Cork postponement puts hole in Harps budget

The financial hit that Finn Harps Football Club will suffer from the postponement of their home League of Ireland Premier Division game against Cork City for a second time in the space of less than six weeks is going to pose very serious budgetary difficulties in the short term according to Secretary John Campbell.
Harps was officially notified by the FAI on Friday that the game against Cork was being put back because the Leesiders have two players Kevin O’Connor and Sean Maguire included in a Republic of Ireland U21 squad. It has now been confirmed that the rescheduled fixture has been put back two weeks and will now take place on Monday the 19th of September.
“First of all I want to wish the two Cork City players Kevin O’Connor and Sean Maguire well on their call up to the Irish U21 squad. Cork was entitled to seek a postponement and we have no problem with that but it’s the second time that our home match against them has been called off. The first time was because of their European commitments. The game has now been put back two weeks until the 19th of September. The problem for us is that we had budgeted for a significant amount of money in gate receipts from the Cork match in Ballybofey on Tuesday week the 6th of September. We need that income on that week to help keep the club ticking over and pay the bills including the players’ wages.
So the postponement of the Cork game for a second time in the space of six weeks is very hard for a part-time club like Finn Harps to cope with this type of financial hit.” Mr Campbell concluded.