Cobh Ramblers FC will be hoping to join Cork City FC in the Premier Division following the club’s acquisition this week. Photo: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile

Ramblers’ score new owners

The new owners of Cobh Ramblers FC have made their intentions crystal clear from the get-go: when they go up, they intend to stay up.

The East Cork club’s acquisition by multi-club ownership group FC32 on Monday marks the end of its member-owned status and the beginning of a new era.

Having spent the last decade in the League of Ireland First Division (Ireland’s second tier), hopes are high that Roy Keane’s boyhood club can win promotion with the help its new owners, headed by CEO Paul Francis.

“It's a very proud club with its history in the community but also in the game,” Mr Francis told the Cork Independent.

“I feel really humbled because to take on a club with that kind of history, you're acknowledging that you're only one chapter in that history, and hopefully it's a long chapter and a successful one,” he added.

With the acquisition having come as a surprise to many, Mr Francis said the response has been great from supporters.

He said: “Probably the highlight was having a young lad stop me in the street. He said that all he wants is to be able to play with Cobh Ramblers in FIFA. That was pretty cool.

“Most new ownership groups, they come in and they promise promotion in three years and Europe in five. We're not going to read from that script. What we want to do is say, okay, when we do go up, we want to stay up,” added the Australian native.

Earlier in the year, FC32 made its first acquisition in the form of Austrian second tier outfit SKN St Pölten, with plans to announce further club acquisitions in the coming months.

The group, which was founded in September 2023, aims to maintain a balance between the existing culture of its clubs and its ambition to develop them. With Cobh Ramblers, Mr Francis said it was important to FC32 that connections with the local community remained intact and strong.

He said: “These talks have been going on for a while and it wasn't that we were intentionally keeping anyone in the dark, but we just had to make sure we set it up the right way because it's a big transition for any club, let alone a club with Cobh's history to move from a community-owned club to a professional era.

“We need to make sure the club is financially stable, and we need to make sure that the decisions in the club are understood,” added Mr Francis.

Regarding future player transfers between Cobh Ramblers and SKN St Pölten, and any other clubs FC32 goes on to acquire, Mr Francis said fans can expect some activity.

He said: “Over the next couple of months you'll see some other clubs pop up.

“It's not just about moving players; it's about developing players to achieve their goals.

“The way we want to approach this is that we're adding momentum to the club, we're not changing its direction because the board have done a fantastic job to get the club from what looked like some pretty difficult times in the past decade to the position that it's in now,” said Mr Francis.

Commenting on the acquisition, Cobh Ramblers FC Chairman, Bill O’Leary, said: “We are proud to partner with FC32, who share our vision for the club’s future. The board of management and our club members are excited and hugely in favor of this potentially transformative deal. It recognises our history, our relatively strong operating and financial models and positions us for growth in so many areas into the future.”