At the outset here, I will be brutally honest here and admit to not knowing an iota about the travails Dundalk FC found themselves in until reading a piece by Miguel Delaney today.
Again, let me make it clear, if I have the basic gist of their plight correct, whomever carried out due diligence – or didn’t – pertaining to Brian Ainscough’s takeover of the Lilywhites made a complete hash of it.
Put simply, as far as I can gather, whoever was supposed to be doing the background check on Ainscough and his people, financially speaking, were evidently out of their depth. Because, insane as it might sound, they were actually looking at financial records for the club’s FORMER owners. If you told it to an ass it’d kick ya!
Incompetence or ineptitude which was off the scale aside, doesn’t it underline the peril of letting people who know little or nothing about football get control of clubs. Let alone that they might know something about the workings of a team or club from a business perspective.
All you need do is look at cases like those of Blackburn Rovers and the calamitous association with Venkhys or the manner in which the Glazers syphoned money out of Manchester United to acquire the services of Tom Brady to enable their other play-things, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, to win the Super Bowl.
Now, since construction of this piece has begun, thankfully, a consortium headed by locally based barrister John Temple has struck a deal with Ainscough to take over the club.
But that still doesn’t mean the article isn’t worth finishing, because it absolutely is. If only because, my line of thought is, if the crisis of the last few days can happen to a club of Dundalk’s status and stature, it can do for anybody.
Remember, it’s not all that long ago since Bury went under. Yes, the same Bury at which at least some of United’s Class Of ’92 spent time on loan. Yes, the same Gigg Lane club who once put the Old Trafford side out of the League Cup.
It must be said, of course, that the Co Louth outfit weren’t the first League Of Ireland club to, even temporarily, hit the skids, nor will they be the last. Without even going back too far, one can recall Monaghan United, Kilkenny City, Kildare County and Sporting Fingal. And there were probably others.
Indeed, as an aside, it’s worth noting that that Mr Ainscough was previously involved with Kerry FC, but during his tenure there, those who broke new ground in The Kingdom only won one match. Now, there’s no suggestion that was the fault of the investor, but you do have to wonder did he not consider the old maxim of ‘once bitten, twice shy’?
When the plight of the Oriel Park residents appeared to be at its most bleak, between Sunday and Monday, local Sinn Fein politician Ruairi O’Murchu expressed the view that the 14-time champions of Ireland were “Too big to fail”. Well, aside from the fact that the last time that expression was encountered was in relation to Lehmann Brothers and Goldman Sachs – and we all know how that turned out – it’s not exactly Everton or Wrexham you’re dealing with here.
Though in fairness, John Temple was correct when opining that “Dundalk is a football town and the club is hugely important to all the staff, players and supporters,” Temple in a statement on Monday evening.
“We appreciate the concerns raised by all of our supporters in recent weeks and it has underscored what the club means to every one of them.”
You would hope the hardship endured by the club who less than a decade ago were dominating Irish football and creating their own chapter in history in European football, including taking on Arsenal, would be signpost enough for clubs and indeed the managements thereof to be extremely wary of from whom they accept investment from in future.
On the other hand, traditionalists terrified of players being properly looked after in the GAA or, whisper it, professionalism, were probably jumping with joy. Not so much that a club would ‘go under’. More a ‘Money is the root of all evil’ prattle.
On that, I find it ironically hillarious seeing the likes of Pat Spillane going all Mo Chusla, Mo Chusla about what he terms illegal payments to managers.
This from a man who earned his living in the most overpaid profession on the planet and then milked the cash cow that is RTE, and continues to from INM and Mediahuis! Do as I say, not as I do, apparently.
After that perhaps curious but necessary diversion, to return to point, you would hope that the new arrangement would see things settle for the home of Harp. The League Of Ireland often has the hashtag #greatestleagueintheworld affixed to it and with good reason.
You’d just hope that some of those therein don’t bite off more than they can chew.
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