Derry vow to fight expulsion

DERRY CITY are continuing to take the fight to the FAI following their expulsion from the League of Ireland on Saturday over player contract irregularities.

Yesterday a legal advisor to the club said they are seeking payment by the FAI of €60,000 in prize money (for finishing fourth in the league) as well as a further €20,000 which they say they are owed for participating in European competition.

Derry said that they were imposing a deadline of 5pm today to have arrangements put in place for these payments, failing which they would seek an injunction to freeze all payments to Premier Division clubs.

Derry chairman Pat McDaid had already reacted angrily to the FAI decision on Saturday, describing it as “shameful”, “disgusting” and a “witch-hunt”, and promising that the club would challenge it in the courts.

In an official statement, the club said: “We have not been presented with any evidence of any wrongdoing on behalf of the club or anyone, or any organisation associated with the club. It is our respectful view that the board of the FAI should be ashamed of themselves in presiding over a completely unfair process which shows a complete lack of respect to us, our players, manager, staff, club volunteers and fans.”

However, speaking on RTÉ Radio yesterday, FAI chief executive John Delaney firmly rejected those comments, saying that Derry officials themselves had already admitted to the breach of regulations which had incurred the punitive sanction.

Said Delaney: “On Wednesday night two directors of Derry City FC met with four FAI staff and they admitted that over 20 players had been on dual contracts, which is a clear breach of the regulations. And it is disappointing to hear a denial of that since the board meeting. Because that’s just not true. They told us on Wednesday night that they had misbehaved. There is contractual evidence to support and substantiate that, and to be out saying there isn’t two contracts with any player is just plain wrong and misleading and not fair to the Derry public.”

While further talks are planned between Derry and the FAI, the players union have expressed concern about the impact of the crisis on their members at the club.

PFAI boss Stephen McGuinness said: “What I wouldn’t like to see is players at Derry looking to find employment with maybe a suspension of five, six, seven, eight or nine games sitting with them. That would make it very difficult.”

On the nature of the alleged wrongdoing at the club, McGuinness said: “Through my experience of going around clubs right around the country, we haven’t seen dual contracts. But the FAI must have evidence to back it up and that’s why they’ve demoted Derry. If it comes out that there were dual contracts, forever and a day no player will ever make that mistake again – if that is what has happened at Derry.”

Meanwhile, John Delaney says he plans to meet with Tom Coughlan, the owner/chairman of Cork City, to discuss the future of the club at the end of what has also been a turbulent season on Leeside.

Appearing to dismiss the notion that Cork too could be in danger of demotion, Delaney said: “Cork have got through their season and they’ve qualified for Europe. It’s all about the licensing process over the next couple of months. All the clubs have to do is put realistic budgets in place. The majority of their expenditure has been on player wages and if you reduced those and keep them under 65%, you’ll survive.

He added: “I think we’re probably in a position to be tougher on the clubs with their budgets going forward given that almost 90% of the players are out of contract. When our guys would talk to the clubs over the last year or two they would say that they had players on long-term contracts and had commitments to make. I think it’s important that we get to grips with the clubs in that regard. And we will be doing it because I don’t want to be standing here next year talking about issues like we had to deal with on Saturday. ”

The most immediate consequence of the termination of Derry City’s league status is a reprieve for Bray Wanderers who now get a second chance to avoid the drop when they take on Drogheda United in the Premiership leg of the promotion/relegation play-off on Tuesday.

The forthcoming Setanta Cup game between Derry City and St Patrick’s Athletic has also been postponed.