LOI Club Ownership Structures

[Spudulika]

Need a little help fellow footiers, have to give a presentation to the sports journalist school (department) here next week. Kicked around topics and then thought of this one - I need to give something alien to the locals in relation to football.

Here clubs are city or oligarch owned, no in between. Fan owned/run clubs are not even amateur level here.

So I thought if I could give a piece on how Irish clubs are structured and the variation of models, then it would fun.

So of course we know Rovers are self-made men. Dundalk owned by the boys from Fastfix and Drogheda by the fans. And Cork too of course, but how are the structures of the other clubs. Oh, and Pats by Gareth Kelleher.

[Charlie Darwin]

Bohs are member-owned, Sligo is a co-op, Bray are owned by local businessmen, Limerick are owned by Pat O'Sullivan. I'm not exactly sure how Derry are structured but I think it's a supporters' trust. UCD are owned by the college, obviously, and Shels are privately owned by I don't know by whom.

[Mr A]

Harps are a co-op. Not sure what Derry's exact ownership model is but they are not trust owned.

[Martinho II]

longford town are owned by the longford town fc supporters trust...

[Battery Rover]

Afhlone Town are supporter owned and run by an elected management committee.

[Mr A]

Just curious- How does the ATFC structure work? Is it a vote per share? How much do they cost?

[Stuttgart88]

Spudser, there's an Irishman at Birkbeck College in London, Sean Hamil, who specialises in fan ownership. Here's an old article he co-wrote about the mutual model in Scotland. If you Google Sean and this topic you'll find plenty more.

https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/739/1/ownership%20model_SMSH_.pdf

[Macy]

longford town are owned by the longford town fc supporters trust...
Members club, but with membership now through the trust I thought?

[Spudulika]

Thank you for the replies (Stutts, thank you, that was brilliant). Just a little more on this, I'm working on a project we developed with RIA Novosti and some of their journos are really bright sparks, they have full access to media (as it's the government agency) and are opinion makers. If Russia were to have, even, a part supporter owned club (which legally they all are), then the issue is finance. to run a 2nd division (3rd level) club to mid-table level, you need a budget in excess of $1million, this is with a free stadium thrown in. Higher up it's impossible.

I'll get back with an update, the presentation is moved to Thursday.

[Martinho II]

Members club, but with membership now through the trust I thought?

yep correct Macy.. I phrased it wrong!