Doors Closing, Opening, and Sean Duffy is Somehow Involved

If you're true Gheorghe Head, you might recall my entry into the rarified air of sports franchise ownership. I return you today with a bit of bad news that's offset by some good with respect to FC Pinzgau Saalfelden.

In a nutshell, we're out of money. So the Club is dissolving. Seems our ambition didn't match our preparation and performance. Bummer.

But out of the ashes of the Mountainous Blues comes a new opportunity that brings more than a tiny bit of serendipitous benefit for me. As a part of the FCPS dissolution, shareholders are offered a small stake in Carrick Rangers FC, a club based in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland that currently plays in the Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL) Premiership. Rangers are currently in fourth place in the league, and the top three finishers are entered into European competition (most likely the Europa League or Conference League). 

So I seem to have traded up from the Austrian third division.

Likely more interesting to our readers is Rangers' location. When I first heard the town of Carrickfergus in connection to the club, it sparked an association in my mind, but I couldn't place it. And then, as I looked at the new Adrian McKinty book waiting on my desk to be read, it clicked. Detective Sean Duffy resides in Carrickfergus, just 11 miles from Belfast, hard on the the north shore of Belfast Lough.

From disappointment a bright and wondrous bit of news to end the year. Come on you Rangers!