When a football club hits bad times it usually looks to its fans and the local community for help, but not many would have got the unbelievable response that Eircom League of Ireland side Drogheda United received when they went into examinership in October of this year.
For those readers (if anyone actually reads this) who don’t know much about the club, here is a brief history. Drogheda United has a long standing history as a community club but not a very successful one, until recently. With only a couple of cup final appearances and a single runners-up spot in the league before a period of yo-yoing between divisions, support had faded substantially until a massive cash injection in 2003/04.
The money was put towards taking the team back to the Eircom League of Ireland Premier Division and consolidating their position there. However, the club went from strength to strength under manager Paul Doolin and picked up their first major trophy in 2005 when they collected the FAI Cup.
That success was followed up by Setanta Cup victories in 2006 and 2007, the same year the club finally reached a long sought target, the Eircom League of Ireland Premier title.
With everything going smoothly (well from the outside) and with two UEFA Cup Qualifying campaigns behind them, the club set out for their first Champions League Qualifying journey. After a solid win over Estonian outfit FC Levadia, Drogheda United prepared themselves for the biggest game in their history as they drew Ukrainian side and Champions League regulars, Dynamo Kyiv.
A brave performance home and away saw The Drogs lose out 4-3 on aggregate, after being within the width of a post from going through on away goals, but it was after that game the clubs real problems came to a head.
The investors push for success had come at a price when the club’s plans for a new stadium, that included a retail and residential development which would help finance the club’s long term ambitions and clear off a few long standing debts, was refused planning permission after a long battle with the county council involved. The future looked bleak.
With the board being unable to pay its players and creditors the club was put into examinership (administration as it’s known in the UK) in October.
With that huge shadow hanging over them and a points deduction, Drogheda played out the rest of the season - settling for a mid-table position.
Well now I can get onto the main point of the blog (finally I hear you say!), with the club having a massive debt to pay it is staring down the barrel of extinction and the town could soon have no Eircom League of Ireland side.
As I said before, when a club is at its knees it needs support and the response from the people of the town has been nothing short of phenomenal.
There’s a number of heart-warming stories about how people have donated half their weekly pension to the club’s fund, collections by volunteers, auctions, benefit gigs and there’s even people taking out loans and donating it towards the cause.
Another fundraiser was a fans match took place between the supporters of Drogheda United and St Patrick’s Athletic with a good crowd attending to lend their support.
But it was the presence of Roddy Collins, a manager who has received a substantial amount of ‘abuse’ from the fans but he put that behind him to help out, managing the fans team and even offering to have a friendly boxing match (his brother is a former world champion after all!) with a number of willing challengers prepared to make a contribution.
These are just a number of events being staged and all of this is a true testament of how a community backing is so important to a football club.
While this fantastic spirit and goodwill has raised a good amount towards the total needed to satisfy the examiner, a stumbling block has propped itself in the way to safety as the player’s have refused a settlement offer from the board to pay a reduced amount of their outstanding wages. With the board hoping for the squad to accept the offer in a show of goodwill to help the cause, a small minority of the team have turned it down.
While I understand they have mortgages to pay, families etc. the people of the town have donated a lot of money, people that could be struggling themselves with the recession and Christmas bills to worry about, and all they want is to save the club.
Therefore I believe the players who are refusing should show some gratitude, especially in the case of certain players who’s career has been developed by the club.
The committee set up to save the club needs them to settle this disagreement so that they can get on with whatever money is left to try and pick up the pieces.
A final point would be, while some criticism has gone towards the investors for going in ‘over the top’ and ‘too quick’, I believe this is extremely unfair on the people involved. They have not only given the long suffering supporters probably the best 5 years they have ever had supporting the team but they have also helped increase the number of supporters by a significant amount.
It’s this huge supporter backing that is now trying to save the club, without the recent successes their may not be the same help, so while the investors may have taken a big risk on the stadium going ahead, they have still created a great club that the town is proud to call its own and help out in its hour of need.
Drogheda United are facing a definitive week or two but if the club does pull through and continues on next season, both the owners and the supporters will have each other to thank, as they have all built and hopefully will save a great local team.
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