Our National Broadcaster

What a joke, Dundalk played a quarter final of the major Cup Competition in Waterford on a Monday night with less than 1,000 people attending.  Why? I hear you ask.  The answer–because the tie had to be re-arranged to allow Waterford pay Hearts Colts on Friday.  What a joke.  What a way to treat the League’s most prestigious competition.  How can the F.A.I.  Cup be treated with so little respect.  I am sure the sponsors of the Cup were not best pleased.  But hey it’s run by our glorious F.AI. it has to be a joke.  I’m sure John Delaney is in his garden laughing his socks off as the F.A.I. lurch from one farce to another.  Only good thing about it is that Dundalk won.

This leaves Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk and Sligo Rovers through, to be joined by the winner of Crumlin Utd v Bohs.  Again due to the “magnificent” work of the F.A.I. the draw will be live at 8.30am on RADIO. Most prestigious Cup competition – I don’t think so

Potentially a great weekend ahead for Shels in the First Division.  Surely the time has come for them to claim a place in the Premier Division.  Hopefully they will win the match against the Drogs and clinch the title.  I’ll be glued to the phone looking at their results.  I know to my cost the feeling of Last Match Blues.  To all the people travelling, get behind the team and enjoy the game, if that is possible.

 I see that RTE, our national broadcaster are now showing a few League of Ireland matches as the season draws to a close.  Well Whoopee and thanks for that.  I don’t know what they have been doing since May.  I understand the L.O.I. is a niche sport.  I understand that it does not compete with GAA or Rugby as far as viewing figures are concerned, but Soccer is still the biggest sport played in Ireland and is a market that can be tapped into.  Again it is up to the F.A.I. to negotiate a deal that includes the L.O.I. when they do a deal for the International team.  But will it happen, you tell me.

What a debut for Jack Byrne, fantastic performance and showed what a L.O.I. player is capable of. He looked completely comfortable playing in the National Team.

Congratulations also to Stephen Kenny on his brilliant start to the U21 Euro qualifiers, showing that the L.O.I. can produce top class Managers as well as top class players.

SAME OLD.  SAME OLD.

I missed last week’s blog because I feel I’m commenting on the same things I have been banging on about for the last 20 years.  I stupidly believed that we were in a time of change. A time of openness and transparency. A new look F.A.I.  Alas the John Delaney cloud looms large over this organisation.  It is now a case of Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

What is the current position of the F.A.I. with regard to John Delaney?

What is the position with the numerous enquiries set up to get to the bottom of the sordid mess that he left behind?

Are we as usual going to let the whole affair disappear like a puff of smoke, nobody will found culpable and the old system will be put back but with new faces and no new ideas.  We will do it the Irish way.  We all know how the various tribunals ended. 

Same Old, Same Old.

We have had the situation in the last couple of weeks where we had a draw for the ¼ finals of the F.A.I.  Cup at 8.30 in the morning.  This is bad enough, but it was on RTE, a station that ignores the League of Ireland.  Why would you allow a station that will not show L.O.I teams playing in Europe let alone in our League host the draw.  Easy way out.  No thought needed, no work needed, just let the bus trundle on with no driver.  Same Old Same Old.

Where was Donal Conway? The good man, who is overlooking the changes needed to make the F.A.I.  fit for purpose.  Allegedly he didn’t go on air because he was going to be asked questions about the Johnny Giles Foundation.  If this is true I ask you what has changed.  Why is the F.A.I. afraid of allowing reporters to do their job?  No, anything difficult comes up – don’t answer questions openly and honestly retreat behind the John Delaney well tried and trusted method of not allowing people to do their job.  If questions can’t be asked the answers don’t have to be given. Same Old, Same Old

With their every action the F.A.I. demean the L.O.I.  We now have the ¼ finals of our most prestigious competition being re-arranged so that teams can play a Mickey Mouse competition.  Actually, to call it a Mickey Mouse competition is an insult to Mickey Mouse.  Same Old, Same Old.

In the last blog I slated UCD for the sacking of Collie O’Neill, which I believe showed UCD in a very poor light.  But just like clubs, Managers and Players must have standards. 

Neale Fenn’s move from Longford to Cork City baffled me.  Neale has done a great job with Longford.  How can he up sticks and leave with Longford still in the Cup and more than likely in the play-offs to get into the Premier Division.  Did he not owe it to Longford to stay until the end of the season and then move, why move with 3 matches to go. So why would Clubs treat a Manager correctly if this does not work both ways.

Talking of the First Division, Shels are a step closer to returning to the top flight, a place where I believe they truly belong.  I can only hope that next season I will be watching Shels v Bohs and Shels v Shamrock Rovers on TV, that’s if anybody in the F.A.I. gets of their ass and does a proper deal that promotes our League, and is not dependent on crumbs from the table of our National Broadcaster.