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i went along to the press conference today and agree that the so called local journalist failed to ask the pertinent questions! Pat mc daid was flanked by solicitor Des doherty, and 2 other board members. Forgive me if i get the dates wrong. Pat said that he received a phonecall from an FAI official tuesday evening inviting them to dublin on wednesday regarding help with ongoing difficuties. He stated the FAI official said they should come down as the FAI have experience with clubs in financial difficulties and they would offer advice before the board made any decision they later regret. He emphasised that the FAI official told him they would be among footballing friends! Pat attended a meeting on wednesday with the vice chairman and four FAI officials which lasted 3 hours approx.
Pat stated their was no mention of players contracts during this meeting apart from a passing comment in the last 5 mins of the meeting regarding players contracts 20 yrs ago when he was 12! It moved on to Saturday then when Derry were summoned to meet the FAI in Dublin. John delaney then seemed to take draconian measures in Dublin. Des doherty spoke that no formal charge was labelled at Derry city and they were in a room with 17 officials from the FAI. Des stated he could see a4 paper in front of the officials and asked could he see the paperwork on behalf of his client, he was refused. He stated they were not allowed to question the FAI officials.
He stated he was involved in high profile legal matters throughout the world (bloody sunday,Iraq) and that the way business was conducted beggered belief. He went on to talk about a players contract which he would not name. He said that players contracts are lodged and stamped with the FAI. I need to be careful from this point on as i dont want to mislead anybody. From what i understand a player had a contract which was replaced 11 days later with another contract which was lodged and stamped with the FAI. Des stated that the official contract states that any previous agreement between the two parties was null and void. If anybody was at the press conference and read this point differently, please post and if i got it wrong apologies in advance.
Des went on to state that they were left sitting in the room for 2 hours before the FAI returned and expelled derry from the league. He went on to state that John delaney refused them access to the later press conference and when he asked Mr delaney for the 60,000 euro for finishing fourth to help pay the players, Mr delaney told him they were not getting it. Des stated that on Monday morning he will start legal proceedings from his office with regard to money owed and pat stated they will also be challenging the expulsion also.
