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.
