A life beyond your wildest means

The news Cork City are in serious financial trouble has sent shock waves throughout Irish football and raises questions about the long-term viability of the League of Ireland, writes Liam Mackey

TOO MUCH money going out, not enough coming in – something has to give.

That, paraphrased, is how one source at the club sums up the current crisis at Cork City, one which now appears to threaten the very existence of top-flight football on Leeside.

That Cork are hardly alone in their plight is of little consolation. Already this season, a number of other eircom League Premier Division clubs have come under severe financial pressure, among them Sligo Rovers, Galway United and Cork’s neighbours Cobh Ramblers. And only this week, players with Kildare County in the First Division set a deadline for strike action next month if they are not paid outstanding wages.

But the news that Cork City are on the brink has sent shock waves throughout Irish football. One of the most successful domestic clubs in recent years, Cork won the league title in 2005 and are the current cup-holders. A team which plays host to former and recent Irish internationals, Colin Healy and Joe Gamble, they currently lie third in the Premier Division, regularly qualify for European competitions and are generally regarded as having one of the biggest and most loyal fan bases in the country. They are also, unusually for the League of Ireland, a selling club, as evidenced by the export to England of the likes of Kevin Doyle, Shane Long, Roy O’Donovan and David Meyler.

Yet, like the swan who is all serenity above the water but paddling like hell below, Cork’s success on the pitch has masked turbulence off it. Even if they survive the current crisis, it’s hard to envisage how the club can continue to function as a high-wage payer capable of holding onto its biggest stars, never mind attracting others to Turner’s Cross.

There were high hopes mixed with a certain bemusement when the London-based venture capital firm Arkaga took over the ownership of the club in 2007 but their first season in charge, despite yielding an FAI Cup win, ended in some turmoil, with the financially costly ousting of Damien Richardson as manager and players complaining in the press and on television about delays in renegotiating contracts.

Having pumped an estimated €2.5m into Cork City, Arkaga now appear to have turned off the financial tap and are actively seeking new investors or partners to buy into the club. At the outset, Arkaga were understood to have harboured plans to develop a new stadium for the club and, more recently they have been strong supporters of an All-Ireland League but, far removed from those ambitious and some would say unrealistic plans, the much more pressing goal now is the survival of the club.

Recent weeks have seen Cork City, in the words of one insider, “scrimping and scraping” to make ends meet and although the players have all been paid up to date – and, indeed, this week, ahead of time – the club is understood to be carrying an overall debt of around €750,000.

Hence the urgency to find a solution, whether that be in the form of new investors, new sponsors or, via the legal route, an examinership which would buy time in which to mount a rescue package, as Shamrock Rovers succeeded in doing in 2005.

The other alternative is the nightmare scenario of liquidation. And that would be a devastating blow not only for the club, its players, staff and supporters but also for the FAI and the domestic game in general.

At its recent AGM in Castlebar, the FAI sought to counter the widespread perception that the league was in meltdown on the back of the expected ending of eircom’s sponsorship as well as financial problems already being experienced at a number of clubs. Against the backdrop of attempts to paint a rosier picture, the emergence into the public domain of the extent of Cork’s plight comes as a hammer blow and, should the club fail to make it to the end of the season, the impact on the league table would be nothing short of an embarrassment for the governing body.

But while the inevitable blame game gathers momentum, Cork City’s crisis raises a much more profound question about League of Ireland football as a sustainable exercise: if one of the most high-profile clubs in the land is threatened with going to the wall, what hope is there for the rest?

AS DROGHEDA’S recent heroics in Europe confirmed, the move to full-time professional football has paid dividends on the pitch. Few who have regularly attended League of Ireland games over the years would deny that the standard of football among the elite – clubs like Drogheda, St Pats, Bohemians, Derry and Cork – is close to being at an all-time high.

But there lies the rub – few indeed regularly attend League of Ireland games. There was a good crowd of just over 4,000 in Turner’s Cross for the top of the table game against Bohemians last week but that was the exception rather than the rule. And, anyway, for those with memories stretching back to the glamour era of the late sixties when the domestic game was still the only one in town, current attendance figures are all relative. As one source put it in Turner’s Cross: “Even though our gates are the best in the league they’re still shocking.”

The fundamental question for League of Ireland football is this: can it afford the full time professional football which ensures standards on the pitch continue to rise? Because if doing so involves clubs living beyond their means, then that cost is simply too high.

Manager Alan Mathews and his playing staff will have to try and put all such worries out of their minds when they travel to Tolka Park tonight to play Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Cup. But the ghosts of other Tolka Park residents will be hauntingly present.

Only a few short years ago, Shelbourne were flying the League of Ireland flag with pride on the playing fields of Europe and coming closer than any club before or since to gate-crashing the Champions’ League group stage. But they too were living way beyond their means and, even as they won another title, the writing was already on the wall.

Now, Shels are in the First Division, battling to regain a foothold in a top-flight which has troubles of its own. At least, unlike many before them, they survived as a club but they still paid a heavy price for flying too close to the sun. As they scan the horizon for a white knight, the Rebel Army can only hope their own favourites don’t follow suit.