Shamrock Rovers look to the future after sealing new deal

Setanta chief executive Michael O’Rourke and Hyundai Ireland managing director Stephen Gleeson will both join the board of Shamrock Rovers following the club’s forthcoming AGM after members of the club approved a restructure to facilitate an investment by long-time shareholder Ray Wilson.

O’Rourke and Gleeson, who have been brought in by Wilson as two of the four directors he will be entitled to appoint to the nine-strong board, will both be seen as hugely attractive appointments.

The deal also provides the funds required for the development of the club’s new academy at the Cement Roadstone Sports and Social club at Kingswood near Citywest.

Under the terms of the arrangement, Wilson – via the Wilson Family Trust and along with the Pepper Group’s Seumas Dawes – will loan the club €1.5 million, two-thirds of which will be put towards the provision of facilities at the new academy, with the remaining funds being used for the day-to-day running of the club.

The intention is to provide high-class facilities for an academy that has quickly established itself as a force in underage football over the last few years. Rovers have teams training and playing across a number of venues and the hope is to concentrate their efforts at the Kingswood venue where work on a full size astro pitch is to start in the summer with additional development work to follow.

Interest-free loan

The loan is interest free and while it is due for repayment by 2026 both men have provided guarantees that they will neither pass it on to a third party or, in the event that the club is unable to come up with the funds in 10 years’ time, force Rovers into examinership or liquidation.

Wilson already played a key role in helping the club out of examinership in 2005 and, as was the case then, the new arrangement allows for him to end up owning 50 per cent of the club with this stake halving upon repayment of the loan. It will reduce further as members of the 400 club continue to pay funds into the club and additional shares are issued.

Life-long supporter

He is a life-long supporter of the club. His father Jack was a director and club president, as well as a key founding member of the 400 Club. Wilson has been extremely successful in business since leaving Ireland for Australia in 1985 and is a founding director of the Plenary Group, a company that specialises in the provision of finance for major infrastructure projects.

It was recently reported that Plenary manages a portfolio worth in excess of €16 billion. Wilson's friend Dawes is a regular on the Sunday Times Rich List with a net personal wealth estimated in 2014 at €157 million

"Listen, this is not a takeover or anything like that," Wilson told The Irish Times. "What we're doing here is really no different to what was done in the past. The board of the club has done a phenomenal job over the last 10 years but we have an opportunity with the Roadstone project and, to make the most of it, the club needs to invest in facilities.

“We have €150,000 in government funding and we will be knocking on a lot of doors, including the FAI’s, to see who else we can get to play a part in this, but we already have some great people involved. We have been tenants of Cement Roadstone’s Sports and Social club for a few years now and that won’t change.

“They have been great to work with,” he says. “The people there see that what we are trying to do as a club is potentially good for the country as well as the company. Irish football clearly needs to change. It’s starting to change but the days of sending 16-year-olds over to England and hoping for the best are clearly gone.”

Youth set-up

“Under Shane Robinson we’ve established a really first-class youth and schoolboy set-up and the future for Shamrock Rovers, for Irish football generally, is about investing in our young talent. We have tremendous talent in Dublin; our kids in the age range eight to 12 are as good as any in Europe but there’s simply nothing for them here as they get older.”

The club hopes in the long term to emulate the likes of Malmö which achieved not just domestic success but Champions League qualification with a team built around home produced talent. A more immediate target will be to steal a march on Airtricity League rivals, many of whom have formed partnerships with existing schoolboy clubs rather than establishing academies of their own.

Given the changes to the ownership of the club and the composition of its board, there had been some suspicion among members about the terms of the deal under which the money will be loaned but the addition of high-level outside business expertise appears to have been one of the selling points in the end and at a specially convened EGM on Saturday there appears to have been no significant opposition in the end.

Wilson will also be member of the board and says he will be in a position to name his fourth director nominee over the coming weeks.

Despite rumours linking him to the new initiative, Wilson says that Niall Quinn will not be immediately involved, although the two men have spoken and some future role has not been ruled out. Wilson also denies another rumour to have done the rounds in recent weeks; that West Ham expressed an interest in a youth development partnership or even an investment of their own. The Australian-based businessman is adamant that there was no contact whatsoever.