Controversies are killing hope for potential growth
DUNDALK showed what was possible for a League of Ireland club to achieve last year. It was a season in which they performed with class, skill and invention on the Europa League stage.
They fell short in a group containing Zenit St Petersburg, AZ Alkmaar and Maccabi Tel Aviv, but Stephen Kenny’s positivity and belief in his players was inspiring. He trusted their talents rather than be obsessed by their weaknesses, and they didn’t let him down.
Dundalk’s displays had all the hallmarks of any Irish team — disciplined, organised and physically fit — but they didn’t confine themselves by those parameters. All of a sudden it felt as if boundaries had been broken down.
But if that was a campaign to make people aspire for something more, 2017 is shaping up to be the sort of annus horribilis which leaves the FAI fighting to keep a hold of what they have. Association chief executive John Delaney will be continually reminded of his description of the league as a ‘problem child’, a slip of the tongue which perhaps shone a light on some of his true feelings, but the issues which have plagued the domestic game this season have grown into a much bigger concern for the FAI.
The Athlone Town match-fixing scandal, allied with the subsequent fall-out and accusations about how Abbotstown chiefs carried out the investigation which resulted in two players being banned for 12 months, brought the state of the league to the front pages.
Bray Wanderers have this week been dragged into a similar investigation over a friendly game last Friday and the relationship between players at the club and club hierarchy is understood to be non-existent following the mess which the Seagulls found themselves in when it looked as if they would run out of money during the summer. At a time when the FAI will soon look to sit down with the league’s main sponsor, SSE Airtricity, and thrash out fresh terms for a deal which runs out at the end of 2018, these headlines and this kind of scrutiny is most unwelcome. An exposure to controversy, illegal activity and derision is never good — certainly so in the world of brand value — and the FAI have a serious job on their hands to restore some semblance of respectability to a league which has taken a hammering. So long as there are controversies which mentions any brand in the same breath as match fixing or a club going bust in mid-season, the FAI’s bargaining position will be severely weakened. And years like 2016 will become less likely while the hope it creates quickly fades.
4 Months since the Athlone Town match-fixing scandal first came to light