Agreement hailed as “The Most Important Sports Partnership To Be Announced In Irish Football.”
FORAS chairman Pat Lyons spoke at the announcement of a three-year partnership between University College Cork (UCC), Cork City FC and Mardyke Arena on Monda
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My Deputy Lord Mayor, Minister, President Of University College Cork, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am delighted to be representing FORAS and Cork City FC here today at what is, I believe, the most important sports partnership to be announced in Irish football.
UCC represents all that is best & innovative about Irish education and has been declared the Sunday Times University of the year for the second year running.
This partnership also involves the Award Winning Mardyke Arena where our players receive the benefit of the best available technology and expertise in their physical development and rehabilitation from injury.
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Cork City Football Club was founded in 1984 after an initiative by the then Lord Mayor, Hugh Coveney, to bring League of Ireland football back to the City following a two-year gap after the demise of Cork Celtic. The club continues in existence today as a supporters owned football club and is now a successful Premier Division League of Ireland club, competing every season for the League Title, FAI Cup and in European competition.
In 2010 the Club competed as Cork City FORAS Coop (CCFC) in its first season as a Trust owned club in the First Division of the LOI. In 2011 the Club, once again named Cork City FC, won the First Division League and returned to the Premier Division as Champions.
Cork City is the leading football club in Munster and is among the largest in the country. City is owned and operated by its 500 members through FORAS, the Cork City Football Club Supporters Trust. While the Club is, owned by its 500 volunteer members, it is run on a professional basis by an elected voluntary Board of Management supported by full-time professional staff and a full-time professional football manager.
City has a Senior Team, which plays in the LOI Premier Division and U19 & U17 Teams, which play in the Elite Division of the LOI. The underage teams are the most successful of all underage teams in the country. In 2017 there will be a national U15 league similar to the present U19 & U17 leagues. In addition, CCFC supports Cork City Womens FC, who also compete in the LOI.
We won the Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup this year. Our target next season (2017) will be to win the Premier League Title and retain the FAI Cup. We will, of course, be competing for the third year running in the Europa League in 2017.
CCFC is an important sporting ambassador for the promotion of the City, its sporting partners and the region through its European contacts and by playing in European competition. City also attracts friendly games with major English and European clubs in the off-season.
Our future intentions as a community-based club are to make CCFC the best club in the country with the best facilities and the best development programme for young local players in sports, education and life skills.
U19 & U17 Youth Teams are a Huge Success. The U19s play in Europe this year as the first youth team to represent Ireland. They defeated HJK Helsinki over two legs. They lost the second round first leg to Roma in a great game in Turners Cross but look forward to playing the return leg in Rome this Wednesday.
We want to be recognised as the Senior Club in Cork supported by all the Schoolboy clubs, the MSL & AUL & every other club in city & county.
No other club in the League has achieved what we have from our own resources and the support of the people of Cork.
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The FORAS ethos is based on community, transparency and honesty. We are a club deeply embedded in the community and our stewardship aims to ensure that Cork City FC continues as the leading fans owned football club in this country promoting home-grown young talent and providing as far as possible for the future of our players outside of football through our education programme.
We will now, of course, be able to advance the aim of educating our players through our partnership with University College Cork.
We are aware also that research is important to both the College and CCFC and we acknowledge the invaluable work done by the UCC Law students under the direction of Seán O’Conaill in the UCC Sports Law Clinic.
FORAS is a not-for-profit cooperative whose model of supporters’ involvement and community ownership gives all supporters an opportunity to own a piece of their local football club. If we make a financial surplus, it will be invested in youth team development or facilities.
We have come a long way from the night in the Telecom Club on McCurtain Street, which seems like decades ago now, but is in fact less than 10 years.
It is only six years since FORAS entered a team in the first Division.
That night there was a crisis meeting of fans and supporters in an attempt to save the club. I remember saying that night that the formation of FORAS was the single most important thing that had happened to Cork Soccer since its inception.
I still believe that! But I have to amend my mantra now to include this new partnership with UCC and the Mardyke Arena!
A third pillar of the mantra has also to be added, which has not yet come to fruition but is well on the way to being realised and that is the FAI Centre of Excellence in Glanmire, which will provide a training base and home for Cork City Football Club.
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It would be remiss of me not to thank our other sponsors & partners most of whom have been with us since we started on this journey, such as Clonakilty Food Company, Aspira, Pain Medicine, 96FM and the Evening Echo.
In less than 10 years we can truly say that FORAS has achieved a remarkable feat – the Club is saved, it is on a sound, sustainable footing, is truly embedded in the community, is nurturing local young talent and is developing a home and facilities for the future.
All of this, including the announcement of this fantastic partnership, is a culmination of hard work and progression from the very first Board of FORAS to the current one, all of whom have held true to the founding ethos of a not-for-profit club embedded in the community, nurturing young talent in sport and education.
I will conclude by quoting a statement one of our Trustees, Niall O’Sullivan, made,
“The basic enjoyment of watching games is added to by knowing that successful results on the field do not happen in isolation.
They only come about because of the endless hours training by the manager and players, combined with the equal devotion of the Board of Management and volunteers.”
What else can I say, except that I am personally honoured and delighted to be part of this new Partnership.
Remember, its Your City…….Your Club!
