The darkest day for the League of Ireland?

Perhaps, but it's possible that out of the shadows, a chink of light may emerge from the sorry demise of Cork City.

Certainly, the impending loss of a flagship club is a devastating blow for those bidding to promote the league. On the week that the FAI bring Giovanni Trapattoni to Munster in a visit trumpeted as evidence of the game spreading outside Dublin, the reality is that a situation is imminent where the province will be without a senior top-flight football club. How depressing is that.

Yet, amid the doom and gloom, the feeling persists that if the league was to learn anything from its perpetual monetary crises, a big gun needed to fall.

Not be relegated, or deducted points, but properly punished for indiscretions.

When Kilkenny City dropped out of the league due to a reported ?50,000 debt, the shock value was minimal. Similarly, the withdrawal of Cobh Ramblers was greeted with a degree of indifference. And Dublin City? For all bar the committed few, the memory of that experiment has long since faded.

In the case of those casualties, the upper echelons of the game were able to privately dismiss the significance in terms of the bigger picture, citing the minimal stature of the clubs in question.

But the winding up of Cork City? That's a whole new ball game. We're talking about one of, if not the best, supported team in the league. This is the club who have delivered some of the finest League of Ireland moments of recent times.

Think of the league decider against Derry in 2005 in front of 10,000 people at Turner's Cross, the crucial role in the development of Kevin Doyle, Shane Long, Roy O'Donovan and Dave Mooney, the European eliminations of Apollon Limassol, Nijmegen and Malmo. On the face of it, they should have been the template. Until the emergence of Tallaght this year, Turner's Cross arguably provided the best match-day experience; when the crowds turned up, and the newly improved Shed End was packed, it was a terrific venue to visit by the league's modest standards. There was a fair sprinkling of local talent, guys like Colin Healy and Joe Gamble who were happy to return home and enjoy their football there.

City will somehow fight to survive but the draw for the 2009 Setanta Sports Cup will take place today with the future of the holders now hanging in the balance.