Sligo Rovers have raised more than 31K in the last 24 hours

Yesterday was a day of joy and hope for many League of Ireland fans with the news that the League would resume play from July 31st. However, for many clubs it was also a day where their respective finance committees had some serious number crunching to do.

Despite the Government financial support the last few months and indeed the next number of months will prove particularly challenging for League of Ireland clubs as they struggle to stay afloat while having their income massively reduced due to the uncertainty that remains around the issue of supporters being able to attend matches.

Shamrock Rovers boss Stephen Bradley yesterday said that his club were hoping to give an update later in the week around the issue of supporters attending games, but with much uncertainty surrounding not just that but also of the ability of the nation to keep Covid-19 suppressed, there will likely be a few sleepless nights on the horizon for club committee members.

With all this said many clubs have seen an increase in online jersey sales as well as clubs such as Finn Harps raising money in order to improve the facilities at their home ground to bring it inline with HSE guidelines in this ‘new world’ we are all living in.

The latest such venture to raise much needed funds is by Sligo Rovers who so far, at 11am which is the time of writing, have raised an astonishing €16,000 after they launched their Go Fundme page last night. UPDATE: The figure now stands at over 31K after 24 hours.

The club said in a statement released shortly after the news of the shortened season broke, that they were particularly disappointed with this “unjust decision.”

“This format proposed today was of particular disappointment to the club and is something we sternly object to. We believe it is grossly unfair, unjust and do not see the matter as concluded.

“We will be having further discussions on this issue with relevant parties.

“From today we will regroup, we will rally together and take on the next 16 weeks with the resilience that has got us this far as a football club.

“We thank everyone for their support in recent months and look forward to returning to the pitch on 31 July.”



For Sligo, in particular, the funds raised will be massively important with fundraising bringing in 500K to the club in 2019 alone. If you include this with their gate receipts from last year, the club said that that would represent 70% of their annual budget.

It is these figures that caused Sligo yesterday evening to claim that it is “clear that Sligo Rovers would be the club hit hardest by the Covid-19 crisis.”

Anyone who wishes to donate to through the Go fundme page can do so by clicking the link here.

 

    About Gareth O'Reilly

    Gareth is the Editor of Extratime.ie. Gareth began as a normal reporter covering games all over Dublin before being asked to help out with behind the scene activities and eventually moving into the role of … View Full Profile