{"id":97108,"date":"2025-10-01T15:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T15:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/97108\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T15:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T15:01:09","slug":"the-soul-is-slipping-away-cork-city-fans-to-protest-before-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/97108\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The soul is slipping away\u2019 \u2013 Cork City fans to protest before semi-final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">Cork City supporters have confirmed that they will stage a protest against the club\u2019s ownership at Turner\u2019s Cross for Friday night\u2019s FAI Cup semi-final against St Patrick\u2019s Athletic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In a Cork City FC Supporters Group statement, fans accused owner Dermot Usher of overseeing \u201cdecline and instability\u201d, warning that the club\u2019s \u201cheart\u201d and \u201cidentity\u201d are being eroded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The protest comes at the end of a season where City\u2019s relegation is almost confirmed, the club needing to pick up a maximum haul of 12 points from their remaining games without Galway United or Waterford FC picking up any more points, to avoid another drop to the First Division.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cCork City Football Club is one of the best supported clubs in the League of Ireland. With that proud history and unrivalled backing comes expectation \u2013 expectation of pride, ambition, and of success,\u201d the statement began. \u201cCork City supporters do not settle for mediocrity, and we will never accept a future of decline.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Supporters pointed to what they see as repeated failings in the years since Usher took over, with multiple managerial changes, no clear vision, and what they described as \u201cconstant instability\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">DECLINE<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cSince Dermot Usher took ownership, the decline has only accelerated,\u201d the statement read. \u201cThe club now charges the highest ticket prices in the league, while treating supporters with disdain and pushing us further and further away from the club we built. The connection is gone, the soul is slipping away, and Cork City is being dragged towards becoming nothing more than a yo-yo club bouncing between divisions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Fans stressed their protest is not directed at the players, but at the club\u2019s ownership and the direction they believe it is taking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cFriday night\u2019s protest is not against the players. They have had our full backing all season and will continue to have it. This protest is aimed squarely at the owner and the direction he is taking our club,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4803657_2_articleinline_3244528.jpg\" alt=\"Mason Melia of St Patrick's Athletic celebrates after scoring his side's third goal in their 4-0 hammering of Cork City last week. Picture: Shauna Clinton\/Sportsfile\" title=\"Mason Melia of St Patrick's Athletic celebrates after scoring his side's third goal in their 4-0 hammering of Cork City last week. Picture: Shauna Clinton\/Sportsfile\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Mason Melia of St Patrick&#8217;s Athletic celebrates after scoring his side&#8217;s third goal in their 4-0 hammering of Cork City last week. Picture: Shauna Clinton\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWe demand better. We deserve better. This is Cork City Football Club \u2014 our club, our community, our pride. It must never be reduced to a plaything or a business experiment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cCork City belongs to the people of Cork. And we will not stay silent while its heart, soul and identity are being torn away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork City supporters have confirmed that they will stage a protest against the club\u2019s ownership at Turner\u2019s Cross&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1263,9,10,1264,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-97108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-cork-sport","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-cork-city-fc","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}