FAI Centralisation...just a thought

**galwayhoop** · 24/09/2009, 11:19 AM

With so many clubs in serious financial trouble this season is it time that the FAI looked at a more hands on approach?

Perhaps if all sponsorship and gate receipts (all income really) went directly to the FAI and then in turn all payments were made by the FAI or else clubs would be given a kitty directly relative to their attendances & sponsorship.

A bit like the rugby where players (and staff) would have contracts directly with the organisation running the league?

Unfortunately there are very, very few clubs who seem capable of managing their own houses with Shamrock Rovers the only team in the Premier who don't seem to have had a problem or two this season (open to correction here, not sure if Bray and perhaps Sligo this year have had any but everyone else seems to).

Even if the FAI came in as a caretaker for a couple of seasons to keep the whole thing going.

NB - no need to tell me that the FAI wouldn't be exactly the best run organisation itself!

**pineapple stu** · 24/09/2009, 11:20 AM

Eh, no.

If clubs are in trouble, feck em. They got into trouble, let them get out of it. No point having well-run clubs financing the badly run clubs, who'll continue to be badly run.

**galwayhoop** · 24/09/2009, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Eh, no.

If clubs are in trouble, feck em. They got into trouble, let them get out of it. No point having well-run clubs financing the badly run clubs, who'll continue to be badly run.

if it keeps going the way it is though there is a serious chance that upwards of a quarter of the clubs in the league really could go out of business in the next year or two. by centralizing everything no club would have access to funds and therefore not be able to overextend themselves. the FAI in effect might act similar to how an examiner would.

**OneRedArmy** · 24/09/2009, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Eh, no.

If clubs are in trouble, feck em. They got into trouble, let them get out of it. No point having well-run clubs financing the badly run clubs, who'll continue to be badly run.

Its a bit like a recovering alcoholic or a drug addict. How many clubs have been on the wagon for more than 3 or 4 seasons in a row?

There's a critical mass argument. Do you really want to play in a three* team league year in year out?

*I picked three off the top of my head. I'm not going to argue whether its two or five, but whatever the number is, its a minority of the senior clubs in the league.

**pineapple stu** · 24/09/2009, 11:48 AM

There's a difference between clubs getting into financial difficulties and going out of business though. So far, the only clubs to have gone out of business (Dublin City and Kilkenny City) haven't been, with respect to them, unexpected. Cork have plans in place to start afresh if they get wound up before Coughlan gets fecked out. On that basis, I don't see a 2/3/5 team league being a concern for the immediate future.

**HarpoJoyce** · 24/09/2009, 5:10 PM

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

There's a difference between clubs getting into financial difficulties and going out of business though. So far, the only clubs to have gone out of business (Dublin City and Kilkenny City) haven't been, with respect to them, unexpected. Cork have plans in place to start afresh if they get wound up before Coughlan gets fecked out. On that basis, I don't see a 2/3/5 team league being a concern for the immediate future.

Add to the list Cork City mid-nineties, St.James Gate leaving the LoI because of finance reasons.
And of course, the Friends of the Four Courts Three - Shamrock Rovers, Cork City and Drogheda Utd. No suprise that at least two of those three latter clubs have apalling HR policies.

**A face** · 25/09/2009, 4:38 AM

I dunno, i just dont think its there, i mean it just huge. The scale of that concept is just massive. It sounds someway plausible when you post it up there but the nuts and bolts of it is a different story.

I dont think it could be done .... successfully, and you also exclude investors (to a degree at least) by doing it as well.

I would like to see some sort of task force to land on a club and highlight how bad its doing, how bad it potentially could do and what it needs to do to get it right. Prudence, common sense, forecasting on numbers from two years before, etc. Just something to go into clubs and shake them out and carry out an audit on how they are run.