football.

Two years on, the story of the rise and fall of tiny Gretna FC still has enormous cinematic potential – but as a bleak, Ken Loach-style drama about self-delusion and thwarted ambition. Then and now, of course, the central character remains the same: Brooks Mileson, the ponytailed, Lucozade-swilling maverick who took the village team on a rollercoaster ride from non-league obscurity to the SPL, and then into administration, in six short years.

But the question any director would have to resolve is this: should the 60-year-old entrepreneur be played as an oddball philanthropist whose passion for football shook up the Scottish game? Or as a fantasist whose misguided obsession left a trail of destruction in its wake?

It's a conundrum that must have played on the minds of the handful of fans who travelled to yesterday's clash against Aberdeen. With Mileson still apparently ill with a brain infection and tabloid tales of mounting debts, should they feel they have been left in the lurch? Or grateful for the brief, but glittering dalliance with success his patronage afforded them?

Even before Gretna's happily-ever-after came to an abrupt end, Mileson was a man who divided opinion. There has never been any doubting his charisma: from the moment the entrepreneur, who made his money in construction and insurance, first appeared at Gretna's ramshackle Raydale Park in 2002 and offered then-manager Rowan Alexander £20,000 for the club's youth development scheme, his eccentric charm and dedication was unmistakable.

As owner, his boyish enthusiasm remained intact: by buying players – often at the end of their careers – from higher divisions, he built a team capable of taking on much bigger footballing fish. As Gretna enjoyed promotion after promotion, Mileson was often to be found helping out in the ticket office. Spurning a seat in the executive box, the 100-a-day smoker preferred to watch with other fans on the stands. Players even said he would vacuum under their feet during team talks.

To some, his minnows were the answer to the Old Firm's stranglehold on the Scottish game. In 2006, when Gretna became the smallest club ever to make it to a modern Scottish Cup Final, journalists came from across the globe to see Hearts win a dramatic penalty shootout.

Yet others perceived Gretna as annoying upstarts, and Mileson as a mini-Roman Abramovich, paying for success with little regard for the wider game. They moaned that his players were better paid than any outside the SPL, sneered at the prospect of a 6,000-seater stadium in a town with a population of 2,705, and warned that the team's ascent was unsustainable.

Some doubted Mileson's motives. They speculated that his investment was little more than an ego trip or that he would drop the team as soon as he got bored. "When people question my integrity, when people say: 'Why is he doing it? What's in it for him?' I resent that," he said. "My wealth, to use that awful word, has been created by dealing with the man in the street, and this is my way of putting something back."

Mileson, a committed Christian, has always needed to prove his detractors wrong. Told he would never make the sports team after breaking his back in a quarry at the age of 11, he took up running. He won the bronze medal in the 1967 English cross-country junior championships – then stopped. "It was the happiest day of my life," he said. "I hated every minute of running, but I had something to prove."

Mileson has since suffered myriad health scares – several heart attacks, stomach problems and even ME. But until last month, nothing seemed to slow him. "The worst thing you can do with that (ME] is to give in," he said. "You have to fight it. When you stop and rest, that's when it hits you. The good thing about my lifestyle is that I live on adrenaline. If you're getting a buzz out of things, it helps you overcome it."

The oldest of five children, he was born in Pennywell, an estate in Sunderland, and his life could have been a traditional rags to riches story. But in fact Mileson's parents, both Salvationists, worked hard to make sure their children got a good education. After he was made redundant in 1982, he set up his first construction firm, before branching out into insurance. Although estimates of his wealth vary, he is said to have sold two companies for £17m and £48.6m.

Mileson has an abiding affection for animals, and runs a sanctuary with ostriches, emus, wallabies, monkeys, pigs and goats on his estate in Blackford in Cumbria. But his greatest passion is for football and he has long nurtured small teams in much the same way. His donations have bolstered the funds of at least 70 non-league clubs. When Mileson failed to buy his own team, Carlisle United, he turned his attention to the runt of the litter, Gretna.

It was then languishing in the Unibond league and attracting gates of around 400. He bottle-fed it to health, paying off its debts, tidying up the ground and buying players as Gretna won entry to the Scottish League set-up and embarked on a heady rise. But Mileson also invested in community projects, such as anti-drugs and racism initiatives and the club's football academy. Indeed, casting an eye over his many donations, you could get the impression that, at times, he couldn't divest himself of his millions fast enough.

For a while the club was unstoppable, but even before Gretna made the SPL the dream had started to turn sour. Trying, perhaps, to put the brakes on a runaway train, Mileson – whose son Craig is the club's operations director – started to make cutbacks in the youth department. Then his relationship with Alexander faltered. The manager went on sick leave and was refused entry when he turned up for the club's first SPL match against Falkirk. Three months later he was sacked.

Now in administration, Gretna have been offered a lifeline in a £100,000 advance on their SPL prize money. Another £100,000 in gate receipts from their forthcoming match with Celtic could see them limp along until next month's SPL 'split'. Beyond that, who knows?

In an interview last year, Mileson, said: "This club is in my soul. I would have ended up croaking if I had not come to Gretna." Equally, everything the club has achieved in the last few years has been the product of his commitment – and his wallet. Deprived of their mutual life support machines, it's impossible to predict the long-term prospects for either.

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After the 2006 Scottish Cup final, Mileson struck up a close friendship with fellow maverick, Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov, right, and was invited to see Scotland playing Lithuania at the St Darius and St Girenas Stadium in Kaunas.

• He didn't take up smoking until he was 48.

• Mileson claims childhood poverty forced him and one of his four siblings to share wellies.

• Always keen to offer incentives, Mileson loaned striker Kenny Deuchar his Aston Martin for scoring a hat-trick in a Scottish cup tie. He promised to buy him a Jaguar if he scored the winner in the final. He didn't.

• Mileson, in 2004: "We're not Rangers or Celtic, nor will we ever be. We're just a nice, little professional club who try to do things properly. Of course they can't sustain themselves. Of course there is no population, but I've never walked away from anything in my life. No matter what happens, I will always make sure Gretna are looked after."