The board of Cabinteely FC has called an extraordinary general meeting for August 13th to consider an offer from an American group which is interested in buying the League of Ireland section of the club.
A company called Irish Sea Football Club (ISFC) has offered to pay €1 for a 90 per cent stake in Cabinteely Senior Football Club Limited which is currently 100 per cent owned by the schoolboy outfit. It would have the option of purchasing shares for €20,000.
As part of the deal, ISFC would clear the senior operation’s debts of €200,000 over the next five years, although it would have the option of handing back ownership of the senior club “with the same balance sheet worth” at the end of those five years.
The new entity would take over the running of the National League underage teams and take on responsibility for any future women’s or girls’ teams being entered in national leagues. Existing revenues including sponsorships, FAI and membership fees relating to the teams being taken over would go to the senior club.
Under the arrangement the senior club would pay 50 per cent of any fee received for a player that has come through the schoolboy section. ISFC’s offer specifies, however, that it would retain 100 per cent of any fee obtained for “a youth player from another country”.
IFSC was registered as a company in Ireland in March and the company's address is in Cork. Its two directors, however, are both American: Dennis Lukens and Louis Alfonso Jiminez.
Lukens is a pro license holder who has also worked in Boston, California and Ukraine. He has been involved with a number of academies in the United States. On the ISFC registration his address is listed as Cabinteely Park in Dublin. Jiminez is listed as living in Brownsville, Texas.
There is little indication provided as to their plans for the club but one of the terms of the deal is the schoolboy club would continue to provide match volunteers for League of Ireland games for the five-year period.
The board of the schoolboy section appears to be happy to see the deal go through. Cabinteely formed its senior section ahead of the 2015 season when it joined the League of Ireland. It reached the promotion playoffs last year although it was not clear where the club would have played its home games had it gone up as it currently used Stradbrook, home of Blackrock Rugby Club, which would not have been up to the required standard.
The team currently leads the First Division with seven points from three games played.
There have been doubts about the senior section’s future for some time as it has proved to be a drain on what is a very successful schoolboy outfit and there are said to have been tensions over the support that is required to be given by one part of the club to the other.
