FAI rule, just read the rulebook

Emmet Malonesets the scene for the new campaign and how clubs are expected, under the new rules brought in by the FAI, to toe the line

The chaos that has engulfed Shelbourne over the last few months may have caused some embarrassment of late around Merrion Square, where preparations have been in full swing for next week's launch of the reorganised League of Ireland. But the fate suffered by the country's most successful club of the past decade may not ultimately have hugely disappointed FAI chief executive John Delaney as he seeks to consign to history the sort of mayhem that reigned for the past 10 months at Tolka Park and turn his vision of a much brighter future for the senior game here into a reality.

Shelbourne's relegation by the association's licensing committee may have delayed the release of a fixture list for the new FAI-backed league and highlighted rather magnificently the fragile foundations on which even the country's biggest clubs have been prepared to construct a business plan over the past few years.

In the end, though, the willingness of the licensing authority to use wide-ranging new powers against even the biggest clubs has been firmly established while for the second time in a matter of weeks it has been made abundantly apparent to anyone who doubted it that the old conventions no longer apply around the top tier of Irish football.

The latter part of the Shelbourne saga has been unfolding at a time when final preparations have been going on to ensure the new FAI-backed league lives up to the hype which those occupying key positions within have worked hard to generate.

Delaney's determination to achieve control of the league for the association prompted some hefty commitments to what could be achieved once the "merger" was completed.

Since then the newly appointed league director, Fran Gavin, has repeatedly "guaranteed" the coming season will be a "great" one and new promotions officer Noel Mooney has talked about increasing the average weekly attendance at games around the country from 12,000 to 30,000 over the next few years.

Given the regularity with which Delaney is beaten with the stick of his "top-class international manager" promise, much of this talk seems rather rash, but asked about the preparations for the coming season this week, one senior figure in the association, far from playing down the targets, actually maintained the aim was to achieve weekly crowds of around 20,000 - an increase of some 66 per cent - by the end of this year.

The hope at Merrion Square is that a spend of more than €500,000 in the months ahead will get people to wander through the gates of their local club for what may, in many cases, be the first time, and that the various improvements prompted by a combination of club licensing, substantial capital grants and the switch to summer football will help keep them there.

To take their place in this brave new world, clubs have had to sign up to highly restrictive "participation agreements", documents that run to almost 70 pages when the newly rewritten rules of the league are included, and place a wide range of responsibilities on their employees.

Many of changes are manifestly for the better. The rulebook now contains a coherence that was painfully absent in the past, with many of the anomalies that have caused bitter disputes seemingly sorted out.

The new rules on wages continue to generate scepticism but the "standard player's contract" should further regularise the employment situation of the game's most important figures while the centralisation of commercial rights should help to expand an already substantially increased revenue pot.

Such improvements come at a cost, however. The stipulation that the FAI receive 125 free tickets for any league game played in a venue holding more than 15,000 may not trouble anyone for a while yet, but the intention is clearly to have a very swift end to any hint of public dissent.

Clubs are reminded three times in the participation agreements of their obligation to sign by the middle of January, and it is made clear that "disparagement" of the association by managers, players, officials or any other employee will result in disciplinary action. Websites and match programmes are also covered.

In the new regulations these sort of offences are dealt with, along with speaking out of turn to the media, by rule 20.2.3. Clubs are cautioned that they will be held responsible for the misbehaviour of fans at games, while there is a reminder that match fixing remains a no-no.

Though it has disappeared in most other areas of the modern world it is hard to avoid the conclusion that what the FAI is employing here is good, old-fashioned, democratic centralism, with clubs expected to publicly toe the line at a time when the association is striving to present the league to the outside world as both disciplined and united.

In an effort to make the situation more palatable, considerable energy has been expended on establishing new communications structures behind the scenes and players, managers and club directors have all been assured that their problems will be dealt with swiftly once they are brought to the attention of the league's administration.

Within a number of clubs there is still some unease about the extent to which power is being vested in just a handful of people, most notably Gavin, who has been working very hard of late to impress officials around the country, some of whom were slightly disappointed by his appointment in December.

Everywhere, though, there is a hunger for change and an acceptance, even on the part of those who have been hugely critical of Delaney in the past, that coercion was probably the only thing that was going to make clubs fall into line.

The extra prize-money, additional television coverage, 15 part-funded club promotions officers and substantial marketing budget have all helped to win Delaney support for the changes, and there has been general contentment that the punishment handed to Shelbourne heralds a new era of the rules applying equally to all.

All that is required now is results. With the combined effort and resources that are being put into making the new league work it seems almost unimaginable that things won't be better than they were.

But if the crowds don't come and the money doesn't flow in the anticipated way, then the newly achieved unity may prove short-lived and, once again, Delaney may find some of the promises made during the recent past coming back to haunt him.