Niamh O'Mahoney is Head of Development at SD Europe, a non-profit organisation to encourage supporter involvement in the running of football clubs. She spoke on The Business about the work that she does and about her beloved Cork City Football Club.
"Since 2010, Cork City has been completely supporter owned and run and by that, it means it belongs to the people of Cork, it's run by the people of Cork and the people of Cork have really got behind it."
Niamh described the ethos that operates within the club and how she's helping to spread that supportive atmosphere to clubs across Europe.
"The idea of a football club, we would recognise it as, you know, the players on the pitch and the colours, but a club is actually an entity that says your FA or your member association would form and it's very often then run by a holding company… In Cork City's case, it's actually a co-operative so… what it means is for a tenner a month as we would say, you can get a share in FORAS which has Cork City's licence. For that, within a year, you can put yourself forward for the board, you can be part of the decision making processes, you can term yourself and actually call yourself an owner of the club or a member of the club and it's that connection really that's so important… Managers and players and even owners come and go but it's the supporters that will always be there and it'll be the supporters usually down through generations and it'll be supporters through thick and thin."
Niamh says supporters make for ambitious club owners and also says that many of them are extremely skilled individuals in a variety of fields. She also points out that with supporters calling the shots, the club runs not solely for profit, but also with the intention of fostering community spirit, junior teams and support that will stay strong throughout the years.
"Football at its core is a game of the people for the people… It needs to go back to those roots and I suppose what SD Europe more than anything else is, it supports the grassroots movement that is just trying to reclaim football as a game of the people."
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