Dundalk will most definitely play in Division One

I have never seen a week at Dundalk FC, like the one that has been seen in all my years regarding the future of the club. Last Saturday week the PFAI President Stephen McGuiness told the FAI AGM that the club was heading for liquidation within 2 weeks at most.

Then the next day the rumour mill was at high pitch that the club was heading for liquidation at 5pm last Monday. There were calls for fans to meet at Oriel at 4pm close to the time of the liquidation deadline of 5 pm. I was in a state of disbelief that this was real. But it was.

Then came news that the club had a stay of execution and that serious talks were ongoing to save the club. At the end, there was one clear consortium who were in the driving seat led by local barrister John Temple.

Eventually, Brian Ainscough did the deal and Dundalk had new owners. This was on Tuesday. The new owners made it clear that they were prepared to keep the club going until the end of the season to see if it was a viable entity to continue in business.

On the same night, the 1903 Supporters Club held a good meeting to look at the future. The atmosphere was positive with the relief that the club had new owners. Different ways were looked at as to how supporters could have a say in the running of the club.

However with the new owners in place, much of the pressure was off and again as it seemed the future of the club was secure. On Wednesday John Temple met the players and told them they would not be paid for the second week in a row.

However, he gave a guarantee that they would be paid the following week and that they would be paid up properly by the end of November. The weekly wage bill for the first team is believed to be around 20,000 euro a week.

Off the field, with new owners Dundalk are more secure. On the field, they look all but certain that they will be playing First Division football next season following defeat to Sligo Rovers on Saturday night and Drogheda's 1-0 win over Bohemians at Dalymount on Friday.

Dundalk were superb in the first half at the Showgrounds. They led on 24 minutes after Conor Malley handled inside his own penalty area. Robbie Benson fired to the net and Dundalk were in front. They had other chances but could not take them.

Sligo player Simon Power had a shot come off the post just before the break. Dundalk keeper Ross Monro took off two saves in a row to keep Sligo at bay. But Dundalk gradually went out of the game in the second half.

Sligo levelled on 69 minutes when Daniel Pike gave away a needless free on the edge of the penalty area. Simon Power's free caught a poor Dundalk defence napping.

Simon Power's free found Wilson Waveru totally unmarked. He headed home. It was the dreadful marking that was the cause of the goal. But Ross Monro should also have prevented it from going in.

Dundalk were on the ropes now. Sligo got a penalty on 76 minutes when Luke Pearce was taken down by Hayden Caan in the box. Ellis Chapman shot home. Ross Monro got a hand to the ball, but could not keep it out. Seven minutes of injury time was played.

Two minutes into that period, Norman Garbett had a header that was clawed out from under the Sligo crossbar by Sligo keeper Ed Ginnity. That was it. And Dundalk had suffered yet another defeat.

After the game manager Jon Daly told me it was unlikely he will be staying on as manager if the club is relegated. Jon says that Dundalk is a great club with great people. But given his own family situation who are in Scotland, he will unlikely be staying on as manager next season.

Jon told me he was glad he came to Dundalk as he met wonderful people here. But he says he was told certain things when he came to Orie. He says if he had been told the truth before he came to Oriel, he would probably have stayed with his family in Scotland.

The Dundalk boss says his time at Dundalk has been a learning period for him. Daly says he was probably not told the truth where the club was at.

But he says he is glad that he came to Dundalk. He says he really feels for the fans who attended the Sligo game as they were going home with no points.

The Dundalk boss says he is very confident that there will be a Dundalk side next season. He confirmed again when I asked him about his future stating that it is unlikely he will be staying at Oriel next season especially if Dundalk are relegated. This looks certain.

The Dundalk boss paid tribute to well known supporter Maxi McAllister who is in a critical condition in hospital at the time of writing. Jon says he has been a great inspiration to the players in Oriel through his inspirational talks of encouragement.

All supporters and the people of Dundalk were praying Maxi makes it and survives. Back to off the field matters. Earlier in the week the club's finances were leaked to the media. They showed that Dundalk had lost 1.2 million euro in 2023.

The unpublished books for the year ended December 31st showed an operating loss of 1,196,410 euro with current liabilities due within 12 months of 844,024 euro versus current assets within 12 months of 458,024 euro.

There is a loss in financial statements of more than double the record loss of nearly 500,000 euro from the year ending December 31st December 2022.

There was an operating loss of 1,196 410. Cash in the bank fell from 424,844 euro in 2022 to 71,462 euro by the end of 2023. There are a lot more details on the state of the club financially in the public domain.

The main fact is that the club's; liquidity is non-existent with just 72,000 euro in the bank. This figure alone shows why the club was heading for liquidation last Monday.

The new consortium which is being headed by John Temple have agreed to underwrite or guarantee the player's wages until the end of the season. Meanwhile, they will examine the viability of the club.

In other words, over that time they will see if it is worth saving the club financially. Temple's group has 80 per cent control of the club. e. Talks were held with former player Donal Greene who may invest in the other 20 percent of the club.

A group of four investors from the Ainscough era have held on to their shareholding. So it's not quite clear how much of a percentage Donal Greene will go for if at all. But talks with Donal continued on Wednesday. They will continue over the next week or so.

But as the new consortium begins its investigations into the viability of Dundalk FC, one wonders about their own viability. It's not yet known who the person or people are who are prepared to fund the control of the club into the long term. John Temple is fronting the consortium.

But are there others who will be the main powers behind the throne of Oriel, John is a Dundalk man. He is from the Avondale area just off the Avenue Road. He now lives in Rathcor in Cooley. He is a barrister. Already he has shown himself to be a very good communicator.

He has shown good leadership qualities in the short term he has been at the Oriel helm. His reassurance to the players and staff that they will have their wages fully guaranteed right up to the end of the season would be a great relief to all in the Oriel community.

On Thursday John was direct with Gavin McLaughlin on the club website about what lies ahead and it's very stark. He said that the club remains in serious financial difficulty. It could still face a day of reckoning at the end of the season.

He said that the club remains in a bleak position despite the threat of liquidation having been averted at the start of the week. On Thursday the players were told by the new Mr Temple that they would not be paid that week.

The interview had no detail as to who is supporting Mr Temple from a financial point of view. But Temple was quite clear about how stark the financial position of the club remains. They are facing debts well in excess of one million euro.

The new owner revealed that the creditors were banging down the doors every hour. He says there are emails coming in every second hour. They are coming from solicitors, people who want to have receivers appointed and run by the courts and everything else threatening all sorts.

He stressed clearly that if the club is not viable by the end of the season and it's looked at by the investors and it's not viable then it's not viable. Daniel McDonnell of the Irish Independent has outlined in detail what went on behind the scenes from last weekend until Tuesday.

As potential buyers fell by the wayside, Mark Scanlon of the FAI decided to make contact with a man called Dennis Lukens. Two months ago he was announced as the new Director of Football at Limerick FC who now operate underage teams.

As Daniel McDonnell outlines Lukens was seen as a person who would be interested in the Dundalk venture. His most recent job entry on his LinkedIn page was Football Soccer Inc., overseeing acquisitions and operations.

Donal Greene, a local businessman from Dundalk sent out a tweet that brought an interaction between him and Lukens. Donal is a former Dundalk player who has lived in Bratislava for 13 years. He founded a company called Trustmatic.

It was bought by a Canadian firm last year. In a public tweet from an airport in Greece, Donal said that if there was anyone putting together a group to rescue Dundalk to contact him. Lukens was alerted to the tweet and was putting a package together.

Frantic discussions went ahead on Monday morning geared towards something to have to send to Ainscough. At one point there was a plan for Lukens to own 80 per cent, Greene to hold 10 percent and a supporter's trust own 10 percent.

Greene also tried to contact high net worth individuals around Dundalk to see if he could get them to make what Daniel's article says soft commitments to help to bulk out the bid. A communication was sent to Ainscough at 1.45 Irish time outlining two options.

It's understood that both involved Greene automatically paying a five figure fee to the club bank account in return for the club being signed over to him.

One of the options was Lukens who was also in a separate dialogue with Ainscough coming up with 500,000 euro by the end of November to secure interest at that point.

The other involved Greene finding local partners to raise 350,000 euro to get to the end of the season before going through Scarp, a form of examinership. Ainscough responded positively and details were exchanged last Monday afternoon.

The Independent article by Daniel McDonnell says sources believe the Lukens Greene alliance was central to lifting the threat of liquidation at 5pm on Monday by 24 hours with an extension to Tuesday evening.

As the day progressed, Lukens' role became uncertain. Greene's focus turned to generating the 350,000 euro. Legal correspondence on contracts was signposted as the next step.

But after a period of silence, Ainscough came back on Monday night to say that he had another offer that he was discussing with his investors. Ainscough owned 80 percent of Dundalk with four other individuals owning 20 percent.

Outlets close to Ainscough reported that he had an option to avoid Scarp altogether. But the FAI were clear that the Greene offer was the only one in place.

But when Donal Greene landed at Dublin airport on Tuesday at 7pm he said he learned that the club had new ownership. When he was in the air, Dundalk had announced that Ainscough had handed the reins of power to local barrister John Temple.

Temple it seems had been on the fringes of the efforts across the past couple of weeks. Former Local TD Dermot Ahern who is also chair of the National League Committee operated as a go between as countless avenues were explored.

Dermot knew Temple through his background in the legal field. Mr Temple was also involved with Fianna Fail in his younger days. It was Ahern who organised a meeting to see if Donal Greene and new owner John Temple could pair up and work together going forward.

Lukens was now out of the equation altogether. The crucial aspect of the deal with Temple is thought to be the support from the 20 percent of owners who came in under Ainscough. Their takeover went ahead on the basis that Temple would bring more bodies with him.

It's widely acknowledged that a crucial development was the Minister of State for Sport's placing a call on Monday to say that the 500,000 euro sports capital grant that is essential for club licensing had been successful.

This was a massive development and reassured buyers who were backing Temple. Daniel McDonnell says it's believed that the feeling that allowed the takeover at Oriel was that Dundalk were too big a club to be allowed to fail. But John Temple made dramatic references in his interview with the club website that he had helped stave off execution rather than conquered.

It was a marvellous article by Daniel McDonnell and shows just what was going on behind the scenes. I think the general feeling is that Donal Greene will gain a shareholding of some sort in the new consortium.

He deserves huge credit that through his offers, Brian Ainscough did not liquidate Dundalk on Monday evening. Scarp was never really an option either because had that happened Dundalk would not have got a licence for 2025 to play in Division One or the Premier Division.

It now of course looks like Dundalk will be in Division One next season following weekend results. Dundalk will most definitely play in Division One.

They will get a licence without a problem following the announcement from the government that they are getting new funding for a new pitch and new floodlights. There will be a huge exodus of players leaving Dundalk know that they will all but certain play in Division One next season.

Meanwhile, Dermot Keely began his book launch at Oriel last Thursday. Of the three different locations where he has launched the book, the best response was at Oriel.

On Friday he was at the Brandywell in Derry. On Saturday he launched his book at the Showgrounds in Sligo. Next Friday he will launch the book at the Tallaght Stadium. Have a safe week. Take care and please look after each other.