LOI club owner admits they’re in financial trouble and could struggle to finish the season

The owner of LOI club Dundalk admits they’re in financial trouble and there is concern that they could struggle to finish the current season.

After being made aware of the statement, The 1903, a Dundalk FC supporters club supporters are now looking to raise €100,000 in effort to save the League of Ireland Premier Division’s bottom side. So far, at the time of writing (3pm, on the 10th of September), €6,682 has been raised.

The players and staff are currently waiting the wages from the previous week, as US-based owner Brian Ainscough has announced he’s seeking efforts to secure investment to sustain the club through the remainder of the campaign.

Ainscough finalised a complete takeover back in November, severing his connections with Kerry FC, where he served as chief executive.

However, he’s failure to bring in external funding has placed Dundalk in a state of “financial difficulties.”

Dundalk FC owner Brian Ainscough has released the following statement about the club’s financial situation.https://t.co/4HI1FUqhCi pic.twitter.com/sYDY3ZlL0q

— Dundalk FC (@DundalkFC) September 9, 2024

STATEMENT:

Dundalk FC owner Brian Ainscough has released the following statement about the club’s financial situation.

“There are a lot of reports out there that the club is experiencing financial difficulties Unfortunately, those reports are true.

“I was hoping to secure investment in August but, for various reasons, that did not come through.

“I am working hard to keep it going but my immediate concern now is that the club can carry on for the remainder of the season.

“I am actively seeking investment and I am exploring all possibilities about the ownership of the club to ensure that happens.

“I will continue to speak to any interested parties and I remain fully positive that we can secure the injection of cash that we need to keep us going.

“Regarding wages, I can confirm that there was a delay in paying the wages last week I am aware of the distress that this caused our players and staff and I would like to assure them that this was a temporary issue which will be resolved in the coming days.

“I want to thank our players, staff, supporters and the wider community for their support and patience at this time and want to let them know that we are working extremely hard to turn this situation around

Brian Ainscough, Dundalk FC owner

Dundalk FC Supporters Club is organising this fundraiser, writing on the GoFundMe page: “Over the last week we have seen reports that your football club is in financial trouble and our owner Brian Ainscough has confirmed this to be the case in a statement released this evening, Monday 9th September 2024.

“The 1903 Dundalk FC Supporters club was setup in 2021 and one of our long-term goals was to set out to support the club as required, both on the field and off.

“The news over the last week that players, management and staff failed to receive their salaries was confirmed after our game last Thursday night by Jon Daly, First Team Manager, and in the statement from Brian Ainscough, this was further confirmed along with the wider financial picture that the club finds itself.

“As supporters, we all want to rally and help, we all want to stand up and support our club when it needs it and while the club may be looking into its options to secure further investment we want to offer our supporters base and the wider league the option to build a fund that could be used to support the club if required.

“To be clear, this fund will be used if the club require additional funding, if they do not, the fund we be retained for future projects around Oriel park to help sustain the club and avoid such financial situations in the future.

“Its times like these were we all need to come together and support our club.”

This is how fans reacted online as the LOI club owner admits they’re in financial trouble and could struggle to finish the season…

@fan_dfc: Fans need to come together in remaining games and give the players all the support they deserve like we did at end of peak 6 era. Players still giving their all despite playing for free. Support them and pray we stay up A premier division side is a lot more enticing to investors

@shane_MUFC1999: How can a club who has been competing in group stages of European football TWICE in the last 8 YEARS be in such financial difficulty? Total disrespect for the fans of Dundalk

@DanielSextonIRL: I’m so angry at what’s been let happen Dundalk. I see some people sneering at the fanbase as if we had any say in it. We supported our team, that’s all we can do. The club has been in private ownership since 2006. All any fan can do is call out mismanagement but we have zero say. You’ll hear that Dundalk had loads of money from our success. Yes but it was a piggy bank. Successive owners refused to invest in facilities, refused to invest in growing the business and the piggy bank was spunked on (mostly shite) players and their agents, and ‘consultants’. Dundalk post Peak6 don’t spend any more than most of the Premier clubs. Pats, Derry, Rovers, prob Waterford, maybe Galway, Shels, are all carrying bigger deficits. The difference is that they have owners prepared to write off those losses in pursuit of achieving what we achieved. We ended up with two sets of owners after Peak6 who couldn’t or wouldn’t invest money in the club and, worse, couldn’t even put the structures in place for the club to generate its own cash. They literally couldn’t organise a raffle. That’s on them. That’s private ownership. Unfortunately a fan owned club seems like a pipe dream to me. I wish we were like Sligo but if Cork who have a huge catchment and a stadium ready made for them couldn’t make it work then I don’t see how we can realistically unless someone else provides the ground. Our success wasn’t built on money, it was built on sensible stewardship and a great manager in a great town with an amazing football culture and legacy. We win fucking Emmys for god sake. We still have the culture and legacy but we’ve been disgracefully let down this last 5 years. There’s a few people pining for the Peak6 days. They need to give their heads a wobble. Peak6 who didn’t invest a red cent in fan facilities, spent 6 figures on Wilfred Zahibo, and tried to move the club to Dublin. The subsequent owners being bad doesn’t change that.

@Jordanmcalester: Hasn’t a pot to piss in, why buy a club if you haven’t got the funds to back it, talk about an embarrassing owner

@fan_dfc: Pathetic statement from a pathetic man. Why buy the club in the first place if you knew you didn’t have the funds to run it? Cowboy.

@no112012: How was he able to “buy” the club?

@eddierey11: If Daryl’s Horgan leaves now he’ll make the last bus from Merlin Park into town

@tomdearey1: You’ve been ‘trying’ to get investors since you joined 10 months ago Brian. How can you say you’re hopeful of acquiring investors now

@g2mcc: You’d have to wonder how the club has been so devastatingly mismanaged that they can have two batches of European money and still gone backwards.

@cillian32: Someone watch that welcome to Wrexham programme without the cash to invest .

@gerardm117: Three different owners in the last five years, and three sets of absolute cowboys who have all contributed to running the club into the ground. The fact Ainscough was even allowed to take over in the first place is a disgrace. A dire situation we find ourselves in now

@jack_mcardle_: Fills me with optimism for the clubs future! What a shite statement

@dduffy02: Bought a club with nowhere near enough money to sustain it, promised additional investment all year with little to nothing to back it up, and now continues to make the same empty promise when the club is hanging on by a thread. An absolute charlatan.

@Curtis__94: Absolutely grim, who in the right mind is going to invest when this looper is around

@ShaneTagbajumi: Don’t buy a 100% of a club if you can’t afford to sustain it alone seems like business 101

@AdamFinn4: If the fans really love the club, regardless of success or not, they need to find a way to take control. If that means a phoenix club situation, it’s better in the long term than the horrendous cycle of boom and bust.