National League: Clubs from around the country yesterday gave a cautious welcome to the report by Genesis into how the Eircom League might be overhauled and reorganised so as to improve the public image, management and financial stability of senior football here, all of which, it was conceded by delegates, fall well short of the desired levels.
At a meeting in Dublin, where the consultants gauged reaction to their proposals prior to the drafting of their final report, representatives of the 22 league clubs, as well as other sectors of the game, broadly accepted the rather stark assessment of the league's problems and broadly agreed with the recommendations made, although it was clear that a good deal of work remained to be done before a final set of proposals can be put forward for implementation.
Addressing the meeting, Brian MacNeice of Genesis outlined the extent of the challenges facing the league. Total revenues, he said, were "pitifully low" at €14 million while expenditure was roughly €17 million, public perception of the senior game was poor and the league's share of sports sponsorship in the country negligible at just €587,000 out of an estimated €67 million.
"Most clubs are struggling to survive," he said, "and at the consultation stage there has been widespread criticism of the fact that the clubs are running the league for the clubs rather than there being a long-term plan for the benefit of the league itself."
Among the recommendations made to address the situation is a 10-team premier or "elite" division with two regionalised divisions operating below it, the use of participation agreements to bind clubs to short, medium and long-term development plans covering every aspect of their operations (including the likes of administrative structures, infrastructural investment and community development work) as well as an immediate merger between the league and the FAI.
"There's a great deal in here that we have been talking about ourselves at club level," said Nial O'Reilly of Galway United. "My only concern is that there has been a lot of talk here about evolution but the time for that has passed now . . . it's revolution that we're in urgent need of."
Other clubs raised questions about the future of summer football, the precise nature of the merger and the proposed 30-team structure, but there was a surprisingly upbeat reaction to what was essentially a rather damning report with both MacNeice and his Genesis colleague, Alistair Gray, making it clear that they felt both the league in its current form and many of the clubs that make it up were deeply flawed and unsustainable.
One proposal to win particular support was the idea of a player wage cap which, it is envisaged, would be a part of the participation agreement. It is currently proposed that no more than 65 per cent of a club's turnover could be devoted to player costs. Shelbourne's Ollie Byrne, however, suggested that such a rule would prove unenforceable while Fran Gavin of the PFAI expressed his bemusement. "I have to laugh," he said, "because the people proposing a wage cap are never the ones who are going to be affected by it."
FAI chief executive John Delaney said afterwards he had been pleased by the response to the report and hoped the recommendations would be acted upon.
