Cork City has become the latest Eircom League of Ireland club to face financial difficulties.

In a season that has already seen Cobh Ramblers, Sligo Rovers, Galway United and Kildare County facing serious problems, the situation at Cork will pose a serious concern for the League of Ireland as a whole.

Cork City is one of the biggest and best supported teams in the league, so its fate will be a warning for the rest of the clubs, that no team is safe from financial difficulties.

‘‘It’s hard to understand, I can’t get my head around it,” Fran Gavin, director of the Eircom League of Ireland, told The Sunday Business Post.” A few weeks ago, they gave the go-ahead for new contracts to be signed with current players and new players to be brought in; now they say they’re in trouble.

‘‘We’ve got a commitment from them that they will meet certain criteria and we expect them to honour that. Cork is a very successful club and we’d expect them to react in a responsible manner,” said Gavin.

‘‘We can’t go in and manage the club for them but with the new rule in place [which states that only 65 per cent of income can be spent on wages],we have put limitations on their spending. After that, it is up to them to look after it themselves.

‘‘We can’t just give them finance. We don’t sign the contracts with the players, they do. [Cork City manager] Alan Matthews was given permission to sign more players, and he will be expecting those contracts to be honoured.”

Gavin noted that Cork City has had four chief executives in the last year and a half. ‘‘That’s not a good sign,” he said.

Last Thursday morning, it was claimed that Cork City was considering an application to the High Court to appoint an examiner to oversee the running of the club. Reports suggested that Cork City has racked up debts of about €800,000.

However, a statement from Leeside later that day said the speculation was premature.

‘‘Cork City Football Club has been engaged in negotiations with potential new investors for the last number of weeks,” the statement said.

‘‘It is too early to speculate on the outcome of these discussions which are still ongoing.

‘‘The board of Cork City Football Club will meet next week and come to a decision on the future of the club.

‘‘Some of the figures currently being reported today, particularly in relation to the wages of players and staff, are inaccurate and grossly inflated.

‘‘Because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing discussions, it would be inappropriate for Cork City Football Club to make any further comment at this time.”

Cork City failed to pay their players ahead of the league fixture with Bohemians last week, but lodged this fortnight’s wages two days early.

Team captain Dan Murray said that the players had no more information on the current state of play than the general public, but vowed the players would play on for now.

‘‘It’s disappointing news,” Murray said.’ ‘The players are wondering what’s happening, just as much as the fans really. We’re meant to be one of the biggest clubs in the country, but it now looks like we’re not going anywhere.

‘‘We’ve been paid for the next two weeks, so we will go into those two weeks and play the games and try and get through in the cup. We’re footballers, we enjoy playing the game and we enjoy playing for Cork City and we’re defending champions in the cup. We’ll concentrate on football over the weekend and see what happens on Monday.”

Despite the bad news from Leeside, Gavin did point out that the future is not all bleak for the Eircom League.

‘‘Thirteen of our clubs are showing half-year profits,” he said.