With less than a week to go before the start of the new season, Eircom League of Ireland chairman Paddy McCaul cautioned yesterday against expecting too much too soon from the newly reorganised competition which will, for the first time, fall under the direct control of the FAI while benefiting from the association's financial and administrative backing.
"The time to pass judgement on the merger is in three or four years' time not in one week or one month," said McCaul at yesterday's official launch of the league at Kilmainham's Royal Hospital.
The former Athlone Town official insisted the merger would ultimately prove highly beneficial for the league and its clubs. But, after a build up to the new campaign during which some very bullish claims have been made regarding what might be expected, his intention was clearly to be a good deal more circumspect regarding the immediate future.
New league director Fran Gavin also sought to dampen expectations a little after having previously "guaranteed" that this would be a "great" season for the league. "I can't predict what the results will be," said Gavin "but the intentions are right and everybody is putting in a lot of work to ensure it all goes well."
With prize-money of more than €500,000 and as much again being spent on marketing the competition, there was certainly a sense at the launch that things are moving in the right direction.
However, Shamrock Rovers manager Pat Scully's rather downbeat assessment is fairly representative of where most people within the game believe the new league is starting from. He said: "You'd find it hard to think that things might disimprove because last year was so disappointing in a few different ways.
"It's obviously difficult to come in and take over something that has been criticised so heavily and has probably been run so badly so it is probably going to take a bit of time. As Paddy McCaul says it's probably a little bit unfair to think that the FAI is going to come in and within two or three months everything is going to be perfect.
"But it's all a question of learning from mistakes and if the people running things now do learn from the past then I firmly believe that we can have a really, really good league."
One of the most obvious upshots so far of the FAI's increased support for the league is the dramatically enhanced schedule of league games to be transmitted live on television with more than 30 due to be shown during the months ahead.
RTÉ 2 will broadcast next Friday's encounter between Bohemians and Drogheda United as well as Cork City versus Galway United and Derry City against St Patrick's Athletic in the two following weeks. Setanta will then show Drogheda v Derry and Derry versus Cork on March 30th and April 9th, respectively, while TV3 and TG4 will both be involved later in the season.
"If we do it right then the television coverage can be a hugely beneficial factor," says Gavin, "and our intention is certainly to do it right. We want everybody's experience of the league to be a positive one and we'll do everything to make sure that that happens.
"What we can't do anything about is what happens on the pitch, but that's the way it should be, it's the beauty of the game."
Gavin concedes it has been hard for some of the clubs to keep up with the pace of change forced upon them over the last couple of years by licensing and, more recently, the participation agreement they were required to sign up to in order to enter the new league. But, he says, they have all made considerable strides over the past couple of years.
"It's been a new world for a lot of them," he says, "because the norm would have been for the same one or two people to do almost everything within a club and that's just not possible anymore. We've raised the standards a great deal but the clubs have responded to that. They've embraced the changes and we should see the benefits of all that they have done and we have done over the months ahead."
In the meantime some clubs will host open days this weekend aimed at strengthening links with their local communities. Bohemians and Bray host events today at their home grounds at 1pm and 11am, respectively, while members of Drogheda's squad will be at the club shop at the Scotch Hall centre between noon and 5pm.
UCD have organised a range of family activities at St Raphaela's School in Stillorgan from 4pm- 5.30. Monaghan United will stage a similar event between 11.0 and 2.0 tomorrow at Newbliss Road.
PRE-SEASON FRIENDLIES
Today: Galway Utd v Athlone Town (Terryland Park, 3.0), Longford Town v Limerick 37 (Flancare Park, 5.30), UCD v Wexford Youths (Belfield, 6.0), Kilkenny City v Shamrock Rovers (Buckley Park, 7.30). Tomorrow: Bray Wanderers v Kildare County (Carlisle Grounds, 1.0).
