Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
We all want to find solutions but to say I demanded the title is just plain wrong!
HEALY REJECTS CLAIMS HE ASKED FOR BLUEMEN TO BE CROWNED KINGS NOW
LINFIELD boss David Healy has slammed suggestions he “demanded” the league title be awarded to the Windsor Park club amid the coronavirus pandemic.
It was recently reported that Healy had called on league chiefs to end the impasse over the season and declare his Blues champions again.
The Big Two giants were four points clear of Coleraine at the top of the table with seven games to play when the Irish FA suspended football here on March 13.
No decision has been made on how to finish the current campaign yet, although the 12 top flight clubs are edging closer to a framework to end the impasse.
Speaking on former Olympic boxer
Paddy Barnes’s (right) Paddycast podcast,
Healy said he would be “quids in” if he knew when a decision would be made.
“I don’t think anyone knows,” he said. “Like everything at the minute, everyone has a vested interest in their own outcome on what way we finish it.
“I think there was something in the press a couple of weeks ago where the headline was, ‘Healy demands league title’.
“I was thinking, ‘No, I wasn’t demanding it’. We are top of the league and four clear, but that doesn’t mean we are home and hosed and definite winners.”
Healy insists the Premiership can only return when government guidelines allow and it is safe to do so.
“Hopefully there are going to be some sort of guidelines or solutions,” he said.
“Of course, we all want to finish the season in the best possible manner.
“It’s a case of, as much as I miss it, and the players miss it, and the supporters miss it, we’re not just coming back for the wrong reasons. “If and when we can finish and it’s safe to do so, great. If it’s not going to be finished, then the league and clubs need to sit down and come up with some sort of solution.”
Linfield and second placed Coleraine are close to agreeing a means of sharing the European prizemoney pot with other clubs. A weighted option – where the top two would keep the bulk of the pot – is being considered as clubs look to make a call on how the 2019/20 campaign is concluded.
But whatever happens on that front, Healy is adamant a decision on silverware and European qualifiers has to be based on sporting merit.
“Whatever solution you come up with now won’t suit everyone,” he said. “There will be disappointed parties and there will be unhappy teams.
“It is trying to come up with a happy medium. When you look at it, we have played 31 games which is over 80 per cent of the season.
“We certainly don’t, as a club – and for me as manager – want to think those 31 games and 80 per cent of the season was all a waste if there’s not going to be an outcome based on sporting merit and sporting integrity.”