The fans who rescued a sporting institution

I’M AFRAID a Personality of the Year award won’t cover it - try something like a Multiple Personality instead.

My nomination is the Shamrock Rovers fan collective known as The 400 Club although, for the record, their numbers have swollen by now to 467. And if we were to name their award in honour of anyone, it would have to be the late Victor Kiam.

I doubt that he knew much about the old footie, but you'll recall that Victor was the face of Remington shavers back in the day the man who famously grinned at the camera and said, "I liked it so much, I bought the company."

Much the same could be noted of the 400 Club, although you'd need to change the word 'like' to 'love'. And it's also doubtful if even old Vic himself ever had quite as close a shave as the Hoops had this season.

On the face of it, this was Shamrock Rovers' worst year since the shameful sale of Milltown in 1987. A quick run through the lowlights of their season reads like a particularly grim blues lyric: eight league points deducted for club licensing irregularities; the entire team put up for sale; some of the club's biggest fixtures played out in court; the on/off Tallaght saga; a financial mess inherited by the new owners; a manager suspended for the most critical games of the season and then sacked; and, finally, relegation for the first time in the history of the club.

And yet, as this foul year draws to a close, it's plausible to speculate that 2005 will come to be regarded as the darkest hour before the new dawn for Ireland's most famous football club. And for that, Rovers' committed supporters deserve great credit.

Frankly, if it wasn't for the efforts of the 400 Club, Shamrock Rovers would have gone out of existence. Established three years ago, and numbering in its ranks veterans of the Keep Rovers At Milltown campaign, the 400 Club put their time and money where their mouths were, taking their support from the terraces into the courts and ultimately into the boardroom itself.

It's been estimated that the 400 Club a collective accommodating all sorts, from painters and decorators to accountants and businessmen has invested in excess of 1 million in their beloved club.

They may not have been able to keep Rovers at Milltown but they have managed to keep Rovers alive and for that they deserve the thanks of everyone who has a serious interest in sport in this country.

You don't have to have been a teenage Shamrock Rovers fan as yours truly was to recognise the special place of the Hoops in Irish sport. Even fans of arch rivals Bohs have been heard to mutter albeit through gritted teeth that it doesn't do the Premier Division any favours to have Rovers on the outside looking in. And on the night that Dublin City condemned them to the First Division, this reporter received a text from a well-known eircom League player offering heartfelt words of sympathy and expressing the hope that Rovers would bounce straight back up. That won't be easy, but now that conscientious fans have taken over the club, Rovers seem to be on the right path for the first time in years. With proper financial structures in place, a new manager in Pat Scully and most welcome of all the green light from South Dublin County Council for the completion of the long-awaited new stadium in Tallaght, a bruising year ends with the real prospect of renewal.

There may not have been much to cheer about on the pitch for Rovers in 2005, but their year of living dangerously provided some memorable moments nonetheless. In particular, your correspondent will long remember the conclusion of the press conference at the Plaza Hotel in Tallaght at which the court-appointed examiner Neil Hughes announced the acceptance of a rescue package for the club. I doubt that when he started out on his career, Mr Hughes ever imagined he would find himself in the situation he was in that day: partially obscured by a huge Shamrock Rovers flag and surrounded by jubilant fans chanting: "Neil Hughes is a Hoop, is a Hoop, is a Hoop, Neil Hughes is a Hoop he hates Bow-ehs."

So good luck to Shamrock Rovers the team, the board and the rest of the fan base. And as the new owners set their collective face towards a challenging but hopefully brighter 2006, they could do worse than reflect on some other words from our old friend Victor Kiam: "Entrepreneurs are risk takers, willing to roll the dice with their money or reputation on the line in support of an idea or enterprise. They willingly assume responsibility for the success or failure of a venture and are answerable for all its facets."