Deals for Shelley and Gray end dispute

AIRTRICITY LEAGUE:TWO MORE Bohemians players left the club yesterday as deals were finally struck with Brian Shelley and Steven Gray, thus ending the legal action that threatened to end with the winding up of the club and clearing the way for Pat Fenlon to belatedly start putting together a squad for the new campaign.

His signings, like the payments agreed to by the departing team members, are likely to be dependent on the club getting a licence to play in the Premier Division for the coming season although there appears to be optimism on all sides that the club will be successful in its application.

Talks were continuing with one player last night and these are expected to be resolved over the weekend while a handful of others, including young striker Paddy Madden and the injured Glen Cronin, could be around for a while yet.

On Thursday Bohemians refused an offer from a club in the English lower leagues for Madden worth around €30,000 plus the same again in performances related add-ons but clearly the hope is still to sell the player on, ideally in the very near future.

Chris O’Connor looks increasingly likely to be at the club next year on a new contract as does Owen Heary but the bulk of last season’s first team has now departed. Shelley and Gray were paid the money due to them under the terms of their severance deals yesterday via their union, the PFAI, while the rest received much smaller payments aimed at helping to tide them over.

These players have agreed in the end to terms that are said to be significantly better than the 13 weeks’ net pay initially offered by the club but their payments are now contingent on the club getting its licence in which case they will be paid, most likely on February 16th.

The hope is that most, if not all, will get clubs before then and there are signs of movement in some cases already with Ken Oman being linked with a move to Shamrock Rovers, Raffaelle Cretaro expected to rejoin Sligo Rovers and Gareth McGlynn and Ruaidhri Higgins also expected to return to their former club, Derry City.

Meanwhile, Airtricity League clubs can expect another reduction in the prize fund for the 2011 season as they still await their monies from last year.

Shamrock Rovers will receive €200,000 for winning the Premier Division last year. But that was down from the €280,000 Bohemians got when champions in 2009.

Fran Gavin, director of the league, confirmed the reduction. “I think the clubs are aware we are in tough economic times now,” he said. “There will be some reduction, but all those figures will be out next week. The clubs are all aware of that and their overheads are down as well, so that has to be taken into account.”

Clubs are still awaiting their prize-money from last season, though Gavin said they should receive that shortly. “At the moment we are meeting clubs regarding their budgets and looking at last season,” Gavin explained.