Leading schoolboy clubs warn FAI

Seven of the country's leading schoolboy football clubs have threatened to take legal action against the FAI if they attempt at their egm in Citywest today to press ahead with changes to their rules on compensation for players who turn professional.

In a joint statement, the clubs - Cherry Orchard, Crumlin United, Home Farm, Lourdes Celtic, St Kevin's Boys, St Joseph's Boys and Stella Maris - said they had not previously sought to make a major issue of compensation because of the tight financial restraints within which most League of Ireland clubs operate.

The proposed changes, they say, however, will mean they receive negligible sums from professional clubs for players who they have helped to develop.

The dispute, which has its origins in the introduction of a tiered compensation structure by Uefa and Fifa in recent years, has again highlighted the tensions between the various strands of the game here. But the FAI and Schoolboys Football Association of Ireland (SFAI) insist agreement had already been reached on the key issues.

"What we're seeing here is an attempt to get around the structures put in place by Fifa and Uefa," said one club official who did not want to be named. "The long-term goal here is to ensure that when players go to England it's the FAI or League of Ireland clubs that get the financial benefit, despite the fact it's the schoolboy clubs who have brought the player through."

Martin O'Hanlon of the SFAI disagrees, insisting that the deal brokered, which allows for minimum payments in the order of €500 for each year a player spends at a club plus add-ons, covers only domestic movement.

"As far as I'm aware, once a player moves to England the whole situation is still covered by the Fifa and Uefa rules," he says. "And in any case, the figures that are in this document are only minimum amounts; it's entirely open to clubs to negotiate higher amounts when a player of theirs is moving."

Eoin Hand, the FAI's careers officer, agrees, insisting that "the deal is for the benefit of everybody, and if it's cancelled then it it's the schoolboy clubs who will lose out most".

He points out that two of the seven clubs - Stella Maris and St Kevin's Boys - were present at the negotiations, and feels the agreement reached was satisfactory to all the parties involved.