New Dundalk owner heartbroken to quit Kerry but couldn't turn down opportunity
COMPETITIVE NATURE: New owner Brian Ainscough during a Dundalk FC press conference at the Youth Development Centre in Oriel Park. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile
Brian Ainscough insists he is ‘heartbroken’ to depart Kerry FC but stresses it would take another 10 years with the startup to reach the level of Dundalk.
Activists at the league’s newest club were reported to be shocked when they discovered the Dublin-born, Boston-based businessman switched his ownership interests to Dundalk this week.
The other US investors he attracted to First Division Kerry are staying put while he embarks on a crusade to restore Dundalk to European competition next year.
That’s his immediate aim at the Premier Division club.
Speaking at the club’s Oriel Park venue today once the final details on the takeover were completed, he outlined the background to assuming ownership.
He purchased the Louth club from local businessmen, StatsSports duo Sean O’Connor and Alan Clarke along with Andy Connolly, who were two years at the helm stabilising the turbulent legacy of Peak 6’s four-year tenure.
Cabra native Ainscough lined out for Home Farm and Drogheda United in the League of Ireland but is best known as chief executive of Boston Bolts, the US League Two club with a player membership of 2000 across the state of Massachusetts.
“I know Sean,” he said of the initial contact. “I do a bit of business with him with my club in America with StatSports and we were really calling just for a chat about business and it came up about five weeks ago.
“I asked about Dundalk and I’d sent a couple of people from America to actually chat with him about investing in the club before and he started to talk to me more in-depth about it.
“He wanted to get out of it. He was just trying to do it so I listened to more of what he was talking about and I thought maybe I’d be interested in this.
“He started to send me information about the club and then we got serious. I called a few people that I know and I was coming back to Kerry 10-12 days ago. We had a function down in Kerry and I decided to come to Dundalk on Friday and Saturday to see the place.”
He denies accusations of shoddy communication around the parting, insistent he didn’t delegate Steven Conway to break the news.
“I called Steven and Billy Dennehy last Monday week,” he notes. “My car had broken down on the way to Shannon Airport and I didn’t get out until the next day and that was when I made the call.
“They are both directors of the club and the people that brought me in when we put this whole project together a few years ago. I told them what I was going to do. Obviously, it was a shock to them. It was the first time they had heard about it but because it was so quick that’s how it came about.
“It wasn’t me talking to Steven on his own. I’m good friends with Steven and Billy but they were just taken aback because they didn’t see it coming.
“It wasn’t something I was chasing. I wasn’t trying to leave Kerry for anything but it’s just that a great opportunity came my way and I wanted to take advantage of it. It’s like anything in life, it was just good timing for me and a good opportunity.”
League of Ireland has been plagued by stories of investors fleeing but Ainscough is determined to see his plan at Dundalk come to fruition.
“People could look at that in any way they want. It’s like a player being competitive.
“Kerry are five or ten years away from being anywhere near what Dundalk is and probably not even then, right? Dundalk are at the highest level of soccer here. Whether I like it or not, it helps my profile. I want to be with the best.
"I'm not a player but I feel like I'll be there supporting them and making sure they’re able to go out there and play against the best and that's what I want to be part of. This is the highest level of Irish football and I'm glad I'm part of it now.”
