Eircom League looks to the future

[Paddyfield]

From the Sunday Business Post

http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/s...686-qqqx=1.asp

Eircom League looks to the future
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Despite the downturn, the director of the League of Ireland believes that clubs are in a good position for the future, writes Dermot Corrigan.

Bohemians and Derry City take to the field at the RDS in Dublin today for the showpiece event of the Eircom League of Ireland calendar, the FAI Ford Cup final.

Bohemians enter the game as favourites, having easily secured the league title in an eventful season. In sporting terms, 2008 will be remembered as the year that Drogheda United almost toppled Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League, while Dundalk returned to the top division after securing promotion with the very last kick of the season.





However, this year will also be remembered for less positive reasons. Two clubs - last season’s champions Drogheda United and 2005 title winners Cork City - have gone into examinership in recent months, each with debts of about €750,000. More than half of the league’s clubs have been unable to pay their players in full or on time.

According to Fran Gavin, director of the League of Ireland, the problems faced by the clubs are not due to bad management, but are a very public example of how the downturn is affecting everyone in Irish society.

‘‘On the pitch, this has been a very good season,” said Gavin. ‘‘It has been one of the best ever years in Europe. Bohemians won the league in a record-breaking manner and the standard of play has been very high.

‘‘Off the pitch, it was not a good year for the league, but wage difficulties are not unique to the League of Ireland. Everybody running a business in Ireland today is seeing financial difficulties. Ours get highlighted on the back pages of newspapers, and the issues around Drogheda and Cork City have been well-documented.”

The ‘‘issues’’ have included Drogheda players threatening strike action after the club’s plan to sell its ground and move to a new €35 million, 10,000-seater stadium ran into planning difficulties. Cork’s problems arose after the club’s former owner - venture capital group Arkaga - withdrew its backing midway through the season.

Galway United was forced to sell key players in mid-season and imposed pay reductions on the players who remained.

Bohemians’ league win has also been overshadowed by a High Court case between the club and property developers over its relocation plans. Bohemian’s Dalymount Park site, in Phibsboro in Dublin, was valued at €60 million at the height of the property boom, but is now worth a lot less.

Gavin said that some clubs, like many other parts of Irish society, were over-reliant on the property and construction sectors. ‘‘The difficulties span not only the deals that were done with developers, but there were also sponsorship deals with developers and property companies,” he said.

‘‘Some clubs have then had difficulty receiving the sponsorship that was agreed. That was clearly due to the downturn in the economy, particularly in the building trade.”

However, many clubs faced difficulties even before the property bubble burst or the credit crunch hit. The 2005 Genesis Report stated that the league was ‘‘near to being economically bankrupt’’ and ‘‘unsustainable in its current format’’.

Gavin said that a lot had changed in the three years since that report. Two years ago, the FAI took over the running of the league from the member clubs. It has since imposed a licensing process, which includes a wage cap at 65 per cent of a club’s total income.

‘‘It was best practice last year, it is regulation this year,” said Gavin.

‘‘Clubs were paying 95 per cent of their income on players’ wages, which was the highest [percentage] in Europe. Now clubs that do not come under 65 per cent by the end of the season can be sanctioned. The sanctions can go as far as not receiving a licence for next year.”

Gavin said he was optimistic that all clubs would qualify for their 2009 league licences, despite the events of this year. ‘‘Everybody has learned a lot of lessons this year,” he said.

‘‘All 22 clubs have to go through the licensing procedure, and only when that is decided will we know the structure of the league. We will take it that the ten teams that qualified for the league next year will be there, unless we are told otherwise, and the fixtures will be set out accordingly.”

According to Gavin, the FAI is two years into a five-year plan to get the league onto a solid footing.

‘‘We are trying to make clubs more sustainable and community-based,” he said. ‘‘We will then have more credibility and attract more sponsors. It is a marathon, not a sprint, but we have changed the ethos of the league.”

Eliminating club debts had been a priority for the FAI, according to Gavin.

‘‘Last year, the total [debt] was €7 million. This year, that is projected for €3.5 million. Next year, the clubs will be debt-free. At the moment, money is being used by many clubs to service their old debt. If that is no longer needed, clubs can then invest in youth policies, facilities and in staff to make sure the club is run better.”

While Arkaga invested in Cork City as a business opportunity, Gavin did not think that Eircom league clubs were suited to being run for profit. ‘‘It is a difficult situation running a football club,” he said.

‘‘It is not something that you are going to get involved in to make a fortune. A break-even position for most clubs would be a successful season.”

Gavin cited links between Shamrock Rovers and South Dublin County Council as a more sustainable club ownership model. Rovers are due to take up residency in a new, local authority-funded stadium in Tallaght for the start of next season.

‘‘These relationships are like a public private partnership, where the county council recognises the social role played by the football club in communities,” he said.

‘‘There are similar partnerships in many Scandinavian countries.

‘‘There are several different setups within the league. St Patrick’s Athletic have a wealthy backer [property developer Garrett Kelleher] who sees a social responsibility to build up the club. Bohemians is a members-owned club. The most interesting one for us is the link between the club and the local authority.”

Gavin said that the FAI had shown its commitment to the domestic league by raising the prize money for winning the league to €250,000,up from€17,000 five years ago. The FAI Cup is worth another €100,000 to the victorious club.

‘‘Besides the prize money, we have also been working on issues like TV money, sponsorship and other commercial issues to try to help the clubs increase their revenue,” he said.

Another goal is to attract more people to games. Gavin said that attendances in 2007 were up 100,000 on the previous year, although the numbers going to games had levelled off in 2008.

‘‘For the last two years, premier league clubs have [had] a promotion officer working in schools and different parts of the local community, which we co-finance with the club,” he said.

‘‘Clubs that have these officers have seen their attendances increase, whereas clubs without them have not. Sligo Rovers are a fantastic example; their attendances are up 20 per cent this year.”

While Gavin said that it was inevitable that the best players would be attracted to play abroad, he said the priority was to ensure that Irish players were developed to the stage where they could be sold for a decent price.

In the past, players have been sold for small transfer fees - current Irish international Kevin Doyle was sold by Cork to Reading for €120,000 and three years later, is valued at more than €8 million. Cork last week sold their rights to 10 per cent of Doyle’s next transfer fee, to Reading for a sum thought to be in the region of €250,000.

‘‘We have invested heavily in getting our managers to have the UEFA pro licence, which is the top licence for managers in the world,” said Gavin. ‘‘That is reflected in their coaching abilities, and the players in the league have improved.

‘‘Players that are being looked at by English clubs are now a much better product, fitter and technically better, so you can command a higher fee for them.”




.

[micls]

Could he be any more full of ****. With people like this in charge how do we have any hope.

Not because of bad management

[LeixlipRed]

Do you reckon he's that deluded or he just has to say that? Because if he believes any of that stuff we're screwed

[Schumi]

Deluded stuff. It's unfortunate that the FAI's response to problems since they took over the league has been to become defensive. Any time Gavin is asked about clubs' financial problems, he just repeats that things have got better since the FAI took charge.

[WoodquayBoy]

What a load of guff.
About two thirds of the way down he says
‘‘Last year, the total [debt] was €7 million. This year, that is projected for €3.5 million. Next year, the clubs will be debt-free."
Two paragraphs below he says
‘‘It is not something that you are going to get involved in to make a fortune. A break-even position for most clubs would be a successful season.”
Now, taking the simplistic approach, if the best scenario is breaking even, than anything else is surely making a loss. If you make a loss, you owe, or are owed, money. That situation is known as a debt.
He probably doesn't realise he is contradicting himself, but it makes him look very silly

[Mr A]

Gavin said he was optimistic that all clubs would qualify for their 2009 league licences, despite the events of this year. ‘‘Everybody has learned a lot of lessons this year,” he said.

WTF? I know he can't publicly pre-empt licensing but that's quite a statement. Scary stuff. I think the line for the FAI should be more that offenders will be punished than just pretending everything is hunky dory.

[Dodge]

In fairness to gavin, the majority of people here would like the Fai to be more enthusiastic about our league, and we cry foul when a journalist writes a negative article on the league. Gavin is obviously tryinga little bit of spin on things, and if it convinces one sponsor, or 50 fans that the league isn't in the mess that they have read about, then he's done his job.

As LOI fans we're far, far too ready to focus on the negative.

[Sheridan]

Gavin's Comical Ali act is wearing a bit thin, but he has a duty to make the league look attractive to sponsors, and that's what he's trying to do. He's just not very slick or convincing.

[Angus]

I disagree with the majority of posts here.

Broadly speaking I support what the FAI have said and have done. The facts are relatively simple - with upwards of 85% of player out of contract the financial problem can be solved, at least partially, at a stroke

Yes that might mean lower players wages and some of our better players going elsewhere but c'est la vie.

The standard of play has got better, yes, but arguably at an unsustainable cost - until the public are tipping up every week, the wages being pauid are not sustainable

[A face]

People, there is nothing he said there that is any news to us. He has not said anything that we should be flabagasted at, if anything he is guilty of saying the glass is half full.

The media in the last year have given the league an unbelieveable bashing and it was unwarranted in alot of cases. They are never going to be fair, accurate or balanced but they really went to town on it a few times this year. That is why things seem as bleek as they do*

Gavin has all of the information on the league, all the clubs reporting back to him so he is best placed to comment on it and the guy knows full well at this stage that if he says something is Black and it turns out to be White then he will be slaughtered so you can put money on it that he is being realistic when commenting on the league even if he will err on the site of positivity.


* I'm not saying everything is rosey, just not as bad as its made out to be.

[Inside Man]

Gavin is a true ejit.

[micls]

People, there is nothing he said there that is any news to us. He has not said anything that we should be flabagasted at, if anything he is guilty of saying the glass is half full.
.

Rubbish, He's blatently lying.

he claims the clubs financial problems are not caused by mismanagement but by the current economic situation. Now theres putting a good spin on it, and there's lies

[Dodge]

he claims the clubs financial problems are not caused by mismanagement but by the current economic situation. Now theres putting a good spin on it, and there's lies

Where did he claim anything like that? The article writer inferred that but no quotes attributed to gavin suggest he said anythign of the sort. he, rightly, pointed out that there were other factors at play. To suggest the current economic climate isn't a factor is as much folly as suggesting clubs aren't at fault

[pateen]

Fran Gavin, you are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Time to wake up, tell the truth and smell the coffee

[micls]

Where did he claim anything like that? The article writer inferred that but no quotes attributed to gavin suggest he said anythign of the sort. he, rightly, pointed out that there were other factors at play. To suggest the current economic climate isn't a factor is as much folly as suggesting clubs aren't at fault

Well one of them is lying. He doesnt just infer it he says straight out 'According to Fran Gavin, director of the League of Ireland, the problems faced by the clubs are not due to bad management, but are a very public example of how the downturn is affecting everyone in Irish society.'

IF Fran Gavin said this, as was reported, then he is lying.

[Dodge]

But surely he'd have used the quotes, like in that elsewhere in his article. No reason not to use that one, unless Gavin didn't say it.

[pineapple stu]

Or Gavin faffed about, making the quote unwieldier than the essence.

[Rovers1]

‘‘Clubs that have these officers have seen their attendances increase, whereas clubs without them have not. Sligo Rovers are a fantastic example; their attendances are up 20 per cent this year.”
.

Resign please

[pineapple stu]

I dunno if any of yiz have read the Genisis Report but its a good read !!

Judging by your conclusion, you haven't read it either.

Do a search on here.

[MariborKev]

I have not read it like word by word but i had a peak.

Which appears to mirror the approach that Genesis took when they compiled the report.