Article in The Sunday Times

[applehunter]

At least one Irish footballer recently released by an English club was cheered up no end by the news of the thriving professional scene back home. Within days, he had a phone call from an Eircom League club offering him a job.

Not just that. They were dangling a pay increase, too. Negotiations began at €1,900 per week, with the use of a car and an apartment for the duration of his contract. He was most impressed with the initial terms until he discovered three other members of his prospective new team enjoyed similarly lucrative deals.

Brian Kerr said a couple of months back: “When I’m talking to managers some of the younger ones would tell me what players are on. They’re shocked by it and when I hear some of the numbers I’m shocked too. The best players now seem to be on four or five times what the best were on just a few years ago but the fact is that gates haven’t risen four-fold or five-fold and, while clubs have become more imaginative in the way they raise money, they’re not raising that much more that was the case when I was at St. Pat’s”

The Kerr side which brought the 1996 league title to Inchicore were paid €2,300 in total per week. Last month, John Gill, manager of newly promoted Dublin City FC, told the Irish Times that his club’s weekly wage bill was not €10,000 per week. Gill is in charge of a team with no ground of its own, which draws about 600 people to its home games, and which was offering season tickets a month into this campaign for €60. Yet he feels he has to deny his players are earning that kind of cash.

Little wonder then that four Premier Division clubs have already been publicly linked with financial problems this season. Quickly denied. Of course. In spite of the fact that a couple of the biggest teams nearly hit the wall before Christmas, and that their bad financial habits are under the Dail’s Public Accounts Committee (anxious to know how the €6m clubs received in 2002 was spent), many are continuing to live beyond their means.

The worst part about it all is that it could be so different. In August, every club in the English Nationwide Division Two will sign up to something called “salary cost management protocol”. Under the terms of this agreement, which was tested successfully in the Third Division in the season just ended, each one pledges to limit the amount it spends on players’ wages to 60% of annual turnover. In addition, each club’s total salary costs must not exceed 75% of their revenue. As with all the best ideas, it’s based on a simple premise. Clubs should not spend what they do not have.

“We chose Division Three to start with because they have more players on one-year contracts,” said Nationwide League director of operations, Andy Williamson. “We’ve researched club accounts and assessed what clubs need to do in order to operate in the black. Division Three sides have embraced this scheme. There are two ways to deal with it ---- either have fewer players or stabilise the amount players are earning.”

After initial misgivings, the PFA sanctioned the scheme because they realised it was a long-term way of keeping more of their members gainfully employed. Even though it was only mandatory for Division Three in the season just gone, a dozen Division Two and a handful of Division One clubs also subscribed on a voluntary basis. Many of those had already learnt the hard way that fiscal irresponsibility can threaten the very survival of the longest-established teams.

“There was a recognition that there needed to be some guidelines and a structure to which clubs ought to be prepared to adhere, in the interests of assuring stability and sustainability,” said Williamson. “That’s what supporters and all employees seek; they need to be secure in the knowledge that their club have a future. Over a period of time it is almost certain this will save clubs from going into administration, or moving to the point of extinction.”

So, if it is good enough for Division Two, where the average attendance of 7,000-plus far exceeds that of the Eircom League Premier Division, surely it should be good enough for the likes of Shelbourne and Cork City? After all, in their more fanciful dreams, the fans at Tolka and Turners Cross regularly wonder whether their own outfits could seriously compete with teams on English football’s third and fourth rungs.

Inevitably, there would be certain problems implementing the scheme in Ireland. Williamson has the power to punish any club that fails to obey the rules by withholding their annual grant ---- £33,000 for Division Three, £51,000 for Division Two ---- from the Football Foundation. It would be harder for the FAI to police the wage bills of Eircom clubs since 85% of players were not issued with pay slips or P60’s during the 2003 season.

Were this initiative to be introduced, though, it might actually stop the regular bleating to the media by Ollie Byrne et al about the refusal or rich businessman such as JP McManus and John Magnier to invest in the domestic game. McManus, Magnier and all the others mentioned in this regard are successful businessman. They usually invest in proper businesses. When the league is run with fiscal discipline, they might even be tempted.

Dave Hannigan The Sunday Times May 30, 2004

[A face]

I suppose it has to be tackled at some stage and you'd think that the sooner was actually the better.


"Inevitably, there would be certain problems implementing the scheme in Ireland. Williamson has the power to punish any club that fails to obey the rules by withholding their annual grant ---- £33,000 for Division Three, £51,000 for Division Two ---- from the Football Foundation."


You are dead right that there would be problems .... we dont get grants anywhere near that ..... and the ones we do get .... certain clubs just cant manage and/or report how they spend it.


Maybe another solution to this would be .... the clubs holding it up .... dont give them grants for the next ten years and leave all the other clubs get on with it.

[Dr.Nightdub]

Considering Cork are paying Fenn €2k a week, they're hardly blazing a trail to be part of the solution

[TommyT]

Considering Cork are paying Fenn €2k a week, they're hardly blazing a trail to be part of the solution

Considering their crowds though their hardly the worst offenderseither (hello Shels)

[tiktok]

Since Hannigan was involved in the article is it Gamble that he's talking about and Fenn, O'Flynn and George are the three players??? Or am I way off the mark.

Is he inflating it for the story?? 12,000yoyo a fortnight (wages only) on three players when we only take in on average 45,000 in gate receipts?? Dolans' own deal is also meant to be lucrative. With sponsorship taken into account it's probably not stretching the budget to it's limits but it's still a hefty chunk of change.

If this info is rapidly become gospel in the public domain, imagine when Doyler, Murphy, Devine and our other full timers are renegotiating their respective contracts. With the large squad we have, it causes niggling worries.

[Gary]

Considering Cork are paying Fenn €2k a week, they're hardly blazing a trail to be part of the solution

Fenn is getting nothing near €2k a week.

Hannigan is a twit. End of.

[A face]

I'd say Fenn, George and JOF earn berfore tax between €900 - €1300.

It wouldn't want to be much more ...... cos the way they are playing right now, they are not worth more. That is not having a dig at anyone .... that is being realistic .... we have won nothing yet. There is no way you could justify paying them anymore (i even think that is getting too high really but we have to compete with other clubs i suppose).

Dont get me wrong .... they are all good players to watch, it is just we have to draw a line somewhere.

[Dr.Nightdub]

I wouldn't jump to conclusions that this story is related to Cork City....Lennox has a bit of sense

The bit about "the use of a car" is a bit of a giveaway. When Dolan was at Pats, he and Hawkins both had free cars supplied by Nissan AFAIK. As for us offering Gamble the use of an apartment, we might have offered to let him sleep on the floor of 125, but no way could we afford to be throwing in rent for an apartment in Dublin, let alone €1900 a week (the figure quoted in the article). We're broke, remember?

With the large squad we have, it causes niggling worries.

If I remember right, we did the two-in-a-row with a squad of 36 players. We've been paying for it ever since.

[paudie]

Jeez, I hate to slag off a fellow Corkonian but Hannigan sure has it in for the eL.

As well as the above article every second week in his column in the echo he writes someting about how weak the league is.

I mean the guy lives in america, isn't there some aspect of sport in that country he could write about instead.

He talks about clubs "nearly" going to the wall. Like I "nearly" win the lotto every week. Either they've gone bust (like Leeds, Leicester, Wimbledon, Motherwell Fiorentina and other non eL clubs have done) or they haven't.

EL fans realise better than anybody the numerous problems the league has. (the wages some Cork City players are on is genuinely worrying).
We just don't need lazy journalists banging on about it when they can't think of anything else to write about.

[eoinh]

What the guy doesnt include though is what english clubs pay for players in Transfer Fees - crazy money!

Also travelling costs etc are much higher. Plus none of the clubs in the english third or second divisions recieve any money from competing in europe. Ive read most of that stuff before. I would go as far to say that since ive been following irish football, its always been on fairly rocky financial ground but the last few yseasons has seen a n improvement in this regard.

he also quotes that clubs have two options to either reduce wages or reduce squad numbers. LOI clubs havent reduced squad wages but they have reduced squad numbers. something he doesnt mention - i wonder why

Also a very parochial article- again comparing us to England . why ? it doesnt make sense. a journalist i assume who take no interest in the wider european situation - if he did he might gather that Irish clubs are doing quite well when compared to their european breathern.

[gufct]

its called the UEFA Licence which until last Friday Morning seemed to be a fair and independent commission and was taking eircom league soccer to the next level and away from stroke Politics.

Unfortunately the powers that be in the FAI have behaved disgracefully again and were back to stroke pulling and a nod and wink philosophy.Unless something is done quickly the eircom league is finished as an entity and no one in ther right mind will invest money in it.

[Longfordian]

You've no reason to say that theres anything wrong with the decision to give the clubs a licence. Why is it so difficult for yourselves and Derry to accept that other clubs may have reached the required standards? One other Premier club applied and didnt get the Licence..

[Dodge]

Jesus gufct, you have to be the most negative **** I've ever read. I wonder would you be thinking the same if Galway were in the premier?

I wouldn't jump to conclusions that this story is related to Cork City....Lennox has a bit of sense.

It was mentioned that Pats offered Gamble very good terms and an appartment...

Anway it definitely wasn't Pats, our (set in stone) wage bill wouldn't allow it. Plus why would be pay an unproven midfielder that much when we can get world cup stars for half that amount...

I reckon hanigan was being his usual uninformed self

[Longfordian]

If John Byrne was chairman of the league we'd be hearing none of this..Actually come to think of it, he'd probably be in the middle of a civil war with Rooney