Tom Coughlan (football) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Tom Coughlan was chairman of Cork City who took over the club following examinership in 2008. In 2009, he was banned from the game for twelve months. Due to reckless trading, the holding company of Cork City, Cork City Investments Fc Limited, were denied a League of Ireland Premier Division licence and later wound up. The revenue commissioners had sought unpaid tax of €164,000 and, not for the first time in Coughlan's tenure, filed a winding up order petition on CCIFL.

Before City

Coughlan first came to local prominence In 1997 when he ran un-successfully for election to the Dáil as a candidate for the Progressive Democrats

Progressive Democrats

The Progressive Democrats , commonly known as the PDs, was a pro-free market liberal political party in the Republic of Ireland.Launched on 21 December 1985 by Desmond O'Malley and other politicians who had split from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the Progressive Democrats took liberal positions on...

in Cork South Central.

Background

In August 2008, Cork City went into examinership

Examinership

Examinership is a process in Irish law whereby the protection of the Court is obtained to assist the survival of a company. It allows a company to restructure with the approval of the High Court....

with debts of up to €1.3 million due to overspending by owners Arkaga, and despite selling players like Dave Mooney

Dave Mooney

Dave Mooney is an Irish footballer, currently playing for Leyton Orient.-Shamrock Rovers:Born in Dublin, Mooney joined Shamrock Rovers, his first senior club, in 2000 and scored in every round when Rovers' won the U17 All Ireland title against Kingdom Boys in 2002. He made his first team debut...

and John O'Flynn

John O'Flynn

John O'Flynn is an Irish footballer, who plays for Exeter City as a striker.He spent six years with Cork City, winning the League of Ireland and FAI Cup. He scored twice on his league debut for Cork on 5 July 2002...

, the club was still in financial trouble. The club had three potential owners with the money necessary for taking over the club. By the end of September, Coughlan was the preferred bidder.

Takeover

Cork City were taken out of examinership on 16 October with the club being taken over by Coughlan and within two weeks the club were in the Setanta Sports Cup Final

Setanta Sports Cup 2008

The Setanta Sports Cup 2008 was the 4th staging of the cross-border cup competition featuring football clubs from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland...

, in which they won 2-1 over Glentoran

Glentoran F.C.

Glentoran F.C. is a semi-professional, football club in Northern Ireland. The club was founded in 1882 and plays its home games at the Oval in east Belfast. Club colours are green, red, and black.Glentoran's biggest rivals are Linfield...

, and the club won prize money of €150,000. Shortly afterwards the club sold their sell-on clause for Kevin Doyle

Kevin Doyle

Kevin Edward Doyle is an Irish international footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers....

. If the clause had been kept for just five more months, the club would have received €500,000 however they received less than €100,000.

Management changes

One of the first of many major decisions made by Coughlan at the club was to sack manager Alan Mathews

Alan Mathews

Alan Mathews is a former Irish footballer and the current manager of League of Ireland First Division side Shelbourne.-Player:As a player, Mathews played for St...

on December 9, 2008. Mathews later claimed he had been sacked by phone with Coughlan telling him out of the blue that he was no longer a part of the club. Mathews threatened legal action which could have cost City up to €400,000, but it was not pursued in the courts - Mathews filed it with the League of Ireland's Independent Licensing Committee, which could prevent Coughlan's licence applications. The sacking of Mathews was greeted with surprise by most City supporters, who were loyal to him after guiding the club to Setanta Cup success and the kept the team performing on the pitch during examinership. Mathews became manager of Drogheda United in February 2009.

After City came out of examinership, Paul Doolin

Paul Doolin

Paul Doolin is a former Irish footballer and manager.He played for Bohemians, scoring on his debut on 13 September 1981. In June 1985 he signed for Shamrock Rovers and in his three years at the club won the double twice scoring 30 goals in 107 appearances. In his first season at Milltown he was...

was unveiled as the new manager (in January 2009). After a series of trial games with several foreign players, the club signed two Latvian players, Roberts Mezeckis

Roberts Mežeckis

Roberts Mežeckis is a retired professional footballer from Latvia.- Career :Born in Riga, he was a Latvian international who signed for City from F.K. Riga at the start of the 2009 season. Unfortunately Roberts' first team chances that season were limited due to ongoing injury problems...

and Guntars Silagailis

Guntars Silagailis

Guntars Silagailis is a Latvian professional footballer, currently playing for Ahva Arraba in the Liga Leumit in Israel. Silagailis plays as a striker.-Early career:...

, Stephen O'Donnell from league winners Bohemians

Bohemian F.C.

Bohemian F.C. , more commonly referred to as Bohemians, is a professional football club from Dublin, Ireland. Bohemians compete in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland and are the third most successful club in League of Ireland football history, having won the League of Ireland title 11...

and gave new contracts to players like Colin Healy

Colin Healy

Colin Healy is an international footballer for the Republic of Ireland national football team, currently a free agent after having his contract terminated by mutual consent at Ipswich Town Fc.-Early career:...

and Dan Murray.

Winding-up order

In May 2009, the club were issued with a winding up order over unpaid taxes to the Revenue Commissioners. The club were allowed to put back court hearings until July. The club needed to raise €400,000 in two weeks to keep the club being wound up. They sold Colin Healy to Ipswich Town

Ipswich Town F.C.

Ipswich Town Football Club are an English professional football team based in Ipswich, Suffolk. As of 2011, they play in the Football League Championship, having last appeared in the Premier League in 2001–02....

for €80,000 and Denis Behan to Hartlepool United for €40,000. However, this was not enough and the club was wound up on 27 July. The club however successfully appealed the decision with the announcement of a friendly with Scottish club Celtic

Celtic F.C.

Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...

to be played at Turners Cross

Turners Cross

Turners Cross may mean:* Turners Cross , a football ground in Cork, Ireland* Turners Cross, Cork, a residential district and parish in Cork, Ireland...

"Saving" the club

The club was just about saved though they lost four key players and their title challenge fell apart. There was the consolation however of a place in the UEFA Europa League for the 2010 season. Another serious mishap was before a game against St Pats

St Patrick's Athletic F.C.

St Patrick's Athletic Football Club is a football club from Dublin, Ireland. They compete in the League of Ireland Premier Division. Founded in 1929, they are based in the Dublin suburb of Inchicore and play their home matches at Richmond Park. They have won the League of Ireland title 7 times and...

in which the bus company would not take them to the match because the company had not been paid to do so. This resulted in what a player described as a "humiliating" plea from the team, as they sat stranded near the bus, on Cork radio station 96fm

96FM

96FM can refer to:* Cork's 96FM, a Radio station in Cork, Ireland* 96fm , a Radio station in Perth, Western Australia...

for urgent donations from the general public to get them to the game on time.

Banned from football

In response to his management practices, the FAI banned Coughlan from all football related activities for a year. On Thursday 17 December 2009, the FAI held a meeting, in which they were to accuse Coughlan "bringing the game of into disrepute". This meeting was intended to take place on Monday 7 December 2009, but Coughlan was granted two separate adjournments. On the day of the rescheuled meeting, Coughlan and his solicitor left FAI headquarters, as they had been "left waiting an hour for proceedings to begin". Upon leaving, Coughlan was contacted by the FAI, who offered him to return or for the meeting to take place via video. Coughlan however refused, and as the maximum allowable adjournment had elapsed, the Independent Disciplinary Committee held the meeting in his absence. He was sanctioned with a one year ban from football related activities, along with a €5,000 fine.

Coughlan later appealed this decision in the High Court, bypassing the FAI's appeal system. On Wednesday 26 January 2010, Coughlan lost this appeal, as the judge ruled that it was not a public matter. Justice John Hedigan referred to this as the "latest episode" in "the sad saga of Cork City's financial difficulties". Coughlan subsequently complied with the FAI ban, and stepped aside as chairman of the club.

Closure

Following his departure as chairman, the Cork City supporters group, backed by the investment firm Quintas, approached Coughlan for a takeover of the club. This takeover however ultimately failed - with responsibility for the failure (and ultimate winding up of the club) leveled at Coughlan.