Newbridge Town FC welcoming all in bid for League of Ireland in Kildare

In February of this year, Newbridge Town FC submitted their application to join the new League of Ireland Tier 3 South when it launches in 2026.

67 total applications will be whittled down to 20 clubs who will enter the League of Ireland across the new Tier 3 North and South divisions. The county of Kildare is undoubtedly a fine choice for LOI football with an ever-growing population and huge interest in the sport. Klub Kildare have also submitted an application for LOI status.

The Leinster Leader caught up with some of the people involved in Newbridge Town FC who are preparing their case to present to the FAI about being best suited to bring League of Ireland football back to Kildare.

The club is also keen for locals or anyone that wants to help get involved.

Vice Chairperson Christian McAuley ran through what will be expected of any club hoping to make the jump. He explained, “The FAI criteria will come down to facilities, governance, budget, and probably competitiveness as well in terms of the team itself. From a facilities perspective, we are well covered. We have covered seating and a grass pitch, which is great because a lot of clubs have gone towards artificial turfs.

“Our location is perfect with plenty of car parking space and right next door to the train station. We are ready to go facilities wise unless there is a minor safety addition to make with signage or something of that nature. We also have grants to upgrade to floodlighting. I’d say we are probably one of the best applications in that regard.”

The club is also in the planning stages to refurbish their seating arrangement with both the covered and uncovered stands set for upgrades.

One of the great selling points of Newbridge Town FC is the town itself and even Kildare generally with a glaring lack of any League of Ireland clubs or games in Kildare, Laois, and Offaly.

Club secretary Gary Carroll said, “The location is great, especially because of the catchment area. If you go from Shamrock Rovers and look south, there is nothing until you get to Limerick. You have Kerry, Waterford and Wexford all there further down then.”

McAuley added, “We have two of the biggest GAA clubs in the county with Sarsfields and Moorefield, the newly renovated St Conleth’s Park, Newbridge RFC, so the town is a sporting town with big clubs in it and Newbridge Town FC want to be there alongside them.”

While they are now looking to make the next steps on the club’s journey, Newbridge Town FC has a rich history since its founding in 1969 which carries with it an extensive line of memories for locals and beyond.

“Newbridge Town has been in existence for 56 years so it has a fair bit of history behind it as well. There are lots of people that have connections with the club going back through that time and that is something that a League of Ireland team would be able to tap into,” Carroll said.

“They tried it before with Kildare County and I think one of the mistakes they made was that they invented a team rather than going in as Newbridge Town. There were reasons for it, but I do think that was a mistake to not go in as Newbridge Town and we have always been playing at a high level.”

The desire for Kildare to have League of Ireland football was evident when the Leinster Leader shared the news of Newbridge Town and Klub Kildare’s respective applications. However, one recurring question in the reception to the news was the prospect of a joint bid for the county of Kildare, but for the Newbridge Town members it was never a consideration.

McAuley replied to the query with: “That wouldn’t be an option for the club. We are a stand alone club and we have the facilities, the people, the location and we didn’t feel it necessary to try and do a joint bid.”

The blending of two organisations was never going to happen and Newbridge Town also believe they will make the financial side of this leap forward work too with the correctly sourced investment.

“Budget wise things will be trickier, but I believe that we can meet a budget comfortably using outside resources and not the current club funds, like using the grounds differently. It is important to say that we would not be funding this by taking money from the schoolboy system or club membership. That is separate and will remain as funds to maintain the schoolboy facilities.

It is really important that we stress that. There will be no increases in kids memberships with this venture either,” McAuley explained.

All the chatter of off the field administration is vital, but there are matters on the pitch to be considered too with Newbridge Town FC hoping to be competitive enough for the step to a Tier 3 position.

The man shouldering at least part of that responsibility is first team coach Martin Russell.

“I was brought into the club as a football coach a couple of years ago and I was familiar with the place having watched a few of the Kildare County games when I was manager of UCD. The first thing you notice is the facilities are fantastic and with the potential to be even better,” Russell recalled.

“One of the reasons that the FAI have brought about this Tier 3 is that clubs like Newbridge can go for it and have a pathway to potentially end up in the top leagues. You can just look at the progress that Wexford have made this year too.”

The coach also added his own clarification on the financial side of the club and that first team funding will not be sourced from the underage setup at any point.

He added, “Newbridge has 33 underage teams and that is all safeguarded and developed. When you talk about that elite element, that needs its own funding. How you go about it using the facilities, using sponsorship, partnerships can be fulfilled with the end result being a national league club and vibrant club. It helps the community and does work in the community through football.

“We’ve got a very young team at the moment, and every team that is successful in their application will have to change their outlook, but I think Newbridge are positioned as well as anyone to have a club that is business on the field and business off the field.”

The closing sentiment from the key men in Newbridge Town FC was the extension of an invitation to anyone interested in aiding their mission to join the League of Ireland third tier.

McAuley said, “Newbridge Town is looking for people who believe they can help the project, whether that is businesses or individuals to help with either time or money. Project managers, graphic designers, commercial sales, we are open to all sorts of people getting involved. We have a dedicated email address if people are interested tier3@newbridgetownfc.com

Russell added, “A big League of Ireland night here in Newbridge would be something special.”

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