PFAI General Secretary Stephen McGuinness has called for "leadership from the very top" to address the growing problems in the Airtricity League that have again been exposed by the crisis at Bray Wanderers.
Having issued a press release at half-time in their 3-0 loss to Dundalk on Friday night, warning the club’s future could be at stake if attendances do not improve, Seagulls chairman Denis O'Connor said he could not offer any assurances about the future of the club.
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"I’m not a magician," O'Connor said. "We have done our best. I can’t give any assurance because there is not much more we can do. We’ve worked really hard at it, we’ve done everything possible.
"Maybe it’s time that the people told us what they want, maybe they don’t want a football club. Or if they do want a football club come and tell us what they are prepared to do."
McGuinness said the problems at Bray have inflicted serious damage on the league, and warned there are deeper problems that desperately need to be addressed.
"I think the players feel very let down by the club and very let down by the people in charge of the league that have given out the license to compete in the league and have looked at the budgets and approved them," said McGuinness.
"I think the players felt, based on getting the licence, that the club at a minimum would get to the end of the season. I think it damages the league massively. We've been down this road that many times.
"The warning signs would be there in this situation similar to others that we've seen before, but there seems to be nothing has changes with regards to the rules and regulations around it. There seems to be no protection, from what I can see, for the player.
"There's a sporting issue here as well. You're looking at a situation where some clubs will have played Bray Wanderers at its full strength and some clubs will play them with potentially a weaker squad, which is very disappointing for the league but it's where we are.
"It really does need leadership from the very top and we do really need to get a hold of how the league is run. There's lots of things in this league that aren't right: there's no minimum wage, there's no minimum amount of professionals at every club, there's lots of things that need change.
"We've wandered from one issue to another."
