League of Ireland:Amid claims by its proponents that an all-Ireland League could be up and running as early as the autumn, John Delaney insists there will no significant changes to the domestic game's structures for at least another four years.
The league was effectively taken over by the FAI last year when the clubs signed up to a five-year association plan for its stewardship. And Delaney, who travelled from Sofia to England yesterday to meet up with Don Givens, Ray Houghton and Don Howe, maintains that while there will be some scope for change when things are reviewed at the end of the third season, nothing major will change until the 2011 campaign is concluded.
"My view on an all-Ireland league is yes, I'd like to see it happen but the timing is important and certainly next autumn or anything like that is just pie in the sky," said the FAI's chief executive. "It's important to remember that we actually put it (a proposal to pursue the development of an all-island league) to the clubs two years ago as one of five options that Genesis put out and they rejected it at the time.
"Instead, it was agreed that we would work together on improving the league as it is over a five-year period. We gave a commitment to the 22 clubs at that stage that we were going to discriminate in favour of the league and since then we've made quantifiable improvements," he continues.
"We've increased the prize-money from €98,000 to €1.1 million, secured an RTÉ highlights programme in a primetime slot which the league has never had, and we are about to increase the prize-money again by a multiple of what it is now thanks to some of the commercial deals that we are on the verge of completing.
"The clubs will have the opportunity in four years time to take the league wherever they want to take it. To run it themselves or stay under the auspices of the FAI, that's the commitment that was given at the time."
Delaney admission that the idea of an all-Ireland League is very firmly on the agenda is not just hot air. "I've spoken to (Irish Football Association chief executive) Howard Wells about it and we'll be meeting again at the end of this month when it will be one of a number of issues we'll be discussing.
"I think it's important that we set up a working group, possibly with the two governments to see if it would work. But any quicker than that (the end of the current five-year contract) is not going to work in my opinion.
"At that stage, it will be for the clubs to decide although I think it's important that, wherever it does go, the changes are made in a way that's not divisive. A lot of the talk now is very divisive . . . some of the clubs are upset that they're not being consulted about other clubs meeting."
And he dismisses the possibility that some of the clubs may simply decide to press ahead without the backing of the national association. "It can't work without the FAI, it just can't. Uefa wouldn't recognise it so if we don't recognise it then it can't happen. Everyone will have to accept that from the off."
Despite the view amongst some club officials that they cannot wait four years and the dissatisfaction of some of the bigger clubs with the terms of the participation agreements they were obliged to sign in order to retain their league status last year, Delaney is bullish about the immediate future of the league.
The dramatic increases in prize-money he says will follow the unveiling of new sponsorship deals about to be concluded would certainly help to strengthen his position while the highlights slots to be carried by RTÉ on Monday nights will also win over critics.
