AIRTRICITY LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION:LEAGUE OF Ireland director Fran Gavin has said that a decision will be made on promotion and relegation for next season in the coming weeks so that clubs can take changes to the current structure into account when setting out their budgets for 2011.
Gavin, who says he is confident there will be more than 25,000 spectators at this weekend’s FAI Cup final, confirmed the league’s Premier Division will be expanded for the 2012 season and said a decision by the FAI board on how many extra teams to promote as well as the mechanism by which the new system is achieved will be taken “sooner rather than later”.
“We recognise that there needs to be an expansion in the Premier Division,” he remarked.
“The numbers that we’re looking at could be anything between 12 and 16.
“Everyone will know that before the kick-off; everyone will know what is required sooner rather than later because people will need to sign players and they will need to get their budgets correct around what’s going to happen at the end of next season.”
Despite problems at Bohemians in relation to the amount of debt built up over the last few years, and Sporting Fingal, where the financial situation of the club’s chief backer, Gerry Gannon, is likely to mean a drop in income next season, Gavin went on to express confidence in the two clubs’ ability to cope with the challenges that face them.
At Bray, meanwhile, Pat Devlin says he will take a little time to decide on whether he wants to be as centrally involved next year as he has been while engineering the club’s remarkable escape over the past couple of months.
Wanderers avoided the drop in dramatic fashion on Monday night with Chris Shields scoring the decisive spot kick in a shoot-out after extra time in the game against Monaghan United.
“You never lose your love for football,” he said. But there are lots of different circumstances now: I’m a bit older, the health hasn’t been brilliant and you have got to take that into consideration. I’ll have to look at a couple of things first but I’ll always be involved in the club, whether it’s as director of football or otherwise.”
Shields may not go on to have nearly such an enduring relationship with the Carlisle Grounds outfit but he can be pretty sure that, if he does move on, after Monday’s antics, he won’t be forgotten in a hurry.
Having scored a fairly spectacular own goal two minutes from the end of extra-time, the striker managed to redeem himself by first laying on a dramatic injury-time equaliser and then slotting home the winning penalty in the shoot-out.
“It was the most emotional roller-coaster ride of my whole life,” he admits.
“I thought I’d put Bray Wanderers back in the First Division, undeservedly. I just can’t describe how bad I felt; I never felt that bad in my life. Then, with the penalty shoot-out, I just knew it was going to come down to me; I just had that feeling and to score a penalty to keep us in it: no better feeling in the world.”
United boss Mick Cooke, meanwhile, insisted he would be more than willing to fight for promotion with the club if the board wants him to stay on.
“I’m mad keen,” he said. “It’s my love; it’s my passion. Where would I go without it? If Monaghan want to keep me, I’ll keep going but I need to talk to them about the plans for the future.”
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