Waterford United plc. What does the 'plc' stand for - "poor little club" anyone? I'm not going to slag off the players, or the management, who as far as I'm concerned, are performing miracles considering the state of play, off the field, but there is plenty I want to get off my chest about what's going on behind the scenes.
Right, so the two main directors, ie. Johnny Delaney and Mick Finnegan (I'm sure they won't mind being called by their 'street cred' names) are prepared to absorb £100,000 of the current debt. And fair enough, if that helps. However, it looks like being just another short-term solution.
As far as I and many other people are concerned, Waterford United will never make it back into the relative "big time" until they start acting like a business, not a poor relation of the St. Vincent de Paul!
The club's whole approach is all wrong. If we are paying people to play/coach, taking in money at matches, selling sponsorship and shares, then the we need to get PROFESSIONAL. That means getting MANAGEMENT professionals to run the company.
It's grand having football fans at the helm if you're being bankrolled by someone with money to burn. But if things are tight and the club wants to at least break even (dare one even mention a profit being made at some stage along the line!? Isn't that what a company is supposed to do?), then there will have to be changes in its administrative personnel.
I mean, Waterford United Football Club, in the year 2000, has resorted to asking "LOYAL supporters" to take out loans and hand the money over to the Blues for free, ie. with no prospect of repayment of the principal, never mind the extortionate interest your friendly bank will charge you.
Gerry O'Brien is also asking workers to arrange direct debits ("no matter how small" - or big presumably) from their wages each week/month and have them credited to Waterford United.
Does this mean that if the rest of us aren't stupid enough to give away our hard earned income to a club that's losing money faster than its credibility, we are somehow DISLOYAL?
Loyalty, like everything else, such as promotion - and relegation - is earned and usually the hard way. And the 'soft in the head' pleadings the club are making at the moment amounts to nothing short of a shambles.
Are we a football club, or a charity? Going around at home games with cap in hand! Is this for real? The same goes for petitioning supporters with badly produced, ill-worded and misdirected begging letters and sending out hand-written press releases. Jesus, does anybody know how to type in there? There are people on FAS course who would do a vastly superior job.
As for this excuse about every League of Ireland club being in the same situation. Does this make it alright? Surely, we should be viewing this as an opportunity to get our own house in WORKING order now, so that we ultimately end up ahead of the rest and hopefully at, or near, the top of the league.
Have the directors considered that the lack of interest from BIG business in the city and county - ie. Waterford Crystal & co. - is that they are used to working with professional people, with more to offer by way of acquaintance than "please give us your money, we're desperate."
There seems to be an attitude in the boardroom that if we beg loudly enough, maybe someone will hear us. Waterford United Football Club needs an immediate Public Relations overhaul. A persons or team of persons who will portray us in a more positive light, even when things are as rough as they are now. Otherwise no-one with money - or talent - will touch the club with a barge pole.
Consider this as a parting shot. What player (never mind businessperson), would go near Waterford United after the directors' latest public appeal, which basically said there's not a penny in the kitty. Anyone with half a brain would say to himself: "am i guaranteed to get paid if I go there?"
In conclusion, a word to the wise to the Board: Privacy is not secrecy. It's the way to do business.