FEATURE: Eye on the eircom League
from setanta.com
Running a National League club is not an easy job. With expenditure regularly greater than income, many clubs rely on the generosity of fans, businesses and staff to survive.
There are plenty of examples. Sligo Rovers' players and coaching staff accepted pay cuts last season to safeguard the future of the club, Drogheda's players did the same and Galway United's former chairman, Gerry Gray, paid off all the club's debts when he quit his post in October.
Another example is Waterford United's chairman and managing director, Ger O'Brien. He has admitted that he hasn't received a penny from the Blues since assuming the full-time role 18 months ago.
He likens the job to: "Owning your own business. The owner is always the last person to make any money out of it." Like many chairman in the National League, he finds that a lot of his time is spent finding the money to pay off the club's short-term debts rather than looking at the long-term future. "I feel like an event organiser," he said, "Instead of budgeting for the season, I am thinking 'Where will we find next week's wages?'"
The question now is, how long can club's go on like this? Eventually, there will come a time when the generosity of people connected with clubs will not be enough. O'Brien is not alone in thinking that National League clubs should be given grants to get started.
"The National League is the pinnacle of soccer in Ireland and it is important that we keep it," he said. "If we are given grants, we can put a structure in place that will boost the profile of clubs and safeguard the league."
His suggestions for how to improve the league are certainly realistic, even if they would have to overcome a number of obstacles. "At the moment, kids go to England and some return to Ireland after a few years and sign for League clubs. I think that we should coach the kids and they can move to England when they are older," he said.
This would benefit the National League because, like the Norwegian League, it would mean the best players in Ireland would remain in the domestic game, and, when they did move abroad, they would be ready for the challenge. Norway's top club, Rosenborg, has qualified for seven of the last eight group stages of the Champions League, despite always selling their best players. Norway's national team has also benefited from this (although, they had a poor World Cup qualifying campaign), mainly because of the increased number of professional players at the national teams disposal, and it could be assumed the same would happen in Ireland.
For English clubs, it would eliminate a lot of the risk in signing an Irish player. At the moment, many English clubs don't sign players from the National League because there is a belief that all the players have either failed to make the grade in England or were not good enough to ever go to England in the first place. This is not the case as Paul McGrath, has shown, and Roy Keane, Steve Staunton and Richie Foran are currently showing, but it is hard to change people's opinions. If the National League, was considered to be on a par with the Norwegian League (not an impossible dream), that would not be the case.
However, there are also some significant obstacles to over come. Premiership clubs can bring in Irish kids for nothing at the moment, and, they are unlikely to want to change the way they do business so the game in Ireland can improve. Even now, Premiership clubs are signing up young players from all over the world and bringing them to England - just to avoid paying a few hundred thousand pounds for the same players in a few years time. By bringing them in at a young age, there is an element of risk, but club's seem to be prepared to gamble, rather than buying the finished product.
When the Norwegian League was in it's developmental stage, the best Norwegian players had no other option but to join their local club, scouts were not trawling Norway for the 'next big thing.' In Ireland, the hundreds of schoolboys who scouts consider to be the 'next big things' have the chance to go to England and even if the National League is restructured in the way O'Brien suggests, this is not going to change. This is probably the most difficult factor to overcome, how many 16-year-olds would consider joining Waterford, where they will have a one in 20 chance of making it as a professional, when Liverpool, Manchester United and Aston Villa are offering them the same opportunities?
Living beyond their means!
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how many 16-year-olds would consider joining Waterford, where they will have a one in 20 chance of making it as a professional, when Liverpool, Manchester United and Aston Villa are offering them the same opportunities?
IMO thats a ludicrous comparison. WE should first aim to ensure no irish 16 year old sees moving to an english 2nd division lcub as better than the opportunities at home.
BTW theres no wonder Waterford have any moeny as they wasted 800k raised from shares in 18 months when in the Premier a few years ago?!?!?! If they had 2 million they'd have probably have spent all that too. I still can't figure out how they could have spent that money :eek:
