DCU Soccer have recently announced the merging of their men’s and ladies clubs to form DCU Soccer Club.
The decision stemmed from a state of crisis that the ladies club were in due to low numbers.
Fran Butler, the Soccer Development Officer for DCU explained that issues had risen for the ladies teams as they didn’t have enough players to field their second team. This led to a fine, which was later overturned, due to the team having to forfeit a match due to lack of numbers.
The club tweeted that the two clubs would be joining together following the election of the new committee which saw Karley Leavy become the first chairperson for the new club.
Butler explained that this was part of the original idea for the merger as the club were in a dangerous position by the time he found out. The idea of joining the two clubs then began to take shape as Butler got in touch with Mark Scanlon, the FAI National Coordinator for Schools and Third Level Football, and was told that if their squad got “sturdier” reinstatement was possible.
The idea of a merger seemed to allow a greater level of communication and access for the ladies portion of the club. Butler had no idea why they hadn’t thought about doing it before and said that “there are no down sides” to the idea. It made more sense to him as he looked at the clubs and societies around and saw that they were for both genders.
With the clubs being pulled together there could have been an issue with the amount of staff but Butler said that there was already a good deal of staff leaving. This meant that the merger had come at a time where there would be no need to lay off members of staff.
Butler believes things have been working out well since the decision, with even numbers of male and female members on the committee working to represent all members of the club. The society aspect of DCU Soccer will be expected to benefit greatly and will now aim to have more events with a mix of genders. Such measurements are already being put into place with news of a new Astro League for women’s teams.
Outside of the men’s and ladies teams the Powerchair team are also part of the club and are also showing the quality of the club having advanced to the Champions Cup in Denmark.
Hugh Farrell
Image Credit: DCU Soccer/Twitter