It’s D-Day, no, it’s not a cup final, nor a crucial league game. For this team D-Day is licence day. With the ghosts of 2008 settled in already the club now faces the most important decision on the season, even before a ball is kicked. Today Cork City will know whether they have earned the coveted ‘A’ licence. The club failed to back pay all their players for the lost 80% by the deadline, and now that failure might rob Ireland’s most supported football club from playing in the premier league. But after signing key player’s contracts and assigning the new manager maybe the licensing committee will vote in out favour.
The UEFA ‘A’ licence is needed for a club to play in the top league of their country, and without it City would be cast to the depths of the First Division. We’re not the only club in this peculiar situation, Drogheda United are currently undergoing the painful period of examinership and their players have also taken a pay cut, it’s now up the authorities to judge whether City and United (Not the Manchester variety) are able to sustain their setup through the season and guarantee the back pay of players wages.
Come this summer I hope to be in Derry, rather than Wexford, in the Tallaght Stadium, rather than the Morton Stadium. With less than 2 months to go to the start of the season, nobody knows either who nor when they will play and it just goes to show you when it comes to this league, anything can, has and probably will happen.
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