On Soccer: Having apparently impressed a meeting of Fingal's councillors with their plans to relocate from their current home in Drumcondra to a new site a few miles up the Tolka river, Shelbourne officials will sit down with a number of prospective investors during the coming weeks with a view to persuading them too that a better and brighter future can now be mapped out for the new league champions.
The aim at the new site will be to maximise revenue generation at a purpose-built facility from a range of activities currently out of bounds to the club because of the various limitations within which they must operate at Tolka Park.
The choice, says Ollie Byrne, is a fairly stark one with the club obliged either to find a way of moving itself forward on to a more secure financial footing, one from which it can sustain and continue to develop its playing side, or rethink the way it currently operates so that it finally begins to live within its present means.
The outcome of the various deliberations within the club should become known over the next couple of weeks and while Byrne is reluctant to make any predictions, he remains, he says, an optimist when it comes to the future of both his club and the league as a whole.
Ultimately, everybody at the club is agreed that a significant breakthrough is required on the European front if the public perception that the game here simply isn't good enough is to be shaken off.
But the conflicting pressure of achieving success at home and even steady progress in Europe was highlighted by Pat Fenlon on Friday night when, just minutes after his side had secured the eircom League title, he expressed the view that the level of expectation at clubs like his and Bohemians has actually hindered them when playing in UEFA competitions.
Fenlon argues that while the clubs here need to develop a more flexible tactical approach so as to be better able to cope with European opposition, the prospect of dropping points in a desperately tight league obliges club managers to stick rigidly to what they know best which, in most cases, means your bog standard 4-4-2.
Shelbourne did depart from the system for their win in Dalymount a couple of weeks back but, argues the Shelbourne manager, the level of significance which was attached to the switch underlines his point with most observers seeing even the mildest of tactical shifts as a radical departure.
A retreat from the move towards full-time football would all but end Irish hopes of some serious progress in European competition during the next few years and so the financial well-being of clubs like Shelbourne is clearly a key issue.
However, Fenlon admits that the current league structure, seen by several clubs as being so important from a revenue point of view, may also be a significant problem as too many teams have too much at stake in too many games, a situation that severely limits the ability of managers to develop their sides.
A greater emphasis on developing the required flexibility while players are young may be the long-term answer, but in the meantime both the league and its leading clubs may have to look again at how real progress on such an important front can best be achieved.
The current plight of Shamrock Rovers, though, may serve as a cautionary tale to the Shelbourne directors as they try to plan for the future. Still struggling to generate the funding required to complete their stadium in Tallaght, a couple of decent performances in European competition have done little to improve things at a club which last week found itself in court over a €3,000 laundry bill (the players have been playing in last year's strip of late because the cleaners won't give the new gear back before seeing their money) and this week finds itself attempting to sort out problems in relation to overdue wages, at least to the extent that Friday's game against Shelbourne gets played.
Though assurances have been given over Liam Buckley's position, no effort has been made so far to re-sign the nine first-team players who are out of contract from next week because there is no money to do so and the club reportedly intends to set about making up the numbers when it gets closer to next season's kick-off.
European football isn't something that the club is going to have to worry about again next year and perhaps it is as well for it seems they have enough on their collective plate just now. Shelbourne, we hope, will cope a little better with the dual challenge of relocating and restoring some pride on the international stage.
emalone@irish-times.ie
