Interview with Irish football’s first female CEO and co-owner: “I think throwing money at the men's team is the quickest way to run out of money really quickly”
IMAGO | Treaty United in the National League.
Ciara McCormack, Irish football’s first female CEO and co-owner, is seeking to build football in the country’s third biggest city through strategic leadership and community engagement.
McCormack completed a takeover of Treaty United last October and has high ambitions for the Limerick club. To mark International Women’s Week, Off The Pitch is running a series of features on female leaders.
Why it matters: Brexit has handed Irish clubs a strategically enhanced place in the European football marketplace. With new FA leadership and access to European club competition within reach, a football backwater has become attractive to new investment.
The perspective: McCormack, who suffered from football’s gender imbalances through a 20 year playing career, looked at the possibility of making budgets for the men’s and women’s teams equal as a statement of intent.
4 March 2024 - 5:40 PM
A few hours before their League of Ireland First Division season-opener against Cobh Ramblers last month, Treaty United’s chief executive and co-owner Ciara McCormack was struck with a moment of crisis unlike that which many of her contemporaries at Europe’s other 1400 league clubs will ever have to deal with.
The game was the culmination of six months hard work for the former Republic of Ireland defender, who took over the club with the backing
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