Originally Posted by Emmet Malone in the IT
At Tolka Park yesterday all was sweetness and light, Ollie Byrne and the PFAI confirming the wages issue had been successfully resolved and the club's chief executive offering guarantees to his staff there would be no repeat of the difficulties that had prompted squad members and backroom staff to take limited industrial action in recent weeks.
Despite the problems Byrne remains bullish about the club's future, insisting (as he has done for a couple of months now) a multi-million-euro investment is close to being finalised. Talks are also well advanced in relation to a move to Santry stadium, where the club expect to secure a lease long enough to allow freedom to develop the stadium into a home capable of generating considerable revenue.
Clonliffe Harriers and Athletics Ireland have received assurances their access to the stadium will be unaffected, which means the Fingal County Council-backed redevelopment will have to be staggered over a number of years. Byrne, however, now believes an application to rezone Tolka Park will be made by Christmas.
There is a certain urgency about it all given a consortium led by Ossie Kilkenny has already paid for first refusal on the site. The deal was struck several years ago but the group has since made a number of payments that have allowed Shelbourne to make up their annual trading deficit, and with each passing year, it is feared, the final sale will be worth significantly less in real terms.
Given their problems this season, few would now argue that Shelbourne have any real option but to sell up and set up shop elsewhere. The details of the Santry deal, if and when it is concluded, will be interesting though, because the club have already toyed with two agreements that would have resulted in moves to green-field sites as well as the proposed ground-sharing deal with Bohemians.
And while many neutrals who wish Shelbourne well from afar because of the club's importance to Irish football would respect Byrne's ability to keep the show on the road in what have often been difficult circumstances, it would surely be preferable if the likes of Finbarr Flood, Colin Murphy and Shay Weafer - all highly respected within the game - had not resigned from the club's management committee just when such fundamental decisions in relation to the club's future were about to be taken.
