'Line in the sand' moment as Finn Harps adopt new ownership model

Finn Harps will launch a new ownership model in the coming weeks after shareholders gave their backing to a proposal designed to both safeguard the club’s immediate future and build into the next generation.

Shareholders of the Finn Harps Co-Operative Society Ltd gave the green light to a proposal that will see members now pay an annual fee of €25 to have ownership rights in the club.

Harps are targeting 3,000 members - a figure the club’s Board believe is achievable rather than ambitious.

“We believe that we have the audience to make this work,” Finn Harps Chairman Ian Harkin told a special general meeting on Sunday night at Jackson’s Hotel in Ballybofey.

Essentially, two options have been on the table for Harps in the recent past, the model adopted on Sunday night or the arrival of a private investor.

The meeting, which was also attended by first team manager Darren Murphy, heard that no “credible” approaches have been received in terms of investment. Distance from a large urban base and the main international airports have been cited as undesirable by potential investors, Harkin said in a presentation.

Harps remain open to speaking with possible investors and will not close that door following Sunday’s meeting.

The Finn Harps Co-Operative Society Ltd, which currently has around 650 shareholders was formed in 1996 following a failed takeover of the club in the aftermath of the club winning promotion to the Premier Division.

Finn Harps Chairman Ian Harkin with Commercial and Marketing Officer Aidan Campbell

Many of the shareholders are considered lapsed given that only around 150 were bought in the last 20 years. The small attendances at meetings (around 20 shareholders attended Sunday’s in-person, with others attending via remote access) in recent years has heightened that feeling and Harps have become overly reliant on a small pool of people.

Harkin told shareholders that “the club needs substantial help” and a continuation of the status quo or further cost cuts could have risked “footballing irrelevance”.

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The previous share price of €317 was seen as a “barrier” to attracting people, the chairman said, and Harps are aiming to hit the ground running with their new scheme.

The model, which Harkin pointed out, has proved a big success in England at Exeter City, will be officially launched in the coming weeks. Harps have a target of becoming the biggest members’ club in Ireland with a model that now offers those involved greater engagement and will, the Board hopes, spread the load given that the core volunteer group is “in danger of burnout”.

“The model is the antithesis of the excess, corruption and detachment seen at the top of the game,” a presentation by the club chairman read. 

Existing shareholders will still remain, but cannot participate in meetings or vote without becoming members of the new scheme. The annual fee, the club says, has been set to make ownership “ultra accessible”.

“If we don’t do something, we will case to exist,” Harkin said, while noting various challenges such as the well-documented infrastructural issues, the fact that wages are now paid to players 11 months of the year, the erratic scheduling of home games and the impending reduction of UEFA solidarity money for First Division clubs, while the new stadium project also takes considerable time, focus and money away from day-to-day affairs.

Harkin says one of the more immediate aims of the new model will be to put the club in a position where it can make at least one full-time administrative hire given that “the effort involved in running the club is phenomenal”.

Shareholders gave unanimous backing to a proposal to move to the broad-based fan ownership mode.

Harps’ Commercial and Marketing Officer Aidan Campbell described this as “a line in the sand moment for the club”.

“When I was young, I thought that Board members were highbrow people who just sat around a table and made decisions,” he said. “The biggest change in my time on the Board has been the volume of private owners coming into other clubs.

“We have a significant shortfall, but we have to secure the club with a fresh start.”