I’M SURE JOHN Delaney was surprised.
On the face of it, when he stood up at the FAI AGM last weekend and announced a badly needed injection of cash into the League of Ireland he might have expected another standing ovation. I’m sure he was told by those he has gathered around him that it was a wonderful idea.
There’s no question that the league had been crying out for support from the National Association. Clubs have long asked that the FAI stop being a drain on club finances through affiliation fees and inflated fines; they’ve asked the association to start giving back from the myriad sponsorship deals and Uefa grants secured off the back of the league.
So here it was, €100,000.
However, instead of thanks, the announcement was met with anger, frustration and ridicule. Largely because the fund equates to €20 per week across the 20 clubs over the five years of the strategies they’re meant to produce.
The fund announcement was viewed as evidence that the association is not only out of step with what the league requires, but that it really doesn’t care. They have no bread? Let them eat cake. Instead of a standing ovation, John Delaney became Marie Antoinette.
Derry have already announced that they will reject the fund, calling it “disgraceful” and “disrespectful”.
Derry pointed to the €11 million the FAI earned from their Versailles base during Euro 2016 when former LOI players contributed massively to the success. There seems little desire to invest in a league that is already demonstrating a return for the senior side, despite the absence of investment.
It’s hard to see it as anything other than a lack of interest, the FAI should be aware at a forensic level of the issues at each and every club.
Clubs report their financial condition on an ongoing basis and while a desire to get people to focus on the long term is a positive – and should be encouraged – promising “up to €5,000” for the generation of 20 different strategic plans is nonsense.
I’ve sat in league meetings through the years where every individual club will want something different because of their own individual challenges.
It’s a dynamic that has been damaging to the league.
Some clubs have issues far more pressing than what’s going to happen in 2020, they’re struggling to pay wages, ESB bills and even FAI fines today.
Some of them can’t look two weeks into the future never mind look at a five-year strategy. At some clubs the FAI’s €5,000 would go on overdue bills, not on a five-year plan.
So, if you’re going to ‘gift’ the League €100,000 it would have made far more sense to put the fund into a single full-time role to concentrate on developing and marketing the league as a whole. Let that person work with the clubs on their individual needs in the context of a wider strategy for the league.
There was a time in the past when there were dedicated staff assigned to the league, but with cutbacks, cross-charging and sharing of resources, that’s become a thing of the past.
There are many within the FAI who care about the league but they’re spread too thin, covering too much. The league is big enough and certainly important enough to merit dedicated staff.
The role of League Director shouldn’t morph into Competitions Director meaning the job description includes every Junior, Intermediate and Senior Cup competition in the country.
While all clubs should be planning long term – and some are, others are living week to week and that’s the fundamental issue. It’s the league itself which lacks a strategy.
We do have clubs who are already working through previously designed and developed strategies, who don’t need the patronising and unfair undertone that league clubs are incompetent.
Dundalk’s success this week, bringing in a guaranteed €5.4 million of the back of some outstanding on-field and off-field work only goes to demonstrate the potential of our clubs and the insignificance of the €5,000 which the FAI offered as a solution.
There’s a lot of clubs who need support, but it has to be coherent within a plan for the league as a whole and not one focused on changing the number of teams in each division.
We’re less than 12 months out from the Conroy Report and while there are soundings that there have been more regular meetings between the Premier Clubs Alliance and the FAI, nothing tangible or obvious has come from the Conroy Report.
Now, after a process that involved nearly 200 stakeholders within the game, we’re left with a report gathering dust and a situation where the association is so bereft of ideas that it’s pushed back on the club to take a few quid, be quiet and sort out the issues themselves.
It’s clear clubs need support from the FAI, but €20 per week to bugger off and go the governing association’s job for them? That’s the last thing we need.
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
