SOCCER:SPORTING FINGAL manager Liam Buckley has denied any players were misled prior to the collapse of the club this week.

Sporting went under on Thursday, a day after they cancelled all of their players’ contracts, and ceased trading after project partners Fingal County Council insisted the company be shut down.

There was an accusation from striker Gary O’Neill yesterday that the club had not been entirely honest with players. O’Neill said he’d been told a “pack of lies”.

He said he turned down a deal to join Shamrock Rovers to re-sign a two-year contract with Sporting Fingal.

“I absolutely refute we misled any of the players,” said Buckley when he spoke yesterday about the ending of the Sporting Fingal project.

Buckley said he was gutted at the end of three brilliant years and that the club’s demise was a “crying shame for the Fingal soccer public”.

Having been heavily backed financially by developer Gerry Gannon, who is now in Nama, until the end of last season, the club failed to secure a new benefactor while a sponsorship deal also fell through last week.

“There wasn’t one of them we told one lie to. We were as honest as we could possibly be right along the way,” said Buckley.

“Gary would have known for six or seven weeks, if not longer, that I was doing my best to get a budget.

“ ‘Gary’, I said, ‘please wait. Don’t do anything, please wait, wait, wait’. And he waited, in fairness to him.

“Then just before Christmas, great, we can get one in and I think he was the first one to re-sign.

“We didn’t want to be reckless in what we were doing. There was no point in me spending twice what I had and then the following week we were in trouble.

“As it culminated, we were in trouble. Things just didn’t transpire the way we hoped with the commitments that we had and, all of a sudden, the whole thing is in jeopardy.

“On a personal level, I just didn’t want to take the chance of taking this into the season and three months down the line there was a cash flow issue and it brings the league into disrepute and does nothing for soccer here.

“Unfortunately, from our end, we had these dozen players under contract. It transpired we had to make a decision on it, as difficult and hard as it was.

“I can’t believe it’s gone. For me this is the best project in the country. Over the next few years this could have gone on and been enormous for everybody.”