Why Jackman Park got a licence

Following a delay to the Markets Field project, Limerick will play a minimum of four of their 2015 Premier Division fixtures in Jackman Park. Some rival supporters reacted negatively to the announcement, claiming that the FAI had ‘fudged’ the process. The claim is Jackman Park isn’t suitable for the Premier Division.

It’s a fair claim, Jackman Park isn’t suitable by the FAI’s own standards [documented below]. Licencing requires that Premier Division clubs play in Category 2 stadia, defined in the FAI Stadium Infrastructure plan. Jackman Park is questionable or fails in some areas.

Category 2 stadia must have;

1. Independently verified safe capacity of 2,500

2. 1,500 seats, at least 500 of them covered

3. Floodlights with a 500Lux power

4. Dressing-rooms with a minimum of five showers and seating room for at least 25 persons, one massage table & one tactical board. These must be “stadium must guarantee direct, private and protected access for both teams and the referees from their dressing-rooms to the playing area and ensure their safe arrival at/departure from the stadium”

5. refreshment and catering facilities for all spectators in every sector of the stadium. These must include outlets for hot and cold food & beverages

6. “clean and hygienic” seated toilets per 250 males, urinals per 125 males and seated toilets per 125 females.

Of course, there’s more criteria and much more detail than the bullet points above. In terms of opposing fans, the primary complaints with Jackman park are around seating, cover and toilets, with a grassy bank constituting the ‘away end’. Opposing players will have a shock comparing the dressing rooms in Thomond Park and Jackman Park. RTE’s ‘Soccer Republic’ are not going to be happy with the lighting.

“It doesn’t meet licencing” is the most common complaint.

While this is factually correct, it shows a lack of appreciation with respect to what licencing is about. Fundamentally, licencing is about ensuring clubs hit high standards while offering them the opportunity to grow. The FAI have worked closely with Limerick FC on monitoring the Market’s Field project run by the LEDP. The LEDP will deliver a stadium that meets Category 2 criteria in a couple of months, so the FAI have made the decision to give Limerick FC a dispensation with respect to Jackman Park.

A dispensation means only that they will temporarily waive their criteria in the knowledge it’s a temporary measure and that the relevant club are actively working on the improvement.

Licencing is an ongoing conversation with the FAI. It’s black and white, but little bits of grey are discussed and common sense is applied. While there are licencing deadlines in Winter, the Licencing department works with clubs year round e.g. when a manager leaves and an assistant [maybe without the required badges] steps up. Each year clubs receive dispensations based on ongoing work or explainable gaps.

The FAI could have forced Limerick to play in Terryland or made them play at their opponents grounds. In doing either they would have placed a huge financial burden on a club already reducing their budget. They would have been crucified for it. The FAI are often, sometimes correctly, accused of failing to support clubs. In this case, they have taken steps to ensure a club can take a temporary step back in order to take a larger step forward.

It won’t look good [thought Limerick are rumoured to be investigating bringing in temporary stands], it’ll give those who don’t support the league more ammunition but they’ve made the right call.

2015 FAI Licencing Manual

Click to access 2015%20Final%20Club%20Licensing%20Manual_0.pdf

FAI Stadium Infrastructure Criteria http://www.fai.ie/sites/default/files/atoms/files/FAI_Stadium_infrastructure_Criteria_2011.pdf

Markets Field picture courtesy of ledp.ie

Yes, that is the World Cup on the Athlone Town crest

It is indeed the Jules Rimet trophy on the Athlone Town crest and after a false start, it’s taken me a few weeks to get to the bottom of it.

During my time working at Athlone Town I discussed the club crest often. It was a bugbear of mine that five “official” versions existed, a couple of them based entirely on kit manufacturers’ unchallenged ‘interpretations’. I repeatedly raised it to a club board amused by my concern.

It annoyed me, the upper legend changes from ‘AFC’ to ‘FC’ and then to a football; stars were included in one version. The lower scroll alternates between ‘founded 1887’ to ‘AFC’. The shield changes shape and the lion occasionally resembles a teddy bear. There’s a bizarre blue/black version that appears to have been specifically created for use on letterheads on white paper.

It was in this introduction that my second bugbear popped up, regarding how the Jules Rimet trophy ended up on the crest. I asked on a few occasions and the question was always dodged.

Over a pint one night, one of the board told me a tale about how the Jules Rimet was added inadvertently, that the club had actually meant to put the European Cup on the crest, to recognise the Club’s European exploits. It turned out I was being pranked, as the crest first appeared on the shirt for the 70/71 season, before any of Athlone’s famous European nights. As I fell for the joke, I tried to track down the true story.

A belief held among some was that Athlone men, as part of Ireland’s 1924 Olympic side, had had dinner with Jules Rimet and that this was the basis, but this was no closer to the truth.

I’m thankful to Peter Keenan of Keenan Sports in Athlone, a lifelong Athlone Town fan for pointing me in the right direction. When designing the crest the club looked at the town’s coat of arms which contains two roses over a lion [as in the Buccaneers Rugby crest, 3rd below]. The adopted the approach of Athlone GAA and Athlone Golf Club below, placing the coat of arms to the left of a shield.

Rather than a bridge or tower as in the GAA and Golf crests, the club wanted a football image for the right panel. Peter Keenan explains;

“The original crest was designed by Seamus O’Brien, (of The Man’s Shop) among others, for the 70/71 season. The Jules Rimet trophy was used intentionally after the hype of The World Cup in Mexico in 1970.”

So there you have it, neither a mistake nor a recognition of Jules Rimet’s kindness to Athlone’s early football pioneers, simply an incorporation of the strongest football image of the time and the hype of the World Cup into the town coat of arms.

45 years later, I wonder if it’s time for an update?

The transfer window has tinted glass

The transfer window has tinted glass and you are on the outside, squinting.

You’re wary of the English Reg car but the player beside you wants nothing except to get his arse on the imagined plush leather interior. Imagined because he’s squinting too. Wherever the relationship starts, even if you end up happy, you are always the ones squinting.

On the other side of the glass, the UK clubs have an unfettered panoramic view; of you and your club, your money worries and the league as a whole; aided by agents, advisors and scouts. You’ll speak “man to man”, talk about respect, the window may even open a crack but usually that’s to blow smoke in your face or up your hole. The player’s father wants him in the car. “Why are you standing in his way?”

The UK club offer a fraction of the due training compensation. They send a former Irish International to meet the player’s family. The parents panic, “he’s going no matter what”. They can’t see the wood for the trees. Under intense pressure you agree a tiny fee. The kid travels in January but the UK club don’t register him, so you don’t get paid. The keep the kid on a glorified trial until June. They break every rule. They eventually sign him, but could easily have cut him without paying a penny. You think about a complaint, but it’s the kid who’ll suffer. The UK club don’t care. They push, they win.

You walk around the pitches at the University of Limerick watching the Kennedy Cup, watching the scouts and agents watch the players. Men watching U14 kids, calculating. You see forty scouts and agents over the week, maybe more? Most of them are Irish born and bred, a few English ex-pros living over here. Some of them played professionally, in the UK or here.

Many scouts are open, proud. They wear the UK club jacket, it impresses the kids and the parents. Of course, some have bought the jacket online.

‘Advisors’ and other scouts are quieter. They wear a different jacket. Some work in the media, with companies who supply kit or even with the FAI. They have a business card that can get them in and around your club, in and around your players. You suspect but you allow them access, it might work in your favour. On match nights they rock up, a free ticket is handed over. You watch them to see who they watch.

Agents have money to make, a living to earn. There are good agents as there are respectful clubs, but it’s a business and nice guys suffer. You know it’s daft but you feel betrayed (there’s no other word for it) by those who came from and through your own league. They know the difficulties. They exploit the difficulties.

The UK club has watched the player a couple of times and have started gathering opinion on him. An Irish agent gets wind of this and approaches the UK club, telling them he’s the players agent, he’s not. He then seeks out the player, tells him that he’s the UK club’s chief scout in Ireland, he’s not, and they only work through him, they don’t. He puts himself in the middle and tries to push the deal, hoping to get a finder’s fee from the club and a cut of the transfer. He’s never seen the player play live. it only starts to come out when the clubs start speaking, the agent is told to fuck off, he sends in an invoice anyway, cheeky bastard.

No moral high ground here though, you’re as bad. You’re at the Kennedy Cup to network, to meet those scouts and get an idea of who might fall through the UK’s cracks into your league, your club. You sit silently at meetings where clubs are open about failing to pay domestic training compensation to schoolboy clubs. Some pay, most negotiate a reduction. A kid signs his first professional contract, probably on €75 per week and you argue with his schoolboy club over compensation, offering sell-on clauses or a friendly match that you know will be your U19 side. Little wonder they’re letting the next promising kid go cross channel for 10% of what they should get rather than the 0% they’d get from you.

You like a player at another senior club? Wait until he’s out of contract and over 23, an age which means no domestic compensation is payable. The other club would do it to you in a heartbeat. You hear worse, a club cuts a deal with a UK club. The latter will fund the domestic compensation for the transfer, then buy him from the former six months on and save a six figure sum on international compensation.

The agents and UK clubs take advantage because you let them, because we’re collectively weak. You look eighteen days ahead instead of eighteen months. You can’t blame a UK club for cherry picking when you’ve allowed 95% of your players to be free agents every November. You can’t blame players who can earn five times as much, over fifty two weeks, playing at a similar level in the UK. If they impress there, like they did here, they can set themselves up for a life after football.

You’re collectively weak because you’re disjointed, mistrustful. There’s money in moving players. Everyone knows it. Agents register but advisors and scouts don’t. They’re in every room, around every club. Who can you talk to? Even the PFAI cloud the issue. Yes, they provide a service to players and you don’t mind dealing with them but their offices, at FAI HQ in Abbottstown for Christ’s sake, house a registered FIFA agent. It nags at you. It’s a regular topic of conversation among clubs.

Some days you convince yourself you win. You punch the air when the transfer fee hits the bank account. You ignore the fee they’ve paid to a non-league club for another player. You know it’s a legacy of “£30,000 for Seamus Coleman, £17,000 for Shane Long”. You wonder how you can break the cycle.

Sometimes though, you get to say no. The car leaves and the only thing in the tinted glass is the reflection of your smiling face.

No

The answer doesn’t change through their platitudes and cajoling nor through their frustration and insults. It’s summer 2011 and a well known Championship Club is on the phone looking to buy Graham Cummins from Cork City. They’ve made a ‘derisory offer’ which you’ve refused. The insults come quickly; “a nothing club in a nothing league”, “not even Blue Square standard”. The player is too important to the promotion push and right now, while the cash would be nice,  you don’t need it. You tell them to fuck off.

Six reasons 2015 can be great

The above montage always bring a smile to my face, we don’t smile enough.

League of Ireland supporters love a good moan, especially on those factors outside of our own control. My twitter timeline was busy following the announcement that the English Premier League would offer live Friday night matches when it kicks off its next bidding war. LoI supporters were aghast, though knowing we have far bigger fish to fry.

Still, I’m an optimist by nature and I thought it might be worth pointing out that while there are concerns, we do have much to be positive about. Here’s six reasons I’m looking forward to the 2015 Premier Division season;

1. The Market’s Field

In one paragraph its hard to detail the importance of Chairman Pat O’Sullivan returning the club to its spiritual home. Thomond Park offered something new to the league and the experience will benefit the club but it was simply too big. Limerick FC will be tenants in the LEDP operated stadium, which is central and accessible to the entire city. With only 20 games sanctioned on it for 2015, it should also be one of the best surfaces in the league. I can’t wait to visit.

2. Away trips to Galway!

I was in Galway recently for the launch of the Galway United Co-op, which gives the public a chance to be directly involved in the Board, and thereby the running, of Galway United. It’s another important step, with the return of the name, as the club continues it’s remarkable rise. Galway is one of the best weekend’s away in the country without football, when you add in a League of Ireland match it can’t be beaten. If United continue the style of play that saw them promoted, there’ll be no shortage of entertainment either.

3. Cork City in Europe

When Cork City play in the Europa league next season, it will be seven years since the crushing defeat away to Finland’s FC Haka in 2008. Club employee Eanna Buckley had to withdraw his own cash to settle the team hotel bill that day as then owners Arkaga began to pull away all financial support. Seven years and a lot of heartache later, John Caulfield will lead a supporters-owned Cork City into another European Odyssey. It’s a remarkable story of which every City supporter can be proud. I can’t wait for the draw.

4. Keith ‘hoop’ Fahey 

Every year there’s a player move that whets the appetite; Keith Fahey’s move from St. Pat’s to Shamrock Rovers is the big one ahead of 2015. Fahey’s passion for Pat’s, displayed in the above photo, coupled with his interview comments about moving for ‘less money and to be ‘closer to home’ only adds fuel to the fire. It’ll be one to watch when he takes to the field in Inchicore in hoops.

5. Some new blood on the management benches

Of the twelve managers in the 2015 Premier Division season only Stephen Kenny, Liam Buckley and John Caulfield are in the same position as last season. Tommy Dunne and Tony Cousins, while familiar names, are bringing newly promoted sides to the Premier Division. Heary, Long and McDonnell are starting from scratch at Sligo, Bohs and Drogheda respectively. Fenlon, Russell and Hutton were all mid-season appointments last season, looking to put their own mark on Shamrock Rovers, Limerick and Derry respectively. All the change, while terrible for stability, will give us all a huge amount to talk about through the season.

6. Balls

Friday Night EPL coverage should kick-start a discussion on where we’re going, it must. In the last year Brian Kerr and Stuey Byrne, among others called for a task force to examine the league and its future. In a way, clubs had already started this process, meeting through 2014 under the guise of the Premier Clubs Alliance [PCA] as revealed by Daniel McDonnell this morning*. Having sat on some of the early sessions I believe it’s the right way forward. The PCA are setting themselves up to take more responsibility for those aspects of the game which clubs can control and seeking ways in which they can work more effectively with the FAI for the betterment of the league. What’s vital is that league-wide issues, rather than those which are out of self interest and club-specific, are targeted. I’m looking forward to seeing where this leads us.

*http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/tv-issue-an-excuse-for-league-of-ireland-to-have-real-chat-30835557.html

Joe keeps Brolly up

There are two aspects of sports commentary I find particularly tiresome. The first is the use of shock tactics by career pundits to stay ‘current’ in their off season, the second is the insecurity of commentators who seek to define their sport in comparison to others. Joe Brolly brought both together in recent weeks in a saga which started when he offered his opinions on Roy Keane’s “deep-seeded psychological issues” before calling him a “soccer coaching Kardashian”. Brolly also said the following;

“It always amuses me to hear soccer players described as role models. They are nothing of the kind.”

Stephen Hunt waded into the conversation using his weekly column [of which many had been unaware] and emerged poorly as the public ignored the nub of his poorly made point; competing at the Elite level of any sport requires an individual to make sacrifices. Brolly responded by throwing a blanket over soccer players on the basis of class and education,

“It never ceases to amuse me when you see these young fellas – many of whom have have spent their lives playing soccer at the expense of education and come from very strong working class backgrounds – being described as role models because they’re famous.”

His comment has some truth of course, Football players are not role models. However, his snobbish implication behind the comments is ridiculous, and deserves criticism.

Football players are not role models. GAA stars are not role models. Rugby stars are not role models, neither are cyclists, swimmers and basketball players. It’s not your chosen sport which defines you as a role model, it’s your behaviour. There are footballers, hurlers and rugby players who are fantastic role models. There are footballers, hurlers and rugby players who are idiots and gobshites. Those in the public eye who uses their status and position to set a positive example for others and/or those who choose to contribute to their wider community can be role models. It’s down to the individual, not the sport.

There are no moral sports, there are no noble sports. There are moral and noble individual sportspeople, there are immoral and ignoble sportspeople. All sports offer great moments, some of those capture the imagination of an audience beyond that which the sport normally enjoys. Equally all sports regularly offer up turgid events and performances, moments that cause even the die-hard fans to shake their heads and ask ‘why do we bother’.

There’s an insecurity in being unable to enjoy your sport or your sport’s heroes without making immediate comparison with other sports or heroes in other codes. A big tackle in a rugby game leads to comparisons to diving and feigning injury in soccer; there was a ridiculous opinion piece in the Irish Independent recently by a commentator terrified that soccer culture was lowering the tone at Rugby games. An epic amateur hurling encounter leads to pundits discussing the money paid in other codes, and the pace and excitement levels of other sports. it was a card Brolly was happy to play when discussing Stephen Hunt;

“I don’t imagine Stephen would have lasted five minutes in the Ulster club final last Sunday. I wouldn’t fancy his chances standing on the edge of the square with Patsy Bradley.”

Hunt probably wouldn’t last that long in a high level Gaelic Football match, neither would Lionel Messi, LeBron James, Katie Taylor or Johnny Sexton. Likewise, Patsy Bradley wouldn’t last long in the English Premier league, the NBA, a World Championship boxing ring or an Irish Rugby international. These are ridiculous comparisons to make, Elite sportsmen and women make sacrifices to get to the top of their chosen sport, not every sport..

For the Elite inter-country GAA player the sacrifice may be his family and social life, cramming four of five days training [for no wage] around a full-time job, mostly in the depths of winter. For an professional footballer it can actually be education that is sacrificed, as travelling to the UK is seen as necessary at too young an age. But any footballing biography deals, at some stage, with family sacrifices similar to those of the GAA player; the missed Christmas for a St.Stephen’s Day fixture, the insecurity of short term contracts, moving from club to club, the lack of a fall-back option if your career takes a negative turn.

We can respect the commitment and sacrifice of people who compete at the Elite level of any sport. We don’t need to compare sports, we don’t need to compare sportspeople across codes. So why is Brolly doing this, why was he even commenting on Roy Keane in the first place?

Controversy isn’t new to Brolly, he regularly finds himself in arguments, mostly within GAA circles e.g. the comments that angered Kerry footballer Kieran Donaghy a few months back, or that which required his apology to Sky’s GAA anchor Rachel Wyse.

It’s the quietest time of the year for Brolly, the Championship season is a memory yet he’s in the public eye. He’s on Newstalk, RTE and splashed across print and online media. No one at RTE is going to lose his number between now and the start of the 2015 Championship season, when the RTE panel might need to be freshened up. He can enjoy Christmas safe in the knowledge that the producers in RTE sport will see his presence as a draw for viewers.

Whether they earn their money in GAA [Brolly] or football [e.g. Eamonn Dunphy], the most successful carer pundits offer a particular skill set. They don’t educate, they don’t really inform. They realise their function is to entertain and build controversy and discussion beyond their ten minutes chat around a sporting event.. If Keane is a “soccer coaching Kardashian”; Brolly with his controversial comments, designed to pick arguments and keep him in the public eye, seems to be targeting a niche as GAA’s Katie Hopkins. He’s played a blinder, he might even last five minutes on the RTE Soccer panel.

Note: While I’ve worked in Football in recent years and football is my own chosen sport, I do enjoy GAA and sit on the Juvenile Development Committee of my local GAA club.

The Off Season doesn’t exist.

The off-season doesn’t exist, not for you.

The only thing that turns off is income. OK, you have neither player wages nor senior team operational costs, but you have an U19 team, maybe other underage teams too. They’ll need to train. They’re in school or college so it has to be at night; floodlights cost more. Every grass pitch is in bits so it needs to be Astro. A full-size floodlit Astro costs a nice bit. You’ll need one in January anyway when the Senior team are back and they’ll want double sessions. Jesus, you don’t have a home league game until March. You make a note to talk to your landlord about a line of credit for training facilities.

Supporters want an end of season awards ceremony. it won’t make money but you had to book it in June to guarantee a function room. You booked the weekend after the season ends, predicting you wouldn’t reach the FAI Cup Final. If by some miracle you do, the deposit and effort will be gone, but you’d lose it in a heartbeat for a Cup Final. You can’t push it later than that weekend anyway, the players will be on holidays, most will be out of contract and won’t show. You’ll have to put up with the grief supporters give you for the no-shows. You can’t criticise though, you understand the players’ reasons. If it leaks out they couldn’t be arsed attending it’ll only pop up online should they sign back. It’s best to keep everyone happy, you’ll take the ‘constructive criticism’.

You’ve holidays built up, you’ve earned them; you’ve been too busy to take them during the season. It’s November, the weather is brutal but you probably can’t afford to go abroad, somewhere sunny. If you’ve got kids in school, the only weeks they’re free push the cost of time away even higher.

You send out an email and an announcement telling people season tickets make a great Christmas present. You know damn well you’re not spending €200 on your own relations

Season tickets need to go on sale! You open an excel file and work out who you’ve got at home twice next season. Is that better or worse for crowds? You can’t really put up the ticket price, you know that, but the money to ‘kick on’ has to come from somewhere. You consider adding a Euro, but that’ll make a balls at the turnstile and the bank will only do you for lodging coin anyway. You decide against it. You send out an email and an announcement telling people season tickets make a great Christmas present. You know damn well you’re not spending €200 on your own relations. You convince yourself you’ll hold the Season ticket money to January, the first two you sell in November go on the ESB bill that’s already past due.

You wonder how you’ll keep the Club in the public eye over the off-season? Outside of player signings you’ve only got the occasional story that might get picked up. Community appearances are gone, you’ve no players to do them and no-one wants office staff in the picture. There’s always the local lad who’s out of contract but happy to help; you know he’s signing on though and you have to consider if turning up for a photo shoot will be considered “working”; it’ll be in the paper, the lads in the dole office know who he is. It could lead to questions, it’d be unfair on him.

You stress, again, the need to announce new signings on a Tuesday. You explain, again, that it’s the best day to get the local papers to pick it up ahead of print deadlines. You explain, again, that once the locals aren’t scooped they might even carry a photo. The player is signed on Saturday morning and announces it himself on twitter. By the time Tuesday rolls around, it’s old news and becomes a footnote on the Junior Soccer page. You prepare to explain it all again next week.

“We need to go after marketing in a big way next year”. Everyone agrees but “what’ll it cost? What? Can we not get some free coverage? Sure that’s the cost of a player for the season!” You accept it and head back to twitter and facebook. You chance YouTube, other clubs use it well but the time spent isn’t worth the pay-off, you know the 20 hits are from the 20 die-hards who read everything, it’s not hitting new fans. Supporters complain about the lack of marketing. You nod politely. For the sake of a quiet life you listen to their ideas, which you’ve already costed, proposed and had rejected.

“I’m not doing a second set of kit for every lad who has a good Christmas”

The kitman is in. The manager has told him that we’re back the second week in January and he’s in a panic. The manager is targeting a squad of 23, a few lads will come in on trial too. They’ll all need kit. He’s spoken to the kit supplier but hasn’t a clue on sizes. How could he? You’ve got less than half a squad signed. He’s got the kit supplier to agree to send down uncrested kit, so he can return what’s not needed. Brilliant! You could hug him. You warn him not to leave any of the kit out of his sight though. Before he goes he reminds you that he’s “not putting up with that shit from last year, if a fella comes back overweight and needs an XL, he’s in it for the year, I’m not doing a second set of kit for every lad who has a good Christmas”. You know when it comes down to it, he will, so it’s an argument you’ll have to have.

Money’s tight. You’ve got a club lotto, the jackpot is decent, but it’s a throwback to a bygone age, as are the three sellers you’ve got left. Great clubmen, but they’re getting on and you question if it’s right that they’re out in this weather. Younger volunteers don’t want to sell Lotto tickets [neither do you if you’re honest, asking for money from strangers makes you feel like a chugger]. You look up online selling again though you know it needs to be face to face. You consider giving people commission; it might work. You know it won’t, it never has.

We do want four or five TV games of course, but please God, let them be away games.

it’s lashing rain most days but the shoe leather has to be worn down as those responsible for commercial revenue pound the pavements to collect payments and sell next year’s advertising hoardings. We will tell sponsors that we hope to have four to five games on TV, that makes it easier and it could happen. We do want four or five TV games of course, but please God, let them be away games. You get verbal agreements, commitments; you send contracts and invoices, you know nothing is guaranteed. Last year you spent too much time chasing them, how many times did you hear “in this climate”.

The Club licencing pack arrives by registered post. Preparing the licencing submission for the coming season will occupy a lot of time, but it’s not as difficult a task as people would have you believe. There’s a welcome structure to it, you just have to be organised and put the time in. There’s a large amount of information to gather and while deadlines exist, the league office are supportive. Licencing is more an ongoing conversation than anything else and you’ve developed a great relationship with that department in Abbotstown. Anyone who’s ever had a licence questioned knew exactly why long before they went before the Licencing committee. You have a lot of mandates to get signed, some of the roles are voluntary, they probably shouldn’t be.

Your mandate for assistant manager is a gap, the manager is looking for a new one. It’s not an issue in November, but come January, when he’s still looking, you’re getting phone calls telling you “It’s a mandatory requirement” and “there’ll be sanctions”. You pass the message along, you see it’s forgotten as soon as you finish speaking. He wants to talk about players again.

Licencing Infrastructure plans and youth development plans will need to be updated, it’s quicker to do it yourself and then circulate it for review. You remember to put a date deadline on the review, when the manager forgets to review it and spots something he wants changed after you’ve submitted, it’ll save you an argument.

There will be licencing workshops run in Dublin by the FAI. They’re worthwhile but it’s a full day in Dublin, home late and you’re already up the walls. You get a phonecall from Abbotstown that someone has declined a mandatory workshop, it’s a volunteer and in work that day. You move your calendar around, it’s another day gone, but the club has to have a presence. You put a note in your diary to buy a car speaker for the phone, it’ll ring the whole way to Dublin and back.

January 1st. Happy new year, here come the agents, sniffing around

January 1st. Happy new year, here come the agents, sniffing around your promising young players, retained or playing U19. The agents have been speaking with the players’ parents, filling their heads with nonsense. “Don’t stand in the young lads way” you’ll be told. You’re sitting there thinking about the coaches you’ve hired, the structures you’ve put in place and you laugh at the idea that a League Two academy is a step up. The UK club “think he has potential, but need to have him over for a week on trial”. Piss off, if you want him, make an offer. “We don’t have much money.” Sure!

Everything in the media and online [which you keep an eye on] is about players. “Will he, won’t he?” It’s the easiest question in the world; if it’s more money, nine times out of ten, he will.

You lose a good player, supporters are furious as a 32 year old who has three more years earning capacity signs somewhere else for more money. It doesn’t bother you anymore than it bothers the player, you both have to get on with it. You wonder what he’s going to do after he retires, he left school at 15 to go cross-channel, he hasn’t done any coaching badges, he doesn’t have a face for TV. It’s a tough career and the League of Ireland doesn’t set you up for life. You let it go, you’ve only known him 12 months.

Someone is online claiming you offered the player “a pittance”, they claim their source is the club. It’s probably a mate of the player, if not the player himself. Easier to get it out that you left because a club disrespected you. “It wasn’t about the money”. Of course it was about the money.

You phone the other club’s Chairman, you both have a good laugh about the player’s claim

You sit down with a potential signing, the manager wants him but doesn’t want to make it obvious. It’s already obvious by your meeting him. The player is interested, likes what he sees but he has an offer from another club. It’s more than you want to pay. You phone the other club’s Chairman, you both have a good laugh about the player’s claim. The player has bumped the offer up a lot, their Chairman is being cagey though, so they’ve offered him a decent package.

You meet another potential signing who tells you he’s off to the UK for trials. He want’s to give cross-channel a go, says it’s his “dream”. He mentions the clubs he’s heading to, sounds more like a nightmare. He’s on Pro forms and turned 23 during the year, so the club that’s developed him won’t see a penny. That doesn’t bother you, that’s part of the reason you’re talking to him now despite interest twelve months ago. You wouldn’t pay a transfer fee either. He’s young and you wish him well. “Call me if it doesn’t work out” you tell him. It’s unlikely to work out. Hundreds of trial requests cross your desk every year from players and agents. One or two might pique an interest but If the manager hasn’t specifically looked for you to come in, you’re almost certainly not getting an offer. If you’ve invited yourself over, someone’s doing your agent a favour,

Everyone around the table knows it’s guess work

In January the board, financial controller and team manager will meet the FAI for two to three hours at Abbotstown to go through the season’s budget. At this stage the spending column is committed in contracts or known fixed costs. You hope your income projection is a good estimate and not aspirational. It’ll swing wildly based on results on the pitch. You answer probing questions and figures are challenged. We all know they need to be. You talk about the mid-season friendly that’s “nearly over the line”, knowing that it’s not and that the UK club you’re speaking with might not be attractive enough to get 1,000 people into the ground. You’ve done your best, you’re being honest but everyone around the table knows it’s guess work and you’re a couple of injuries, or a postponed game, away from phoning the bank for a loan.

You know pre-season friendlies are a neccessary evil but pre-season trips are not. Training has started well, everyone glad to be back. You’re told “the lads are buzzing, but we need to give them a lift”. Spain, Carton House, Fota House and “bonding sessions” are mentioned. A trip away could “make all the difference to the lads”. The fact that such a trip would cost more than the prize money won for a mid-table finish is irrelevant.

You work out how many people you need in just to cover the officials, you hope it doesn’t rain.

You can’t afford to start the season cold, your crowds might never recover if you lose early matches. High tempo games are needed. If a game is on a neutral venue to save travelling costs for both clubs, you’re directed to find a “great surface” for our “passing game”, but it can’t be on Astro. It’s January in Ireland, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

It costs to open up your own ground, but if the weather holds, you might get a few in. A game is arranged. The visiting team phone late in the day “Can you give us a split towards our costs?”. Everyone is in the same boat, but if you don’t hold fast you won’t break even. You get the game sanctioned by the FAI, meaning you’ve got referee and officials to pay now. You work out how many people you need in just to cover the officials, you hope it doesn’t rain.

The game kicks off. The striker you’ve spent the winter complaining about scores a wonder goal.

You think it might be different this year.

Still, you thank God you’re not in the Setanta Cup.

Tweets by johngosullivan

Pay as you go

This morning I tweeted this;

I was asked, through a private message from someone who didn’t like the point I was making, to back it up or take it down.

So, I’m backing it up, which won’t take long. The numbers of red and yellow cards referenced below, I took from this morning’s excellent League of Ireland pull-put in the Irish Sun newspaper.

1. Affiliation fees: €19,000 x 12 Premier Division teams = €228,000

2. There have been 688 yellow cards issues this season, a €25 fine associated with each one = €16,700

3. 71 players reached four yellow cards, a suspension and further €50 fine = €3,550

4. 6 players reached eight yellow cards, a further suspension and further 50 fine = €300

4. 72 players received red cards, a suspension and €50 fine = €3,600

5. €228,000 + €16,700 + €3,550 + €3,600 + €300 = €252,150

6. The League Prize money is €241,500 as announced at the season launch.

Now, the above is the minimum figure that Premier Division Clubs have contributed to the League Office in fines and affiliation fees. I don’t have Red Cards and fines associated with Management nor do I have information pertaining to fines attributed to supporters, beyond Dundalk FC’s statement where they claim to have paid €5,000 in fines attributable to supporters in 2014, before the fireworks on the night they won the league title.

Clubs pay as they go in the League of Ireland and it is an issue which could have a serious knock-on issue. In the past year, a number of clubs are quietly, but pointedly, asking questions among themselves such as “Why am I spending €X,000 per week over 36 weeks on players to win €100,000?”

Don’t blame Roddy; we created him.

On Saturday I attended an Irish Supporters’ Network http://www.heartofthegame.ie conference which highlighted some great work by clubs and their volunteers. The http://www.extratime.ie report on the day is linked at the foot of this post.

One of the most interesting comments came during a panel discussion when the Irish Sun’s Owen Cowzer pointed to our League’s levels of newspaper coverage being driven by feedback on Twitter. That feedback to journalists is matched by purchase of papers. Supporters will buy a paper just for League of Ireland coverage, a trait not matched by other codes.

I wondered how I’d discuss the influence supporters can have on the media when Roddy Collins made a few disparaging comments about Sunday’s FAI Ford Cup Final on RTE 1 during the ‘Today with Sean O’Rourke’ show. These went viral, and have since been featured on most Irish online Sports sites.

Roddy is a divisive character. I learned that first hand when I hired Roddy to manage Athlone Town ahead of the 2012 season. I received a torrent of online abuse from Cork City fans who questioned if I’d “forgotten what he’d done at City”. Roddy is media savvy, it’s one of the reasons he remains a good managerial candidate. Through periods of employment and unemployment as a football manager, he’s maintained a media career in Print, Radio and TV [the subject of two Setanta documentary series]. This isn’t an accident.

Roddy knows which buttons to push to get a reaction; when you meet him after he drops one of his bombshells he’ll laugh about it, knowing that the reaction will only increase his profile and the desire for the next editor or producer to get his opinion. Eamon Dunphy on RTE is the other great master in this arena. If you meet Dunphy, read his books, or listen to the wonderful extended interview he did with Second Captains, it’s hard not to like him. But he has a living to earn and he knows that entertainment and controversy will keep him on RTE’s panel far longer than tactical insight.

Roddy knows the value of a well placed controversial soundbite. Supporters react, those monitoring social media report back and producers smile. We’ll wait for the newspaper columns Roddy writes and scour it, ready to be outraged again.All the time, RTE, Newstalk and the Star have more website hits, listeners and readers to put before advertisers.

The key point, to return to Owen Cowzer’s comment, is that our reaction is a positive. We can drive added discussion and interest through tools like twitter in a positive way. Do you like “Soocer Republic”, do you want to keep it? Do you like seeing League of Ireland coverage in the papers? Make those responsible for producing the items that interest you aware that you’re reading, listening and watching. We created Roddy, we can do a lot more.

http://www.extratime.ie/newsdesk/articles/13275/greatestleagueintheworld—report-from-supporters-workshop/

Parenting tips

Earlier this week John Delaney described the League of Ireland as the “difficult child” of the Association. The throwaway remark was poorly chosen within a brief but largely straightforward summation of the League’s issues. Supporters and clubs won’t be happy with the description and rightly so, but Delaney was correct that much of the negative attention the league receives is self inflicted, and much of the improvement within our own grasp.

Inspired by Daniel McDonnell’s thought provoking list of ten realistic ways the league can improve [link at bottom] and with Delaney’s “difficult child” comment in mind, here’s my top 6 parenting tips in addition to those Dan discussed.

1. Let the kids play together.

Clubs must take responsibility but it must be within an environment where they can do so collectively. There are great people in the FAI who give daily support to clubs however the Annual Clubs’ Convention is the only time that the association sits down formally with ALL clubs; and it’s happened only twice in the last 24 months.

The convention function is to elect, on alternating years, the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the league. The 2013 clubs’ convention was the worst I’ve been at because of the apathy, from all parties. The meeting took under 90 minutes with an agenda so packed that clubs got little opportunity to discuss anything at length with the association.

Clubs meeting outside of this forum is treated with suspicion yet the association simply don’t hold sufficient meetings. Clubs should be meeting each other, with or without the FAI, on a monthly basis to discuss the league, it’s direction and issues. It’s basic; nothing works without effective communication.

2. Encourage the children to share

At a clubs meeting in 2011 I was still new to the boardroom level of the game and naive. I raised the topic of collective bargaining and sharing best practice. A rep of another club said “come on John, you’re talking about clubs that steal footballs from each other at matches”. Happily, it’s improved and the FAI have helped, running workshops through the licencing department on specific topics such as media practices, where clubs present case studies.

In the last 12 months clubs have acknowledged the need to share but it’s hard to shake the notion that the association don’t really like clubs talking to each other without an FAI presence. It is vital that clubs work together effectively (including collectively bargaining) to build solutions from within rather than creating an environment where they consistently look to external support, and let’s admit it, a blame culture.

19 clubs collectively negotiating with e.g. billboard providers will create better deals and better opportunities. Clubs must cooperate and the association must encourage it.

3. Pin your kids’ pictures to the fridge

We have genuine success stories and they should be celebrated. One of the simplest selling points the league has today, of which every supporter is aware, is the domestic background of many of our National Team. At the upcoming home game against Gibraltar you will have 12 former LoI players in one spot.

Photograph and film the 12 players in Irish kit, their former club scarf around their neck with a simple message “Seamus Coleman, former Sligo Rovers player” etc., and distribute those clips to clubs for use in advertising. Use them on the FAI’s central website, social media outlets and on the big screen at games. Make them available as stings, pre- and post- advert breaks, on Televised National matches.

4. Have rules for time in front of the TV

A televised home game costs money. That’s a fact. It can be a nice to inform sponsors of television exposure but it means little ultimately. In the absence of compensation for clubs, it’s long been clear that changing your kick-off time for TV costs you money. In Limerick’s first Premier Divison home game, after 19 years way, we conservatively estimated the cost to the club in changing the KO from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon at over €20,000.

Soccer Republic is a great highlights show but we just don’t need 30 live games per year. What’s more important is the games that are chosen, particularly European games.

As I said, chopping and changing kick-off times costs, European Football and TV are the primary causes of these changes; planning of both can be better.  If league games are going to be televised, pick Friday night with a 7.35 KO to limit impact on those getting to the ground. if this doesn’t work for RTE, stop choosing time slots such 3pm Saturday or 5.30pm Sunday, that decimate crowds. Don’t show a game for the sake of it.

Also, clubs who put clips of goals etc., online should not be punished, they should be advised how to do it in a way that drives viewing figures for Soccer Republic.

5. Ensure kids clean their rooms

People hold up better stadia as an attendance solution and they’re right, Infrastructure in the league is admittedly poor. As much as I love the league, there are grounds I can’t visit with my kids due to poor toilet facilities or lack of a roof on rainy days. Large scale capital investment is a long-term project but grounds being clean and safe would be a start; some aren’t.

Add to this, most LoI clubs do nothing to encourage away fans. We hope Rovers, Cork & Dundalk will bring a crowd, we expect UCD to bring no-one. There’s a soft €20,000 per annum for any club who proactively puts effort into welcoming away fans. Make sure the ground is as clean and comfortable as possible, give them a roof, some decent hot food, a cup of tea and train stewards specifically to cater to away fans. Treat people well and they might come back. Treat them poorly, they won’t.

6. Don’t use their pocket money to buy cigarettes.

The League of Ireland is not a financial burden on the FAI. It couldn’t be.

The starting position of most European top flight football is the allocation of TV money. In Ireland, after coming through a lengthy licencing process you hand over €19,000 for the right to play the game. That’s €228,000 into FAI coffers from the Premier Division clubs alone.

After this, clubs pay officials for each game [including inter-club friendlies, which is causing clubs to play ‘behind closed door’ friendly games so save referee fees while getting fringe players some game time]. Clubs pay a significant fine structure [Dundalk have stated they’ve paid €5000 to the FAI for flare offences in 2014 already]. Every yellow card is a minimum €25 which opens up a double punishment in terms of finance and loss of player for bans.

Then clubs must pay professional players for a week long holiday over the unnecessary mid-season break which compounds fixture congestion. This despite the Standard player’s contract guaranteeing sufficient time-off for professional players.

The League Cup is a huge cost and also compounds fixture congestion. It’s a competition on which Cork City just broke even in 2011 despite hosting the final and finishing runners-up. It cost Limerick FC significant money in 2013 with two poorly attended home games [with split gates], Limerick actually made a few euro on it in 2014, losing away to Cork City in the first round The share of the gate covering the cost of the bus and pre-match meal. The Association get money from EA for sponsorship, but I don’t know a single club who value the competition and that’s reflected in supporter apathy.

All of the above sources of club expenditure have to be debated with the association; I’m not saying there should be no consequence for offences but would a single flare be lit by Dundalk fans all season if they were facing a 3 point deduction rather than €500 fines on each occasion? I doubt it, so look at alternatives, communicate!

Cherish your child

When your child is being difficult, the parenting books I’ve skimmed [and pretended to read] state the most effective process is to get down to your child’s level, look them in the eye, listen, understand the difficultly and communicate. It might take a while before you can all walk down the aisle of a supermarket without a tantrum, but in the end, you get there.

The Daniel McDonnell piece referenced earlier; http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/ten-realistic-ways-we-can-improve-the-league-of-ireland-30623058.html

The ‘Rock & A hard place’ squad.

Ahead of the Gibraltar and German World Cup qualifiers, Martin O’Neill announced an initial 37 man squad including 5 goalkeepers, 11 defenders, 13 midfielders and 8 strikers; to be trimmed ahead of the qualifying games. I examined the league appearances the squad have made at their respective clubs this season and it threw up a nugget I found interesting, former League of Ireland [LOI] players are slightly ahead of the rest in England this season.

Now, I’m not a statistician and I’m aware there’s a danger I’m using data to back an already held belief. So, to be fair up front I’ll be honest, I cannot bear to see Irish kids aged 15 or 16 leaving school and travelling to a UK club where they’ll join 40/50 other kids in a 2-3 year battle for a couple of available professional contracts . The emergence of the development leagues for older players in the UK may have slightly increased the odds of getting that first professional contract, though the subsequent ones remain rare. I think there has to be a huge push across the FAI, SFAI and LOI clubs when it comes to the retention of young talent in Ireland, to include increasing the quality and frequency of coaching they’ll get at home.

The 37 man squad features 20 English Premier League [EPL] players, 15 Championship players, 1 Scottish premier League [SPL] player and 1 MLS player. 12 of the 37 man squad are former LOI players. Taking just those players who are based in England a month into the current season; former League of Ireland players are – on average – slightly outperforming those who bypassed the domestic league and left for the UK at a younger age.

The 20 EPL players have collectively made 57 appearances from a possible 100 opportunities to play [57% appearance rate]. The 15 Championship players have collectively made 95 appearances from a possible 120 opportunities to play [79% appearance rate].

7 of the former LoI players play in the EPL and have collectively made 24 appearances from 35 opportunities to play [69% appearance rate. The remaining 5 former LoI players in the squad play in the Championship and have collectively made 32 appearances from a possible 40 starts [80% appearance rate].

To give a direct comparison against players who have never played for a LOI club [regardless of whether the player was born in Ireland or not] the EPL % appearance rate is 51% and the Championship % appearance rate is 79%.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that former LoI players are simply better equipped to handle the transition to a UK club, they tend to be more mature, better educated, less likely to suffer home sickness and have at least some experience of a professional football environment.

I’ll be the first to admit that in a month’s time, these figures could read differently. Whether slightly ahead or behind the average though, one thing we can determine is there is absolutely no disadvantage for a talented player if he chooses to wait a little longer in Ireland and finish his education while playing LOI.

It”s up to the ‘football family’ in this country to ensure we sell that message to our kids.