End of the line for Eircom Park? - March 9,
2001
It looks increasingly likely that the Eircom Park dream will bite the dust today at meetings of the FAI's Board of Management and National Council.
Both bodies are set to vote instead to accept the Irish Government's offer of an anchor tenancy at Stadium Ireland, along with a huge monetary inducement.
In effect, the council-house family that tried to buy its own home has been vetoed by its own greedy children - and will have to live on as a tenant, paying to a landlord money that should be available to Irish soccer.
Leading the opposition to Eircom Park have been the Eircom League clubs - private businesses who stand to profit hugely from the Government's financial inducements.
Even though they represent a tiny fraction of the 350,000 FAI members, they have nine votes on the 22-strong Board of Management and 24 on the 56-strong National Council.
And with Schoolboy and Schools representatives misguidedly set to side with the league clubs - whose interests are directly opposed to their own - it looks as if the jig is up for the FAI's planned 45,000-seater stadium.
But with the current Government set to fall at the next general election and the opposition parties pledged to scrap the "Bertie Bowl" plans, the chances of Stadium Ireland ever being built are minimal.
And that will leave Irish soccer without any home at all!
If Stadium Ireland ever does get built, the tenancy agreement will leave Irish soccer subsidising athletics, swimming and other non-profitable sports for the rest of time.