Eleven-a-side : Say Drogheda could be Kicked Out

Drogheda United may face expulsion from the Eircom League due to recent rule breaches. Some members of the Board of Control have even threatened to go to UEFA and FIFA to sort out the matter, but the club has vowed to clear its name.

The controversy surrounds Rule 10, and in particular Drogheda’s failure to inform the league within 14 days when a change in the structure and management of their company had been undertaken.

The Ireland On Sunday newspaper carried a report three weeks ago containing information that Drogheda’s holding company had been struck off almost 18 months ago and they had apparently failed to inform the League.

“This is a hundred times more serious than anything that has taken place in the league before and we are adamant that Mr Hyland deal with it post haste. This will not be swept under the carpet. We will go to UEFA and FIFA if needs be,” warned a disgruntled Board of Control member.

“As far as I and my colleagues are concerned, Drogheda United have, by their actions, all but absented themselves from the league. They have broken Rule 10f, having failed to inform the League of the changes for 18 months,” he continued.

“We have no problems with people falling behind with certain payments. But engaging in a practice, which sees a club, gaining an advantage on the others is not on. It is obvious from the report in Ireland On Sunday that Drogheda United do not fulfil the requirements of League membership since Hinge Trading, the company mentioned as being the former controlling body, was struck off.”

Drogheda have until January 13th to resolve the matter but a club spokesperson has admitted that they are working hard to meet the criteria. “We are confident that we can address the concerns of the FAI raised in recent discussions. It will not be easy, but we have already met some of the criteria laid out and have undertaken to meet the rest by the appointed date.”

... from Jack White and Dave Kelly .... do they ever have any good news to report???

a few points:
- the article gave an impression that they had spoken to the member of the board of control who had written the letter to Michael Hyland, someone who did this in an official capacity - so why not name this person ???
- can you seriously even suggest that when DUFC was called in front of the board a few weeks, told to get their house in order by 13th Jan , that this holding company situation was not known to the management committee??? If so, then the mgt committee should step down for being so imcompetent.

The league is making progress over the past couple of years in the move to professionalism - the clubs also. DUFC have been the yo-yo club and have invested a bit this year in a bit to make the jump to professionalism ... mistakes have been made, I doubt anyone would deny that, but the biggest crime that DUFC have committed was over-enthuaisam in the efforts to say up. The league has made more mistakes that all the clubs put together so this talk of going to UEFA from the unnamed "official member of the board"

Get real with the reporting lads, if you have a story like this - name the source if its official. IoS is no better than the Sun or its sister paper in the UK with such journalism.

And for Dave Kelly - please no more reporting on the new Ireland manager until it happens - let Bryan Hamilton get on with the job he has been tasked with - and stop the guessing game. Journalism is about writing about facts - stick to this.