Coleraine face a winding-up order

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The Premier League club is to be handed with a winding-up order from the High Court in Belfast after failing to settle £360,000 in tax arrears. An attempt to reach an agreement with the Inland Revenue has failed although the club doubled their initial offer of three pence in the pond. Club boss Marty Quinn told media that "it looks like the end" and expressed his concerns for the players. “I am flabbergasted that we have gone to the wall. I thought it would be ok but then I got a phone call to say it's all over," Quinn added.

The club, crippled by more than £1 million of debt, has managed to temporary hold the bankruptcy after new proposals for paying off the money owed to the Inland Revenue alone were disclosed. Members of a new group attempting to stop the club going out of business were prepared to back their plans for wiping out the debts. Taking this into account, administrator Charles Redpath decided to adjourn matters until the end of August. The club’s books were seized by police and passed to the Northern Ireland Sports Council, with a criminal investigation planned. But the campaigners said they have received assurances that the current board of directors will quit as part of their bid to sort out the club’s dire financial affairs.