Living beyond their means

As a predominantly professional entity, the Eircom Premier league is coming to an end. In the current economic climate, it has become abundantly clear that clubs in the top tier cannot sustain themselves on a full-time basis.

The 2008 season has been one of turmoil off the pitch, with players throughout the country forced into massive wage cuts. Astonishingly, Bray Wanderers became the eighth club this season to hit financial difficulties this week, when announcing that players will take a cut of 40% of their wages.

Last year’s champions Drogheda United almost faced relegation, and with it certain extinction, after it emerged the club is currently saddled with debts of over €732,000 (€535,000 of which is owed to the Revenue Commissioners). The uncertainty surrounding the club led to the players threatening not to travel to an away fixture against Cork City, which in turn would have led to the club facing instant relegation. They have been placed under examinership.

The clubs problems surfaced when directors Vincent Hoey, Chris Byrne and Eugene O’Connor in essence took a gamble on the proposed building of a new stadium in Bryanstown, plans which were shelved due to an objection from the National Roads Authority, and with them went the cash advance promised to the club.

It also recently emerged that over seventy percent of players in the Eircom League are out of contract at the end of this season, a situation that is particularly worrying to professionals within the game, even those who are under contract next season. Drogheda United stalwart Graham Gartland admits his worry at his clubs current predicament. He said “Hopefully the club can stay afloat, it would be a terrible pity if it went under because of all the progress Drogheda have made in the past few years. I am under contract for next season but I have no idea what will happen now."

FAI Cup holders Cork City found themselves in a similar predicament to Drogheda earlier this season after they too underwent a period of examinership, due to running up debts of over €1.3million. Examiner Neil Hughes told players and staff that if the club was to survive, their positions were unsustainable, with those surviving the chop taking a 70% pay cut. Fortunately, hotelier and property developer Tom Coughlan has bailed the club out and are they are now debt free.

Coughlan has paid the outstanding money owed to the players following the 70% cuts but this is not the situation throughout the league. Cobh Ramblers had the audacity to ask players (some of whom are out of contract in November) to take out bank loans to the tune of €2000 each and give the money to the club in a move slammed as ‘farcical’ by players union boss Stephen McGuinness.

McGuinness, General Secretary of the PFAI, moved to reassure players that all outstanding wages will be paid to them come the end of the season. He said that “there are sanctions in place that state if a club owes outstanding monies to any of its players come November 30th, that club will not be awarded a licence to operate next season, so that’s the real copper-fastener that secures players will be paid.”

He went on to say that “until we bring in crowds and bring in sponsors that can sustain the wages for full time players, I think part-time is the way to go.”
He is not discouraged, however, by such a move, and remains highly optimistic for the future of the league, saying; “we will still have a vibrant league, it may not continue in its current guise, but the league is not going anywhere, that’s for sure.”

He admitted that although a return to part-time football would more than likely halt recent progress made by Irish clubs playing in European competitions, and that “we’ll lose the leagues top players…the Keith Faheys, Mark Quigleys and Shane Robinsons, if it means the league is more sustainable, and players are getting paid because of it, well then we’ll accept that.”

What way can clubs bring more fans to games? According to McGuinness, it should start with facilities. He compares the experience of attending an Eircom League game with that of a night at the dogs or a day at the races. He claimed that in the Eircom League “facilities are shocking, there’s no ground in Ireland for example that you can sit down for a meal, yet these facilities are readily available at the dogs or at the races. There’s a corporate element to our league that’s completely lost, we don’t have it. Clubs need to look at getting the grounds right and building from there.”

What is sure is that it will be a long way back for the Eircom League after this season; as we came extremely close to losing clubs in 2008, and even though Irish clubs had an outstanding record of eight wins and four draws from only twelve games in European competitions this year, maybe it was chasing the European dream which ultimately led to the demise of our bigger, more successful clubs…It was only a few short years ago that Shelbourne were mixing it with Deportivo in the champions League, they’ve seen themselves mired in the First Division since then, and all after over-extending themselves financially off the back of that European run.
As Stephen McGuinness puts it; “People said that Shels’ capitulation a couple of years ago was a seminal moment for the league, but this, to me, is a watershed for the league.”