Liam Buckley joins Cork City as Sporting Director

WATCHING BRIEF: Liam Buckley looks on during Cork City's SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division match against St Patrick's Athletic at Richmond Park last month. Pic: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile

Cork City FC have appointed twice-league winning manager Liam Buckley as the the club’s Sporting Director.

Buckley has been in talks with City owner Dermot Usher in recent weeks over a role at the club, attending the recent games against St Patrick’s Athletic, Shelbourne and Bohemians, and his arrival comes at a time the newly-promoted club are battling relegation just 13 games in.

City are on a run of four straight defeats, sitting just three points above basement side UCD and the future of manager Colin Healy is increasingly coming under the spotlight.

There’s no indication Buckley’s arrival affects Healy’s responsibilities as once he took ownership in December, Usher earmarked a Director of Football, Pat Fenlon, before he opted instead to join Bohemians from Linfield.

Healy holds his pre-match press conference on Thursday.

Former Ireland striker Buckley (63) won the Premier Division title in his two stints at St Patrick’s Athletic, as well as the club’s first FAI Cup for 53 years in 2014, the same competition he won as Sporting Fingal manager in 2009.

Most recently, he managed Sligo Rovers till last year, and his brief will be to ‘focus primarily on player recruitment, along with supporting management on all football-related matters.’ 

Dermot Usher welcomed the appointment, saying: “I am delighted to welcome Liam to the club. He has had a long and very successful career in football and brings a huge amount of knowledge and experience to the role.

“Liam will be focused on assisting the club in terms of player recruitment, as well as supporting the good work already being done on the football side of things. His knowledge and experience will be a big asset to us as we look towards the summer and beyond, so I am very pleased to have him on board.” 

Buckley added: “I am very pleased to be joining Cork City FC. I have had some very good conversations with Dermot and the staff at the club, and am really looking forward to working with everyone. Having been promoted back to the Premier Division last season, we are all keen to build on the good work that has already been done and work together to help this club achieve the potential it has.”