Kieran Power is a busy man. If anything, ‘busy’ is probably an understatement. In fact, it was a board meeting at the Hibernian Community Foundation, where he serves as a non-executive director, that caused him to miss the first half hour of the historical Scotland v Denmark match on Tuesday. He cycled home in the dreich and drookit, sat down to a bowl of mussel broth, and watched as the boys in blue qualified for the World Cup for the first time since France 98.
Notably, Kieran was there when they last did. He “vividly” recalled watching the game as a 12-year-old, which, alongside World Cup USA ’94, was among his earliest memories of the tournament. Given this near-30-year gap, he sees the power in young people experiencing Scotland going to North America next year: “It’ll be good for this generation, and the generation before, to see Scotland at a World Cup (and hopefully doing better than what we’ve done in the past)”.
Football has always run in the family. Kieran himself has been a season ticket holder at Hibernian FC since 1988 (which he only just gave up last year, ending a “religious habit” he inherited from his dad in 2003). He started buying the ticket regularly because it was “ingrained” in him. “Football is life”, he says, regarding his wider family, who have “always supported Hibs since the 40s and 50s”. It’s a tradition he’s “now passed down” to his three “football daft” children, aged four, seven, and 13, respectively. Crucially, Kieran notes, it’s not essential they follow in his footsteps at a club. “As long as they enjoy sport and have community values, that’s all that matters”.
It wasn’t until 2019, though, that he took the next step in his support for the club, having worked in the financial services since his late teenage years. He started volunteering as a supporter representative on the Hibs board until spring 2021. “Now, because I’ve been going home and away for close to three decades, I’m going ‘I’m a good representation of the supporters’”, Kieran said. “I wasn’t young, but I wasn’t old… [I was] well-connected with a good network”. He said his “ambition” at that point in his life, in his early 30s, was to “make a difference in the passions he had”, be it cycling (as a Bikeability coordinator for Midlothian Council) or football.
Now, Kieran works as supporter liaison and disability access officer at Hibs, a relatively recent position in Scotland. “So, ‘supporter liaison officer’ was a role established in Germany about 20 years ago because the way football clubs operate, naturally, the biggest stakeholder is their supporters, and there needs to be someone who can work between the fans and the football club.” Kieran noted that the idea of the position only caught on in the last ten years in Scotland, with the role not existing as he performs it today until he joined the club. He went on: “Hibernian had one ten years ago, but it was joined on to someone else’s role within an operations team but then was given a sort of side title of ‘supporter liaison officer’ as well.” When he left the board and was offered this new title, he described the jump as a “natural shift”.
I asked him simply why the role hasn’t existed for longer. Why only in the past decade has the European country with the highest number of football match attendees per capita taken supporter outreach and connection seriously? Kieran had one word: “cost”. “Supporter liaison doesn’t bring in any income, but they might save money because they’re retaining supporters by providing the best experience. You can’t put a value on that”. He points to that as a reason why a lot of the equivalent positions at the likes of smaller clubs and Dundee FC, whom Kieran was eager to mention Hibs will next play on Saturday, are voluntary and thus not on the club’s payroll (he notes that Hearts’ is three days a week too, while Aberdeen, Rangers, and Celtic’s are all full-time).
Kieran cited “trust” as a “big element” of why he’s been so successful in his position for the past five years. “I’ve got the trust of everyone in the club that I’m there for the right reasons… but then I’ve got the trust of the supporters because I’m a well-recognised face”. Despite this, Kieran recognises the downsides to the job: “I don’t have a support network, other than people that volunteer to help, so it can be a lonely, but impactful role.” He said “conflict management” is the toughest part of his job, illustrating it with a hypothetical (which has occurred at the Pat Stanton and West stands this season): someone is brand new to a seat in the stadium, and they don’t like who they’re sitting near to, so they start shouting and slinging profanities at each other. “I need to then step in as that first point of contact to try and manage the situation,” he says. The situation is “delicate”: “both are paying customers, but I need one to understand what’s acceptable and what’s not and the other one to be a bit more resilient”. For him, it’s “difficult” and “quite emotion-driven”. He even had to deal with such a case days before our interview took place.
We also discussed the new-to-2025 ‘disability’ aspect of his job, which shares similarities with the former half but with a “specific laser focus” on supporters that “need that extra tender loving care [TLC] regarding ticketing or comfort getting to their seat”. I was impressed by the strides that the club have made in making the matches accessible. Kieran explained how some supporters may meet the criteria for concessionary rates due to being on Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Adult Disability Payment, or even “complementary tickets to help them to games”.
To call Kieran ‘busy’ is an understatement, but that’s part of the point. At Hibs, Kieran is inundated, necessarily, with people “complaining and being negative” three days a week. At Midlothian Council, he’s teaching kids how to cycle for another three. “I don’t know if I would like to work for Hibs full-time. I need the other job because then I enjoy going to Hibs… I need the balance”. When speaking about his volunteering as a coach for Musselburgh Windsor FC, Kieran summarised his amour propre philosophy to community development neatly: “There’s no better way of giving your time, your valuable time, to something that you’re really passionate about”.
