Eye Opener – FAI Shuts Down The Candy Story (LoI Ed.) – 11/12/09
Ed. Note – This was entirely too ludicrous to not write up any longer. Thanks to This Guy for sending me the story. The Eye Opener will function as a season wrap up as well as tell the utterly brilliant Derry City story, which leads off. – FD
FAI SHUTS DOWN THE CANDY STORE
L-O-I Caramba! At the end of an entertaining and exciting League of Ireland campaign, the league’s governing body, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), is making headlines off the field. On Sunday, just two days after season finales had been played, it was announced that Derry City’s contract with the league had been terminated due to a violation of league rules. The club was found to have held “secondary unofficial contracts with its players,” basically meaning they were paying their players under the table.
Players on Tuesday confirmed they had indeed signed two contracts with the team, one the league’s standard player contract, another on club headed paper. In the meantime, it had been previously reported that Derry City, a league member since 1985 and the only club in the league based in Northern Ireland, have had difficulty over the past two months paying their players what they officially owe. This has in fact been the case for several teams in what have been brutal economic times in the region. Estimates of moneys owed are as high as 300,000 euors ($448,980 US).
You may recall earlier this summer when LOI fixture Cork City FC was mere hours away from going belly-up, only to be saved at the death through a hastily organized friendly with Celtic. The prospect of the match, which was played on September 9, gave Cork enough collateral at the time to appease the courts, and allowed them to continue operating. This current situation, however, is far stickier than a franchise simply going out of business. According to the FAI, Derry City admitted to having secondary contracts with its players, and that this admission was grounds to terminate their contract with league. The club, however, disputes this, and says it plans to appeal the decision, even it means going to court. Derry is also seeking money owed by the league for its fourth place finish this year.
In a scathing response to the FAI’s ruling, a statement by Derry City FC said:
“The decision has devastating consequences for this club but we intend to address these consequences urgently. We are currently exploring any possibility of any type of appeal procedure within the FAI or via a court of law in Dublin or Belfast. We have not been presented with any evidence of any wrong doing on behalf of the club or any one, or any organization associated with the club. It is our respectful view that the board of the FAI should be ashamed of themselves in presiding over a completely unfair process which shows a complete lack of respect to us, our players, manager, staff, club volunteers and fans. The FAI refused to supply us with the monies we are legally and legitimately due as a result of finishing fourth in the Premier League. The FAI has also said they are considering what to do in relation to the monies we are due and owed in relation to our participation in European soccer this season.”
In short, Derry City believes it is the ponytail to the FAI’s Elizabeth Lambert. As it stands right now, the Candystripes will not be allowed to participate in the Premier Division of the LOI next season, and will have to go through a new licensing process in order to play in any league. This is an unfitting and, truthfully, an embarrassing end to what had been a fun and compelling 2009 season. Unfortunately, though the season is now over, this messy state of affairs looks to continue for some time, and continues to have league-wide and even political ramifications.
Here are some examples:
Relegation: The LOI has one of the coolest relegation systems in football, with only one team from the Premier and First Divisions guaranteed to move. In the PD, the eighth and ninth place teams have a playoff, with the loser facing the winner of a playoff between the second and third place teams in the FD. Winner of that match plays Premier next season, the loser goes (or stays) down. With Derry City’s expulsion from the league, the PD playoff pitted the ninth and 10th place teams against one another instead. Galway United, who finished eighth, were saved from the relegation process by Derry City’s misfortune.
Setanta Sports Cup: A winter tournament, special in that it pits clubs from the Republic against clubs from Northern Ireland. Derry City, the only Northern club playing in the Republic league, was in this tournament, which began a couple of months ago. On Tuesday, Derry City was slated to face St. Patrick’s Athletic in group stage play. This match was postponed. No decision has been made on how the tournament will proceed.
North-South Relations: The violence that became synonymous in Northern Ireland has subsided in recent years, while the relationship between the North and the Republic has warmed. However, Nigel P. Cooke, writing for The Irish Times, notes how Derry City’s entrance to the LOI in 1985 played a small part in this, providing a sports and social connection between North and South. He warns that the FAI’s decision to sever those ties could prove disastrous against the turbulent political backdrop that currently exists in the region. Cooke also contends that the ruling is in part biased, since other teams that had previously broken league rules were demoted, docked points or fined, but never treated this harshly. His argument is an interesting and at times frightening one, and I urge you to read the article HERE.
DID YOU SAY THE SEASON ENDED FRIDAY?
Yes, I did, with Bohemians claiming the crown for a second consecutive season. Leading by three points on the season‘s last day, all Bohs needed was a draw to confirm their status, which they got against last-place Bray Wanderers. As a St. Pats supporter, I can never offer even so much as a begrudging congratulations to the Gypsies, but do believe it is important for a league like the LOI to have consistency at the top, which goes a long way toward perception of the league when it comes to European play. Bohemians will now compete in the UEFA Champions League for a second straight year, giving them and therefore the league some name recognition.
Earlier this season, Bohs won the EA Sports Cup, defeating Waterford United 3-1 in the final. While not quite the double, we’ll give the Gypsies credit this year for the one-and-a-half.
Meanwhile, Cork City secured a point in their match against Galway United to finish third in the league. The resurrected Cork franchise will join second place finishers Shamrock Rovers in next year’s Europa League.
The truly exciting matches last Friday took place at the bottom of the table, where sixth and seventh places (and safety from the relegation playoffs) were up for grabs. The Derry City decision hadn’t come down yet, and although there was the strong possibility that eighth place would be safe in the end, the clubs involved played like teams that didn’t want to leave anything to chance. At the start of play, Galway United had 41 points and was in sixth. Sligo Rovers and St. Patrick’s Athletic each had 40 points, with Sligo in the comfortable seventh slot on goal differential, and the Saints at risk of falling from premiership paradise.
Sligo had the easiest matchup of the three, and appropriately cruised to a 3-1 win over Drogheda United. Pats put forth and inspired derby effort against Shamrock Rovers, claiming a 1-0 decision, their first victory of the season over their Dublin rivals. Galway United rallied from a 2-1 deficit to draw Cork City, but found themselves in the dreaded eighth position with 42 points to Sligo and St. Pats‘ 43. However, despite the drama and intrigue of these two hours of football, all was rendered moot in the end by the Derry City debacle.
As for those relegation playoffs, the first round was played on Tuesday, with Drogheda United maintaining their Premier status with a 2-0 win over Bray Wanderers. Meanwhile, Sporting Fingal defeated Shelbourne 2-1 on the road. The playoff final between Bray and Fingal will be a two-legged affair this coming Friday and Monday. Winner up, loser down. Meantime, UCD, the only collegiate club in Europe playing at this level, won the First Division, and thus will automatically rejoin the top flight next season, and, more importantly, be featured in FIFA ’11.
Finally, the finals of the FAI Ford Cup, the oldest and most prestigious cup competition in Ireland, will take place on November 22, when Sligo Rovers faces Sporting Fingal. Sligo knocked off defending champs Bohemians in the quarterfinals on their march to the championship match, and it should be noted that their previous Cup wins, in 1983 and 1994, correspond with two of the most important years in the life of the Pub’s resident Sligo supporter, First Derivative (the significance being the year he was born and the year the Rangers won the Stanley Cup). Sporting Fingal have never won the FAI Cup, but that’s in large part due to the fact that they were founded in 2007. If they are indeed able to secure the hardware, along with a promotion to Premier ranks, it will certainly go down as a banner month in the club’s short history.
And just because we haven’t mentioned them even once in this article, Dundalk. They finished fifth in the Premier Division. Congratulations to the Lilywhites for their general irrelevance.
Tags: Derry City, Epic Team Fails, eye opener, football (soccer you American putz), Sligo Rovers, This Guy, tl;dr
Categories:
Drunken Ramblings, Eye Openers
