FAI Cup romance is fading fast

Incurable romantics across the country may have been crossing off the days to the start of this season's FAI Cup but some supporters are thinking the competition has as much romance as one of the dodgier editions of Blind Date.

Over the last couple of seasons the competition has produced a number of fine matches and even a decent yarn in the form of a disintegrating Dundalk team triumphing over Bohemians in the first of last year's two finals.

But non-league clubs have had much to do with its more unique moments and it is becoming obvious unless a dramatic rethink takes place in the way the competition is handled then their day is pretty much done.

The problems over the eligibility of players who have played in last season's junior or intermediate cups for clubs other than the ones they are due to represent this week are the latest manifestation of the increasingly peripheral role these sides play in the senior cup.

That the season was shifted to the summer months and the FAI Cup rescheduled to get under way in July without the eligibility situation being properly addressed seems remarkable. It is not the first oversight since the introduction of summer soccer.

At the start of the league season there were also problems involving a string of, mainly first division, clubs over their efforts to sign players from non-league clubs at the tail end of their campaigns. In March the problems were patched over.

The approach this time looks every bit as shaky with FAI chief executive Fran Rooney writing to the 32 clubs involved in the FAI Cup on Sunday requesting everyone to agree to ignore the rule and allow the players in question participate in games.

With the first game of the round scheduled for tomorrow evening at Turner's Cross there is not much time in which to achieve the unanimous agreement required but at Merrion Square yesterday there appeared to be considerable optimism everybody concerned would agree to play ball.

If this is so it is something of a let-off for the game's legislators, who should have seen this coming and moved to resolve it.

It is hard (though not impossible) to imagine the question of how non-league clubs would be affected by the timing of the cup was not considered but even if it wasn't, last year's competition provided a stark warning on how their participation may yet become devalued if not farcical.

Down the years there have been some memorable achievements by non-league sides in the competition, the most obvious being the run to the final by Pete Mahon's St Francis in 1990.

This weekend, though, Mahon's Belgrove team will be without three players who are away on holidays and the club would be short another three if anyone objects to Rooney's proposal.

It is precisely the sort of situation that made last year's competition a dismal one for non-league sides, with Garda, Glenmore Dundrum and Rockmount taking hammerings due to a combination of absent players and lack of fitness.

There had already been a marked decline over the previous couple of seasons in the number of real shocks in the cup, with not a single win for non-league side over senior opposition in 2001/02.

And the previous season was little more interesting with only Portmarnock's win over Dundalk to show for six second-round meetings between league and non-league teams in 2000/01.

It seems even before the opening stages of the competition were switched to the middle of their summer break the non-league clubs were finding it harder to upset clubs which have become more professional because of the competitive nature of the Eircom League.

With players missing or short of full fitness the situation became something of a mess and it would be ludicrous if players brought in during the close season were not allowed to play.

Starting the competition in March would, of course, improve matters although it would create other problems with many of the better junior or intermediate sides often facing major fixture backlogs by then. And there would be the stark choice of having the final midway through the senior season or leaving a gap of several months between a couple of the latter rounds.

For now it is to be hoped there is enough goodwill to allow this season's competition proceed without lasting damage being done to its prestige. Then Rooney and co need to look at how to address the situation, and with their heads rather than their hearts.