After all the talking, we’re left with little to show for it
DURING a momentary break from lockdown this week, I set off with a spring in my step to take my four-legged chum for his daily dander through the fields.
Whilst panting across the sward — and the mutt was quite tired, too — I took a well-earned break when out of the corner of my eye I noticed a discernible shaking of the undergrowth and the unmistakeable rustling of leaves.
Shielding his eyes from the searing rays, a figure emerged, bedraggled, confused, with clothes ripped and torn, hair down to his waist and he approached as I tentatively beckoned him closer.
And then it came. “So, they still haven’t made a decision about the Irish League then?”
Far-fetched and unbelievable stuff, I hear you cry, but enough of the IFA, NIFL and the clubs, our chum in the woods isn’t the only one to reappear after some time away.
IFA chief Patrick Nelson emerged in these pages last week to try and shine some light on a very dark period, and in the middle of seven days of shame-faced embarrassment to cap off months of inaction and, at best, haphazard guidance from our footballing leaders.
It’s all the rage at the moment to tear down statues and attack icons, but at least Nelson’s column in the Belfast Telegraph showed that he is still doing his duty as our admiral, but his ailing fleet is in danger of sinking without trace.
In fairness, there have been a few self-inflicted blows. Let us look at the past few days, and try to read it without shaking your head too much.
Last Tuesday, NIFL gave the clubs their two options — play two games and that’s that or we’ll use maths to decide how things end up — thinking that would be the beginning of the endofthematter.
Err, no. That went down as well as Linfield’s new away kit, with most clubs seeing red, though, rather than orange and purple.
By the way, what a total load of garbage that all is. As if a club would seriously sit down and say, ‘You know what, I think a new terrorist-themed range of kit and memorabilia would be a cracking idea. While we’re at it, give Distillery a bell and suggest maybe a hood to go with their all-white kit’.
The only purpose this fashion sideshow has served is to deflect attention from what is goingon,ornotasthecasevery much is, with the majority of clubs giving NIFL two digits to their two-pronged solution.
They then went off to have a look at alternatives, something that should have been done long ago, and a letter was even sent to the MLAS asking them to do something, but they were busy worrying about a kit (right).
Mr Nelson then emerged, broadly saying he wanted the season to be finished on the pitch, but quickly sticking his IFA ball under his arm and pointing at the broken window and saying, “Nothing to do with me, mister, it was the NIFL that done it. And we’ll finish the Irish Cup, so there.”
Next up, NIFL’S ‘final’ final deadline came and went and we had another meeting, this time the clubs saying they wanted the season to be finished on the pitch after all 38 games, so back to the IFA then to ask, what with the lighter evenings and all, could we stay out a wee bit longer?
That, apparently, didn’t go down well with Linfield and Coleraine, rumours abounded of legal ramifications and the upshot is that the NIFL had to wait on the IFA, who had to wait on Uefa to see if it is OK to play ASAP again. OMG.
That meeting was held yesterday, the Exco gathering in their underground virtual bunker to discuss the dates for European competition to be finished this season and when the new season would begin, which could be the following day the way things have been going.
You know something? I am past caring. If Uefa could just put us out of our misery now it may be the kindest thing. Across Europe things have either been abandoned, as in Scotland and France, or back in action like in Spain and Germany, or kicking off again as in England last night and down south in a few weeks’ time. But here? Nothing.
The lack of unity and joinedup thinking between not just the IFA and NIFL but the clubs with the rule-makers and the bickering amongst themselves has torpedoed the great strides that have been made in recent times.
Our political leaders only jumpwhen London or Dublin say it might be safetodosoandwe were left waiting on Europe’s biggest quango to thud the final nail in the coffin yesterday.
Incidentally, just in case you are wondering what happened to the fella who dandered out of the woods, he scampered merrily back into the darkness vowing not to return until football did in this country. He may be gone some time.