Quite an intriguing week for the eircom League. While the Setanta Sports Cup took main stage it was the external activities that gained the headlines. I am not an advocate of an All-Ireland League.
I have stated on many occasions that I believe it is not a realistic enough proposition for eircom League of Ireland clubs at the moment.
Damien Richardson's Eye on the eL Archive
The simple truth is that it is the clubs from the North that need the idea to become reality because there are serious problems associated with the game up there. Linfield are far and away the best team in the Irish League as their recent record demonstrates, and yet they were torn asunder by a rampant St Pat's team.
In the semi-final last season, Cork City similarly ran Linfield ragged at Windsor Park but lost the game despite demonstrating vividly the vast difference between the two leagues.
During that game in Belfast, Linfield offered persuasive proof of the theory that habit is one of the major factors in professional sport, and especially the habit of winning.
It is my suggestion that a team, well versed in the art of winning, can sometimes overcome seemingly impossible situations and emerge victorious essentially because they, and their fans, fully expect to win every game.
Politically and socially I am in favour of exploring the possibilities that could very well result in an All-Ireland League in a few years' time. However, I urge caution. To engage in serious discussions is fine but to progress this idea without seeking to explore every possible difficulty, and there will be many, would be imprudent.
My reservations are based essentially on footballing matters. There is a widening gulf between the two areas of football in the country of Ireland. The brave step into summer football and the arrival of full-time clubs has hastened prodigious improvements in the eircom League of Ireland.
The physical improvements so necessary in modern professional sport are immediately obvious in the quite impressive physique of all modern eircom League footballers.
This is in contrast with some of their counterparts in the Irish League, where the part-time ethos prevents the players concerned from applying themselves with the diligence required to increase the fitness levels sufficiently.
Hence, the physical disparity between players sharing the same field of play underlines emphatically the need to modernise the game north of the border.
As such, it is my belief that until the Northern clubs can contemplate a move into full-time football, the gap will remain and the dream of amalgamation will linger rather than prosper.
Attendance figures are not yet good enough in our league but are much better than those in the Irish League and also have a much younger profile. A whole generation of supporters has been lost to the game in the North, and this imbalance will need much time to be rectified.
The extremely disappointing attendance figures for the Setanta Cup games during the week also highlighted the apathy of our own supporters. That there were only 1,500 in Turner's Cross and roughly the same in Inchicore, demonstrates the lack of enthusiasm which was also mirrored in Belfast by Irish League supporters where Derry City played in front of an even smaller crowd in their game at Glentoran.
Linfield are on the verge of winning the Irish League and Cup double, again. They are practically unbeatable in their own environment and there is some resentment amongst the other clubs in the North that this is to a great extent created by the fact that Linfield get something like half a million pounds from the Irish Football Association for renting Windsor Park for Northern Ireland's international games.
This huge amount of money paid to Linfield grants them a significant advantage in a league where attendance figures can be counted in the hundreds rather than the thousands.
Irrespective of this, the truth is that even with this large advantage over their Irish League colleagues, Linfield themselves are a fair way behind the top eircom League clubs.
However, as in all things, if there is enough money promised by governments, TV and commercial activity, progressions can be made. My profession has induced in me down the years a scepticism, a cynical awareness that professional football is sometimes a vehicle for the ambitions of certain types of men.
Some may want personal opportunity, while I and many like me, only want to see facts. I didn't like the facts that were shown this week.
