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

**gufc2000** · 29/07/2009, 3:44 PM

Originally Posted by Ezeikial

What impact does "free agent" status have as regards the transfer window. Can other LoI clubs sign free agents after the transfer window closes?

I suspect that there is very little opportunity for most of these players anyway, with other LoI clubs before the close season. Sligo, Drogheda and Dundalk have been active in signing players in the window, and presumable are fully committed. Shamrock Rovers may have some capacity, Bohs have a transfer embrago and it is difficult to see any of the remainder of Derry, Galway, St Pats or Bray, having any signifcant means to sign new players.

If we can sell Jayo quickly, then we may be able to sign a replacement, but whether anyone from Cork wants to play part-time football in Galway is another days work. Seamus Conneely is wanted by Middlesbrough aswell so if both leave we are down to a squad of 16, so we would need 1 or 2 players

**EalingGreen** · 29/07/2009, 4:08 PM

Originally Posted by White Horse

I'd say he was referring to the country rather than the island.

Fair enough.

Actually it was that although I've been to Cork, his post set me wondering about how big it is compared with Belfast.

And when I saw that Belfast is around twice as big, it then struck me as curious how Cork has struggled down the years to maintain even one senior club, whilst Belfast has so many*.

That's all really.

P.S. The offer to let the Cork take Linfield off our hands for free still stands!

* - Late Edit: I forgot to mention Belfast Celtic, who were pretty massive in the day, plus Distillery used to be a decent-sized Belfast club, with a proud history, until they were effectively forced out of their Grosvenor Road ground in West Belfast by the Troubles/re-development, eventually re-locating to Lisburn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisburn_Distillery_F.C.

**Joseph McSweene** · 29/07/2009, 4:08 PM

Originally Posted by gufc2000

If we can sell Jayo quickly, then we may be able to sign a replacement, but whether anyone from Cork wants to play part-time football in Galway is another days work. Seamus Conneely is wanted by Middlesbrough aswell so if both leave we are down to a squad of 16, so we would need 1 or 2 players

Billy Dennehy is from Kerry so he might be interested-especially with Kells Bells just having signed permenantly with ye. Don't know after that really-our front line was the weak part of our team, better to look at central midfield and defenders from our squad.

**White Horse** · 29/07/2009, 4:22 PM

Originally Posted by EalingGreen

And when I saw that Belfast is around twice as big, it then struck me as curious how Cork has struggled down the years to maintain even one senior club, whilst Belfast has so many.

GAA is very very strong, both hurling and gaelic football. Also the middle class types gravitate towards rugby.

It still is a bit of a mystery though. 5,000 fans isn't a lot in a city of that size.

As for Linfield, I'd swap them for Bohs.

**EalingGreen** · 29/07/2009, 4:58 PM

Originally Posted by White Horse

[Cork] GAA is very very strong, both hurling and gaelic football. Also the middle class types gravitate towards rugby.

Whereas GAA* in Belfast/Antrim has never been very strong and rugby, whilst reasonably popular, is still pretty much confined to the middle-class/Grammar school set, like Cork.

It's all a bit like Derry, tbh, which has always been a "football city", but nothing much for GAA, despite being predominantly Nationalist.

* - Hurling is strong in the Glens of Antrim, but that still only makes it a bit of a niche sport, tbh.

Originally Posted by White Horse

It still is a bit of a mystery though. 5,000 fans isn't a lot in a city of that size.

It all goes to reinforce for me the importance of history and tradition etc, as a factor in a club/city/region's success in sport. That is, you can't grow specific plants in the wrong soil.

Originally Posted by White Horse

As for Linfield, I'd swap them for Bohs.

We don't want a swap, we just want rid of them...

**Dunny** · 29/07/2009, 8:14 PM

Found this on the Cork forum. There was a FORAS meeting tonight.

Confirmed offer put in to purchase the club ,take over all debt -refused
Foras offer to take over the Club - refused

4 man consortium led by Danny Drew

**adamd164** · 29/07/2009, 8:26 PM

Beggars belief!

The club will now fold with him having rejected the bid from FORAS. He is a complete scumbag.

**sonofstan** · 29/07/2009, 8:33 PM

Originally Posted by Dunny

Found this on the Cork forum. There was a FORAS meeting tonight.

What's Danny Drew doing?!

**adamd164** · 29/07/2009, 8:36 PM

Drew was interested during examinership also and the club was not given to him. It was never going to be as the FAI don't want to deal with him.

The more relevant bit is that Coughlan turned down a recent FORAS bid. It shows up his "want to hand over the club to the fans" bull for what it is. He's out for himself and has always been. God knows what schemes he's got going, but guaranteed they're there. He is a shyster.

**sonofstan** · 29/07/2009, 9:02 PM

Let me see if this is right: Cork City Investments Ltd. will be wound up by order of Ms. Justice LaFoy on Friday morning if it - effectively Tom Coughlan - can't come up with 440k to pay the revenue. In that case, presumably a court appointed liquidator will move in and try and recover whatever assets it can in order to pay the company's creditors, with Revenue at the head of the list. At a guess, the company won't have anything like the requisite amount, and the revenue will go away with a small percentage of what is rightfully theirs (and therefore, ours).

Nevertheless, in the meantime, Coughlan is perfectly entitled to turn down an offer to take over the club, pay off the taxman and keep the thing going? Can the court order him to sell to a viable bidder? can the liquidator do the same?

**redgav** · 29/07/2009, 9:08 PM

Originally Posted by sonofstan

Let me see if this is right: Cork City Investments Ltd. will be wound up by order of Ms. Justice LaFoy on Friday morning if it - effectively Tom Coughlan - can't come up with 440k to pay the revenue. In that case, presumably a court appointed liquidator will move in and try and recover whatever assets it can in order to pay the company's creditors, with Revenue at the head of the list. At a guess, the company won't have anything like the requisite amount, and the revenue will go away with a small percentage of what is rightfully theirs (and therefore, ours).

Nevertheless, in the meantime, Coughlan is perfectly entitled to turn down an offer to take over the club, pay off the taxman and keep the thing going? Can the court order him to sell to a viable bidder? can the liquidator do the same?

turned down 2 offers this week and 3 definate offers in his tenure turned down so far ,John Caulfield Consortium were also rejected ..He wouldnt open the books ,wanted to keep a stake in the club and a large cheque for his bookies fund

**James** · 29/07/2009, 9:10 PM

just back from the meeting
the whole thing was totally surreal listening to the FORAS bom walk us through whats happened over literally the last 2-3 days

cant believe the gaul of Coughlan.

blantantly lying on the radio / tv / media saying the club is for the fans the people of cork

then refusing to talk to danny drew
refusing the FORAS offer to sit down and look at a deal

grrrrrr... im ****ing fuming here like

**sonofstan** · 29/07/2009, 9:17 PM

Thanks.
I guess what I'm getting at is this: the best solution for everyone is that the revenue get paid, the club stays alive and 30 odd people stay in employment (and keep paying tax). So if someone - FORAS, whoever - could convince the court that they could achieve this, has the court (or the liquidator) any scope to do something? or is she simply limited to winding up the company on non-production of the right sized cheque?

**James** · 29/07/2009, 9:27 PM

afaik the deal is to be done between cork city investments and the revenue who are owed money from them.. Tom Coughlan as chairman of cork city investments ltd is the person then representing the company..

i guess in the normal run of the mill events .. an organisation like FORAS shud have no place or dealing in the high court or anything judge lafoy needs to consider..

but this is football its emotional it not only representing the city its the jobs of alot of people direclty and indirectly effected

at this point fans are ready to try anything almost to save the club by friday

**redgav** · 29/07/2009, 9:28 PM

Originally Posted by sonofstan

Thanks.
I guess what I'm getting at is this: the best solution for everyone is that the revenue get paid, the club stays alive and 30 odd people stay in employment (and keep paying tax). So if someone - FORAS, whoever - could convince the court that they could achieve this, has the court (or the liquidator) any scope to do something? or is she simply limited to winding up the company on non-production of the right sized cheque?

He bought the club outright after examinership thanks to the examiner,its his to do as he sees fit ...if he doesnt pay the bill,we are gone .The best thing about tonight it that there was a lot of media in attendance ,so with a bit of luck all his lies will also get media attention,especially the 700k bull****

**James** · 29/07/2009, 9:32 PM

yeah and quite a few times FORAS board of management and fans were asked to clarify direct quotes and restate facts and difference between what Tom had spouted and what has actually occured..

we've probably no more then 36 hrs to save the club as it exists now

need to raise this everywhere in every media outlet and get Tom on the radio and get him to stand aside as he has promised to do to a FORAS grouping or this other consortium who by all accounts have not only the money to clear the 439k debt but also upwards of 700k to run the club and pay future debts too

what is coughlans problem..

he needs to be asked the hards questions by rte / newstalk / the irish examiner

EVERYONE who will listen

**sheao** · 29/07/2009, 9:47 PM

FORAS held a fans meeting down here in Cork tonight. What came out of this was that FORAS contacted TNB 3 times with regards to money being available.All 3 times he turned the money down. A consortium leaded by Danny drew has contacted FORAS saying that it would be able to cover all the clubs debts and be able to work with FORAS going foward. Most of the City squad were present along with ex chairman Brian Lennox.

**James** · 29/07/2009, 9:50 PM

some quite emotional accounts from fans as to what cork city means to them and their family over the last 5,10,15 years going right back to 84

Tommy has no ****ing idea what he's destroying

**OneRedArmy** · 29/07/2009, 10:34 PM

I'm not a Cork fan so obviously lack the emotional attachment, but surely starting again in the A League is a better option at this stage? The Danny Drew thing will never be the same as the fans running the club. Phrases like "willing to work with...." aren't worth a cent. What shareholding will you have, how many seats on the Board?

Not to mention the fact Drew has a bit of a reputation and not a good one at that.