Dear Member,

We write to inform you and to acknowledge a milestone achievement for the club as we were officially awarded our FAI Club mark award. The FAI Club Mark award is an accreditation for grassroots football clubs that recognizes best practices in governance, management, and administration. It is a three-tiered system, starting at Entry Level, that clubs can progress through, with each level requiring the club to meet a set of criteria related to club management, player welfare, and underage players. Achieving this award demonstrates a club is well-run and is a step towards improving standards within the club. 

The presentation ceremony took place in Turners Cross on Friday night 10th October prior to the U21 International Ireland V Slovakia. Sean Quirke (Club Mark Officer and Schoolboys Secretary), Paul O Reilly (Sec and PRO) and Jim Reaney (Chairman) accepted the award on behalf of the club on the night.  The Club would also like to acknowledge the wonderful assistance we received from Ray Claffey our local FAI development officer. 

Speaking at the event our chairman thanked all club members and volunteers who worked tirelessly to make this happen. The award recognises the great structures within the club and the hard work being done to prepare Corkbeg for the future. The club continues to grow at a phenomenal rate and we now have multiple teams at all age groups. 

The biggest challenge the club faces now is developing our facility to accommodate a second playing pitch. We are at a cross roads in terms of future club growth and without a second pitch we will have to inform some current young players that we simply cannot give them games and training in 2026. The group most likely to be impacted will be the current cohort of U11’s both boys and girls who are scheduled to commence competitive football in August / September of 2026. Based on current team projections we simply will not be able to accommodate them playing football in Corkbeg next season.  

We have drafted a detailed project plan, engaged with Cork County Council and local representatives on our proposal. The stumbling block to future club development is Irving Oil current owners of Whitegate Oil Refinery who have not engaged positively with the club on the development proposal. 

Irving have communicated that they cannot support the clubs request for a long-term lease which would allow access to sports capital funding or provide alternative funding due to “operational, safety and security considerations”.

The club committee is obviously very frustrated with the situation which they believe can be easily resolved with a bit of corporate goodwill by Irving Oil. The club will continue to keep all channels of communication open in the hope that Irving will reach out to find a pathway forward which will allow the young members of our community to play soccer with their local club. 

We are communicating with you as members to inform you of the recognition of the club from the FAI in achieving the entry level club mark and to inform club members of the challenges posed for future development. The club is planning on taking our story to a wider audience via social and mainstream media as we believe we will need both member and community support to overcome the obstacles posed by Irving Oil for the future existence of the club.

We thank you for your ongoing support and we will keep you updated on any developments. 

  

Yours sincerely 

Corkbeg AFC Committee