Sprint for top table is a concern for many
On Soccer: It may, in a strange sort of way, be a measure of how hard its authors worked over the past couple of months to achieve a broadly acceptable compromise, that just about everybody is at least slightly uneasy with the proposals aimed at dramatically overhauling the Eircom League that were launched last week, writes Emmet Malone
The objections, predictably enough, vary from club to club, but critically, there is not nearly the same sense of a divide between the have and have nots that manifested itself in the wake of "Genesis Two" last year.
With the association still insisting the new league should be in place for the start of next season, the most immediate concern amongst the clubs is who might qualify for the first sitting at the top table. It is proposed the entire assessment process is to be marked out of 1,000, with up to 200 awarded on the basis of sporting achievements this season, a further 300 for what has been achieved over the past five years and a further 500 available under such headings as infrastructure, club licensing, strategic planning and target markets/population densities/attendances.
Though there is still considerable discomfort in some quarters regarding the anticipated pace of change, there is also relief that some of the radical aspects of Genesis have been quietly dropped and that a much greater emphasis is to be placed on what clubs have achieved on the field of play.
This rethink means that proposals, seen by some as amounting to little more than a geographically based "beauty contest", are now largely off the agenda although some doubt remains as to quite how the four-man committee charged with assessing the merits of each application for membership of the "new" league will consider the issues of population and attendances. This will be of particular interest to at least a couple of the Dublin clubs who might, in any case, find life increasingly difficult if Government funding is "strategically targeted".
The sporting criteria, indeed, are about the only completely transparent part of the selection process unveiled last week but the retrospective nature of this aspect of the scheme looks to be one of the more likely sources of a legal challenge.
In the event, for instance, that a club are excluded from the top flight on the basis that they invested heavily in ground improvements so that they might conform with licensing requirements while a rival is included in the Premier Division despite a much more casual attitude to the standard of its facilities, we might find that the policies of the last five years, as well as the way they were policed, are revisited in the courts.
On the basis of what is available so far Limerick could be the big losers in this department with the current First Division leaders languishing in 18th of 22 places in the five-year record section, a performances that would earn them just 130 of the available 300 points. Shelbourne, as it happens, top the list and could apparently expect to get all 300 points while Longford Town come second, in no small part because of their recent cup performances, ahead of Cork, Bohemians and Derry respectively.
The decision to begin and end the process of reform during the current campaign also seems risky legally although, more fundamentally, it just looks unfair and, given the importance of what is being done here, just a little rushed.
It seems reasonable that clubs should have at least one year in which to reorder their priorities so as to maximise their chances of achieving top flight status. And one might also expect that the debate that will inevitably be generated by last week's document would be allowed to continue for more than just the few weeks currently envisaged.
The various reservations raised in private by clubs so far include the structure of the proposed A League and the obligation on Premier Division clubs to enter a reserve team in this new, regional tier of the league, the enforceability of the 65 per cent of turnover "salary cap", the surrender by clubs of control to the association, the speed with which capital grants will be made available and the further marginalisation of the First Division.
Most seem willing to give ground on positions that, in some cases, seemed inflexible a few short months ago and that in itself is something of a tribute to the way the association's Implementation Committee, those who wrote the document, have managed to take on board the concerns that were raised in relation to "Genesis Two" since it was published late last year. It is hard to imagine, though, that sufficient time can be given to ironing out the outstanding problems ahead of a proposed league agm at the end of next month.
The scheme's chief champion, John Delaney has, of course, been around long enough to know there is virtually no environment in which money talks quite as persuasively as it does in the national league. Levels of desperation for fresh sources of cash may vary from club to club but on the whole it seems safe to conclude that, if they were turkeys, a two thirds majority of the 22 would readily vote for Christmas as long as they felt sure that half decent cheques would be in their possession by December 24th .
Ultimately, though, it would be a great pity and perhaps a costly mistake, too, if the required majority was now to be secured with that most traditional of vote winners, the promise of more cheques. With so much at stake for the league, spending the time required to properly complete what has been started over the last few months might just prove priceless.
The full text of the FAI document is available at
www.ireland.com/sports/soccer
Originally Posted by higgins
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