Cork City Examinership

[Macy]

Not sure what the examiner is playing at here?
Maybe there is something in his contract allowing this non payment.

I'd imagine one of the first moves the examiner would make is to review ALL contracts and to cut employees that are no longer needed/entitled to be paid.
He did the same with Liam Kelly at Rovers, so presumably he's entitled under employment law to take such action.

[robertob]

Can anyone give me a short résumé of the cork situation? There is so much aspects and it's difficult for me from germany to understand all.

I want to write for my german online magazine a article about the financial situation of Cork City and don't want write wrong facts.

[John83]

Can anyone give me a short résumé of the cork situation? There is so much aspects and it's difficult for me from germany to understand all.

I want to write for my german online magazine a article about the financial situation of Cork City and don't want write wrong facts.
Well, you had Cork Fordsons, who changed their name to Cork. Shortly afterwards, and simultaneously, you had Cork Bohemians, who went broke, before Cork became Cork City, then Cork United, before going broke. Then there was Cork Athletic who went... broke. Then there was Cork Hibernians, who went bust. Next were Cork Athletic, and Evergreen, or Cork Celtic as they became known, and Cork Hibernians. Cork Celtic went into bankruptcy. I don't know what happened to Cork Athletic (but I can guess), but Cork Hibs folded in 1976 and were replaced by Albert Rovers, who became Cork Alberts and Cork United before folding uneventfully in 1982.

This left the league with two years of peace without a single Cork team in the league.

In 1984, Cork City II were elected. They went broke in the mid-90s, immediately becoming Cork City III. Currently, Cork City IV are trying to negotiate the transition to becoming Cork City IV, but as it stands, Cork City III are following the old familiar path. Everyone has high hopes for Cork City IV, who will no doubt be a huge club, with massively egotistical fans who can't understand why they never actually win anything before going resolutely bankrupt. But hey, that last bit's just editorialising.

[robertob]

thank you.

But I want to know about the current financial situation. So what is with Arkarga or other investors? Will Cork be alive over the current season? Who or what helps cork now? So I can't understand why cork has so big problems while they have earned so much money with transfers of o'donovan, mooney and others and have every homematch a big crowd. It's crazy for my and not understandable why this club is indebted so high. :confused:

[micls]

thank you.

But I want to know about the current financial situation. So what is with Arkarga or other investors? Will Cork be alive over the current season? Who or what helps cork now? So I can't understand why cork has so big problems while they have earned so much money with transfers of o'donovan, mooney and others and have every homematch a big crowd. It's crazy for my and not understandable why this club is indebted so high. :confused:

In an nutshell it was mismanagement.

Businessmen(poor ones) paying crazy money unnecessarily and getting us into debt they had no intention of covering.

it makes little difference to them if the club goes bust.

Currently the fans are trying to raise money to get some share int eh club at least. Plenty of investors sniffing around but who knows if they are actually interested.

We dont know if we'l be here next season and if we are Id imagine it will be in Division one.

[pineapple stu]

if we are Id imagine it will be in Division one.
Is there any concrete reason for thinking that? I know you can look at Shels, and fans can be pessimistic, but has anyone indicated to the club that that's likely?

(Genuine question; it's just come up a lot from the fans but not from anyone official)

[micls]

Is there any concrete reason for thinking that? I know you can look at Shels, and fans can be pessimistic, but has anyone indicated to the club that that's likely?

(Genuine question; it's just come up a lot from the fans but not from anyone official)

Nothing official. I just cant see how we havent broken more licensing rules(other than entering examinership) and given we've already had a points deduction Id expect relegation next. Wage cap, not paying players etc

I dunno, Id imagine it depends a lot on who is in charge if the club is around, if the debts have been cleared, players paid to date etc etc.

[pete]

But I want to know about the current financial situation. So what is with Arkarga or other investors? Will Cork be alive over the current season? Who or what helps cork now? So I can't understand why cork has so big problems while they have earned so much money with transfers of o'donovan, mooney and others and have every homematch a big crowd. It's crazy for my and not understandable why this club is indebted so high. :confused:

The details of ownership transition are a little hazy but basically Arkaga (London based private investment group) took over sometime in the last 12-15 months. They budgeted to lose E1m over the following season (projection seemed reasonable based on estimates of revenue/expenses), were big moves in proposed All Ireland League (teams from Republic & Northern Ireland & were also looking at 28k seater multi purpose stadium. They also mentioned sums of 35-40m for the stadium (a lot of this would be grants) & requirement for 1.5m revenue a season to run the stadium.

A CEO was appointed (who "rebranded" the club with new crest etc...) to run the club & days before the FAI Cup final last season rumours circulated that previous manager would be replaced. When previous manager was removed he sued & deal was made out of court to pay him off (he had one year left in unwritten contract).

O'Donovan was sold around the time Arkaga took over & I believe a lot of the money was used to pay existing debts such as the Revenue Commissioners.

Several players left the club for various reasons in the summer. The CEO was also replaced.

Recently is emerged club had debts around E1m & Arkaga said they would not put anymore money in (it is debatable how much they have put in so far). The club was put into Examinership & Mooney was sold for E250k (maybe 1/3 of his value) & this is mostly used to pay the Examiners fees. The players are currently on 30% wages with the remainder deferred. After rumours of many players going to UK & Norway only one left for League Two in England at the end of August.

The fans have officially launched a supporters trust FORAS (see my signature) with the aim of securing the long term future of the club. The short term target is 5k a week to assist with running if the club.

There have been many rumours of consortiums looking to take over the club. Hopefully FORAS will have some part in this. Home crowds average about 3500. Top player rumoured to earn E150k. Debt is largely due to terrible financial mismanagement - some of the stories about the way money was spent are crazy for supposedly professional investors.

[robertob]

Thank you for the detailed answer.

I think the situation is as yet dramatically. :(
But I hope Cork wil be save. This big club is a flagship of irish football. Most footballfans know Cork City and connecting with this name irish league football...

[micls]

Oh ok, so the situation is as yet dramatically. :(

I've read befor a few weeks that the Investor Arkaga wanna help cork. But they haven't? Why not?

They do not want to help us. They couldnt care less. They will not put another(debatable) cent into City.

[pete]

But I hope Cork wil be save. This big club is a flagship of irish football. Most football fans know Cork City and connecting with this name irish league football...

Just a small point but the ROI league is called "League of Ireland" & the NI league is called the "Irish League".