Dundalk Doldrums

Anthony McIntyre ⚽ Dundalk Football Club is in serious trouble.

A team that for periods dominated Irish league soccer, winning fourteen titles in its 121 years of existence, now faces being dropped from the league altogether. The club's financial pathology is so unhealthy, with wages not being paid and fans forking up the cash to pay for the players to be bussed to away games, that former captain Stephen McGuinness issued a grim prognosis: 'If this club goes, it is not coming back.'

Yet, if Dundalk were to receive a coroner's certificate calling time on its league life, it would be a huge blow to Irish soccer, the town of Dundalk and Louth in general.

There had been a strong expectation accompanied by fear that the club would face the chop at 5pm yesterday evening. A last minute stay of execution was granted due to ongoing talks with a potential buyer.

Earlier, on Sunday evening, the club issued a dark cloud statement: "the next 24 hours is a critical time". Owner Brian Ainscough followed that up with a glimmer of hope for the fans waiting outside: "there will be no liquidation today," At the same time he moved to quell a Pollyanna perspective infusing the fans with unwarranted optimism:

I've been close to deals before and it hasn’t happened so we’ll see how it goes but I’m still fighting the fight to make sure there’s a club for everyone going forward.

Up here in Drogheda, fans of the local team love to exercise bragging rights over their more northern neighbours. The proximity of both clubs within the same county marks it out as derby territory. We love it when Dundalk go down and they no doubt feel the same about us. Leaving Athlone Stadium on Friday evening, our already buoyant spirits soared even higher on hearing that Dundalk had succumbed to Waterford. Few feelings have tasted more sweet this year than knocking them out of the Irish Cup, leaving the Drogs in a position where an Aviva showdown in November's final is but a Wexford away. We hate to lose to them but that does not extend to hatred of the club or its fans. As much as I like to see Drogheda beat Dundalk on the field of play, there is no joy to be derived from a club facing an existential crisis. When concerned supporters gathered outside Oriel Park yesterday, all I could see were anguished fans worried about the future of the club. In these situations we are all soccer fans, and the rivalry takes a back seat. The Irish Daily Mirror called it right.

We should all be very angry today. Every single man, woman and child with an interest in Irish football should be trembling with rage today. It’s not the time for tribal rivalries. It’s not the day for sneering at the breaking hearts of thousands of Dundalk FC supporters.

RTE reports that:

with debts well in excess of €1m, any deal is likely to involve the club entering the Small Company Administrative Rescue Process (SCARP) – a 45-day salvage scheme established in 2021 for insolvent companies, similar to examinership. This would lead to debts being restructured and relegation to the First Division.

If Dundalk avoid extinction and face relegation instead, the knock on effect would be cataclysmic:

sending leaders Shelbourne into second place. Their crime? Being more successful over Dundalk this season than Derry City. It would also punish Waterford in their quest for Europe. As with Shelbourne, 10 points would vanish in the blink of an eye. Galway United would lose nine.

These clubs would be punished for the poor financial rectitude of others. Wholly unfair.

One of the things that angers me is that such is the commitment to their club that the Dundalk players are reported to have waived their wages for this week and next in a bid to keep the Oriel show on the road. Contrast this with the attitude at Liverpool FC where the wage demands are so excessive that only millionaires now turn out for the first team.

If only one of the Liverpool players who get paid for not working would part with a portion of their ill- gotten gains they could save the Oriel Park outfit, a stadium I watched them play in back in the 90s when Razor Ruddock and Calamity James turned out. Three weeks wages from Mo Salah alone would do it. But greed does not work like that. When an economy is driven and led by the nastiest of people for the nastiest of reasons, this is the type of nasty outcome we can expect.

I don't believe in magic miracles but if somebody can deliver one and save the club, the intervention will be divine!

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.