Waterford United confirm successful takeover

**FrOsTy** · 14/11/2016, 3:44 PM

Waterford United FC wishes to announce that Lee Power has assumed control of the football club. Former professional footballer Power is the current owner and Chairman of Swindon Town FC, and he has represented Ireland at youth, U21 and B level. He takes over from former Chairman John O’Sullivan.

Mr O’Sullivan said: "I am delighted to support Lee as the new owner of the club and I look forward to the success that is sure to come. I would like to thank all the committee members over the years who have helped to keep things going during a tough time for the region."

Mr Power, whose grandfather hails from Waterford, said today: "I am delighted to be involved with a club of such great potential and one which has a wonderful footballing history. I hope the supporters and the business community will get behind what is a new beginning for Waterford United. I see this as a very exciting, long-term project. The facilities at the RSC, as well as those at the WIT Sports Arena are top class. I wish to thank FAI Chief Executive John Delaney for all his assistance over recent months, and I look forward to the coming season with great anticipation. I would also like to pay tribute to outgoing Chairman, John O’Sullivan and I would like to thank him for his assistance with the change of ownership.”

CEO of the FAI John Delaney recently met with Lee Power at FAI HQ, welcomed the move today, and said: “Waterford United is a great club, it has outstanding facilities and it is in the heart of a football stronghold.

“The region has produced some great players including the likes of the Fitzgeralds, the Hales, the Hunts, Daryl Murphy, John O’Shea and Jim Beglin, and through the great structures in the county it continues to produce a high level of underage internationals.

“Waterford is steeped in football, and their victory in the 1980 FAI Cup Final stands out as one of the great sporting achievements for this great city.

"It’s a club that is extremely close to my heart. My father was Chairman of Waterford and I was Club Secretary, and
I want to thank John O’Sullivan for his great efforts over the years.

“I’m delighted that a great football man in Lee Power is coming in to bring the club back to a highly competitive level, and replicate past glories.

**Lim till i die** · 14/11/2016, 3:56 PM

Lol

**ybig** · 14/11/2016, 3:57 PM

good news, hopefully they can build something their.

**Real ale Madrid** · 14/11/2016, 4:06 PM

What is it with people thanking John Delaney for doing f all.

**Titan** · 14/11/2016, 6:18 PM

Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid

What is it with people thanking John Delaney for doing f all.

It's the rules. Kind of like a new mob boss paying tribute to the Don.

That said when I saw that Power was thanking Delaney for his assistance I got a feeling of dread and became fearful for Waterfords future 😜

Don't know what Power is up to here but it's not an altruistic misty eyed knight on white horse type thing. Hope I'm wrong but this could end in tears.

**legendz** · 14/11/2016, 7:31 PM

I hope it works out for Waterford and that they are challenging for promotion in the next few years.

Hard luck again on losing out to the Kerry League in '08!

**nr637** · 15/11/2016, 8:16 AM

Swindon Town owner and chairman Lee Power, where does he make his money from or what business interest has he?

**nr637** · 15/11/2016, 8:20 AM

Power is a former professional footballer, who began his career at Norwich City. He went on to play for another 10 clubs, including Bradford City and Peterborough United. After a short spell as an agent, Power became chairman of Cambridge United in 2006 and also took charge of the team on a temporary basis following the sacking of manager Rob Newman during the club’s time in the Conference. He resigned from the board after two years following a row with his fellow directors and joined the board of their local rivals Rushden and Diamonds, before taking a controlling stake at Swindon in April 2013. Power, who is based in Geneva, has invested a reported £1.2m in the club since his arrival and previously made no secret of the fact he is responsible for signing the players at Swindon, rather than the manager and claims he is more of a director of football than a traditional chairman.

**sulywaterfordfc** · 15/11/2016, 1:43 PM

Originally Posted by nr637

Power is a former professional footballer, who began his career at Norwich City. He went on to play for another 10 clubs, including Bradford City and Peterborough United. After a short spell as an agent, Power became chairman of Cambridge United in 2006 and also took charge of the team on a temporary basis following the sacking of manager Rob Newman during the club’s time in the Conference. He resigned from the board after two years following a row with his fellow directors and joined the board of their local rivals Rushden and Diamonds, before taking a controlling stake at Swindon in April 2013. Power, who is based in Geneva, has invested a reported £1.2m in the club since his arrival and previously made no secret of the fact he is responsible for signing the players at Swindon, rather than the manager and claims he is more of a director of football than a traditional chairman.

Lee Power recently announced Tim Sheerwood as director of football

**wonder88** · 15/11/2016, 9:58 PM

Sherwood as DoF came down from the stand and took over the coaching in an FA cup game for Swindon tonight. Nice to see him back in the game, but not great for the coach/manager there. I remember Brian Kerr coaching from behind the fence at Finn Park at a Pats game up there, when he was DoF at the Saints. With more Irish clubs going towards a european type structure and appointing a dof(sporting director), it is important that role of everyone is clearly defined.

**Mr A** · 16/11/2016, 9:56 AM

Sun piece on this: http://www.thesun.ie/irishsol/homepa...r-success.html

**outspoken** · 16/11/2016, 10:15 AM

Talking very ambitiously, big concern as a town fan that they will out gun us next season now.

**SPXcyan** · 16/11/2016, 10:20 AM

Well.. who knows where he'll take the club.. but anything is better than where we are at; at the minute.. rather looking forward to next season now.

**nigel-harps1954** · 16/11/2016, 11:28 AM

Talk is cheap though. This could be either fantastic for Waterford, or it could hammer another nail into the coffin of a dying club.

There's close to 80,000 people around Waterford City and it's hinterland. It's a big town at the end of the day. Waterford county has a population of over 110,000, but south Kilkenny comes into this too. Tapping into some of the potential there could be huge. It's not beyond the realms of possibility to see the RSC packed out each week with a properly run club and a team winning on the pitch. That would only be less than 4% of the population of Waterford and it's surrounding areas to have those 3,000 seats filled each week.

Interesting times ahead for the club.

**Longfordian** · 16/11/2016, 12:25 PM

His comments about good young players potentially having a way into England with Swindon would be of concern. What's to stop him cherry picking the best young players and moving them to Swindon for nothing or a nominal sum?

**EatYerGreens** · 16/11/2016, 12:53 PM

There seem to be mixed views about him amongst Swindon Town fans.

If I was them I'd be wondering what he's doing distracting himself with a lower division Irish club instead of getting Swindon into a better position !

**nigel-harps1954** · 16/11/2016, 1:16 PM

I thought it was simple, he'd have to invest half a billion pounds to make Swindon a major power in English football.
A million euro would do the same for Waterford here and grab him some quick European cash.

**Dodge** · 16/11/2016, 1:18 PM

Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

I thought it was simple, he'd have to invest half a billion pounds to make Swindon a major power in English football.
A million euro would do the same for Waterford here and grab him some quick European cash.

Every championship club in England has many multiples of the revenue Dundalk had this year. Every club in League 2 has more revenue than every LOI club bar Dundalk this year.

**EatYerGreens** · 16/11/2016, 2:14 PM

Exactly.

Any money you spend on an Irish football club will still see you left with a relatively worthless Irish football club. And making Europe pay for you is extremely hard in the league too, with only Dundalk managing it so far (and other clubs going down in flames trying).

Meanwhile, Swindon Town in the Championship would still be worth a lot of money. They have an entire English country to themselves, and no other clubs challenging them between Reading and Bristol. And there'll always be more people willing to pay good money for an English football club than small money for an Irish one.

**Philosophizer** · 16/11/2016, 2:24 PM

Originally Posted by Longfordian

His comments about good young players potentially having a way into England with Swindon would be of concern. What's to stop him cherry picking the best young players and moving them to Swindon for nothing or a nominal sum?

The best players in our league have always been cherry-picked and brought to England for nothing (or a nominal sum) anyway, the list is endless - see Towell and Forrester last year. Towell went for free. Pats got a nominal sum for Forrester.

The only change here would be that Power would try to encourage them to move from Waterford to Swindon, rather than any other British team. I think it's a small price to pay for Waterford who should gain handsomely from this appointment. In fact, now that Waterford will have a proper link to a British team might even encourage more players to move to Waterford in the hope of moving across the water. Many of our best young players are very eager to move across. Forrester for eg took a pay cut to move to Peterborough. He was probably knew he was too good for League 2 as well but he was just desperate to get into the the English football league.