Breaking news Michael O'Sullivan resigns - club may fold

[lims fan]

I got a call from another contributor to this board last nite to tell me that O'Sullivan has resigned and the club has 3 games to sort out its money probs or it will fold. What is going on. I think the transparency issue is finally going to kill us off.
What morons run this club. The apologists can now eat humble pie.

[deise deserter]

I have heard about the club having three games to sort all out or they are going into administration story from SLK as well. Only 3 Limerick FC Games left? :(

As for Michael O'Sullivan, while the committee simply didn't work, he was always the most approachable. He has sunk enough of his own money into the club it seems and he has had enough. The committee has been plagued with financial problems since our current commercial manager has been appointed. It would be interesting to post up his "expected income" sheet and go through it to see what he actually gotten in.

[LFC in Exile]

Originally posted by lims fan
I got a call from another contributor to this board last nite to tell me that O'Sullivan has resigned and the club has 3 games to sort out its money probs or it will fold. What is going on. I think the transparency issue is finally going to kill us off.
What morons run this club. The apologists can now eat humble pie.

This is very worrying. I hope the situation is not as serious as it seems.

If it is then congratulations Lims Fan - you must be thrilled.

[JohnD]

Mike rang me last night to tell me the news. He sounded really ****ed off particularly as he was a Fan before getting involved with the running of the club. He Spoke about how he could not continue subsidising the club for wages etc.. How have things got so bad.? We had a decent program last year with ads a plenty. Look at this year's excuse.

What are the rest of the committtee doing to get finances in?

In some respects Some good may come of it because it has been shown that the self appointed committee structrure does not work and has no mandate and one to answer to. The Club is in a mess and needs a clean start with new faces NOW!!. I sugeest that they all resign and put themselves forward to an AGM . I wonder how many will get elected than. I only hope it's not too late

BTW I asked Mike to join us at the matches and cheer on his team as he is still a supporter.:ball:

[lims fan]

Michael O'Sullivan was the only pro actiive person running the club, the rest of them are smalltime idiots.

Attn LFC IN EXILE
This is a serious matter and I am very sad O'Sullivan is gone I have great time for him so you should not be trying so petty.

[deise deserter]

Originally posted by lims fan
Michael O'Sullivan was the only pro actiive person running the club, the rest of them are smalltime idiots.

With Michael gone the club has lost what little vision and drive was there. The remaining members have alienated so many supporters over the years it's incredible - there needs to be a completely new committee put in place. A fresh start is the only hope we have of a senior soccer side worth mentioning in the city.

BTW: Just a couple of figures form the "Commercial Manager's" plan for the season:

1. 25,000 Eruos will be raised from a school skipathon.
2. Our Under 21 Team costs 3,000 to run. They get 2,500 in the form of a grant. We don't have an under 21s team this year because of 500 Euros.

[gael353]

only one head needs to role and we all know who that is! He raised the clubs expenditure from 1500 to 3500 this year with his promise of mad money to finance this never materielised. the supporters club needs to call a meeting with the fai to get the low down now. egm has to be called too.

[joeSoap]

"Michael O'Sullivan was the only pro actiive person running the club, the rest of them are smalltime idiots."

Cast your mind back six months or so when you openly castigated Michael O'Sullivan and Noel O'Connor on a daily basis, calling one of them "Nicey" and wishing a terminal disease on the other. Well now, the only two positive elements the club had are gone...you should be the one who's pleased...IDIOT!!

[JohnD]

Can we please stop petty infighting etc. This has been the ruin of this club down through the years. If anything positive is to come of this then we, The Supporters, need to be of one voice. Come on let's get practical..what do we need to do to ? ..

[joeSoap]

fair point....I live in Dublin, and am prepared to help out with whatever I can...

[deise deserter]

Joe Soap:

There is no need for this childish infighting. That's why we have a split committee that has been completely ineffectual this season. While I have openly castigated Lims Fan when his anger went off the point into insults I do believe the guy has always had the best interests of the club at heart. Also you seem to be completely wrong about his opinion about Michael O'Sullivan. This is taken from his website:

"Some unscrupulous, lazy, unprogressive, smallminded and defeatist people still run this club but there are also some good people like new chairman Michael O'Sullivan and he holds the future hope in his hands."
http://www.geocities.com/mark_grad99/about.html

As for what we need to do:

We need a meeting with the remaining members of the Limerick FC Committee. I know they have a meeting tonight and we should aim at getting into the meeting and finding out exactly how badly the club has been run. We have to get this information - their closed door policies have to change - if they let people know exactly what the problems are we can start looking for a way to fix them.

[lims fan]

Squabbling finishes NOW. We all put our heads together and no More stupid bickering. A lot of us need to face reality including myself and from now on all smalltime bickering ceases.

[joeSoap]

The first and only priority now should be financial security...short term, ie until the end of the season. I don't believe anyone can look beyond that time period at the moment. The remaining committee should all resign with immediate effect, and should they wish to be re-instated, they should make their case at a public meeting. I have just got off the fone to someone I know up here who works in Merrion Sq at a reasonably high level, and he has just told me that the Pike thing is off, and the club won't be getting any money to develop someone elses ground. The freehold on the Markets Field becomes up for sale shortly, and given that there is a protection order on it from property development, it won't be as expensive to buy outright as it normally might. I believe that our first step is to organise a committee, with genuine and realistic financial ambition, and also to recruit "names" with clout in the financial sector. No more mamby pamby and ficticious "I'm gonna raise hundreds of thousands for the club" people. If we're in the mire, lets admit it and try to move on.Also, when and if we get a new committee, I believe we all should propose Michael O'Sullivan for Chair.. all in agreement say "Aye"!!

[JohnD]

That is one of the best posts in ages. I had heard but couldn't say that the Pike thing is off,but it is. The Markets field will be availble shortly and agree that all should resign, even though nobody was elected in the first place, and go to the public now.

[lims fan]

WELL DONE AND GOOD SUGGESTIONS - O'SULLIVAN HAS A FUTURE AT THE CLUB

[joeSoap]

lims fan

Never thought I'd see the day I agreed with you!!!
Here's to the future!!

[deise deserter]

:D Ye're all like bloody hippies!!!

Their meeting I have been told by John D is now on Thursday. The Supporters' Club need representation at this meeting - the fans and the people of Limerick in general have been ignored by the committee for too long.

Proper structures have to be put in place in regards all areas of the club. That said I'll bet that they will elect a new chair under cover of darkness at their next meeting, and close the doors again. The people involved with the committee have shown that they don't know what they are doing - it really is time that they stepped down and admitted it.

As far as ground issues go I don't think anyone could say we didn't deserve it if Pike and the FAI throw the club out on their ear - the basic levels of competence that are expected of a senior soccer club are seriously lacking.

Committee out!! We demand elections!! :mad:

[JohnD]

John Purcell rang me this afternoon. The Committee meeting will take place on thurs night.We will not be present, However after this he wants to get together with the Officers of the Supporters Club, Players and Manager and some of the committee to come up with ideas. One of them is the issuing to all of the above blocks of Match Tickets which can be sold before the games at €6 per Ticket. This would help bring in more Support and more income. Would people sell these ?

[joeSoap]

Yeah, I'd sell them no problem, and I'm sure others would too. But you're still only looking at a small number bringing in small change. The time for accepting being fobbed off and not allowed an active role in the club is over. We can't accept this crap or excuses any more.Lets draw up an agenda and adhere to it..I think we all know how competent a bunch we are compared to them, so it's time we started demanding some rights.

[gael353]

is it just me but haven't i been going on about the markets field for the last two and a half yeas and i get constently shot down on this for doing so?? im sorry but im patting myself on the back for this one. but who is buying it?? and will all of it ie the car park be bought as well???

[eoinh]

i really do hope limerick survive. football needs limerick to be a success. it would be a diasaster if one of our largest ciitys wasnt represented in the LOI

[LFC in Exile]

Originally posted by gael353
is it just me but haven't i been going on about the markets field for the last two and a half yeas and i get constently shot down on this for doing so?? im sorry but im patting myself on the back for this one. but who is buying it?? and will all of it ie the car park be bought as well???

Trev,

At the risk of sounding small time or defeatist, the Markets Filed is a beaten docket. There is no money to run the club beyond July 11th and now we're talking about the Markets Field. There is no money to pay wages - how are we going to buy a ground?

Will the car park be bought as well? If there was someone coming in to buy this for the club the Michael O'S would have known about it and would not have resigned.

I think as well as selling tickets beforehand we (SC) should also get cracking on a poster spree. Things like - its not or never - get off your arse and support the club. Maybe in a nicer way. :)

[Estar]

Get the Local media behind you, tell them Limerick Fc is about to die, go and support them at their next match, they might never get a chance again:(

Don't give up lads, their is still hope:(

[ramsie]

Kerry League would be a nice team to replace ye

[tiktok]

:mad:

ramsie, c'mon boy, get real, this isn't a laughing matter.

lads i think you should post this on EL general to get ideas and support from the rest of the forum, brainstorming on this type of thing often generates ideas. lots of the lads who post are involved with other clubs and see the workings.

Estar is right, get 95fm behind you, get a sympathetic voice in the limerick leader in on the story too.

three weeks is longer than it sounds if you've got the willingness to get your hands dirty. i genuinely wish you all the best.

[LFC in Exile]

Originally posted by ramsie
Kerry League would be a nice team to replace ye

Touche Ramsie. Touche. :)

[joeSoap]

This was posted on the el messageboard last nite
__________________________________________________ __
an idea for limerick
June 24 2003 at 9:11 PM pb (no login)
from IP address 159.134.145.76

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

every year a loi club hits the wall, it was us a few years ago but we for the first time for years have a financial statement that has us in the black (gufc)
drogs last year now the lims. The idea is based on the Meitheil idea the catholic church had some years back so they could get all the communities together to pay for new communities churches and refurbishments on old ones. If we eircom fans started with limerick and had a
pooling of resources into a central fund, the pledges could be posted on this message board, The supporters in Limerick could set up a supporters trust and for this one we could direct it straight to limerick. The supporters in lims then could buy a share in the club and start getting things back on track (its a hard slog though believe me) after this the fund should continue annually and the supporters of each club should set up a committee to administer the fund.
its being done in the Uk and it has worked. Supporters are always talking but sometimes we need to do constructive things
what do you think?
To date the Galway United Supporters Trust has donated over €30000 euro to our club over 18 months and all the members steward the games, man the gates, promote the games and provide travel to away games.
if we acted together each club represented we could do a lot more
__________________________________________________ __

[deise deserter]

Great idea - we brought the idea of a suporters' trust to the commercial manager at the start of the season. WE worked out that we would have enough each week to pay the pitch rental. The club had no work to do to get the money, yet they still shot the idea down.

We're coming up against a brick wall here guys.

[tiktok]

from www.eleven-a-side.com, it says you're not in debt, that could turn out to be the biggest plus in attracting an investor. what's your average home attendance, is there enough interest to increase it????

Limerick league status under threat

The National League status of First Division Limerick FC appears to be in serious trouble after the club asked players and staff to waive payment of wages for the next three weeks in an attempt to find a new investor for the Shannonside club.

Players and staff have agreed to the temporary rescinding of wages, but there may be no way out of this current predicament for one of the league’s most famous clubs.

Limerick have been in the league for almost 70 years, winning the outright title twice, as Limerick in 1959/60 and Limerick United in 1979/80.

The club was subsequently renamed to Limerick City in 1983 and again, to Limerick FC, in 1992.

In recent years they have been languishing in the First Division, and although they did manage to win the 2002 League Cup with victory over Derry City in the final, success has been thin on the ground in recent years.

The club parted company with manager Noel O’Connor, who was appointed Cork City assistant, in the close-season, but Mike Kerley took over and, after a slow start, led the club to fifth in the table, just two points off the play-off places.

But that relative success has masked serious trouble at the club.

Michael O’Sullivan stepped town as the club’s chairman earlier this week, and he warned that unless new investors were found, and greater numbers of supporters turned out at the Pike Rovers Sports Ground, the club faced a bleak future.

He was quoted in the Irish Sun as saying: "We’re not in debt but we have no reserves and are going to struggle to meet out commitments unless money comes in over the next three weeks.

"We have been struggling to get more than 200 people at our games and if the city wants senior football then it must turn up in greater numbers than that. We need a response from the business community as well.

"We can get to the Cobh match but if nothing has happened by then, a public meeting will be called to decide our future."

[gspain]

Sorry also to see Michael go

[A face]

Originally posted by ramsie
Kerry League would be a nice team to replace ye

Ramise ..... there was piece in the Echo not so very long ago appealing to the Cobh public to get behind their team.



Very short memory there my friend .... very fcuking short. ****.




Shut up unless you can offer something useful. There is not one club in the league that is a million miles away from this scenario.

[Monkfish]

Its all a hoax! Mick staying on thank God! :clap:

[joeSoap]

Kev, I don't know what your angle for re-opening an 8 year old thread is but there will be serious implications if it gets out of hand.