Restricting Tom Coughlan

**Eminence Grise** · 13/01/2012, 11:05 AM

A few days ago I posted in another forum that because it's too easy for rogue directors to walk away from the chaos they create clubs need to use company law to ensure that they are restricted from holding other directorships. Lo and behold! Our old friend Tom Coughlan rears his ugly head. This is from the current issue of The Phoenix. Doubtless, Cork fans will think it’s a punishment long overdue...

Restricting Tom Coughlan

Tom Coughlan, the former owner of Cork City Football Club, is not fondly remembered by fans of the club, who will shed few tears to learn that last month he was restricted from acting as company director for five years.

The Section 150 proceedings relate to Coughlan’s period as a director of Cork City Investment FC Ltd, the company formerly behind the club, which went into liquidation in 2010 amid a torrent of abuse from fans directed at the hapless businessman. Coughlan’s tenure as club owner was a disaster. In 2010, he sought unsuccessfully sought to judicially review the Football Association of Ireland’s (FAI’s) disciplinary committee, after it banned him from football related activities for bringing the game into disrepute. The FAI said at the time that in attempting to bring the costly High Court Challenge, Coughlan had “squandered money that should have gone into League of Ireland football.”

The businessman – who ran unsuccessfully for the Progressive Democrats in Cork South Central in the 1997 general election – has had judgements registered against him for at least €3.8m in the past three years, mainly from Bank of Ireland, related to various property ventures (see The Phoenix 24/9/10). Last August, the bank secured a judgement mortgage against Coughlan and Aoife Traynor, who shares the same Cork address as Coughlan, and who was also a director at Cork City Investment FC Ltd.