Every LOI Club Needs a Supporters Trust

[A face]

Every LOI Club Needs a Supporters Trust .... please discuss


I honestly believe that every club needs one and if your doesn't have one you'd be doing well to go and start one. I know that if Citys FORAS had started one year earlier we would be in this situation now.

People ..... do it ...... do it now. Go and ensure your club can survive !!

[Ezeikial]

I am curious as to how many football Trusts are currently in existence, and what the experiences are. How many members? How many are actively involved? How is the relationship between Trust and football club? Are there conflicts in the area of fundraising etc? Whats the stated objective of the football Trust? Is a Trust established to support the club? Does the Trust attempt to monitor/influence the clubs decisions? How does a Trust get wide support / membership outside of times of crises?

[BohDiddley]

Here's Supporters Direct (http://www.supporters-direct.org/home.asp) (UK), which gives a good flavour of the model.
Maybe something like this is needed across the league in Ireland too, although it's hardly going to fit for a club like Bohs.

[MariborKev]

We have one but it is dormant. A number of the Derry fans, including myself, on here were involved in setting it up

People aren't interested in it at the moment.

[Ash]

Athlone Town, Sligo Rovers, Dundalk & Galway United also have Supporters Trusts

[Conroy]

The DFC Trust, Is probaly the single best thing that has happened in Dundalk for the last 7 years(Bar GM of course). The Trust does an amazing job for the small numbers they have running the show.

[dcfcsteve]

I guess it all depends what role you envisage for a Trust, as it could fulfil a number of them.

A Trust could exist to help the existing club - regardless of who's running it and how. This coudl involve working on practical tasks, like the programme, helping sell advertising hoardings etc. There would always then be the potential to withdraw support if the Trust wasn't happy with what was happening with the cliub, but that would be a politically loaded step to take.

The other end of the spectrum would be to have a Trust in-place as a safety need - an organisation ready and able to step-in shoudl things go wrong. This appears to be what A Face is suggesting could have happened to save Cork had FORAS started a year earlier.

Given the inherent instability of Irish football, I'd say a Trust fulfilling at least the second model above would be very senisble. Though the perennial problem is, are there people around to put the effort in (particularly in the absnece of a crisis to motivate them) ?

[Mr A]

Why would Sligo need a supporters trust when they're a co-op owned by supporters?

Similarly- I though Athlone were a members club?

[MariborKev]

Mr A,

Perhaps in ROI it is different but we are registered as an I&PS(Industrial and Providential Society). It gives us access to funding the club may not be able to touch etc and is the recommended model by the Supporters Direct.

I know the lads from SD are more than willing to come over to a meeting in Dublin, we could get reps there from most clubs if requried.

[Longfordian]

We have a Supporters Trust working quietly away paying off old debts, they've paid off or managed to get written off over 200k of old debt in the past two years or so. Mightn't look like the club is doing much lately judging by on the field stuff but we're making progress little by little.

[A face]

The other end of the spectrum would be to have a Trust in-place as a safety need - an organisation ready and able to step-in shoudl things go wrong. This appears to be what A Face is suggesting could have happened to save Cork had FORAS started a year earlier.

Yeah, thats it


Given the inherent instability of Irish football, I'd say a Trust fulfilling at least the second model above would be very senisble.

I'd go beyond 'sensible' and say 'absolutely necessary' .... All in recent years, Shels, Derry, Limerick, Dublin City, Kilkenny, Drogs, Sligo, Bohs, Cobh Ramblers, Waterford, Galway, Athlone, Longford, Rovers, Finn Harps ..... all have had problems where a trust would have been useful.

This league is tailor made for trusts given the never ending cycle of problems we have ..... every year, without fail


Though the perennial problem is, are there people around to put the effort in (particularly in the absnece of a crisis to motivate them) ?

The crisis that the other LOI club is having, cause theres always one having a crisis. Any LOI fan worth their salt knows theres not one far away at all.


Mr A,

Perhaps in ROI it is different but we are registered as an I&PS (Industrial and Providential Society).

Yeah, same as FORAS

[ClaretnBlue]

Now is absolutely the time for Supporters to get Trusts up and running. Those that have them need to strengthen them and those that have no Trusts need to get organising now to establish them. Without Supporters Trusts there can be no guarantee for the survival of clubs in the future. In saying that Cork have one but ,and i stand to be corrected , FORAS did not gain any control in Cork or wasnt let by the people in the Club.
Trusts must gain a shareholding of influence to have a say and even control if possible. We cannot as supporters continue to let our Clubs be run on the never-never , building up debt trying to keep up with those that spend even more recklessly . Its pure madness.
We certainly cannot depend on those who claim to administer the League to run it with the survival of clubs in mind and who told us that clubs would be monitored to ensure the did not spend beyond their means.
Its time Supporters get organised and objective 1 is Survival

[A face]

In saying that Cork have one but ,and i stand to be corrected , FORAS did not gain any control in Cork or wasnt let by the people in the Club.

FORAS, if it was ready would have had an opportunity to take over during the examinership process ..... so if people think its ok to leave it on the long finger and adopt the 'ah sure someone else will do it' attitude you are very very wrong. City fans are counting their blessings that FORAS took off and is setup and in place to help us out.

It can take 1-2 year to get it setup legally
It will take 2-5 years to raise funds to be able to do anything meaningful.

That why ..... IT HAS TO BE DONE NOW

Push the topic, let other in the club know people are thinging about it, in the programme, fanzine, websites, meetings, let it gather momentum, get others who are interested together and setup a survey on matchday. Ask people to fill out expressions of interest forms, get the thing moving.

No club can afford not to have one