Derry City's debts are understood to be in the region of £400,000 it has emerged following Monday night's crisis meeting in the City Hotel.
Sources close to the club have suggested the vast majority of that figure is made up of wages owed to staff, players and employees with a number of local businesses also seeking recompense.
Add in the fact that Irish League club Cliftonville have indicated they will also be sending an invoice totalling several thousand pounds which they claimed they are owed to cover Derry's share of expenses from Celtic's recent visit to Solitude and i
t appears a very bleak picture.
The scale of the club's financial deficit represents a huge blow to the prospects of attracting potential investors, particularly after Dungannon Swifts' decision to initiate winding-up proceedings against the Brandywell club.
The Irish Premier Division club are owed £30,000 from the sell-on clause agreed as part of Niall McGinn's transfer to Celtic last January. A missed payment deadline last week has now prompted Dungannon to take legal action.
It had been suggested the Co. Tyrone club had reached an agreement with City chairman, Pat McDaid to postpone the payments until the end of the month following a conversation with Dungannon chairman, Jarlath Faloon on Monday.
However at the Dungannon club's Board meeting later that evening it is understood the decision was over-ruled, prompting the onset of the winding-up order.
At Monday night's meeting in the City Hotel, convened by the Derry City Board of Directors, leading members of the local business community as well as politicians from all the parties were fully informed of the difficulties the 'Candy Stripes' currently find themselves in.
And unless the club settle those debts or at least make arrangements with the players and parties involved to pay the outstanding monies before December 21st - the UEFA license cut-off date - then it's fair to suggest that, best case scenario, Derry City will be playing in the League of Ireland First Division next season. At worst, the club will simply drift out of existence.
By failing to pay last month's wages on Friday, Derry City has contravened the club UEFA Licensing Agreement and, unless agreements can be made with their creditors before the December 21st deadline, then sanctions will be imposed by the FAI on Derry City.
The full article contains 402 words and appears in Foyle News newspaper.
