PROPERTY DEVELOPER Gerry Gannon might have had problems funding his end of the K-Club in Kildare last year but he appears to have had no such difficulties with Sporting Fingal, the north Dublin League of Ireland football club.
Accounts just filed for Sporting Fingal FC Ltd state that Gannon paid €750,000 by way of “non-refundable contribution to the club during the year under review (year to November 30th 2009)”. He paid €499,900 in “non-refundable sponsorship” in 2008.
Gannon is majority shareholder with Sporting Fingal, which won promotion to the Premier Division last season and netted the FAI Cup (right), its first major trophy since being founded in 2007.
The club will represent Ireland in the Europa League this year.
This success has come at a price though. Sporting Fingal lost €75,358 in the year to the end of November last – a chunky sum for a club whose average crowd is usually measured in the hundreds.
Sporting Fingal closed the year with accumulated losses of €36,353 and its auditors stating that its ability to continue as a going concern was “dependent on the continuing financial support from its major benefactors”.
Sporting Fingal’s other major shareholder is the local county council, which played a central role in establishing the club.
Bagging Gannon as an investor was probably considered a coup at the time. But with Gannon set to be one of the first 10 borrowers placed into Nama, with loans of €1 billion-plus, it might now be considered an own goal.
