Joe Faughnan appointed chairman of Mayo FC

NEWLY-elected county councillor Joe Faughnan has been appointed as the chairman of Mayo FC.

Faughnan, who was already on the Mayo FC committee, recently took over the role from Mayo Football League Chairman Séamus Hughes.

An experienced administrator and coach, Faughnan is currently manager of the Conn Rangers Mayo Super League team.

The Knockmore native recently made a move into politics, winning the Mayo County Council seat held by the retiring Séamus Weir for 25 years.

Speaking following his election to the role on the Mayo Soccer Podcast, Faughan reaffirmed the club’s ambition to field male and female adult teams in the League of Ireland in the coming years.

He also said Mayo FC would have to ‘work really hard’ to market the club in the coming years.

The club is currently fielding U-14 and U-15 boys teams, as well as an U-17 girls team, in the League of Ireland but plans to field more teams in coming years.

“When you are doing a lot of different things, Mayo FC is only new and it doesn’t have that established - everyone knows the name of the clubs in Mayo, or knows the name of Sligo Rovers or Connacht Rugby, they all have the marketing value that Mayo FC has to work really hard to establish over the next few years,” said Faughnan, who is a weekly contributor to the Mayo Soccer Podcast alongside fellow Mayo FC committee member, Pat O’Sullivan.

“Like that we’ve been very lucky with some of the sponsors with Umbro and the TF. It’s just interesting to see how we’ll go and build on that in the next while. We’ll be looking to bring really good people involved all the time and bring more people in and kind of keep it as fresh as possible.”

He added that Sligo Rovers had been ‘seriously hurt’ by an absence of underage Mayo players from their underage teams since the setting up of Mayo FC last year.

“Even when players were signing for us last year, they were like ‘will it go ahead?’ There was that confusion, but I suppose it’s established now. The ceiling is so high, there is so much that can be done with that on the pathway,” Faughnan said.

“They’ll be aiming to go senior men and women’s over the next few years, there is so much to it. A lot of work to do to put in place strategic planning and stuff like that but looking forward to it it’s a huge challenge and one I’m looking forward to.”