Cork City denied a licence; club to be wound up; FORAS to enter First Division

[disgruntled]

Last Friday was a very strange evening, I had a look of amazement when our chairman announced that the meeting may take 3 or 4 hours but it just flew by. There was a lot of emotion on show and credit must be given to the FORAS BOM, they have put in tremendous amount of work.

I am coming in late on this thread but what you have said is exactly how I feel about it as well. As a member of FORAS I will always support the majority view even though my own view may differ.

The very fact you just said that you still do not know the actual debt is crazy,who exactly decided the club was worth 500k-as it stands you have few players worth talking about,still no ground and do not know what division you will be in.People cant be that attached to a club with a small history I mean its only 25 years old.Cork City FC or FC Cork City who gives a sh*t

A lot of people in Cork actually care a lot about history & if yo were a member of FORAS you would know a lot more. Don't believe everything someone tells you.

If I was in the FAI and was told something like that I'd just let them rot in the first division...

But you're not in the FAI fortunately for us.

[Réiteoir]

Maybe somebody can find that picture of the Cork fans in the pub that was doing the rounds a while back...

There we are

[White Horse]

Dundalk FC appear to be the first club to break silence on the Cork City licence scandal.

"It is entirely laudable that the FAI are considerate of creditors, but this is a step too far. It is pretty obvious that Cork City do not hold the required tax clearance certificate at the close-off date, and that the rules and regulations are being applied unevenly. We have no wish for any club to be denied a rightful place in the league, and have empathy for Bray Wanderers and their supporters in the current uncertainty. In relation to the Europa League, we expect to be nominated as the League of Ireland's third representative and we will be making our feelings known in no uncertain terms to the FAI.
The additional ambiguity about our initial series of fixtures is an inconvenience for the club and it's supporters, although Europa League nomination and the application of fair play are the fundamental issues. We expect the FAI and the Independent Club Licensing Committee to do the right thing when eventually the decisions are finally announced."

http://www.extratime.ie/newsdesk/articles/2883/

[Longfordian]

Fair play to them. Delaney won't be happy, he doesn't usually like clubs sticking their heads up above the parapet in these matters.

[Roo69]

Fair play to Dundalk FC. At least one club has the balls to come out and speak the truth.

I wonder will others follow suit?

[tippex]

Dundalk FC appear to be the first club to break silence on the Cork City licence scandal.

"It is entirely laudable that the FAI are considerate of creditors, but this is a step too far. It is pretty obvious that Cork City do not hold the required tax clearance certificate at the close-off date, and that the rules and regulations are being applied unevenly. We have no wish for any club to be denied a rightful place in the league, and have empathy for Bray Wanderers and their supporters in the current uncertainty. In relation to the Europa League, we expect to be nominated as the League of Ireland's third representative and we will be making our feelings known in no uncertain terms to the FAI.
The additional ambiguity about our initial series of fixtures is an inconvenience for the club and it's supporters, although Europa League nomination and the application of fair play are the fundamental issues. We expect the FAI and the Independent Club Licensing Committee to do the right thing when eventually the decisions are finally announced."

http://www.extratime.ie/newsdesk/articles/2883/

Thats quite a ballsy statement from Dundalk and as a LOI fan (not just a Bray fan) I applaud you.

[John83]

In a reverse of the traditional gladatorial call: we salute you Dundalk, who are about to die.

[disgruntled]

What is special about these circumstances? You've messed around for the last 12 months, paying no1, messing everyone around, now your idiot ex-owner has realised yous arent getting a licence with him owning the club, so now hes selling up, he couldn't do it in time for licencing, his tough luck. If your club had tried to run itself as a business in the previous 12 months, there wouldn't be such a mad rush today.

You obviously don't know Coughlan ? Come & live here for a while & you'll soon understand. The most hated man in Cork soccer & elsewhere.

[WoodquayBoy]

Never thought I'd say this but . . . well done Dundalk FC.
As for the concerns of Bray and Cork fans regarding signing players and the transfer deadline, correct me if I'm wrong (and I'm not), but the deadline is in relation to signing players on the books of another club. Out of work players can still be signed after this date, which seems to be a hell of a lot of players. Granted, I would imagine the better players will have been signed by Feb 22, but it doesn't mean club's can't strenghten their squads with non contracted players

[razor]

There we are

Yiddo should have copyrighted that one.

[derm]

Derm your points above also apply to us.
ok maybe not on the manager/training ground end of things but certainly on the sponsors and players.

With our current squad we would be cannon fodder in the premier and we would need to sign about 6 decent players to be competitive in the premier. We cannot do this until we know what division we are playing in.
Also it is tough securing sponsors at the best of times but I'm sure there are sponsors who would be happy to be on board if we were in the premier but less so if we are in the first.

Totally accept that. Either way you can't prepare properly for next season. Totally crap situation and I'm not making any excuses.

So why isn't the takeover pending the receipt of any licence? Why specify a Premier licence?

Sorry - O'Connell and Gray definitely want a team in the premier, end of. My point was that if the financial side is the only thing wrong with the application and the consortium agree to pay it, it puts pressure on Tom (the sports fan who invested 1m of his own money) to just get the feck out. FAI can award premier licence and still relegate the club.

Why don't FORAS just bring the whole farce to an end now - withdraw their support from the existing CCFC on the grounds of the ongoing impasse, let it collapse, and then start afresh in the Firs Division with a democratic fan-owned club ?

Yes - it may mean creditors not getting honoured, but there's a strong possibility of that not happening anyway with the current never-ending brinkmanship saga, so what's the deifference ? Plus - the 'new' Cork City could do what the new DCFC did and voluntarily seek to honour some of the old club's financial commitments anyway.

As for European football - the club will be a shell if it gets that far, so is in danger of putting in a 1980's LOI performance anyway.

I know the usual heads will whinge about what happened about City, but at least what happened to our club happened quickly and everyone was able to move on. The Cork farce was already months old when our problems came out, and months later the zombie corpse is still staggering on headless whilst our situation is long sorted.

Exactly. What happened to Derry did happen quickly. If only we were so lucky! To pull out now would be spun as Foras killing the club. The local newspaper has printed numerous pro-Coughlan stories and made some editorial decisions that were damaging to Foras and protests against his regime. I'm of no doubt how this would be spun.

Secondly, the aim of Foras is to ensure the survival of the club. It's in the mandate and most members wanted to exhaust this avenue before starting up a new club, without the name or history of its supporters.

[SkStu]

fair play to Dundalk for the release. They have a legitimate expectation to a euro place and they are just doing what they need to do to protect that. Its to be admired. I hope it puts pressure on Delaney to put pressure on the Independent Licensing Committee to DO THE RIGHT THING!

[yiddo]

Yiddo should have copyrighted that one.

indeed I should have

[pineapple stu]

Shock as Dundalk demand to be given Cork's European spot. Still, fair dues to them.

[Roo69]

Shock as Dundalk demand to be given Cork's European spot. Still, fair dues to them.

Biut it rightfully there spot now

[eamo1]

Hanging up my scarf and not renewing my season ticket.As someone said its bad enough when officals on the pitch make poor decisions that go for the bigger club,you can put those down to "mistakes".However when the administrators of the league favour the bigger clubs too then how is that fair?????????????I wouldnt mind but Galway Utd starting to put together a handy squad,knowing my luck they will do really well this season.I just cant justify though forking out money to support a league where fairness and equality are clearly and blatantly not being shown by those controlling it.

[Mr_Parker]

In a reverse of the traditional gladatorial call: we salute you Dundalk, who are about to die.

Yep, going by the FAI track record on such matters you would be right. 5,000 euros the norm?

[derm]

Shock as Dundalk demand to be given Cork's European spot. Still, fair dues to them.

+1. Whatever happens Dundalk will probably do the league more good in Europe than ourselves. When are the European licences announced?

[Mr_Parker]

I was also amused by how many times the word "Independent" appears in FAI press releases

It enables buck passing at the appropriate moments.

[pineapple stu]

However when the administrators of the league favour the bigger clubs too then how is that fair?????????????

In fairness, I think Galway of all clubs can't complain about the FAI showing favouritism.