Irish clubs face financial crisis - March 2,
2001
The cancellation of all Eircom League games this week because of the threat of foot and mouth disease has set alarm bells ringing in Ireland's 22 professional clubs.
The FAI has cancelled this week's programme because of the danger of spreading the dreaded agricultural plague, which has already hit England and Northern Ireland. As yet no case of the disease has been confirmed in the Republic. But if foot and mouth does emerge in the Republic - as seems inevitable - the remainder of the domestic soccer season could be scrapped.
That's a doomsday scenario for many of the 22 clubs. Most of them exist on a week-to-week basis, relying on this week's gate receipts to pay next week's wages.
Many of them came close to extinction during December and January, when bad weather forced the cancellation of over 40 games. And the postponement of this week's programme alone will make things tight for clubs like Finn Harps, Galway United, Drogheda United and Kilkenny City, who are already feeling the pinch.
Galway United players have already taken big pay cuts and, ironically, one of this week's cancelled games is a fund-raiser organised by the Galway players to try to generate extra revenue for the club.
Already, Shamrock Rovers manager Damien Richardson has warned that most clubs will be forced to cancel or suspend their players' contracts if the ban lasts for any length of time - and he has called on the Government to introduce a compensation scheme.
Many of the Eircom League's 500-odd players are part-timers with other jobs. But there is an ever increasing number of full-time professionals with no other source of income.