Article in The Sunday Times
At least one Irish footballer recently released by an English club was cheered up no end by the news of the thriving professional scene back home. Within days, he had a phone call from an Eircom League club offering him a job.
Not just that. They were dangling a pay increase, too. Negotiations began at €1,900 per week, with the use of a car and an apartment for the duration of his contract. He was most impressed with the initial terms until he discovered three other members of his prospective new team enjoyed similarly lucrative deals.
Brian Kerr said a couple of months back: “When I’m talking to managers some of the younger ones would tell me what players are on. They’re shocked by it and when I hear some of the numbers I’m shocked too. The best players now seem to be on four or five times what the best were on just a few years ago but the fact is that gates haven’t risen four-fold or five-fold and, while clubs have become more imaginative in the way they raise money, they’re not raising that much more that was the case when I was at St. Pat’s”
The Kerr side which brought the 1996 league title to Inchicore were paid €2,300 in total per week. Last month, John Gill, manager of newly promoted Dublin City FC, told the Irish Times that his club’s weekly wage bill was not €10,000 per week. Gill is in charge of a team with no ground of its own, which draws about 600 people to its home games, and which was offering season tickets a month into this campaign for €60. Yet he feels he has to deny his players are earning that kind of cash.
Little wonder then that four Premier Division clubs have already been publicly linked with financial problems this season. Quickly denied. Of course. In spite of the fact that a couple of the biggest teams nearly hit the wall before Christmas, and that their bad financial habits are under the Dail’s Public Accounts Committee (anxious to know how the €6m clubs received in 2002 was spent), many are continuing to live beyond their means.
The worst part about it all is that it could be so different. In August, every club in the English Nationwide Division Two will sign up to something called “salary cost management protocol”. Under the terms of this agreement, which was tested successfully in the Third Division in the season just ended, each one pledges to limit the amount it spends on players’ wages to 60% of annual turnover. In addition, each club’s total salary costs must not exceed 75% of their revenue. As with all the best ideas, it’s based on a simple premise. Clubs should not spend what they do not have.
“We chose Division Three to start with because they have more players on one-year contracts,” said Nationwide League director of operations, Andy Williamson. “We’ve researched club accounts and assessed what clubs need to do in order to operate in the black. Division Three sides have embraced this scheme. There are two ways to deal with it ---- either have fewer players or stabilise the amount players are earning.”
After initial misgivings, the PFA sanctioned the scheme because they realised it was a long-term way of keeping more of their members gainfully employed. Even though it was only mandatory for Division Three in the season just gone, a dozen Division Two and a handful of Division One clubs also subscribed on a voluntary basis. Many of those had already learnt the hard way that fiscal irresponsibility can threaten the very survival of the longest-established teams.
“There was a recognition that there needed to be some guidelines and a structure to which clubs ought to be prepared to adhere, in the interests of assuring stability and sustainability,” said Williamson. “That’s what supporters and all employees seek; they need to be secure in the knowledge that their club have a future. Over a period of time it is almost certain this will save clubs from going into administration, or moving to the point of extinction.”
So, if it is good enough for Division Two, where the average attendance of 7,000-plus far exceeds that of the Eircom League Premier Division, surely it should be good enough for the likes of Shelbourne and Cork City? After all, in their more fanciful dreams, the fans at Tolka and Turners Cross regularly wonder whether their own outfits could seriously compete with teams on English football’s third and fourth rungs.
Inevitably, there would be certain problems implementing the scheme in Ireland. Williamson has the power to punish any club that fails to obey the rules by withholding their annual grant ---- £33,000 for Division Three, £51,000 for Division Two ---- from the Football Foundation. It would be harder for the FAI to police the wage bills of Eircom clubs since 85% of players were not issued with pay slips or P60’s during the 2003 season.
Were this initiative to be introduced, though, it might actually stop the regular bleating to the media by Ollie Byrne et al about the refusal or rich businessman such as JP McManus and John Magnier to invest in the domestic game. McManus, Magnier and all the others mentioned in this regard are successful businessman. They usually invest in proper businesses. When the league is run with fiscal discipline, they might even be tempted.
Dave Hannigan The Sunday Times May 30, 2004
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I suppose it has to be tackled at some stage and you'd think that the sooner was actually the better.
"Inevitably, there would be certain problems implementing the scheme in Ireland. Williamson has the power to punish any club that fails to obey the rules by withholding their annual grant ---- £33,000 for Division Three, £51,000 for Division Two ---- from the Football Foundation."
You are dead right that there would be problems .... we dont get grants anywhere near that ..... and the ones we do get .... certain clubs just cant manage and/or report how they spend it.
Maybe another solution to this would be .... the clubs holding it up .... dont give them grants for the next ten years and leave all the other clubs get on with it.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xtreme rebel
I'd say Fenn, George and JOF earn berfore tax between €900 - €1300.
It wouldn't want to be much more ...... cos the way they are playing right now, they are not worth more. That is not having a dig at anyone .... that is being realistic .... we have won nothing yet. There is no way you could justify paying them anymore (i even think that is getting too high really but we have to compete with other clubs i suppose).
Dont get me wrong .... they are all good players to watch, it is just we have to draw a line somewhere.
We have the solution to Policing wages etc.
its called the UEFA Licence which until last Friday Morning seemed to be a fair and independent commission and was taking eircom league soccer to the next level and away from stroke Politics.
Unfortunately the powers that be in the FAI have behaved disgracefully again and were back to stroke pulling and a nod and wink philosophy.Unless something is done quickly the eircom league is finished as an entity and no one in ther right mind will invest money in it. :mad:
