Anxious players await payment as City prepare to settle tax bill

WITH Cork City preparing to meet today’s 5pm deadline to settle a €439,000 tax liability bill with the Revenue Commissioners, the club’s players learned yesterday afternoon that they will not be paid today as promised last week.

The Leesiders must lodge €219,000 to the Revenue’s bank account this evening prior to yet another High Court hearing tomorrow morning so as to ensure the rescinding of a long-standing winding-up order, thus ending a saga which officially began on May 13.

The players had deferred payment of wages until this morning – with five weeks earnings owed – but sources have suggested they are agreeable to waiting it out until tomorrow morning as they await on developments this evening.

Sources from within the camp also indicated misgivings that the bill would be settled at all as City supporters grew increasingly nervous about tonight’s deadline. When contacted last night, chairman Tom Coughlan was unavailable for comment.

The club handed over €220,000 to the Revenue in unpaid tax liabilities last Friday, and after lengthy and tense negotiations on the remaining €219,000 debt, they committed to delivering the balance by 5pm this evening.

Six senior players met with a PFAI representative at the Rochestown Park Hotel yesterday and were spoken to by Jim McCarthy of Quintas, the financial management company who stepped in to assist the embattled club and are engaged in a root and branch review of affairs at City.

Although it was indicated to the six players – captain Dan Murray, Dan Connor, Joe Gamble, Neal Horgan, Cillian Lordan and Danny Murphy – that the future of the club was not in danger, they were told that they wouldn’t be hearing anything more from the club until tomorrow morning.

Last Wednesday, the players agreed to defer their monthly wage bill of €120,000 by another seven days and the PFAI had been told on Friday by Coughlan that the players would be presented with a figure yesterday.

While the players have publicly dismissed strike action, it is an option that has been discussed.

Five days notice is required for such an eventuality.

City visit League of Ireland Premier Division leaders Bohemians on Friday night before hosting Shamrock Rovers at Turner’s Cross on Tuesday.