The definition of Incompetent is “Not having or showing the necessary skills to do something successfully. “, this is a word every Dundalk FC fan would use to describe how the club has been ran up to this point since Peak6 aquired the club in 2018.
In the time the club has been under the ownership of Peak6 they have managed to dismantle the most successful Irish football club in recent League of Ireland history, a club that dominated domestic football for nearly a decade, a club steeped in history for the last 100 years and respected throughout Europe.
In case you have been asleep for the last three years, lucky you if you have, Peak6 bought Dundalk FC in 2018, they are an international investment fund who pride themselves on providing their customers / clients a return on their investments. Based out of Chicago and owned by Matt Hulsizer and Jenny Just, they have a portfolio amounting to billions of dollars with interests in many markets and they took over at Oriel Park to build a European football club that play football in Ireland, their plan was to build Dundalk FC into a Rosenburg style model who would play in European competitions year on year, this would be their main revenue stream and their inital attraction for purchasing the club back in 2018.
As I mentioned before the main word mentioned during their initial presentation to the fans was Continuity, their initial plan was to build on the successful model originally built by Stephen Kenny before his departure in December 2019.
Jump forward three years and the club is currently in 8th position in the league, approximately 12 players have left from the original squad including Chris Shields, Sean Gannon, Sean Hoare, Jordan Flores to name but a few with recent news that Patrick Mc Eleney and Michael Duffy have signed pre-contract agreements with Derry city for next season. The staff turnover is something of a similar vein, approximately 13 staff members have left Dundalk FC with the most recent being Des Dunleavy. Des is a local businessman and an Irish member of the board of directors, with his departure this puts the ownership in a tricky situation to replace him urgently to comply with Irish and European company law as each board of directors of companies operating within the EU requires a ‘local’ representative in order to operate, the board of Dundalk FC is currently all Americans and has no EU members.
I wrote a blog recently outlining the events that occurred over an 18 month period that led to this current situation we find ourselves in, but, I wanted to look at how an international investment fund that represents some of the biggest brands and clients globally can get this so wrong and what could have been if we had owners who actually cared about us.
First up, let’s talk about knowledge. In many businesses, industries and markets there is a requirement to have basic understanding of how that specific industry or market works, Peak6 would be very aware of this and just because your company operates in that area doesn’t mean you have that knowledge, this is were good management comes in and getting the correct people into the right roles who know the industry, people who know the regulations and the rules to operate within, people who can get the best out of your investment and can grow your business within that market. This is simple business management. Peak6 would be experts at this when it comes to the markets they operate in, Matt Hulsizer and Jenny Just don’t know everything about every market they operate in and they would hire the right people into the right roles.
So, with that said, what happened at Oriel Park??
Secondly, let’s talk about Egos. When someone comes into a business who thinks they know everything about everything they tend to know nothing about nothing, I’m referring to the introduction of Bill Hulsizer to Oriel Park.
When Bill arrived at Oriel Park he immediately got to work showing people that he was ‘in charge’ and anyone who disagreed or questioned him was immediately dismissed or tossed aside, basically what Bill says goes and that’s the end of it even if Bill knows nothing about the market he is operating in. His ego is telling him that he knows everything about running a football club and as we can all see he knows nothing about doing so. Before I continue I’m not dismissing Bill’s ability as a business man and I’m sure he is a nice man, I have never met nor talked with him but from his interviews and comments he clearly knows nothing about running a football club in Ireland.
Thirdly, let’s discuss the idea of Working with Family. I’m sure many of us want our parents to be proud of us as we progress through life and showing them we can be successful in our careers and I’m sure Matt Hulsizer is no different. I’m sure a son asking his father to work alongside him would seem like a proud moment but it’s one thing asking your dad to work in the office with you and attend meetings but it’s another thing appointing him into a position he isn’t qualified to execute. In some way it’s not fair to put someone into a position they are not qualified for and will be completely exposed in and also a position that will affect people’s lives and livelihoods.
Ask yourself this question, if your father is doing a bad job in a role you put them in , would you fire him?? This is the problem when working with family, unless you are going to be ruthless with family members as you would with other staff members then never work with Family. We tend to be more lenient with family and their mistakes than with normal staff.
Overall, Dundalk FC is an investment that has an impact on people’s lives and putting your family member into a position that impacts people’s livelihoods is irresponsible if they will never be removed for doing a bad job.
Fourthly, we need to discuss contracts. Recently in an interview between Bill Hulsizer and James Rogers in The Argus newspaper, Bill mentioned that the contract and transfer strategy being adopted by the board was to offer 19 year old players four years contracts but players around the 27 year old mark would only be given one year rolling contracts with an option of a second year if they “prove” themselves. While this might seem like a sound business model for capitalising on younger talented players it is going to ultimately be the downfall of the club because established proven players, who will have only reached their prime around this age, will not want a single year deal and will opt for a club who are will to offer multi-year contracts and you cant blame them. By adopting this strategy we are destinted to lose all our talented experienced players to our rivals.
Again, this is proof that Peak6 do not understand the market they are in and they are showing their incompetence for thinking they are experts in operating the football club in this manner.
So who is at fault here? Ultimately the buck stops with Matt Hulsizer and Jenny Just, they put Bill Hulsizer in the position he is in, he is clearly unqualified to be Chairman of the club and unless he is subject to the same performance standards as other staff members and is subject to being dismissed for doing a poor job then this will continue while Peak6 own the club.
Its incompetent and irresponsible.
Finally, lets look at the staff turnover over the last 18 months. Overall we have approximately 25 people who have left in that timeframe (including players and staff) , so ask yourself what position would we be in now if we kept the core team together, what position would the club be in if we kept the core staff and volunteers?
Any company who has a staff turnover of this volume in 3 years would be alarming, but to have this level of staff turnover in 18 months is just madness, in many cases it would lead to an internal investigation to find the issues causing staff to head for the door.
Allowing the staff to leave in such volumes is fundementally going to be the death nail in our club as all the experience, knowledge and talent is being lost. Peak6 dont care if people walk away because their egos are telling them that they know better because they are experts and they arent listening to people who have the knowledge of running a football club and the chairman is dismissing them because he knows better. But he doesnt.
Imagine having Billionaire owners who offer the best players in the league three or four year contracts and attract the best talent to your club, imagine building a team that is capable of dominating League of Ireland football for years to come, imagine having owners who care about your club going forward and who want to build a football club for the future.
It’s a good time to be a Derry Supporter.
Lastly, enjoy watching the Dundalk FC players we have at the moment because they may not be with us next season as long as Peak6 are around, and I hope that the latter wont be for much longer.
End.