‘Our aim is to try and get stronger year on year’
CEO of Drogheda United Rian Wogan sits down with Jimmy Geoghegan
Rian Wogan walks into a café in Navan and after he politely introduces himself, he orders a cup of cappuccino. It’s lunchtime and the place is busy – as is Wogan, a man on a mission.
He wears a Drogheda United top and sleeveless jacket which gives a hint to those who don’t know him as to how he makes his living. At just 32 the Navan native could be mistaken for one of the club’s players.
Instead he is the Chief Executive Officer, leading a team of people that are involved in ensuring Drogheda Utd FC is ready for the rigours of life in League of Ireland football.
The new Premier Div season got underway last week for Drogheda Utd with a game away to Galway. This Friday they welcome Waterford to Sullivan & Lambe Park for their opening home game of the campaign.
Time was when League of Ireland teams were made up of players who combined their normal jobs with playing on a semi-professional basis. Those days are gone. Now it’s a full-time league. Now a club has to be run like a business; streamlined, financially robust with a clear plan for the future.
After years of operating on a semi-pro basis Drogheda United, or the Drogs as they are sometimes referred to, went full-time for 2025 – or at least the first team squad went professional. Now that drive towards a full-time culture has been ramped up further. Now the backroom staff has been bulked up too.
“This time last year we had one part-time staff member and one full-time and at the end of 2025 our full head count was seven staff in total, five full-time, two part-time. It’s a big increase,” explains Wogan.
That all ensures a busy schedule. People, he says, might expect him to have some quiet, downtime in the close season and the weeks leading up to the start of a new campaign. Instead, the opposite is the case. “It’s just spinning a lot of plates at the moment,” is one phase he uses to describe his situation.
For one thing there is the recruitment of players for the new campaign with a number of people involved in that process – including the CEO.
“It’s a mixture of Kev (manager Kevin Doherty) and our sporting director,” explains Wogan. “They will do the analysis on the players they are interested in, then they will come back to me as chief executive to make sure the players fit within our budget. So it’s about making sure everyone slots within our budget and to ensure we have coverage across all positions as we try to get stronger year on year.”
And that’s the key phrase “to get stronger year on year.” For Wogan and his club colleagues it’s about ensuring Drogheda Utd IS stronger each season – both on and off the field. In the world of professional sport standing still means, effectively, going backwards.
For the coming League of Ireland Premier season Drogheda Utd augmented their squad by making a number of signings including American Leo Burnley who was in Navan the day Rian Wogan met the Meath Chronicle in order to pick up his PPS number.
It’s one of many little details that have to be looked after when a new player from another country joins the ranks. Providing accommodation for new players is another issue that has to be sorted, although Drogheda Utd have two club houses to help in regards to that end of things.
The sporting director Wogan refers to is the US-based Matt Jordan who is part of the Trivela Group who bought Drogheda United in 2024. The Group also includes Walsall FC in the English League One, Silkeborg IF in Denmark and Trivela FC in Togo.
Last season Drogheda United comfortably secured their Premier League status but hopes of playing in the UEFA Conference League were quashed by complications arising out of the fact that Silkeborg were also part of the Trivela Group.
As winners of the 2024 FAI Cup Drogheda should have played in the Conference League but UEFA’s rules stipulate only one team from the same owner group can participate in any competition. Drogheda missed out with some estimations of the loss to the club put at €500,000.
It was a big hit for a club that had only gone professional after winning the FAI Cup with the anticipation of playing in Europe.
ROYAL COUNTY
Because of its location many of the Drogheda’s supporters are from Meath. Another connection with the Royal County is the presence in the team of players such as defenders Conor Keeley from Dunboyne and Andrew Quinn from Dunshaughlin. Then there is the fact that Drogheda Utd players train and base themselves at the home of Ratoath Harps FC.
Then, of course, there is the fact that the club’s leading official, its CEO, is a Meath man. Born and bred.
Growing up in Navan, Rian Wogan was steeped in soccer. His father Robbie Wogan was closely involved with Navan Town FC. Rian also turned out in Town’s green and yellow colours and also had spells with Navan Cosmos and Torro Utd while the team he followed across the Irish Sea is the one and only Man U, the Red Devils. From time to time also, Robbie and Rian would make the trip from Navan to Drogheda to see the Drogs play.
After his secondary school days Rian gave an indication of how he harboured hopes of carving out a life in sport by embarking on a course in IT Carlow that involved aspects of finance, marketing, coaching and much more.
The young Navan man loved the coaching aspect especially and eventually picked up a UEFA B license. He coached Longford Town u-19s, qualified for a A license and also trained the Drogheda Utd u-17s. He seemed destined for the coaching route.
He also landed a sales role with 3 Mobile until an opportunity came up to work full time in football as a commercial manager with Shamrock Rovers. The move, however, wasn’t without its complications.
“It was 2019 and it was just coming into Covid. I handed in my notice in February 2020 with the anticipation of taking the job a month later. Covid hit and unfortunately I had to go back to my employer 3 Mobile to see if they could keep on for another while. It was difficult for everyone.”
Wogan was tempted to go for other positions but he waited for the Rovers job to materialise, once some kind of normality returned. He’s glad he did. He stayed with Rovers for four years learning a lot about the realities of sustaining a well-honed, professional League of Ireland club these days. Then the opportunity with Drogheda Utd presented itself.
“I was working with a really good chief executive at Rovers, John Martin, who is now the FAI’s Director of Football. I would see John as a mentor, a really intelligent bloke. I learned a lot from him. When the Drogheda job came up I said to him: ‘Do you think it’s something I could do?’ He thought I was capable. I applied for it and got it, which is good.”
Married to AnnMarie with three children, aged from two to 12, Wogan certainly knows the road from Navan to Drogheda well as he seeks to ensure DUFC are ready for the rigors of a new season.
SUSTAINABILITY
It takes a lot to financially backbone any League of Ireland club, to ensure the lights stay on, and Wogan and his team are constantly looking at ways to generate the revenue required. Change is a constant.
“We are very much changing our model from what we would have done in the past when it would have been a case of simply selling a sign to a sponsor, where as now we are looking at partnership packages we can bring to a potential sponsor.
“Showing what we can give that partner long term in terms of access to our fans through visibility on TV, through match-day signage, through our social media channels, through targeted e-mails, through players’ appearances.
“We are trying to build a new strategy that is attractive to sponsors and ultimately we have to tap into Meath, Louth and Drogheda areas so our focus will be drilling down and making sure we approach as many businesses in Meath, Louth areas as much as possible, so that it’s a high number of local brands, a small number of national brands and then, obviously, a small number of international brands who will be our sponsors.”
One issue the club is seeking to sort out is the home ground. Each year improvements are made at the Windmill Lane venue to try and improve facilities but the club is limited by the reality that it doesn’t own the place.
Instead the club are seeking to acquire some land on the Ballymakenny Road on the edge of Drogheda town to which they will be able to use for development of a new stadium; something that everyone agrees is needed.
That’s all in the longer-term future. For Rian Wogan the challenges involved in dealing with the upcoming 2026 Premier League of Ireland season are enough to ensure he has a busy schedule as it is.
When you are CEO a lot of people want to talk to you.