Will PJ McManus bail them out?
I’d say no one will bail them out if they go down. And by all accounts PJ won’t give them anymore money while your man is still the owner
Go way! I thought they were buddies?
Are they married to two sisters (not their own unlike the Tipp lads)?
That’s the story I heard anyway. Not sure if it’s true. He was throwing a bit at the them all along I think. At this stage you’d probably need to buy the club off the company that holds it as I’d say it’s up to the eyeballs in debt, load of lads not getting paid etc. So he probably won’t throw anything at that when it’ll just go straight to revenue or whatever
Anyone going to Ballybofey next Monday night?
No. I made the trip the last time and i’m still not over it.
I’d say they’ll be lucky to have the team bus full not to mind anyone else
BJ Banda.
That name will haunt me to the grave.
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If we don’t have a club match at home, I’ll probably head up.
Not as much as Patrick Kanyuka
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You heading up?
FOOTBALL
Barrett’s pessimism raises further concerns over Limerick’s future
John Fallon
October 26 2018, 12:01am, The Times
Limerick are struggling to get fans through the gates at Markets FieldDAVID MAHER/SPORTSFILE
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Sometimes it takes home truths to lay bare a grave situation and Tommy Barrett’s prognosis on Limerick underlines the possibility of the county losing another League of Ireland club.
Barrett’s side are gearing up for a play-off against Finn Harps next week to decide which division they will operate in but their very survival as an entity into 2019 is the bigger question at stake.
The concerns are not just based on the pending high court case instigated by Revenue to wind the club up. Even if that matter to address a tax bill was resolved by the time of the adjournment on November 12, and the club last night said the issue was “sorted”, there is the broader challenge of funding a club that garners limited support from fans or sponsors.
That the 3,500-capacity Markets Field, rebuilt and reopened in 2015 aided by local billionaire JP McManus, was less than 10 per cent full for last Friday’s Premier Division game against St Patrick’s Athletic perhaps provoked their manager into his tirade.
“We’ve to get realistic in where we’re at,” Barrett, a veteran of the club as player, under-19 manager and first-team manager, said. “Limerick is not a soccer city. We haven’t produced players for 20, 30 or 40 years. Apart from a few in recent seasons, we haven’t sent players to England.
“Yeah, I know we have strong teams and players in junior football but that’s amateur; a completely different sport. We’re competing against lots of other sports, including rugby and hurling, and where does soccer sit in that pecking order?”
Save for McManus replicating the financial support he has afforded to the All-Ireland-winning Limerick hurlers, soccer will remain the distant relative.
Pat O’Sullivan, a close friend of McManus, has bankrolled Limerick FC since rescuing them in 2009, coming forward at a public meeting as a last resort. He is estimated to have pumped €6 million of his own money in to keep professional football in the city, yet warned fans three years ago that the club had to live within its means.
Since then Limerick have operated more prudently but O’Sullivan’s core business, Galtee Fuels, falling into voluntary liquidation earlier this year coincided with cash-flow problems afflicting his sporting arm.
Delays in salaries being paid to players and staff triggered a threat of industrial action in July. The consequential loss of the higher earners, such as goalkeeper Brendan Clarke and Conor Clifford to St Patrick’s Athletic in the transfer window, all but killed off any prospect of the team extracting themselves from finishing second-bottom — the play-off berth.
There has been little cheer off the pitch either. The squads have in recent months moved their training base from the plush facilities at University of Limerick to Hogan Park, the same venue the women’s team are using, having also been unable to meet the rental demands of Markets Field.
Other signals look ominous. No programme has been produced for the last two home games against Derry City and St Patrick’s Athletic. The former press officer, Keith Wallace, recently claimed he was forced to depart after going six months without being paid.
Nine years after a messiah in the form of O’Sullivan presented himself at the Kilmurry Hotel, public meetings are back on the agenda, both locally and in Dublin. A prospective deal by a Dutch consortium earlier this year broke down and the search continues for new ownership.
On Monday night, once tonight’s academic final match of the campaign at Waterford is out of the way, Limerick face Harps in a repeat of the 2015 relegation play-off.
The main difference this time around is that nowhere near the 4,000 supporters who turned out at Markets Field cheering for Limerick’s survival are expected at the home leg a week today.
Maybe it is apathy or the public being weary with an outfit whose previous incarnations had United, City and 37 at the end. Either way, Limerick soccer is on its knees.
How ironic it would be in a year when the hurlers ended 45 years of hurt by delivering an All-Ireland that a code made famous in the county by the likes of Al Finucane requires extra-time to stand still. For the sake of the modern-day Limerick legends like Barrett, let’s hope sudden death isn’t required.
I like this one
Limerick are losing mate
Anyone travel up or will it be irrelevant with the court case coming up?
Did they not say that’s been settled ?
Has it? Thought it was deferred for 2 or 3 weeks?
Finn Harps take the lead after 37 minutes
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