New Cobh Ramblers owner targets promotion and staying in the top tier 

New Cobh Ramblers owner Paul Francis’ life has taken him to a lot of different places – from his hometown in Sydney to his current base in Milan.

His latest stop is St Colman’s Park as the CEO of FC32, the new owners of Cobh Ramblers.

The takeover has only just been approved, but that hasn’t stopped the Australian native working towards big things in East Cork.

“I’d love to say that we’re going to dominate and we’re going to go up but what we want to do is when we go up we stay up,” Francis told The Echo.

“I do believe Cobh has the potential to be a team that is a regular fixture in the top division. But to do that you have to have a foundation or you will become a yo-yo club.

“The key thing for that for that foundation is you have to have player replenishment. 

"You got to make sure you have a really strong academy that is aligned with the playing style of the club.

“And we need to make sure financially that you have the club really stable too, to make sure that you can invest in the right areas.

“So we’re not looking for a quick fix and media promises. We want to build a foundation so that when we do go up we stay up.” 

 That entails a focus on the club’s academy and making sure there is a clear link between the underage teams and the senior side at St Colman’s Park.

The club have already been working on that in recent seasons, with six U20s recently featuring in a match-day squad for a game with Finn Harps.

“In terms of what we are trying to do with FC32 – we are trying to create a player first multi-club,” Francis explained.

“There’s plenty of multi-clubs out there. A lot of them have been established for different reasons. 

"What I saw was an opportunity to build something for the players because players organically move from academies to the Premier League but if you really look at that path, there’s a lot of forces in their development beyond their control. 

"I wanted to do that.” 

Francis’ way of thinking has been informed by Dan Buettner’s concept of Blue Zones, areas where people enjoy long lives over their wider environment.

“Parallel to that – I spent 25 years working in sport,” he added.

“I started looking at it through the lens of Gold Zones and what were the factors affecting incredible athletic development around the world. 

"So having studied that, when it came to looking at clubs for FC32, Cobh jumped off the page because they are three things you need or three fundamentals for a Gold Zone.

“You need a culture embedded in the community around the club and I could really feel that walking around Cobh.

“The second thing is you need role models and mentors, just the way you have the history of this club with its past history. 

"You have Roy Keane, obviously, as a role model. You also have guys like Stephen Ireland that moved up and there’s ones further up than that. "There’s also a lot of old sages around the club which is something that I have seen in many areas that have excellence in development.

“The third one is competition, and seeing the way the academy kids go and train and push themselves. 

"Seeing the way the first team go about their practices, abet two times a week. I could see that this is something that could be an incredible development hub for football. Not just for County Cork but Ireland in general.”