All to do for Sligo Rovers
TYNAN'S TAKE: COLUMN BY STUART TYNAN
THE FAI’S announcement of the return of the League of Ireland at the end of July is no doubt great news for all with an interest in the Irish soccer scene.
The league will resume on July 31, with the season truncated to 18-game season.
Promotion and relegation will remain as normal with one up and one down automatically, and a playoff to decide the other spot. So, are all teams happy with the arrangement?
Sligo Rovers certainly are not pleased. The words of their treasurer David Rowe, told its own story: ‘It’s blatantly unfair. I know there have been court cases in other jurisdictions on similar decisions.”
“There are talks of boycotts and all sorts of stuff. I’m not too sure where it’s going, but there is anger.”
No disrespect intended to the club but if they were not rooted to the bottom of the table and had a win or two under their belt, would there be this much outrage from them? I doubt it very much.
Perhaps the season could have been extended by a further nine games or the full season to be played as originally scheduled. But even with only 14 games left for them to play, they are certainly more than capable of getting themselves out of this situation.
Cork City and Finn Harps are not exactly pulling up trees at this stage and Sligo have more than enough about them to get out of this situation. If they don’t, it will simply be because they were not good enough, not because the FAI have screwed them over.
FINANCIAL THREATS LOOM
MANY professional soccer clubs around the world are feeling the pinch will continue to do so for a long time to come. But for some, the future looks very uncertain.
Last week, SkyBet Championship side Wigan Athletic, a club who had spent eight years (2005-2013) in the Premier League, became the first English club to go into administration since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. While the prospects of the club coming out of administration look positive with a number of parties interested, you cannot escape the feeling that this might be the first club of many.
It was reported last week that one Premier League club is losing £9m a week as income generated from matchday tickets, TV broadcast money, sponsorship and commercial has dried up. Accounts for many clubs will reveal a frightening lack of sustainability in the wage bills of many clubs, with 13 in the Championship paying more than their income on salaries.
Another Championship side Bristol City were at the lower end of that scale, with wages accounting for 101 per cent of their income - emphasising the importance of their owner Stephen Lansdown’s investment - but also that how one of the league's most financially prudent clubs are still, in effect, massively overspending.
Even with the return of football being played behind closed doors, the vast majority of these clubs will be denied vital revenue streams. Until some semblance of normality returns, a serious threat to their futures will remain.
RIDICULOUS RULE
ANOTHER week of Premier League action has produced plenty of thrills and spills and no shortage of controversy.
West Ham blew the race for the top-four spots wide open with a huge 3-2 win over Chelsea and boosted their own chances of staying in the division. Manchester United put smiles back on their fans faces after a rough week (more on that later in this column) with a Bruno Fernandes-inspired 3-0 victory over Brighton. Tottenham’s top-four chances were dealt a near-fatal blow after a 3-1 loss to Sheffield United while newly-crowned champions Liverpool seemed to be still suffering from the celebrations over the past week as they were thumped by Manchester City.
But VAR stole the headlines once more after Michael Oliver, operating VAR in Stockley Park, disallowed Harry Kane’s goal with the match in the balance. In the build-up, Lucas Moura had been fouled and, as he fell to the floor, John Egan’s clearance for Sheffield unintentionally struck Moura on the top of the arm, which was enough for Oliver to disallow the goal.
If VAR is guilty of anything, it is of exposing how ridiculous the new handball rule is. Yes, it may be in black and white that if it touches your arm for any reason the goal will be ruled out, but this rule clearly seems to have been made by people who have not played or do not understand the game.
There are no signs that this rule is changing next season either. Until some alteration is made, more mind-boggling decisions like this will sadly happen.
NO ESCAPE
SPARE a thought for any Manchester United fans in your life.
No doubt it has been an awful rough time for them for over the past year or so. Despite almost 25 years of near-total supremacy over English football under Sir Alex Ferguson, it seems Liverpool’s return to football’s elite over the past two seasons is all too much for them to handle. No matter where they go, they cannot escape it. At home, at work or even at church.
You might raise an eyebrow at that last place but that is exactly what happened to church goers in Mooncoin, Co. Kilkenny. One of their priests, Fr. Tobin, after a routine sermon, told Manchester United fans to 'suck it up' and he played Liverpool's infamous 'You'll Never Walk Alone' during Mass.
"And for all the people from Liverpool or who support Liverpool, we are going to have our final hymn for you this morning and let the Man Uniteds, and the Man Citys, and the Chelseas, and all the rest of them, suck this up."
I’m not privy as to whether Fr. Eustace, Fr. Faber or Fr. Sullivan in my own parish of Castlebar are Liverpool fans but if they’re looking for one final hymn to play at the end of their Masses, I don’t think they can go too far wrong and play that one.
If they get do some stick for it, they can just say they are Celtic fans!
*Pictured: 7 March 2020; Rory Gaffney of Shamrock Rovers in action against Kyle Callan-McFadden of Sligo Rovers during the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division match between Sligo Rovers and Shamrock Rovers at The Showgrounds in Sligo in early March, just before Covid-19 called a halt to action The league will resume later this month but Sligo Rovers are not best pleased with the structure of the truncated season. PHOTO: STEPHEN MCCARTHY / SPORTSFILE