The Official Derry City FC thread

[full back]

Did I hear right that the players should have been getting approx €750 gross per week, but with the secondary contracts this was more like €1350 per week?

Seems like an awful lot

[dublinfella]

the FAI are going ballistic because it is Derry.

This was the line that the Derry Chairman was pushing before he was caught out in his lies. Why would the FAI be after Derry?

[dublinfella]

Did I hear right that the players should have been getting approx €750 gross per week, but with the secondary contracts this was more like €1350 per week?

Seems like an awful lot

Standard enough money. The double contracts were simply to avoid the 65% rule.

This seems to have come to light when a departing Derry player asked for his new club to match his money at x. They checked out his contract and it was registered at y and pushed him on it and it all unravelled from there.  Very interesting that the players union refused to defend the players involved.

[saffron sam2]

[I would suggest that the emboldened bit is somewhat exagerrated. Either that or you haven't watched much sport.

In terms of a systemic policy within a club to defraud the taxman and lie to the association they were in so as to get around the 65% protocol, I can't think of much worse in team sport. Possibly Marseille and Juve doping players against their knowledge. Its naked cheating and involved hundreds of individuals over a course of years. Hence they have been told to whistle for their prizemoney.

Whilst I have no sympathy either with Derry City or the players involved, I still have problems with the hyperbole of posts like this.

In terms of a systemic policy within a club to defraud the taxman and lie to the association they were in so as to get around the 65% protocol, I can't think of much worse in team sport. Possibly Marseille and Juve doping players against their knowledge. Its naked cheating and involved hundreds of individuals over a course of years. Hence they have been told to whistle for their prizemoney.

I'm sure anyone with any knowledge of sport could easily come up with hundreds of more serious examples.

[dublinfella]

Whilst I have no sympathy either with Derry City or the players involved, I still have problems with the hyperbole of posts like this.

Its not hyperbole, its a statement of what happened.

I'm sure anyone with any knowledge of sport could easily come up with hundreds of more serious examples.

Well crack on then!

[oakleafgael]

This issue is wider than just Derry City its the whole shambles of the League of Ireland.

Since the demise of Drumcondra in the 80's there has been a succession of clubs folding, goin g into administration, reforming, etc.
It all boils down to the failure to understand that the population of this country cannot support professional sport on the one hand and the poor calibre of people some of these clubs attract on the other.

Also gone by the board are Cork Hibernians, Cork Celtic, Limerick Utd (and various reiincartnations) and Dublin City.

"Prestige" clubs like Shelbourne , Drogheda Utd. and Cork Utd have been relegated  for irregularities or gone through legal examinership in order to survive.

Kildare County is on the brink, Finn Harps are broke, Cork are in trouble again - look out for a collapse coming soon at Bohemians - if the whole picture is not a fiasco, someone tell me what is.
The Irish Sports Council should be making an inquiry into this whole set up.

What Derry were up to is the most naked cheating I have ever seen in any sport

Hyperbole, either that or you have led a very sheltered life. A badly run supposedly professional club in a tin pot league breaking the rules doesnt compare with any of the following.

How about the Danny Almonte affair in the American Baseball little leagues? Maybe the Spanish Paralympic basketball team. I cant remember his name but the Russian fencer who had his epee rigged to buzz whenever he pressed a hidden button.

[Doogie Browser]

Dublinfella has to be John Delaney, nothing else can explain the amount of shee-ite he has come out with.
If you have the concern of the league at heart then I am sure you will agree the league will be a lot poorer without DCFC. 
If they acted the wag with payments they must pay some price, but total banishment is not a solution that will benefit the LOI in general.

[dublinfella]

Dublinfella has to be John Delaney, nothing else can explain the amount of shee-ite he has come out with.
If you have the concern of the league at heart then I am sure you will agree the league will be a lot poorer without DCFC. 
If they acted the wag with payments they must pay some price, but total banishment is not a solution that will benefit the LOI in general.

This goes well beyond acting the wag though....

[Main Street]

Dublinfella has to be John Delaney, nothing else can explain the amount of shee-ite he has come out with.
If you have the concern of the league at heart then I am sure you will agree the league will be a lot poorer without DCFC. 
If they acted the wag with payments they must pay some price, but total banishment is not a solution that will benefit the LOI in general.

It's not total banishment,
Its banishment of Derry it's present shape,
Afaia Derry just have to apply for membership to the next  division.

Derry cheated the agreed LOI structure with borrowed money and borrowed money without permission by ignoring liability obligations to gain an advantage over the other clubs for the whole season in every game played.
It is fair that all points be stripped and Derry relegated.

Are Derry being treated as any other LOI club would be? I don't know.
Delaney has acted properly was quite right to demand the resignation of the board before talks about rejoining the league.
Afaia all the clubs were lined up  by the FAI before the season and told in no uncertain terms that player payments were to be kosher from then on, as per contract submitted to the FAI.

[magickingdom]

Did I hear right that the players should have been getting approx €750 gross per week, but with the secondary contracts this was more like €1350 per week?

Seems like an awful lot

Standard enough money. The double contracts were simply to avoid the 65% rule.

This seems to have come to light when a departing Derry player asked for his new club to match his money at x. They checked out his contract and it was registered at y and pushed him on it and it all unravelled from there.  Very interesting that the players union refused to defend the players involved.

no way can loi clubs afford to pay that money and hence the many problems. . its not possible to run a loi club while paying e750k-1m+ in wages with the crowds and sponsorship available

[Rav67]

65% is even way too high for any sustainable business.  Should be less than 50% really.

[orangeman]

That is bad news. That bollox Jarlath Faloon chairman of Dungannon Swifts will be celebrating tonight after asking they be wound up earlier this week. hope the Swifts go tits-up too

Dungannon won't be getting their money now after a new company has been formed but significantly it doesn't carry over any of the debt left behind. 

Bad news for all creditors and Dungannon.

[dublinfella]

Dungannon won't be getting their money now after a new company has been formed but significantly it doesn't carry over any of the debt left behind. 

Bad news for all creditors and Dungannon.

Edit - you are right. They are liquidating the holding company as the board of directors was dissolved.

Creditors should still get something from the liquidation process though.

[angermanagement]

The company that currently owns Derry City is going to go into administration or liquidation, all assets will be sold but what assets have Derry got ? As far as I know all the players are free agents now and can join any club, they don't own the Brandywell as far as I know.

So basically Derry City have run up supposedly £800,000 in debts with the creditors receiving nothing or next to nothing whilst Derry Citys only punishment is to be relegated and starting off on a clean slate with establishing a new limited company.

The FAI had no option to treat Derry this way and I would imagine there's a few nervous players and directors in other clubs who are receiving brown envelopes along with there pay cheque.

[magickingdom]

The company that currently owns Derry City is going to go into administration or liquidation, all assets will be sold but what assets have Derry got ? As far as I know all the players are free agents now and can join any club, they don't own the Brandywell as far as I know.

So basically Derry City have run up supposedly £800,000 in debts with the creditors receiving nothing or next to nothing whilst Derry Citys only punishment is to be relegated and starting off on a clean slate with establishing a new limited company.

The FAI had no option to treat Derry this way and I would imagine there's a few nervous players and directors in other clubs who are receiving brown envelopes along with there pay cheque.

its not quite that simple, if the directors traded fraudulently they can be made personally liable for the co's debts