JON DALY, THE Dundalk manager, has said players and management at the club have not been paid on time.
Speaking to LMFM after his side’s 2-1 Premier Division loss to St Patrick’s Athletic last night, Daly said staff had been informed they would be paid but there has been a delay.
US-based businessman Brian Ainscough completed a takeover of Dundalk FC last November.
“I’m not going to stand here and tell lies to you. We haven’t been paid, but we’ve been informed that we will be paid, just there’s going to be a bit of a delay on it,” said Daly. He later said he was involved in a conversation with Ainscough yesterday where the owner was “relatively positive about things going forward”.
“It’s not easy,” Daly said. “Footballers, especially in the League of Ireland, aren’t on huge money and will have bills like everyone else.
“There’s that little worry for some of them, mortgages etc coming out. We’ve been told that it should be a couple of days to get sorted so we have to take their word for it and believe that’s going to happen. It’s not a nice situation to be in.
“The owner is looking for investment or was looking for investment and that’s kind of where I’m led to believe that it’s at. It’s obviously not ideal that it comes out, and all the rumours that come off the back of it, it’s not ideal.
“Credit to the players, they’ve held themselves to high standards. Hopefully over the next few days, there’s a bit more clarity for everyone.
“Peter Halpin (Dundalk’s CEO) has been great, very straight up. Any information he gets, he tries to pass on. He’s similar to myself, he doesn’t know an awful lot.
“The hardest part is the uncertainty and not knowing. I do like to plan and prepare and have as much knowledge of things as I possibly can. I have to be up front with the players on what I do know.
“Hopefully in a few days time, there’s better news coming out of the club. We’re disappointed to come away with nothing from the game, it compounds the bad week that we’ve had.”
Dundalk are bottom of the Premier Division on 24 points from 29 games. They trail neighbours Drogheda United by a point.
Very little to be said about this!
Sad!! But it does beggar one big question……… Did the FAI do a due diligence assessment before giving the OK and if so, who signed off on it??
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: Did the owners of Dundalk do any due diligence before the sale? That’s more important than the FAI (unless they were the owners, which they are not). I imagine the Dundalk owners, or their agents for the deal should have done the due diligence. If not, then maybe that needs some checking into.
What is strange that statement, “The owner is looking for investment …”, wasn’t the goal of taking over the club to bring investment? Again, part of due diligence.
Dundalk are in a terrible position now. It’s incredible after the millions they earned from European runs. And little or nothing to show for it, in terms of infrastructure. This again goes to show that many LOI clubs are on very shaky ground financially. I could see Dundalk ending up part time in the First Division.
Disgrace that the players and staff have not been paid. It’s sad to see the state of Dundalk these days and I fear it will get worse for them before it gets better.
Duffer the bluffer still thinks it s best league in the world