A FRESH bid was made last night to buy Cork City from Tom Coughlan and avert the threat of financial collapse next Monday with the two prospective purchasers who had previously dropped out of takeover talks joining forces and returning to the table.
Michael O’Connell, the locally-based businessman who used to be the chief executive of Adidas in Ireland, and those backing him had appeared to end their interest in acquiring the club several days ago at which point the focus shifted to an offer by a previously unnamed English businessman, last night revealed to be Peter Gray, a former developer and sponsor of Millwall.
Coughlan confirmed yesterday that talks with Gray had also broken down but last night the London-based businessman, who sold his development company three years ago and who spends a good deal of his time these days in Kinsale, along with O’Connell and a number of other locals, made a new bid for Cork City and stated that if successful they would involve supporters group Foras in the ownership and running of the club.
It is believed that previous talks with Coughlan had stalled over his determination to recoup an unknown proportion of the money he has spent on running the club since his ill-fated decision to take it over in 2008 and it is not yet clear whether the new consortium will be successful in persuading him to walk away on terms acceptable to them.
Having admitted yesterday, however, that the club’s survival depended on it attracting substantial new investment, Coughlan does not appear to have an enormous range of choices.
The club is due back in the High Court on Monday in relation to an attempt by the Revenue Commissioners to wind it up for non payment of as estimated €115,000.
Total debts, meanwhile, are believed to exceed €500,000 and unless these are paid off or an agreement is reached with those who are owed the money, it is almost impossible to imagine that Cork City would, in its current form, be granted a licence by the Football Association of Ireland at the start of next week.
With such significant liabilities to be taken on it is unlikely that the consortium led by Gray and O’Connell will be offering Coughlan much by way of a purchase price but supporters of the club will be desperately hoping that he accepts a deal, thereby allowing some hope that the new owners might provide an urgently-needed measure of stability.
“I have a genuine love of football and believe that Cork has the potential to be a really successful club,” said Gray in a statement released last night.
Foras chairman John O’Sullivan said that the organisation would certainly be throwing its weight behind the bid.
“We support this move,” he said.
“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.”
