Dispute to rumble on into next week

SOCCER:THE DISPUTE between Bohemians and their remaining senior players will rumble on into next week after a day of talks yesterday, overseen by FAI chief executive John Delaney and League director Fran Gavin, failed to produce a settlement between the two sides.

Despite a lack of face-to-face meetings between the two sides, club officials described the process as having been “positive” and suggested progress had been made.

They said they were available to re-enter talks whenever required, but in a brief statement issued last night, the PFAI said they did not expect any further announcements to be made before Monday.

The dispute, over the terms in which nine players can agree to forfeit the remainder of their contracts with the club, has been going since the end of last season and a number of the players affected have been angered by the terms that have been on the table – equivalent to 13 weeks’ net pay – as well as the club’s inability to pay what they were offering until the past week or so.

Two players, Steven Gray and Brian Shelley, have initiated legal action aimed at having the club wound up in an attempt to secure some of their back pay, but the club have insisted any such payment must count towards the final severance settlement.

The ongoing problems have prevented Pat Fenlon from assembling a squad for the coming season and the Bohemians boss has been working for the past few weeks with a squad comprised mainly of last year’s under-21 squad along with a handful of senior players, who, it seems, will most likely not be around come the start of the season.

At Richmond Park, however, Pete Mahon says he has been angered by reports Bohemians have been approaching players about joining for the coming campaign before the current situation is resolved.

“I’m going by what I’m reading in the papers here,” he said. “But if it’s true it seems wrong to me that they can be looking to sign players before they have sorted out the lads who are already at the club.

“Having said that I hope that Pat does manage to put a good squad together in the end because the league needs a strong Bohemians.”

Mahon confirmed the signing of midfielder Paul Crowley yesterday along with the re-signing of Dave Mulcahy.

The deals bring to 17 the number of senior players at the club for the new season, with Daryl Kavanagh, Brian Shorthall and the McMillan brothers, David and Evan, the other new recruits.

The Dubliners are now looking at signing two players from England, although two of the three possible targets are currently on trials with other clubs.

“We feel that we’ve done fairly well in the close season and these lads would probably be the end of it if we got them. If we did, we’d have a strong squad and while Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers (who have been linked with a move for Bohemians winger Killian Brennan) are most people’s favourites for the league, we’d certainly like to feel we can improve on the fifth we managed last year.”