Setanta Cup looks way forward for Irish game

On Soccer: It remains to be seen how the Setanta Sports Cup might evolve into a larger all Ireland competition occupying a much more central place in the island's football calendar, but the observation by the broadcaster's senior executive, Niall Cogley, yesterday that the company would regard the tournament as "a failure" if it "does not turn out to be the precursor for something bigger and better," gives an indication of how those closely involved with the event see it moving forward.

Leading clubs on both sides of the border have given strong indications that they see a thriving 32-county competition as central to the development of the game here while supporters of the main northern teams, who might have been regarded as the party least likely to be enthusiastic about an all Ireland competition such as this, would appear to have embraced the concept too.

This year's event represented, in almost every way, a significant step forward over the inaugural running of the competition with the expansion of the group stages and addition of semi-finals bringing better balance and a more measured sense of progression to the tournament.

The failure of the northern sides to make the final was a setback and there is a fear that if it became the norm to have two southern teams contest the decider then interest would start to wane on the other side of the border.

More significant, though, was the failure of the fourth Irish League side in this season's competition, Dungannon Swifts, to take even a single point from four games against southern opposition. True, the two teams happened to both end up in the final but the inability of the debutants to make any sort of impact on this front served to highlight the desperate lack of depth in a league where talent, just as much as cash, is terribly overstretched.

Having convincingly won the competition last year, Linfield again performed strongly this time around with David Jeffrey's side topping what looked by far the tougher of two qualifying groups. Last year's defeat of Shelbourne tipped the overall balance of results of games involving teams from opposite sides of the border in favour of the Irish League - they had been identical before the final - but in recent weeks it has been a very different story with sides from the National League winning 10 and drawing five of 17 cross border clashes.

Dungannon were the weakest link from a northern point of view but their presence was no fluke, they look certain to clinch fourth place in the premier division for the second successive year and, with it, a place in next year's competition.

Portadown did manage draws in their home games with Cork and Drogheda but still finished below Swifts in the table, fully seven points off second placed United with just three. In the other group even Glentoran looked distinctly ordinary, with Derry's costly inability to score at the Oval against a side that conceded an average of more than three goals a game in their other Setanta outings still something of a mystery.

The imbalance is of some concern to anyone who sees the event developing over time into an all Ireland competition. Broad agreement would be required on both sides of the border that it is the way to proceed and if the north's representation looks set to be reduced to just two or three within a matter of a few seasons then it would be a hard sell for Irish League clubs.

Already there has been talk in some quarters of further expansion with Scottish teams being invited to take part and Cogley says that Setanta, who are happy with the viewing figures (93,000 watched Saturday's final), are pleased to see a "radical approach" taken to the development of the competition even if, he says, such a leap might be a couple of years off yet.

Still, if the competition really is to act as a major stepping stone for the development of the game here then a period of bedding down the present format may be a preferable route forward.

The simple fact is that for an island of five million people to have 28 "top flight" teams is ludicrous when the game here must compete with blanket television coverage of a 20-club Premiership league which doesn't make any attempt to restrict itself to England's 50-million strong population as a source for players.

The number of teams here is close to the number of counties competing in the Gaelic football championship each year. Logic would suggest that with more people playing soccer than football at grass roots level, soccer-coaching methods having developed across Europe and the world and a growing number of soccer players here getting the opportunity to play on a full-time basis, the standard within the league is, allowing for a hundred or so of the most talented players being removed at an early age to Britain, at least as high as at inter-county football level. What is different is that your average Gaelic game is not routinely compared unfavourably with matches involving the cream of talent from across Europe.

Such is the inevitable downside of having an international aspect to your game, but if Irish clubs are really to win the many sceptics over then they must, as rugby has done recently through the development of the Celtic League and European Cup, at least start to address the numbers issue and concentrate the game's talent.

After a successful if not quite triumphant second year, the Setanta Cup, in whatever precise form it assumes over the next few years, certainly looks to be the best available route forward just now.