Drogheda United announce partnership with Home Farm

Drogheda United and Home Farm have announced a partnership that will see the two clubs work together in developing their young players.

The agreement, which is in place for five years will see Home Farm as the exclusive Dublin schoolboy club for Drogheda United.

Drogheda chairman Fiachra Kierans spoke to extratime.ie about the importance of this link-up with the increased emphasis being placed on underage development in the League of Ireland.

“With the upcoming under-15 national league being introduced it was important that Drogheda United had partners in the development in young players in our catchment area.

“To that end, after many meetings, Home Farm were the outstanding candidate to join our project,” Kierans told extratime.ie.

Kierans feels as though clubs must focus on enhancing the quality of players in the domestic league in Ireland rather than basing success on how many players make it to playing in the UK.

“Too many clubs feel success is sending players across to the UK and while that is fine we must develop players to enhance our domestic league.”

“Our partnership will make this possible with shared coaching knowledge and creating the correct structures to develop every young player in our care,” Kierans said.

The affiliation will also provide players with the opportunity to progress into third level education thanks to Drogheda United’s scholarship scheme with Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT).

“In this day and age it is not enough to give young players football skills alone and Home Farm's vision for young players matched exactly what Derek Boyle (Drogheda United's under-19 manager) and I were looking for.”

“Education and life skills as well as football are equally as important in the modern game.

“Education is so important so that young players have something to either fall back on or compliment a LOI career,” Kierans said.

Home Farm chairman, Michael Dowling, told the club's official website that he wanted to link with a progressive club and he believes Drogheda United are the ideal club in that regard.

“As Chairman of Home Farm, my objective was to ensure at all times that any agreement would deliver the best outcome in terms of player development and our ongoing commitment to providing schoolboy/schoolgirl football at all levels from our academy upwards.”

“We believe that Drogheda United are the ideal partner to help our players play at the top level in Ireland, after they have completed their earlier stages of development in Home Farm.

“The primary benefit is that it will create a clear pathway for our players to compete at the highest level within the country.

“We will also be able to share the wealth of knowledge and experience that both clubs have to offer in player development and education,” Dowling said.