In February 1998, he took over Crystal Palace Football Club for £23.8 million and left it in administration a year later with debts of £22 million. Goldberg purchasing the club from long-serving chairman Ron Noades. Palace were relegated from the FA Premier League that season - for the third time in six years. The takeover deal also saw Italian Serie A side Juventus have a 10% stake in Palace, with a view to Juventus players being loaned or sold to Palace. Goldberg also set a target into turning Palace into a leading European club by 2003. At the end of the 1997-98 season, he appointed Terry Venables as head coach and former manager Steve Coppell as Director of football. The club was not successful under his chairmanship and in January 1999 it was taken over by administrators who counted £22 million of debts, including £2m owed to Terry Venables and £7m to banks, the remainder to football clubs, players and HMRC. The club also failed to reach the standards set when Goldberg took over, with their financial crisis not being solved until a takeover by Simon Jordan was completed more than a year later, and a return to the Premier League was not achieved until 2004.
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 George Wakeling 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 and reaching the First Round of the FA Cup before losing 4-1 to League One side Gillingham. Goldberg left Bromley during the 2007-08 season, to be succeeded by Simon Osborn, but returned to the club at the end of the season. In April 2009, Goldberg suffered serious damage to his knee ligament while playing for Bromley Veterans in an Isthmian Veterans Cup semi-final. This injury caused him to be absent from the dugout for at least the remainder of the 2008-09 season. In January 2011 he again left the club due to an internal disagreement. On 18 June 2011 Goldberg returned to Bromley after the appointment of a new club chairman, Ashley Reading. Goldberg agreed to step down as manager on 4 February 2016.
