Dundalk granted licence but are paying for the sins of others in the past

Dundalk were given the green light that they can play in the League of Ireland next season by the FAI in the middle of last week. The good news was confirmed by club owner John Temple, at a press conference in the Youth Development Centre last Thursday.

There was clear relief on the faces of local media who assembled for the news. They were accompanied by members of the national media including RTE.

But it was the locals who had smiles on their faces, as they knew Dundalk were still alive and had the licence to remain as a League of Ireland club.

Dundalk will be playing in the First Division after they were relegated last season. But their existence as a League of Ireland club depended on them getting the licence.

Dundalk faced a threat of being put into SCARP which would have meant a 15 point deduction for next season if they had even got the go ahead after this process. No League of Ireland club has ever been through the SCARP process.

Had the club been forced into it, it's likely they would have been in it for weeks and it would possibly have been too late to get a licence given all clubs needed them now. Dundalk were indeed given an extra week by the FAI to get their affairs sorted.

All other clubs had obtained their licences the week before. But they got there in the end and that is what matters. The two main debts that had to be tackled were legacy debts owed to players and monies owed to revenue.

Last Friday week Dundalk reached a deal with revenue that their bill of approximately 200,000 euro or just over could be paid in phases over the next number of years.

Monies owed to former players were also settled apart from Wilfred Zahibo who played around 18 games for Dundalk in 2021. Dundalk awaits a reply from Zahibo of the offer. It's likely he will accept it.

Just after two pm as scheduled, John Temple along with club CEO Peter Halpin and accountant Alan Farrelly emerged to meet the press for what was the most important conference to be held at Oriel in a long time.

The media had speculated between them had Dundalk got the licence. I said that of course, they would have got it. Others said no. As the three men who had news of Dundalk's destiny and future in their hands sat down, I began to think the worst. But the news was good.

Just as they were about to begin to speak a message appeared on the Club's WhatsApp that it had obtained its licence. John Temple told the media that the club had been put through the ''seven rings of hell'', to get it.

The club accounts revealed last week, had shown that Dundalk operated at a loss of 1.5 million euro for the tax year 2023. They were the worst losses ever recorded in the history of Dundalk FC. The licence Dundalk FC got also depended on money owed to current players. That was paid in full.

John Temple addressed reporters initially by saying Dundalk FC had been put through hell, the seven rings of hell, in return to get the licence.''Our budget was scrutinised. We were hauled over the coals to make sure we would be given our licence.

This is now a properly run and professional outlet. There will be full transparency going forward. Mr Temple was critical of former owners Andy Connolly and Stats Sports. They took ownership of the club for two years between 2021 and 2023.

They passed the ownership on to Brian Ainscough in December 2023. He told the media that the reason things got so difficult at Dundalk was not because of the recent turmoil at the club, but because of legacy issues left outstanding.

''Bills outstanding, payments owed and monies due became a huge issue. The club is paying for the sins of others in the past. We were left with a mess and it was not a mess created by Brian Ainscough. He inherited it. He did his best to try and control it.''

Mister Temple said that the difficulty was the FAI had awarded the licence for 2024 to Stats Sports and Andy Connolly. They left soon afterwards and Brian Ainscough came in.

John Temple says that the FAI were extremely annoyed and upset that Dundalk had changed hands just days after the licence for last season had been granted. Mister Temple said they looked at it and were somewhat embarrassed.

''Payments owed to Louis Annesley and former manager Stephen O'Donnell have now been settled. Payments owed to former players and staff were a major hurdle to overcome in the licensing process. There would not have been any licence had they not been paid.

Temple confirmed that an offer had also been made to Wilfred Zahibo to end his claim for outstanding cash''. Zahibo was signed when Peak 6 were the owners. He left the club, the year Peak 6 departed. He was an international player for the Central African Republic.

John Temple had a very good team of professionals behind him as Dundalk burned the midnight oil to ensure Dundalk got the licence. These were accounting firm Alan Farrelly, of Farrelly Dawe White.

Club Ceo Peter Halpin and the chairman of the National League Committee Dermot Ahern. Mister Ahern has held this slot for years. Amazingly, successive owners have failed to make use of his huge knowledge of the game and his willingness to help.

Add to that, he has been a Dundalk FC supporter since the age of four. Dermot says he began supporting Dundalk when he was brought to the games in Oriel at the age of four by the former Chairman of the club, the late Jim Malone.

Dermot says there was a huge amount of work done to bring Dundalk to where they are today, following fears that they might not get the licence.''The FAI made it very difficult in that they wanted to cross every T and dot every I as we prepared the application for the licence.

In fairness to John Temple and one of the American investors Chris Clinton, they did a marvellous job. Alan Farrelly was brought into the process in the last two weeks.

He and I, his sons and a number of others in the club including Peter Halpin and Karen held a five hour meeting over a week ago. We had four different Zoom meetings with the FAI officials.

We had to go through all the questions and the queries in the different areas of which there was a substantial amount''.

''It was made clear by the FAI that they would not get a licence if there were any outstanding footballing debts. There was a long list of monies that were owed to different players. Different clubs, players who had come over from the UK on loan and their clubs.

These were all entitled to money. The players were entitled to some back money and bonuses. There was also the money owed to the players who were not paid the week John took over.

They had agreed with John that they would wait until the end of the week at the end of the season to be paid for the lying week. That has now been paid. But the FAI made it quite clear that what they called outstanding footballing debts must be paid.

This meant that there must be no debts to clubs and no debts to players. All these debts have been taken care of. Agreements have been entered into with some of the clubs that are owed money, that they would be paid on a staged basis.

The biggest debt that had to be faced was the money owed to the revenue. There was a substantial amount of tax owed. Certain agreements had been made previously to pay on a periodic basis. These agreed payments had fallen into arrears.

So negotiations had to be entered into with revenue about these. The negotiations bore fruit last Friday week at 2 pm in the afternoon when we got our tax clearance certificate. This was one of the final issues that had to be dealt with.''

Dermot said that when he was asked to intervene and try and help Dundalk over their difficulties he knew that it was going to be a very hard task.''As you know I am chairman of the National League Committee.

I am an independent chair. My job is to liaise with all of the clubs in the Premier Division, First Division, the Academies and the women's game. Everything that moves in the League of Ireland comes before our committee.

In a way while I was independently dealing with the Dundalk issue, everybody knows that I am a lifelong supporter of the club. In my role, I would liaise with all of the people in the FAI. When called in to help, I had no problem doing anything I could to ensure that Dundalk would not go under. 

''It's been a fairly fractious couple of weeks. It is true to say that the FAI were embarrassed when it was put to them that Brian Ainscough was threatening to liquidate the club and how did the situation get to this. The FAI had egg on their face.

The club was in the group stage of the Europa League in 2021, why was it three years later the club was facing extinction? Certain commitments were given and previous licences had been given. While some people did not do due diligence including Brian Ainscough.

Certain aspects of that licensing process left a lot to be desired. The FAI were not going to make the same mistake again with this year's licence. We kept saying to them when they were asking for the kitchen sink basically, were they doing this with other clubs?

You are taking it out on us because of what happened previously. In the end, in fairness to the FAI, they were very helpful. They were also very understanding at the same time. But they were adamant that the licence would not be granted unless all footballing debts were paid.''.

Dermot had a lot of praise for Mark Scanlon  who is an executive over the league and the FAI .''He and I have worked hand and hand for the past year and a half in relation to the League of Ireland.

In fairness, Mark and a small team in the FAI have overseen developments in the organisation. He has brought in professional contracts for the female game. They have been behind LOI TV which has gone from strength to strength.

It's now been taken over by Premier Sports. It has a very bright future. The issue of infrastructure around the grounds is a key one. The FAI has put in a big financial claim for infrastructure and academies.

We are doing our best to have this moved on. Mark has been a superb official. There is not a day that goes by when we would not be in contact.''.

Dermot Ahern says that the most important issue is that Dundalk have got a licence.''I have said the licence is key. I would have sacrificed two years in the first Division without getting promotion, as long as the club survives and is still in existence.

If we can keep the licence and run the club within its means and knowing now of what I know about John Temple and Chris Clinton who is based in America the club is in safe hands. He is totally committed to the club.

Both John and Chris are even more committed to making things happen in the club. The YDC will become a very strong source of revenue for the club. They recently got a fire safety cert for part of the building.

The hope is that they will get a fire safety cert with more money spent for the entire building. That will again bring in more revenue and resources into the club.

It's important that people subscribe to the 500 Club model. This is the same structure that Sligo have. The fans there make a substantial payment to the running of the club.''

''The club has been given a grant by the FAI in the region of 450,000 euro as payment for a new pitch and a new flood lighting system. The cost of using the lights is huge. A new system will cut that bill down greatly. They got a stay of execution for installing a new pitch.

Hopefully, we can get it certified for season 2026. We are trying to chase down getting the grant. The problem with obtaining it is that the club must put money up in order to draw down the grant. You do not get the grant until you have some work done.

You can get some of the grant when you have some of the work done. Then it would be the case that the money drawn down would be used to continue with the work. The hope was that we would have been able to install a new pitch for next season.

But with the bill of 30,000 euro a week to be paid for the last few weeks, it just was not possible to put any money aside I believe from the investors.

But now that we have things on an even keel, the infrastructure is something that can now get attention''.John Temple did confirm at Thursday's press conference that it was hoped that a new floodlighting system will be installed for next season.

Dermot Ahern says that running a League of Ireland club is a very costly basis.''It was only when I got involved in the committee that I found out the expenses that clubs must go through.

For example, just recently the FAI were very helpful when Dundalk got a grant of 60,000 euro.22,000 euro of that had to be deducted in fines to do with pyrotechnics and payments of fines for yellow and red cards involving players. The club were left with just 38,000 euro from the grant.

They could have done badly with the 22,000 euro paid in fines. The money had to be paid as other clubs in the same situation would have had every right to ask why Dundalk were getting preferential treatment even though Dundalk had a financial crisis. But I have to say that the FAI were as helpful as they could have been.''

Dermot says he has been chair of the National League for a number of years .''When I was in politics the club got one million euro. Gerry Mathews was the owner at the time. That's around 25 years ago.

The money was for the new artificial surface at Oriel. Gerry Mathews came to me and said that he wanted to put in an artificial surface on the basis that it would become an income stream, a weekly income scheme for the club which it did.

The club was getting an income of about 2,000 euro a week from the new pitch. At the time a million euro was the entire budget for the entire county of Louth at the time.

I can say this now as I am out of politics, I took a chance in asking for the million as it meant that virtually the entire recreational budget for Louth was going to Dundalk.

I took a chance to ask for the million with the influence I had at the time. When Gerry Mathews proposed to build the YDC, he came to me and said that the proposed price to build it was 8 million euro.''

''I remember a department official saying to me that there was not 8 million euro in the entire budget for the entire county. He said Gerry would not be able to come up with the money for the money balance for the YDC.

Well in fairness Gerry did have the balance for the YDC. I  begged an official in the Department of Sport to give them something towards the YDC.Dundalk got 250,000 euro...So I have had a bit of influence in those respects to help Dundalk''. 

But to me, the club has failed to tap into Dermot's knowledge and experience of the game since then, despite being Chair of the National Leagues committee.

Dermot told me that he did go to a question and answer session that Brian Ainscough had for supporters early into 2024.''I went up afterwards and introduced myself to him. I told him that if he ever wanted to talk to me, the boys would give you my number.

But he came to me when it was too late. He came to me about three weeks before he pulled the plug. He had great plans. He asked me to lobby about the grant which I did. Three weeks later he rang me to say that he was bailing out. This was obviously a massive shock.''

''Thankfully John Temple came along. Brian Ainscough's existing four investors decided to stay in the club. John and the four took over. I think the people of Dundalk and the club's supporters outside of the town should be in their debt. Without them, there would be no club.

They put their money in their own pockets to rescue the club. It was very very difficult for all of them. But I was only too willing to help them in whatever way I could.

I did not mind who was taking over as long as the club survived. We have now got the club in a position where it will survive. That is down to people like John Temple and Chris Clinton''.

'When the club hit the wall, I did have to make a few calls and plead that the application for the licence not be rejected. I had to call in a few favours to make sure that they did not reject our licence application. I kept saying please do not reject us.

We need a little bit of extra time. If we had been rejected we would not have been able to put in an appeal. We just needed a bit of extra time to ensure everything was in order. Had it gone to an appeal it would have meant that Ciaran Kilduff would not have been able to sign any players until that was heard.

It would have meant that a lot of players that the manager had earmarked and agreed to come to Dundalk would have gone elsewhere. Indeed I know that the FAI were inundated with calls from various groups complaining that they had agreed to give Dundalk some breathing space with their licence application.

The FAI gave us another week without rejecting us. We would have rathered to get the licence at the first go. But we knew that the outstanding debts had not been taken care of.

Indeed the revenue commissioners had not agreed to give us the Tax Clearance certificate. It was obtained just days before the deadline we had been given''.

''There were a lot of people involved in getting the licence application submitted. There were a lot of long nights I can tell you. It was the other people connected with the club who helped me in this process. Without them, there would be no Dundalk FC. Now we can think of football again and look forward to a good season.''

Great thanks I believe should be given to Dermot Ahern, Peter Halpin Alan Farrelly and his employees. They got the new licence, thus allowing Dundalk FC to survive and sometime in the future, like a phoenix rise from the ashes and become a major force again in League of Ireland football. And club CEO Peter Halpin's help was invaluable.

Just 48 hours after getting their licence, Dundalk unveiled their new home and away jerseys for the upcoming season. The jerseys were manufactured by PlayrFit.This year's jersey includes a special tribute to Mark 'Maxi' Kavanagh.

It will ensure his legacy will live on. They also quickly announced the signing of 3 new players. Dean Ebbe moves from Athlone Town. He is a 30-year-old striker. He scored 17 goals over 38 games for Athlone last season.

Dean was named on the First Division team of the year. He was also nominated for the First Division Player of the Year award. Dundalk also announced the signing of midfielder Harry Groome on a 2-year contract.

He has built up over 120 appearances in the First Division. Harry arrives from Bray Wanderers. He scored for Bray in the relegation/promotion playoff game at the end of the season against Drogheda.

The third signing was Galway United's centre half. Conor O'Keefe.Conor was part of the impressive Galway United team that won promotion back to the Premier Division in 2024. He can play as a centre-half or full-back.

Dundalk had already signed Enda Minogue as goalkeeper. He played for Athlone Town last season. He made 26 appearances for the club and conceded 33 goals.

Daryl Horgan was announced as the new club captain. He is the last of the players from the Stephen Kenny era to be playing with Dundalk.''I have never been a captain before. This it's a real honour for me. Obviously, I am embedded in the town now, so I know what it means to be part of this place. 

Former Rock Celtic player, Jimmy Dunne scored for English Championship side Queens Park Rangers on Saturday just over 24 hours after his father Eamonn's funeral mass at Saint Oliver Plunkett's Church in Blackrock. Eamonn was a retired teacher.

He taught at the Patrician High School in Carrickmacross. He was an excellent GAA coach at both club and school levels. Jimmy showed great bravery playing for QPR so soon after his dad's funeral mass. Eamonn passed away earlier last week. He was originally from Dublin.

Have a great week. Please look after each other. And remember to be careful out there.