New Dundalk owner Temple admits “It’s bleak”

The future of Dundalk FC remains on life support, warns new owner John Temple, who at least in the short-term has rescued the Oriel Park club from the clutches of extinction.

After manager Jon Daly recently confirmed that staff at Oriel had gone unpaid, things got worse for The Lilywhites last week when widespread speculation suggested US-based owner Brian Ainscough had declared bankruptcy and placed Dundalk into liquidation.

When The Democrat reached out, Cabra-native Ainscough claimed such rumours were “not true” and that the club was still “fighting to secure new ownership” – however it is understood the now former Dundalk owner was prepared to pull the plug last Monday.

Subject of a current legal dispute with former employers, Boston Bolts, a 5pm deadline was set by Ainscough, who threatened to enter Dundalk into liquidation unless a new majority shareholder was sourced, thus initiating a sad end to the club’s 121-year history.

Interest from an American consortium headed by Jeffrey Saunders, as well as an unnamed Australian group existed, but discussions never reached an advanced stage.

Ex-Dundalk goalkeeper Donal Greene, now an entrepreneur based in Slovakia, fronted an offer to acquire Ainscough’s 80% stake – before Temple swooped in at the 11th hour.

Greene, who had flown in from Bratislava and attended a meeting convened by The 1903 Supporters Club last Tuesday night, stated that despite losing out, he remained “open to helping the new ownership in any way I can to secure the future of our beloved club.”

Local barrister Temple, who hails from the Avenue Road, previously led Silverlane Investments, a group which publicised their desire to take control shortly before Ainscough was handed the reins by Andy Connolly and STATSports last November.

While the exact make-up of Temple’s consortium has yet to be clarified, 20% of the leftover shares remain in the hands of Dublin-born, US-based businessmen Chris Clinton and John Keenan – both of whom were onboarded by Ainscough in March.

The new ownership has agreed to underwrite the players’ current wages until the end of the season and will examine the viability of the club and its facilities going forward.

Temple has indicated no immediate plans are in place to enter the Small Companies Administrative Rescue Process (SCARP) that would incur a points deduction and certain relegation from the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division with five games left to play.

“We’re far from out of the woods,” he outlined. “The club is in serious financial difficulty. The creditors are banging down the door every hour and there’s emails coming in every second hour from, if not solicitors, from people who want to appoint receivers, run to the courts and everything else and are threatening all sorts.

“If I can keep it out of SCARP and creditors can negotiate and sit down and have a discussion with me and with the other investors, that the issues off the field don’t affect what’s on the field.

“I’ve met with the players and explained to them that if I were to just dump it into SCARP straightaway, they have nothing left to fight for until the end of the season.”

Accounts leaked to the Irish Sun stipulated Dundalk’s operating loss at close to €1.2 million for the year ending 2023 – their biggest deficit since PEAK6’s fraught ownership.

“It’s bleak, I won’t lie,” admitted Temple. “I didn’t put us in this situation. The fans didn’t put us in this situation and the players certainly didn’t put us into this situation.

“This has been festering and it’s emanated from before and we’ll not go into it, but the reality is we are where we are and how are we going to get it out.

“It needs patience from everybody, but it’s also going to need support from everybody immediately and that’s the important thing.

“Every time that a euro seems to come into the bank account, somebody’s looking for two euro out and that’s going to be a difficulty of keeping our heads just above water right now – and at that it’s even difficult.

“We’re on life support,” he warned. “The viability of the club rests on getting behind it now and seeing if it’s worthwhile. If it’s not viable, it’s just not viable.

“I’ve staved off the execution, but the daggers are growing and hanging over every hour and I don’t want that for the club and I don’t think anybody wants that for the club.”

Dundalk’s crisis was helped by Minister for Sport, Thomas Byrne, confirming that €500,000 had been awarded to the club via the Sports Capital and Equipment grant.

“We have a grant now of 500,000 – we’ve been assured by the government – for the pitch and for the lights, but that money is going to be eaten by replacing those two items and those two necessities for the club ahead of going into next season, so that’s money came and gone already.

“It’s not like that’s money in the bank account and we’re all safe. It’s a commitment from government. I don’t know when that’s going to come in. I’ve yet to talk to anybody who said that.

“The rest of it right now is going to be gate receipts, it’s going to be merchandise, it’s going to be people from the community coming up now and supporting their club a little bit more.”