LEAGUE OF IRELAND CORK CITY CRISIS: THE CRISIS at Cork City deepened yesterday as the club failed to clear its extensive debt by the licensing deadline and its players announced they would not play another competitive game until new owners are in place.

Tom Coughlan confirmed yesterday he had stepped down as chairman and said members of the consortium aiming to take over the club are “very keen” and “working very hard on getting things organised as quickly as possible.”

The failure to meet yesterday’s financial deadline means, however, the club’s place in the top flight for next season is now very much dependent on new owners taking charge and getting a great many things sorted out within the next couple of weeks.

The growing impatience amongst the players was in evidence at a press conference called by the squad yesterday morning to highlight their plight and urge Coughlan to relinquish control immediately.

“We haven’t been paid in two and a half months now and it doesn’t look like we are going to get paid any time soon,” said club captain Dan Murray. “It’s caused us all a lot of hardship and surely even for his own sake Tom should just walk away and give somebody else a chance to run things.”

Solicitor John Boylan, who is representing the players and has already had talks with representatives of the would-be owners, said the players are willing to be “very generous” in terms of sacrificing back pay and renegotiating their contracts in the event the club does change hands.

“They want a reasonable wage and they want the darn thing paid,” he said. “They realise that there’s no point in supposedly earning great money if you never get it.”

Former Cork City striker Neale Fenn, meanwhile, has signed a one-year deal with Dundalk. The 33-year-old, who has won three league winner’s medals in the past five years, was out of contract after parting company with Bohemians at the end of last season.

He said yesterday he was delighted with the move but added:

“It will be difficult. Ian (Foster) is building a squad from scratch. But Sean Connor did the same at Bohs and we finished third, so if we can do that it will be a good achievement.”