No Club got a licence

[pete]

And City are saying it's becuse of copies of documents not originals. IF these things are true, why couldn't Delaney give the clubs a week more to sort out this kind of stuff, instead of the PR disaster of today?
That f*cker is delighted to be able to announce bad news about the league, he can continue on destroying it now.

I agree completely! This is as you say a PR disaster. If clubs are failing cos of some incorrectly formatted docs thats ludicrous. The process should have had a step which would have provided feedback to clubs (not announced to media), let clubs tidy up their application & then announce results at deadline.

The licencing is not about rejecting clubs for the sake of it! The goal of licencing is to get all clubs to pass (they have to improve their setup to do so) without moving the goal posts.

I think the clubs make too many excuses but by announcing the results as they have the FAI have undone a lot of good in recent years!

[OneRedArmy]

Sligo failing for red biro seems bizarre! Only club in the coun try with everything upto scratch but excluded for using the wrong colour pen.....Ah now!

Who writes an application form in red pen? Come to think of it, almost every official form you see states blue or black ink.

What if they filled it in in crayon, would that be okay too?

Failing on such a trivial thing isn't something to be proud of, its plain embarrassing!!!!!

ONly caveat to this is if the form didn't state that it had to be in a particular colour. Then fill it in with the red pen, crayon, blood etc....

[joey B]

Apparently Harps passed the infastructure requirement

[pineapple stu]

Although Sligo failing for red biro seems bizarre! Only club in the coun try with everything up to scratch but excluded for using the wrong colour pen.....Ah now!

In fairness, forms are never filled out in red and Sligo should have known this. Did you ever try to photocopy anything in red ink? It hardly comes out, and it can't be faxed. But these are the kind of things which I think should have been dealt with at an interim stage before the announcement was made public.

[Schumi]

The only differences between Europe and premier division licences are in the infrastructure section so there shouldn't necessarily be any major problem in clubs gaining the Europe licence after getting the Premier Divison one.

[Neish]

I say most clubs failed on erors such a mistakes on the forms they submitted, things which can easily be ratified. That seems to be what the main problems with Harps bid were.

We got the one area most Harps fans we weary about the infastructure.

I imagine most clubs are in the same boat and the vast majority will get theirs after apeal. Touch wood

[pete]

The closest example i can come up with is probably something like planning permission - i think if you apply & some small anomaly then the planning office would contact you in advance to make the necessary changes?

If you've even applied for something that needed to fill in a form you be contacted if forget something or similar.

[exile]

taken from breakingnews.ie



Eircom League in disarray in licences debacle


The eircom League season was thrown into disarray today when it emerged that none of the 22 League clubs had received either an ‘A’ or ‘B’ licence for the coming season.

The news is a big blow for the League as, in the last year, seven clubs claimed ‘A’ Licences and the remaining 15 claimed ‘B’ Licences but the new regulations seems to have caught out all 22 clubs.

Every club has a right to appeal with February 9 pencilled in as the day when the final decision is made though FAI interim chief executive John Delaney admitted: “This represents a real disappointment at this stage of the process.”

FAI club licensing manager Bob Breen insisted that his department would work with clubs to help them “get across the line” and claimed that many clubs only failed to get licences because of administrative errors.

“I think that a lot of the problems can be fixed quickly and clubs will get licences on appeal,” he said.

The eircom League has already postponed its AGM until after the appeals process is complete, though the FAI has insisted it cannot impose a structure on the eircom League should clubs fail to get required licences.

Delaney said: “At this stage, the eircom League structure is not under our jurisdiction but Government grants are. I believe that clubs who do get licences should not be allowed to draw down Government grants.”

[patsh]

[size=1]From Legal Criteria section 8.3
Item LG 1.04
************************************************** *****
The Licence Applicant must provide the Licensor with a copy of its legally valid statutes.
The following documents must be submitted:
Alternative 1: If the Licence Applicant is an incorporated company:

• a copy of the current Memorandum and Articles of the Company;
• an original or Companies' Office duplicate of the Certificate of Incorporation. or

Alternative 2: If the Licence Applicant is a cooperative society:

• a copy of the Model Rules of the Society;
• an original or ICOS (Irish Cooperative Organisation Society) duplicate of the Certificate of Incorporation. or

Alternative 3: If the Licence Applicant is an unincorporated entity:

• a copy of the current rules or constitution of the entity;
• a copy of Deeds of Trust if relevant.

************************************************** **

Just as an example, it could be quite easy to interpret that a photocopy of a document would suffice for some of the documents arequired above. (I'm not claiming that this was the problem for Cork City)
[/size]

[Schumi]

Most clubs failed on the legal section seemingly..The person assessing that section never reported back before Friday to allow the Licensing manager to get back on to clubs and sort it out, most of it is minor stuff sending in new copies of everything

This would indicate that the FAI did get back onto clubs to sort out minor details but the legal guy fúcked up. Maybe lots of the clubs will get passed after that stuff gets sorted out?

[patsh]

FAI club licensing manager Bob Breen insisted that his department would work with clubs to help them “get across the line” and claimed that many clubs only failed to get licences because of administrative errors.

“I think that a lot of the problems can be fixed quickly and clubs will get licences on appeal,” he said.

If thats the case, why couldn't they have sorted out the problems BEFORE this disaster?
This is proof of Delaney's ill will towards the league....

[Passive]

Can't see how we're going to get a licence, even on appeal. If the licencing system is to have any credibility we should be thrown out of the league. That said, should the licencing system have any credibility given the FAI and government's point blank refusal to do anything to help the EL. I'm not talking about bail-outs, I'm talking about long-term strategic planning. I know people who have long since stopped following League of Ireland simply because of the lack of any sort planning. Where is this league going? What do we want from it? How can we achieve it? Until these questions are asked - and answered - the league will continue to be a joke.
As for not releasing the news to the media, why not release it? As far as I'm concerned, this shows the FAI in a worse light than the clubs. Today's news is proof that Irish clubs are unable to drag themselves into the 21st century. For certain, a large degree of blame must rest on the clubs themselves, but that is a damning indictment of the national football association and it's carefree attitude to the development of the game in this country.
In any other country the national association would be forced to resign en masse if not one club even attained a B licence. That won't happen in Ireland though, because the domestic league is seen as the mad cousin of the national association - a hopeless baggage that Merrion Square is forced to lug around like a boulder around their necks. Ah, poor FAI, stupid Irish clubs have made a mess of it again.

[SeanDrog]

very well put Passive

[harpskid]

I say most clubs failed on erors such a mistakes on the forms they submitted, things which can easily be ratified. That seems to be what the main problems with Harps bid were.

We got the one area most Harps fans we weary about the infastructure.

I imagine most clubs are in the same boat and the vast majority will get theirs after apeal. Touch wood

We failed on 3 of the 5 criteria for petty things like certificates etc. WE passed on sporting and infrastracture

We should get one from the appeal though!

[Mr_T]

Most clubs will be ok in their appeals. Harps were VERY close to getting everything, and are very confident of no trouble in the appeal.

Calm down folks, this was the First Instance Committes outcome, and titled as such from the start. It was always likley that most clubs would have to appeal and tie up loose ends. Yeah, maybe small difficulties coulda been sorted at some kind of workshop, but at least they are sticking rigidly to the process they set out. Hopefully they can improve the process every year, but the media are always gonna go jumping up and down on a percieved negative without putting it in context. This is a new process, the level of detail clubs needed to submit was huge, and varied from last years requirements, most clubs failed on minor details and will know better next year. If the FAI lead them all by the hand they'd be getting slated too.

The vast majority of clubs, including ourselves will get their license on appeal. However the fun will really begin if one or two, as media reports suggest can't get their financial secion sorted, particualrly those who have no tax clearance cert, as they will not get that sorted overnight.

If we are left with 1 or 2 or 3 premier clubs who fail on finance then the eL will have to make a tough call. I'd guess this is why Delaney is referring to the grants issue. Clubs who fail on finance may be given a period to sort themselves out with the tax man etc. and sanctioned in some other way, perhaps with the imposition of financial restrictions or a freeze on grants.

TG

[OneRedArmy]

Can't see how we're going to get a licence, even on appeal. If the licencing system is to have any credibility we should be thrown out of the league. That said, should the licencing system have any credibility given the FAI and government's point blank refusal to do anything to help the EL. I'm not talking about bail-outs, I'm talking about long-term strategic planning. I know people who have long since stopped following League of Ireland simply because of the lack of any sort planning. Where is this league going? What do we want from it? How can we achieve it? Until these questions are asked - and answered - the league will continue to be a joke.
As for not releasing the news to the media, why not release it? As far as I'm concerned, this shows the FAI in a worse light than the clubs. Today's news is proof that Irish clubs are unable to drag themselves into the 21st century. For certain, a large degree of blame must rest on the clubs themselves, but that is a damning indictment of the national football association and it's carefree attitude to the development of the game in this country.
In any other country the national association would be forced to resign en masse if not one club even attained a B licence. That won't happen in Ireland though, because the domestic league is seen as the mad cousin of the national association - a hopeless baggage that Merrion Square is forced to lug around like a boulder around their necks. Ah, poor FAI, stupid Irish clubs have made a mess of it again.

Agree Passive. The fact that Delaney and the FAI were, for the second year running, so out of touch with this that the failure to give out one license disappointed them (which therefore means it must have been a surprise to them) should be a huge embarrassment and reflects fairly and squarely on their competence as a national association.

[wws]

and sanctioned in some other way, perhaps with the imposition of financial restrictions or a freeze on grants.

TG

.....bizarre thing to say - clubs already have their grant money frozen. Its a fact of life

[exile]

says in the evening hearld tonight that clubs who don't make the set requirements will either get a heavy fine or goverment funding cut off because they are reluctant to kick any club out of the league

is that enough punishment????

[Mr_T]

.....bizarre thing to say - clubs already have their grant money frozen. Its a fact of life

I'm talking about Sports Council funding for capital projects. Clubs who have propsals to improve facilities apply for these via the FAI, as we will be doing for our stadium relocation. However if we did not pass the legal, financial and administrative parts of the license first we'd be told to get stuffed.

says in the evening hearld tonight that clubs who don't make the set requirements will either get a heavy fine or goverment funding cut off because they are reluctant to kick any club out of the league

is that enough punishment????

Thats the tough call I was referring to. Punish financially or relegate and risk killing off a club altogether as well as making a mess of the Premier Division which could end an enforced structure change.

[eirebhoy]

According to 98fm's Johnny Lyons 98fm we failed on a tax cert but he said the club have it now and will send it in with the appeal.