Lucan United appoint John Doyle as new CEO

JOHN Doyle has been appointed CEO of Lucan United ahead of what is set to be an extremely busy year for the club.

The club is set to join the upcoming “third tier” FAI National League which will have its first games played at the end of this year.

Current plans are for the 2026 edition to be made up of a mini league type tournament running from around August to November before starting fresh alongside the 2027 League of Ireland campaign for a full length season.

Meetings recently took place from clubs across the country who are involved in the tournament.

Aside from the National League the club has also been heavily involved in other aspects of development including a series of changes aimed at promoting sustainability and accessibility within the club.

The club has seen a number of facilities introduced promoting both a more sustainable accessible organisation in recent months with funding received for a walking track being just one example.

Doyle spoke on these plans.

“It’s just growing and growing. It’s going to be dependent on money to see how far we can go with all of that stuff but Vinny [Slevin] is doing a great job with all that at the minute.”

The club also plans to apply for planning permission to develop an astro pitch in the coming weeks with the primary use being to supply a playing surface for the side’s youth teams throughout the winter months.

At the minute the club is requesting permission to apply for planning permission as the land is owned by the council.

The club previously has had planning permission before but Doyle anticipates that those previous issues will not raise problems again.

“We are going to work with residents around to make sure that there is no impact on them.”

Covid and housing developments over recent years have caused delays to the planned project before.

“We had so much stuff that stopped us before but right now everything looks good.

‘We have drawings done, all the pre-work done and ecological surveys done.

‘None of that will stop us. Everything is good, we’re going to work with residents as things go on but we are looking to apply for planning permission as soon as possible.”

The continued development of Lucan’s facilities is one of Doyle’s main plans as he starts hus tenure as CEO.

“The first thing is to get the astro done up. It’s so important. Some kids haven’t played a match since November.

‘It will turn kids away from football towards indoor stuff if we don’t get more astros together as a country.

‘Our number two priority is going to be that we are set up right for the National League.

‘We want everything in place there and make sure that we meet all the requirements.

‘We also want to expand our girls section and we plan to get more involved with the local schools and grow that section.”