A league blighted by farce - Sunday Indo
from unison,ie
A league blighted by farce
'Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive'
Sir Walter Scott
SUCH is now the complexity of the St Patrick's Athletic 15-point saga that it is hard to know where the deception started or with whom, but deception there was and it has left the eircom League in a sorry mess.
With St Pat's intending to appeal Friday's decision to deduct them 15 points for playing unregistered duo Paul Marney and Charles Livingstone, and if necessary go to court to recover the points, it is premature to describe Shelbourne as champions.
And, significantly, there was no air of celebration in Tolka Park on Friday night when word filtered through that the title was theirs. It was clear that even the most hardened Shels supporter thinks the League has descended to farce.
By going the appeals route, St Pat's may be using up a lot of the goodwill which their predicament first earned them. It was a common belief that a nine-point deduction was far too harsh a penalty for the failure to register a player who was clearly one of their own. Even title rivals Shelbourne felt that punishment was too severe.
However, when the second ****-up was uncovered, it was surely time for St Pat's to come out with their hands up and plead for leniency. Instead, they have come out fighting, with Pat Dolan's smoking gun reining in innocent parties to the dispute. At a time when a cool head was called for, Dolan wasn't in a position to supply it thus putting at risk a lot of the goodwill which exists for the club outside of Inchicore.
Financially, this is not yet a disaster for St Pat's. With nine points to play for, and in the middle of a great run, they can still claim a place in European competition even with the 15-point loss.
A spokesman for the club said the cost to Pat's was "unquantifiable, as it involves supporters, sponsorship and image, but European football is always regarded as a bonus. We don't speculate to achieve it, like other clubs. You have to do your best on the terms of your projected income and the fact that we have done so well is all due to Pat Dolan, with his ability to maximise his slim resources."
Significantly, Pat's had their biggest crowd of the season on Friday night for their 1-0 defeat of Shamrock Rovers, and the mood among the supporters was buoyant, the common attitude being "if they want to take the points, let them have the league."
There was no rancour shown towards the club officials who have overseen the administrative blunders. St Pat's officials, who are insistent that they haven't lost the title yet, have also made it clear to the players that, regardless of the final outcome of the dispute, bonuses agreed for winning the league will still be paid out if they finish the season with the best record in the Premier Division.
The man at the centre of the Livingstone storm is League Commissioner, Roy Dooney. In his first year in office, Dooney took a gamble that didn't come off and it is a decision about which he spoke frankly.
When it was drawn to his attention at the FAI appeals hearing on the Paul Marney case at the end of September that Livingstone's name was also missing from the list of registered Pat's players, he checked it out, discovered that the player had been registered on September 12, but decided to do nothing about it.
"That's something I regret now," he said. "But a second decision, deducting six points extra, would have been a disaster for the League. I took the view in the interests of fairness. In hindsight, maybe I should have been cutting clubs from the word go.
"The biggest problem with the rule book is that clubs ignore large parts of it and expect other parts to be applied rigorously.
"I believe the rules should be applied with common sense and fair play. It boils down to what you think the rule book is for. Now if some obscure foreign player had arrived in a Pat's jersey out of the blue, that would have been a different case, but Marney and Livingstone were contracted to Pat's."
Dooney has certainly been thrown in at the deep end in his first season and many people feel he has sunk like a stone. He is candid in his own comments about his position.
"Maybe I was a little naive when I came in. It's a more complex environment than I expected. My expectations were probably too high I thought I could sort out the League in six months.
"But there is a culture of non-compliance all over the place. To take just one example drug testing. Only three of the 12 Premier Division clubs have complied fully with the drug testing rules which have been brought in.
"Over all, the respect clubs have for the rule book and the administration is very patchy. I would salute Shelbourne for their adherence to the rules, but not everyone is like them so I can appreciate Ollie Byrne's frustration.
"St Pat's explanation to the League about the Livingstone case was that there was a slip up within their organisation. They had him on a contract for two seasons but inadvertently only registered him for one."
Phil Mooney, secretary of St Pat's, while reluctant to speak on the issue, admitted: "My office is responsible for registrations. I'm accepting responsibility. The buck has to stop somewhere."
For a league title to be decided on a 15-point deduction is so unprecedented that UEFA are understood to have taken an interest in developments here.
And there may be further repercussions for the FAI and the League if it is found that procedures were not carried out properly in the case of the Paul Marney arbitration process and FAI Appeals hearing. And the affidavits sworn for the High Court may have to be looked at again in the light of the Livingstone case.
St Pat's in the '90s adopted the slogan Ní neart go cur le chéile strength in unity and proceeded to become the team of the decade.
Is there any chance the League would take a leaf from Pat's book, apply the same principles to their work, and bring an end to the destructive infighting which has done so much damage in recent times?
But there is a culture of non-compliance all over the place.'
Roy Dooney
SEÁN RYAN
Re: A league blighted by farce - Sunday Indo
Quote:
Originally posted by James
all due to Pat Dolan, with his ability to maximise his slim resources
*cough*cough* :D
