Regional league a possibility

Soccer FAI club licensing scheme: Representatives of the National League's 22 clubs will meet in Dublin this evening to consider the implications of the weekend's decision by the FAI's independent club licensing committee not to grant a single Premier Division licence.

League officials, it emerged yesterday, have already discussed the possibility of having to replace the premier and first divisions with a regional league for the coming season and this proposal may be one of the options put to clubs this evening.

Under the rules of the UEFA-backed scheme which was first adopted here almost three years ago, clubs must possess an A licence if they are to be permitted in the top flight of the country's national league and a B licence to play at a lower level.

Licences are granted to clubs that fulfil a variety of sporting, infrastructural, administrative, legal and financial criteria with different standards being set for premier and first division participation.

FAI chief executive Fran Rooney confirmed yesterday no club had been awarded an A licence while two of the 22, one of which is Shamrock Rovers, has not even been granted the B licence required to play in the lower of the league's two divisions.

Rooney insisted yesterday morning the association was not inclined to exclude any club from senior football on the basis of the committee's considerations, but there was considerable uncertainty last night among the clubs over what form this year's league might now take.

"This isn't a punishment process," said Rooney at a press conference in Merrion Square yesterday. "We don't want to put any club out of football.

"What we want to do is to get them up to the required standard and we realise to do that we have to take a longer-term view."

But while Rooney went on to imply he would favour the deferral of the new regulations so clubs can have more time to meet the requirements, this would involve disregarding the FAI's own rules and, where clubs that have been denied a licence on a basis other than poor infrastructure are concerned, an agreement on the licensing issue reached with UEFA earlier this year.

Clubs have until the end of the week to appeal the committee's decision and it is expected all the Premier Division clubs will do so with nine seeking the A licence and Rovers aiming to gain official permission to play senior football next season.

Rovers, who with Limerick, find their league status threatened by the lack of any licence, remain confident about the outcome, however, with chairman Tony Maguire describing yesterday's news as, "a mere hiccup".

Maguire said when the club provides evidence it has secured a home for the season it would be granted a licence. The fact the club could not be sure of where it would be playing this season would have ruled it out of the running for a licence.

Just 24 hours after the club announced it would play at Richmond Park it has emerged negotiations with officials at Bohemians on the club moving in at Dalymount Park began on Tuesday.

Rooney said several clubs came very close to obtaining the A licence and he is hopeful they will do so after addressing the issues raised in the committee's ruling on their individual cases.

And it has emerged league officials have discussed a contingency plan under which clubs would be divided into two groups on a regional basis. The clubs would play two rounds of games with the leading teams in each section and then progress to a second stage that would decide European places. Several club officials said yesterday they were unaware of the plan.

Derry City's Jim Roddy, however, insisted, "We must first complete the process and decide how to proceed only when we have a final count on the number of clubs with A licences. We're disgusted we didn't get one this time, but we still expect to get one during the weeks ahead and we certainly wouldn't accept a situation where all of the effort we have put into getting to that stage would simply be for nothing."