Neal Horgan believes that Friends of the Rebel Army Society (FORAS) should have a say in the future of Cork City Football Club.
That supporters' trust voted by nearly 70% last week to agree to the recommendation of the club's board to sell the club to Preston North End owner Trevor Hemmings and his company Grovemoor.
City's very future was under threat earlier in the season before Hemmings paid a sum of around €500,000 for the sell-on clauses of Alan Browne and Sean Maguire to allow them to compete in the Premier Division.
The club were relegated last month and will compete in the First Division for the 2021 season.
Horgan, who played more than 300 times for City, told the RTÉ Soccer Podcast that he worries the deal doesn't specifically mention the future role of FORAS.
"I felt FORAS had done so well over the last 10 years and I felt that they should have had some guarantee of involvement," he said.
"I've heard, and there seems to be statements, that Grovemoor and Trevor Hemmings are considering a role for FORAS in the future of Cork City Football Club.
"Hopefully that will transpire, but there's no guarantee of that.
"The real questions for me are what plans Grovemoor have for Cork City? Is it full-time for the players, part-time, a feeder club?"
City did the double back in 2017, and Horgan acknowledges that FORAS might have done things differently thereafter.
That said though, he is of the view that regardless of mistakes they might have made, they should still play their part in the future of the club.
"My understanding, from speaking to other FORAS members, is that it was set-up to be a kind of stakeholder for Cork City," he continued.
"Ultimately they were pushed into taking over the club because of circumstances. They did fantastically for 10 years, from 2010 to 2020 really.
"The last two or three years they've had a problem, basically because of their success, which has traditionally been a problem with Cork football clubs. Three years after a successful period there tends to be a financial crisis. So I feel FORAS weren't the reason for the financial crisis.
"I feel that they made mistakes, certainly - my view is that they should have looked for financial assistance whilst things were going well at the club.
"But when you get to 2020 and they've had a few years of struggle, I just felt they could have still had that role that they wanted at the start.
"We've seen hybrid models that are very successful - the likes of Shamrock Rovers, who have fans ownership of the club combined with financial assistance from outside.
"I feel FORAS deserve to be part of the club going forward."
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