Finn Harps members approve major structural reform

Finn Harps members have given approval for a major reform in the structure of the club.

At the annual general meeting of the Finn Harps Co-Operative Society Ltd on Sunday night, members gave the green light to the establishment of a new Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG), designed to oversee the deliverance of and subsequent management of the new stadium in Stranorlar.

The CLG, to be known as Finn Harps Academy CLG, will be a separate legal entity responsible for owning, developing and managing the club’s infrastructure and community assets. While operating independently, it will remain fully aligned with the club, with facilities licensed back to the football club.

Members, in an email sent in the early hours of Sunday, were told that without the CLG “the stadium and centre of excellence cannot be funded”.

The document outlined that government policy now requires that sporting facilities funded by public money are held in a separate entity from the club.

The CLG structure also allows for VAT registration, a crucial factor in making the stadium project financially viable. It was outlined that VAT recovery on large capital builds could save the club in excess of €900,000 during the first phase of development - savings not available under the current co-operative structure.

Without this, “the project becomes financially unworkable”, members heard.

“From a government perspective, this is definitely the preferred route and it opens us up to a number of different revenue streams…but the biggest one is the VAT registration,” Finn Harps Chairperson Ian Harkin - who tabled a proposal to proceed with the CLG - told the meeting. “There can be huge benefits to it.”

Access to funding was another key driver behind the move. The CLG meets the standards now required by government bodies, corporate donors and ESG-linked funding models. Funders typically require a dedicated legal entity, ring-fenced bank accounts and specialist oversight before releasing money for major projects.

All academy operations and community programmes will be housed within the CLG, including girls’ and women’s football, walking football, inclusion teams, cross-border initiatives and school-based programmes. 

Fundraising activity linked to facilities and community development will also transfer to the CLG. This includes the club lotto, 500 Club, annual draws and corporate donations, allowing contributions to be clearly ring-fenced for infrastructure and community benefit rather than short-term football spending.

In the 2024 accounts, figures for the 500 Club, lotto and half-time draws, annual draw and donations amounted to a combined €223,797.

Mr Harkin told attendees that “the first time will not be detrimentally affected” by the move. 

Mr Harkin said that the members of the new CLG committee would come from the 500 Club membership. Sixty per cent of the CLG committee will come from the 500 Club, who will appoint members, with the current Harps Board to appoint the other 40 per cent.

“We need to have a group of people where this is their only thing,” Mr Harkin said.

He added that the club hopes to have planning permission for the new stadium through either before Christmas or early in the New Year, provided there are no issues.

Harps members heard that there remains a “huge volume of legal work” to do, with some 390 different “actionable points” to take care of.

“It is all subject to different approvals at different levels,” Mr Harkin said. “The planning permission will trigger the next steps and it’s just a matter of getting through it and being patient. It is hard, hard work and unlike everything I have ever done, but we are making progress.”

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Such is the volume of work involved, Mr Harkin said the club’s hopes to appoint a “full time professional” to look after the work on the stadium project. 

While there were concerns raised on the make-up of the CLG and how its formation would be arranged, the motion was passed.