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

**Doomofman** · 11/02/2010, 5:55 PM

Originally Posted by Kildareman

TNB just on Today FM in an interview with Matt Cooper.
The Cork lad that lost a million euro supporting his hometown club.
Says the club is in trouble because of contracts inherited. No player took a paycut.
€130k owed to revenue. When asked where will he get the money by Monday his reply was "not sure".

So that puts an end to the rumour of the tax being paid

**weecountyman** · 11/02/2010, 5:56 PM

His sidekick is on Newstalk.

**SeanDrog** · 11/02/2010, 5:59 PM

heard it, nearly crashed the car when he made out all players were paid. The honest sports lover protrayal was sickening - cooper gave him a very easy time. Said h was trying to have something in place by clos eof business tomorrow (for all his words are worth at this point).

**weecountyman** · 11/02/2010, 6:18 PM

The media are treating him, in person, with kid gloves. Something isn't right in all of this, his love of court room battles can only explain part of this, but there has to be an underlying factor for the amount of time given to Tom, Rod and their goons. They've gone unquestioned, unchallenged and continue to get whatever they want.

**Doomofman** · 11/02/2010, 7:23 PM

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2010/0211/corkcity_.html

Fresh bid for Cork City

Thursday, 11 February 2010 20:16
Quintas has made a second offer to Tom Coughlan on behalf of Cork businessmen to take over troubled League of Ireland club Cork City.

In a statement released to RT�.ie tonight, the Cork-based financial services consultancy has confirmed that a bid has been made, led by Peter Gray and Michael O'Connell, and is completely separate to the previous offer which Quintas facilitated.

The proposal includes plans for FORAS, the Cork City Supporters Trust, to share in the ownership and management of the club.

Gray, a former sponsor of Millwall Football Club is a semi-retired businessman from Britain who now bases himself between London and Kinsale.

He is keen to help save the troubled Rebels: 'I have a genuine love of football and believe that Cork has the potential to be a really successful club.'

O'Connell, meanwhile, is a former Chief Executive of Adidas in Ireland and owns Mocad Golf.

FORAS members will soon vote on whether they want to be part of the bid, their chairman John O'Sullivan was excited by the offer:

'We support this move. This is a really exciting offer made by individuals who have the best interests of the club at heart.

'We sincerely hope that the bid will succeed and we will put the chance to share in this new opportunity to our membership as soon as possible.'

Cork City will hold a press conference on Friday but it is thought that this is not in relation to the offer.

Coughlan must now decide in the coming days if the offer is acceptable, but time is running out with the winding-up order hearing from the Revenue Commissioners set for the High Court on Monday, as well as the League of Ireland licencing decision from the Independent Licensing Committee and FAI due the same day.

**centre mid** · 11/02/2010, 7:26 PM

I dont understand this late offer.

Why not just let the club go bust and start again in the first division with FORAS. Surely the could have come in a long time ago, were they waiting until TNB had no more room to manovre?

**Mr A** · 11/02/2010, 7:31 PM

Offer or no offer, surely they can't get a license at this stage anyway?

**Longfordian** · 11/02/2010, 7:35 PM

Unless they pay everybody off by tomorrow evening then it has to be too late. Why not let the bloody company fold and back the FORAS entity? The €400k or whatever could do an awful lot more good there. They could be Cork City again in a year or so.

**Mad Moose** · 11/02/2010, 7:44 PM

If only it means that Roddy Collins doesn't get a pay off I'd say let the club fold and reform with an application for the 1st Division. If a dramatic saving of the club takes place at the very last minute nobody in their right minds would have Roddy Collins anywhere next or near the club. Presumably he'd seek a pay off should the club decide not to keep him in charge. Does anybody know how much Roddy gets and if he's getting it? Whatever is there I'd say Roddy is milking the club dry.

**weecountyman** · 11/02/2010, 8:30 PM

Originally Posted by Harpsbear

If only it means that Roddy Collins doesn't get a pay off I'd say let the club fold and reform with an application for the 1st Division. If a dramatic saving of the club takes place at the very last minute nobody in their right minds would have Roddy Collins anywhere next or near the club. Presumably he'd seek a pay off should the club decide not to keep him in charge. Does anybody know how much Roddy gets and if he's getting it? Whatever is there I'd say Roddy is milking the club dry.

He claims to be on 500quid a week, less than half of what he claimed he was earning in Malta and a quarter of what he claimed he was on in RTE (seriously, he gave interviews stating he took a 50% drop in pay to go to Malta). Will FORAS keep him and his skipper on should they take over?

**CuanaD** · 11/02/2010, 8:58 PM

Rumours in a pub in Cork that TNB managed to pat revenue.

Any truth to this?

**CuanaD** · 11/02/2010, 9:02 PM

Originally Posted by CuanaD

Rumours in a pub in Cork that TNB managed to pat revenue.

Any truth to this?

Sorry, realise now I should have gone back a page

**sheao** · 11/02/2010, 10:01 PM

A FORAS club in the first division in my opinion is the best option for us !

**Longfordian** · 11/02/2010, 10:12 PM

Is Premier Division football and European Football and 1 year or so of the name Cork City really worth the hundreds of thousands that has to be paid whether Tom takes a payoff or not. It just seems a strange business decision when there's a clearly viable alternative. These guys seem to be businessmen not Arab sheikhs who would drop more from their pockets.

**srfc1928** · 11/02/2010, 10:26 PM

Originally Posted by sheao

A FORAS club in the first division in my opinion is the best option for us !

In the long run, this seems like a more sensible option.
or
Business men come in, save club, just seems more of the same of what went before.

Would the people of Cork not be more inclined to get behind a football club that is owned by the people.

**Scrufil** · 11/02/2010, 11:15 PM

FORAS are going to be taken for a ride if they vote for the new consortium. There is practically no time at this stage to do any proper 'digging' up of facts on the connections and backgrounds of this new group. Who in their right mind would want their club even associated with anyone from Millwall? Millwall is an English club and no-one from over there with any experience would want to touch Cork City, especially since the 'turfing out' of some top Cork players. Don't give me this 'Real soccer man' ideal, sure isn't Coughlan one of them? The 'semi-retired' tag of Gray indicates that he doesn't give too hoots one way or the other. A very dangerous bed-fellow to sleep with. In many ways its better the Devil you know than the Devil you don't. FORAS are also running a huge risk of being the 'bad guy' in all this. If they vote for it now and the club goes bust mid-season or at the end of the season they will have 'moved too fast'. If they vote against they will be seen as having kicked Cork when they were down and doing nothing to help. All FORAS can hope for is that the revenue does the job for you and takes the decision out of your hands.

**weecountyman** · 12/02/2010, 5:48 AM

A rumour that erupted yeseterday in certain circles in Dublin (I believe any Bohs insiders on here can confirm this) is that one Mr. Steve Collins is being used as a name for the "UK consortium". His solicitor was down in Cork yesterday but apparently left without signing or concluding anything. Also being bandied about (by "a source close to Roddy Collins") is Fran Rooney who is to come on board as an investment magnet - he was announced as the same by Roddy for Malta way back when, without ever taking up the role. Today will be interesting.

**culloty82** · 12/02/2010, 7:38 AM

The latest news seems to make no sense whatsoever, better for FORAS to continue pursuing their own licence and start with a clean slate rather than wasting money clearing debts for which they've no responsibility. Also, it's virtually impossible that anything could happen before Monday at this stage, so it'll have little impact on the FAI's decision. Either way, it will surely be for the First Division after all the missed deadlines, giving one for the Premier would destroy what degree of credibility the League has remaining.

**HammerNThongs** · 12/02/2010, 7:56 AM

I am very unsure of what to make of the latest Quintas backed bid. Premier Division football and sponsorship (which we have only 3 weeks to fix down) and inevitably 1 round of European football are not worth what it costs to pay off the debts. Also when you factor in, we'll have an atrocious Premier Division side, there is a real chance we could be fighting relegation come the seasons end and go down anyway. Make no mistake about that.

And then there is the Roddy factor...stuck with him and his spoofer contacts for 12 months not to mention his disgusting personality is something I would be delighted to do without.

**pineapple stu** · 12/02/2010, 9:18 AM

So Quintas say they're interested, do due dilligence, uncover so many horror stories that they immediately pull out, and a week later they're back in again?!

This just gets curiouser and curiouser.