INTENSIVE EFFORTS are under way to prevent Cork City Football Club from going out of existence after the High Court yesterday issued a winding-up order. The order was issued against the holding company that owns the leading League of Ireland club.
Club chairman Tom Coughlan is to meet Football Association of Ireland (FAI) officials and representatives of the players’ union in Dublin this morning in the wake of the court decision. After an attempt by Cork City Investment FC to negotiate a schedule of payments for the roughly €440,000 it owes to the Revenue Commissioners, Ms Justice Mary Laffoy acknowledged that the club was “in reality” insolvent and that she had “no option” but to grant the order sought by the tax authorities.
The judge agreed to a request by Rossa Fanning for the club to grant a stay until Friday morning so that an appeal could be considered but Mr Coughlan acknowledged afterwards that he had no desire to bring the matter to the Supreme Court.
The club’s hopes of survival hinge on his ability to come up with about double the €110,000 he brought to court in the hope of striking a deal.
The aim would be to satisfy the terms of agreement offered to the club at a previous hearing of the matter under which it would pay half the amount owed immediately, and the other half in four equal monthly instalments.
“The Revenue haven’t shown us any way that they want to negotiate so we’ve got to go away, get more cash and get it fast,” said Mr Coughlan afterwards. “That’s where it stands; we’ve got until Friday to try and do something. They’re talking about 50 per cent so let’s see if we can do that and see what happens.”
Two weeks ago the judge said she was granting one final adjournment to allow the company come up with a proposal to pay the money owed to Revenue. Yesterday, Dermot Cahill, for the Revenue, said unfortunately no such payment agreement had been reached and the Revenue was seeking to have the company wound up.
If a liquidator is appointed to the company when the case comes back before the court then the club looks almost certain to go out of existence, a contingency the FAI is prepared for in the wake of Dublin City’s failure three years ago.
The club’s results would be expunged from this year’s record, no other club would be automatically relegated from the league’s premier division and the Republic’s second largest city would, for the time being at least, be unrepresented in senior football with city following the likes of Evergreen, Fordsons, Cork Hibernians and Albert Rovers into the history books.
