A Brave & Valiant Few

(Originally published in Percy Main v Stocksfield programme 5th March 2011)

The 2010 Irish domestic football season ended in a triumphant vindication of the League of the Ireland when League Cup winners Sligo Rovers defeated Champions Shamrock Rovers 3-0 in a penalty shootout to win the FAI Cup in front of a crowd of 36,000 at the AVIVA Stadium, with Bit o’ Red keeper Ciaran Kelly saving all the spot kicks the Tallaght Corinthians fired at him. However, within weeks of the curtain coming down back in mid November, stories of clubs in serious financial trouble began to be heard.

Perhaps the most parlous tale involved Ireland’s oldest and arguably most highly respected team, Bohemians. As has been noted elsewhere, the Irish economy has been in a wee bit of bother since the property bubble burst in 2008. Big Club were caught up in this catastrophic crash when, against all their expectations and financial planning projections, they failed to sell their charming, atmospheric but decidedly decrepit Dalymount Park ground in Phibsborough on da nort soide to fund a move away to a new build stadium out by the airport. Having lost out in the race for the title to their hated cross city rivals Shamrock Rovers on the last day of last season, fiscal fissures immediately cracked their economic edifice wide apart, when their continued presence at the ground that has been their home since 1901 was confirmed. As a result, players didn’t get paid and several threatened to sue The Gypsies, who were issued with a winding up order.

After frantic behind the scenes fund raising and politicking, disaster was averted, no doubt by providing the kind of Paddy the Plasterer dig outs only Fianna Fail politicians are used to getting, and consequently the club managed to continue, despite only having 4 registered players, with all debts cleared by February 22^nd, enabling them to amass a new squad for the coming season, though not soon enough to allow them to play any pre season friendlies. It was touch and go for a while, but at least they survived, in the same way as a post Nick Leeson Galway United (he was their Chief Executive, I kid you not) and Limerick stayed afloat; by the skin of their teeth after successful appeals to the League of Ireland saw them granted the full trading licence needed to operate in the Airtricity League in 2011.

Sadly, one club have gone out of existence; namely Sporting Fingal. Formed as recently as 2007 to provide “football on the rates” for the new developments in the Swords area to the north of Dublin, Fingal were admitted to the league in 2008, following the demise of Kilkenny City. Playing their home games at the Morton Athletics stadium in front of about 200 spectators, the club strived for both a top down and bottom up approach, throwing money at the first team while trying to kickstart youth sections from U7 upwards. It all seemed to be going well, with promotion and the FAI Cup secured in 2009 and a respectable 4^th place in the Premier Division, as well as a decent pair of 2-3 reverses to Maritimo of Portugal in the Europa League qualifiers to show for their 2010 endeavours. All appeared to be heading in the right direction when a seemingly mutually beneficial decision to groundshare with the skint Bohs (I loved the irony of the oldest and newest clubs playing on the same turf), when all of a sudden on 10^th February a press release announced the club would be ceasing trading with immediate effect, following the desertion of presumed financial backers.

This announcement came 3 weeks before the start of the season but, hey, no problem, the FAI, who have gone from dedicating 8 down to 3 full time staff to oversee the Airtricity League, will sort it all out. The first decision made was to reprieve 2010’s bottom placed Premier Division club Drogheda from relegation, causing their manager Bobby Browne to offer his resignation with immediate effect, explaining that the reason for his departure was “My Prerogative.” It may have something to do with the club’s entire weekly budget being slightly over £1,200. Mind, in context the prize fund for the Airtricity League has declined from £2m to £300k for the season.

Anyway, the reprieve of the men from Hunky Dory Park brought the top flight back up to its full complement of 10 teams, though Galway United’s participation was only confirmed after their licence appeal was granted. If they’d been knocked down to D1 or worse, the 1990 sunderland precedent would have been enacted. As you’ll no doubt remember when Swindon were denied a place in the top flight after financial irregularities came to light, their place wasn’t given to 18^th place top division team Sheffield Wednesday or to 3^rd place D2 side Newcastle, but to play off losers sunderland who’d finished 6^th in the second tier. Same here; runners-up Waterford United would have been overlooked in favour of play-off losers Monaghan United. However, the Miracle of Terryland Park means the West’s still awake. Yet, the most, pronounced effect of Fingal’s demise is to be felt lower down, as Drogheda’s reprieve means the First Division will operate with 11 teams in 2011, which seems an utterly mystifying decision, considering Cobh Ramblers, who were a Premier Division side as recently as 2008, were deemed financially sound enough to be granted an A Championship Licence, but have not been invited to make up the numbers in the First Division for 2011, despite only losing by the odd goal in 5 in a D1 relegation play off with Salthill last November.

Incidentally, the A Championship is a competition for LoI reserve teams and 6 “strong” non-league sides, comprising Cobh plus Castlebar Celtic, Fanad United, FC Carlow, Tralee Dynamos and Tullamore Town, split in to two regional groups. Obviously the demise of Sporting Fingal Reserves means this competition is running one team short now. Perhaps the problems with the First Division can be addressed in Leinster House as Wexford Youths owner and Juventus season ticket holder Mick Wallace TD. The former property tycoon with debts estimated to be around the thirty five million mark, who looks like Peter Stringfellow force fed on a diet of rashers and Black Porter, has somehow got himself elected to the Dail as an Independent, on a yet to be explained political platform. Personally I think it would have been best if a team made up of bankrupt property tycoons, corrupt politicians and duplicitous bankers called Gombeens United had been parachuted in to fill up the spare place.

While the FAI dealt with the uncertainty about league composition in their usual way, by telling all clubs to substitute Drogheda for Fingal in the Premier fixture list and giving the Drogs’ former presumed First Division opponents a spare weekend every 6 weeks, the cross border Setanta Shield limply kick-started the season. Viewed as glorified friendlies in the 26 Counties and an unpleasant distraction from real league action in the black north, 6 sides from each association (8 unseeded in R1, 4 seeded given byes to R2) will play 2 legged ties in front of almost deserted terracing, bar the occasional rabid sectarian loon in East Belfast or holidaying groundhopper within The Pale, before a final on 14^th May. To give a flavour of the magic of this cup, UCD drew 0-0 with Lisburn Distillery in front of a crowd of 150. In the opening round Dundalk beat Linfield, UCD and St Pat’s lost to Distillery and Cliftonville respectively and Bohs postponed their game with Portadown as they didn’t have enough players to field a team. What a shambles!

However, the real action is to be found in the Airtricity League, with fixtures getting underway on Friday March 4^th. Expect regular updates here, or go watch a game yourself via the web; http://www.rte.ie/ and http://www.tg4.ie/ show games on alternate weeks. The standard is decent and Galway United play in colours similar to Percy Main, which is good enough reason for me to tune in.