Cork City’s future secured for now as Revenue bill settled

CORK CITY will survive to fight another day but next on the agenda is almost six weeks pay owed to players and staff.

The High Court is expected to quash a winding-up order issued by the Revenue Commissioners later this morning after the balance owed on tax liabilities was cleared yesterday.

A bank draft of €219,000 was submitted to the Cork office of the Revenue Commissioners a couple of hours before the 4.30pm deadline and club chairman Tom Coughlan, also a director of Cork City Investments Ltd against whom the legal action was taken, last night confirmed that a “London bank” had stepped in to assist the club in completing the €439,000 tax liability.

The players will this morning meet again with the PFAI and Jim McCarthy of Quintas, the Cork-based financial management group which took over negotiations with the Revenue after first approaching Coughlan last Monday week.

Coughlan admitted to being relieved that the club had managed to overcome the high-profile 10-week saga.

“We’re in a very difficult environment so obviously you are stressed about how things go,” Coughlan said. “But we’re looking to the future now and I must say it has delivered some positives. The offers of help from all over town have been fantastic. Jim McCarthy and the Quintas Group have done incredible work over the last couple of days. And they’re committed now to playing a key role in the restructuring of the club going forward.

“The priority now is to construct a plan based on the reality of the current economic environment and try to get to where we are before.”

With staff now owed in the region of €130,000, Coughlan was keen to let those negotiations begin without commenting too much.

“The players and staff have been absolutely tremendous,” he said. “I really want to thank them for all. They have been absolutely crucial in getting us to where we are today.

“There’s a process in place whereby Jim (McCarthy) and Quintas will sit down and work all that out with them. All of us have to look at getting to one side of the table and driving our way out of this.

“The people who have saved the bacon, from my point of view, are John Delaney at the FAI, Dermot Desmond (Celtic) and Jim McCarthy and the lads at Quintas. There are an awful lot more as well, the players and staff obviously have been very supportive. But they’re the real heroes here, along with Olann Kelleher and Mark Riordan (solicitors).”

While confirming that he will continue in his role as chairman of the club and director of the holding company, he added that Quintas will also stay involved on an “ongoing management basis”.

“They bring some much needed financial expertise. The economic environment is changing and not for the best unfortunately so we have to look at bringing in a sustainable model.

“The Celtic game is critical now and we have to get a big crowd out for that. It will be played either late August or early September.

“We’ll get (today) sorted (pay negotiations), we’ll beat Bohs Friday night and then I’ll take the weekend off.

“I am relieved now and it’s great for everyone involved. We’re here 25 years now and we’ll be around for much longer. We can’t go backwards any more. We need to drive this thing forward.”