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Good product, bad image: the eircom League needs a facelift
Sunday November 19th 2006
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GOOD product, bad image. That, in a nutshell, is the present state of the Eircom League.
On the field, remarkable strides have been made. Off the field, the clubs and the League's officials appear to be constantly at war with each other.
While the good news, especially great European victories over clubs like Hajduk Split, Malmo and Gothenburg, is well reported in the media, the bad news of managers being fined, clubs in trouble with the revenue, clubs delaying payments to players, and clubs threatening High Court action seems to receive even more prominence.
Hence the commonly held view that the League is a 'shambles and will never amount to anything'.
In fact, football worldwide operates on the edge, with big clubs going bankrupt or into administration a regular feature in countries far bigger than Ireland, with bigger fan-bases, and where soccer is the No 1 sport.
However, improving the League's image must be the priority of the FAI now that the long-awaited merger has occurred. FAI Chief Executive John Delaney, whose contract was extended to 2012 last week, will be judged by many on how he handles this hot potato.
Talk to the players and managers - the people in the field - and they are not inspired with confidence. As far as they are concerned, 'it's the same people running the League as it was 10 years ago, and if anything the administration is worse'.
It's easy to see where they are coming from. All the ****-ups by the League officials this year - faxes not sent or going missing, wrong information given out - yet no one was held responsible, disciplined or fined.
Put the boot on the other foot, and the players and managers have been fined right, left and centre. And fined not only for misconduct on the pitch, but for expressing opinions through the media.
The heavy hand of censorship is making players and managers wary of expressing opinions about the League in case they might be the next to be fined. It's not a healthy situation.
The League's disciplinary committee is the target for most annoyance. It has no player, ex-player, manager or ex-manager, or representative of the PFAI among its members. A presence from that quarter might provide a balance more acceptable to, and more understanding of, the game's principal participants.
At present, human error appears to be taken into account when it pertains to the League's officials, but not when it occurs on the field of play. A better balance in this regard is long overdue.
Players' contracts is another area which has proved a minefield down the years, so the arrival of a standard player's contract next year should help bring some transparency into what has often been a murky area, with some players having as many as four different contracts.
It suited some clubs to pay players in cash, but this has led to problems with the revenue commissioners. The new contract, launched jointly by the FAI and PFAI last Thursday, will close that loophole. This is definitely in the players' interest as they can claim back 40 per cent of tax paid when they retire, but only on production of evidence that the tax was paid in the first place.
However, as one manager pointed out to me: "The real test of the new contract is when a player's contract is broken. If the League officials are strong enough to penalise the people who broke it, they will have to discipline clubs, and hopefully they will."
Dave Rogers, who has been a professional for 16 years and played for Tranmere Rovers and Dundee before joining his present club, Shelbourne, has a more cynical take on players' contracts: "Contracts don't mean anything these days," he says. "If a club wants you they'll keep you, and if a player doesn't want to stay he won't."
Rogers, who was celebrating a third League title in four seasons on Friday night, added: "I've two years left on my contract and I don't want to go anywhere, but if someone comes in for me there's not much I can do if the club want me to move on."
Regarding the difficulties with late payment of wages at Shelbourne, Rogers said: "I have faith in Ollie (Byrne) - he's never let us down."
Shels' problems may have been highlighted, but within the game it is believed that as many as six or seven other clubs had difficulties paying wages this season.
It seems the licensing system introduced to comply with UEFA rules has not brought all the offenders to book. So far, only Shamrock Rovers have suffered for their haphazard accounting practices.
The fact that Rovers almost went out of business last year despite being in possession of a UEFA licence should have been a warning that the licensing system is an inadequate safeguard, yet Dublin City, also in possession of a UEFA licence, shut up shop mid-way through this season, causing serious knock-on effects to the title race.
On the positive side, the FAI's more active involvement with the League has already seen massive improvements in the prize fund - from a mere €98,000 to a more realistic €400,000. They also used their strong commercial position to negotiate a huge improvement in TV coverage, with 29 matches being broadcast each season to 2009, 24 live, and five 'as live.'
The out of date stadia is another area requiring attention, but there is good news on that front with Drogheda United, Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers in the process of developing new facilities, while Derry City are buying out the Brandywell and will develop it into a modern football stadium.
Perhaps, most of all, the Eircom League needs a few sugar daddys like Roman Abramovich to pour money into the game and bring it on to the next step: the group stages of the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. Sadly, Irish entrepreneurs appear more interested in investing in English football than giving the local product a leg-up.
