FAI to meet with Cork City fans

The FAI has agreed to meet FORAS, the independent Cork City Supporters Trust, to discuss the prospect of the Rebels obtaining a League of Ireland license for next season.

League Director Fran Gavin, Internal Compliance Officer Padraig Smith and Noel Mooney will formally engage with the group’s representatives.

City have had a disastrous season off-the-field, narrowly avoiding a winding-up order in the High Court and struggling to pay their players on numerous occasions.

There are doubts over whether Cork can even survive the rest of this year, with the team planning on strike action due to chairman’s Tom Coughlan inability to pay their wages.

Fans of the club have staged protests against the way Coughlan runs the club.

Recently the club was humiliated when the playing squad was left stranded on the side of a road on a matchday when the bus company employed to journey them to Dublin refused to travel due the outstanding bills.

FORAS could potentially offer big financial assistance to the club next season, or perhaps even take it over, but with the group having withdrawn any support for Coughlan, it is thought both outcomes would not involve the current man in charge.