Change for change's sake is not the answer

Given the recognition within Merrion Square, and the various clubs around the country, that the way both the league and cup are run need to be constantly improved if the game is to continue to broaden its appeal, it's amazing the casual ease with which changes are made to the formats of both competitions.

Last night's meeting of the clubs in Dublin may have moved us no closer to substantial reform, but at least the discussions over the past few weeks have had the air of a major overhaul, one that will attempt to sort out perceived defects and injustices. It may not turn out that way, of course. In fact, it's almost impossible not to see the losers from the current process bouncing back with a whole range of proposals over the coming 12 months aimed at reversing whatever is implemented now.

The FAI Cup should be a far more straightforward competition to run than the league, but that hasn't stopped the meddling with its structures.

This year's major innovation has been the introduction of junior clubs to the competition, but there have been other touches, too - penalty shootouts after just one replay and live televised draws for each round being among the better ones.

What precisely the thinking was that prompted the introduction of junior clubs remains unclear. Bringing 10 intermediate clubs into the senior cup to make up the numbers has a certain logic, but particularly after 1990, when one of those 10 made it all the way to the final, what anybody hoped to gain (other, of course, than the clubs themselves) from throwing the semi-finalists from the Irish Junior Cup into the competition is a mystery. The clubs are not eligible for the Intermediate Cup, at least partly, one presumes, because they are not good enough.

The very least that might be expected is that junior clubs such as Fairview Rangers and Clonmel Town prove themselves more against intermediate opposition. That one club made it through to the final stages of this year's competition without having to beat a single non-junior club is ridiculous. If the FAI has any faith in the validity of its own pyramid structure, then this system makes no sense whatsoever.

Then there is the question of facilities, an area in which Fairview appeared to have been indulged, for there was not so much as a dug-out in Fair Green when it staged its second game of this year's competition on Sunday. By contrast, Belgrove were given a long list of minimum requirements which they had to meet last season when they wanted to play Finn Harps at home.

None of which is to say that the essential character of the cup is undermined. A large part of the attraction of the competition is that the holders should have to tough it out against non-league opponents and that a team challenging for the league championship can go out to a first division outfit.

But the fact is that no manager of a non-league club, much less one at a junior club, has ever told this paper that their priority at the start of January is to win the senior cup. National League managers, on the other hand, have not been unknown to lose their jobs over their performance in the competition.

It appears that the organisers are hell-bent on inflicting the maximum amount of humiliation possible on our bigger clubs, for they are always on a hiding to nothing against sides from the amateur leagues. The more obscure the underdogs the greater that hiding has the potential to be.

As it is this year, there remains the possibility that we'll see a junior club make it to the semi-finals of the country's second most prestigious competition - and two wins away from a place in Europe - without having to play a single senior side. It just could be that it's time for a little more tinkering after all.