No credit for bad business practices

The problems at Drogheda United, discussed at yesterday's FAI board of control meeting, tend to highlight the fact the most successful clubs in this country might best be described as highly effective fund-raising organisations that happen to field football teams. Shelbourne, for example, have a turnover of more than six times what people appear to be willing to pay in order to see the first team play.

Sponsorship, golf outings, raffles, celebrity lunches, bar takings and friendly matches in which (for any of the ones that actually raise money) the opponents are the attraction, have enabled the better run clubs to get by without having to generate significant amounts in gate receipts. In most cases, though, over 50 per cent of the cash going through a club ends up being paid to players, with administration, development or even maintenance work, marketing and everything else having to be paid for out of what remains.

In the circumstances the talk of clubs being run more like businesses seems a little humorous, because the first thing any hard-nosed business person would probably try to do is keep the bulk of the organisation going while ditching the one thing that is dragging the whole operation under - the football team.

The idea, of course, would be laughed at because, well, because all of the fund-raising is predicated on the existence of the sort of sentiment and goodwill that only exists because we are talking about a football club. The remarkable part, when it comes to some National League clubs, is that that financial pool appears not to have been exhausted yet.

Certainly Drogheda have been down this road before, although not, it seems, on quite such an inglorious scale. Rumours seem to circulate almost every other week about one club or another being in some difficulty, particularly with the Revenue Commissioners, but reports that the people running Drogheda failed to make a tax return in seven years beggar belief.

The bar at United Park is said to have been unlicensed for several years, while neither rates nor rent (to the FAI) have been paid for a similar period of time. When the difficulties first emerged publicly before December, players' representatives described the situation as the worst they had ever seen.

While not taking anything away from the club's commercial creditors, or even the Revenue, all of whom deserve to be paid, the players had particular justification for being annoyed with the way the club had gone about its business. Signing four players on the transfer deadline, just days before the club was forced to admit it could not meet its wage bill, could almost attract sneaking admiration for the astonishing level of chutzpah involved, but the fact is because of the way the transfer market is regulated none of those players would have been able to work again before the start of next season had the money not eventually been found to pay them.

DESPITE all of this, however, it is worth remembering that many of the league's other clubs have finances so bad that, if somebody told you they were coming around to your house in the morning to present you with the ownership of one you'd probably either threaten them with dire consequences or else spend the night bricking up the windows in an effort to give the impression of having moved on.

In just the last few weeks, for instance, there has been talk of one club's wage cheques bouncing and another having a visit from the sheriffs who, it is said, departed empty handed because they could find nothing worth taking.

Amazingly, though, a succession of people is found to take over at clubs as others bail out, often having been turned upon by supporters and almost always nursing wounded pride and bank balances.

Drogheda seems to be no different. There is considerable optimism that the larger group of "investors" who have agreed to take on the responsibility of running the club, one or two of whom have been involved before, will be able to turn things around at the club.

Their chances seem a good deal less realistic if the club is relegated. If that were to happen by way of the play-offs, then there would probably be few enough sorry to see them go down, especially after their irresponsible spending helped to seal Bray's fate. It would seem harsh on them, however, if their hopes of saving a club that could make a very worthwhile contribution to the league and to the community in which it is located were to be severely undermined by the imposition of a sanction, relegation or even expulsion that might have been imposed on many other clubs at different points in time before but never was.

Clearly there are many issues to be sorted out. The league has to protect itself from the threat of legal action on the part of other clubs, not least Bray, affected by the situation and the further erosion of its credibility generally that would result from it being seen to stand by as one of its member clubs tried to walk away from substantial debts.

But the understanding has for some time been that the UEFA licensing would help to put an end to just this sort of difficulty. The eve of its introduction scarcely seems like the time to be displaying a newly hardened line.

If Drogheda's new board can meet the financial conditions set for them then the club should be allowed to have its Premier Division fate decided on the pitch.

What the club's case highlights, though, is the need for an era of ruthless intolerance to accompany what is supposed to be a new, and long overdue, era of financial accountability.