NEXT WEEK’S First Division game at the Brandywell between the new league club formed by Foras and the recently-recreated Derry City will do well to match the twists and turns that led yesterday to the demise of Cork City. But there is consolation in the fact it is unlikely to contain quite so much of a farce factor either.

The order to wind up City was finally given yesterday afternoon by a High Court judge who Tom Coughlan, even as he complained the process was “horseshit”, felt obliged to thank for her patience over the last six months.

A few hours earlier, John O’Sullivan, the chairman of Foras, the supporters association that is set to run a First Division club, found himself acknowledging the FAI’s licensing committee had had no option but to reject the application submitted by the provisional owners of the now defunct club the previous night.

The public attitude of those who had tried to save City towards the man they believed had effectively killed it was, predictably, a little harsher yesterday morning.

But that seemed to change when Coughlan became so emotional during a local radio interview that members of the consortium, led by Michael O’Connell, Jim McCarthy and Peter Gray, apparently decided it would be better to lay low.

Meanwhile, the couple of players still contracted to the club from last year, along with the dozen or so who had been lined up to play in the event the salvage operation was completed, began to turn their attention to the grim business of finding alternative employment in a league that is just 10 days away from starting.

A couple looked likely last night to move to clubs outside the area with, most notably, Fahrudin Kudozovic talking to Galway United and Sligo Rovers, and Dan Connor on the brink of signing for St Patrick’s Athletic.

But for most, Foras’s new operation looks likely to be the only option if they are to stay in professional football. Those who are offered contracts almost certainly face the prospect of more pay cuts and diminished conditions.

Notwithstanding the fact the Premier Division will now be more dominated than ever by clubs from Dublin and the east coast, the ramifications of City’s demise – just over 25 years after the club was founded – will be felt around the country. While Coughlan has the right to appeal the High Court’s action yesterday and those of the licensing committee the night before, even he didn’t seem to hold out much hope as he spoke outside the Four Courts yesterday.

So, barring an astonishing turn of events, Bray Wanderers will be confirmed over the next day or two as a Premier Division side again and, a little further down the road, Dundalk will be offered the chance to compete in the Europa League this summer.

Bray manager Eddie Gormley has just over a week to turn what was supposed to be a squad capable of holding its own in the First Division into one with some sort of chance of avoiding what would be another gloomy first for the league – a second successive relegation from the top flight. Club officials suggested last night he would attempt to sign “four or five experienced players”, with a couple possibly coming from the newly unemployed at Cork City.

A Dundalk spokesman, meanwhile, said the club “expected without any question whatsoever”, to be offered the Europa Cup spot, although that means it will have to address the same coaching qualifications issues that hung over City, as Ian Foster does not have the badges required by Uefa.

If they fail, it seems, Sligo Rovers, whose manager Paul Cook is enrolled in an approved Pro License course, are waiting in the wings.

Members of Foras met last night to work out the finer detail of how they should proceed. O’Sullivan said last week they had a director of football lined up to take on the job of putting together a squad. John Caulfield and Liam Murphy looked the most likely candidates.

The squad assembled over the coming days is likely to contain a mix of former City players and young locals, with the weekly budget for wages estimated at €4,000 a week. PFAI general secretary Stephen McGuinness reckons that means the top earners at the new outfit might be on something approaching €500 a week, compared to the roughly €750 the dramatically slimmed down City had been offering.

Foras’s Jonathan O’Brien said yesterday a successful debut season would be one in which it did not lose money, but it seemed likely last night a majority of members would welcome offers made yesterday by Gray and O’Connell to back the venture despite the belief held by some that the supporters should go it alone.

Representatives of the new club will travel to Dublin tomorrow to formally accept the invitation to play in the First Division.It is to be expected everyone involved in the running of the league will try to put a brave face on what is a disastrous situation.

Pointedly, though, nobody seemed to be in a position to explain why the licensing committee, having given the parties involved so much time to save City, had decided to draw a line just as the takeover appeared to have been completed.