PFAI General Secretary Stephen McGuinness has called for a "stronger decision-making" voice within the FAI as the elongated process to nail down a return for the League of Ireland continues to drag on.
The FAI and the Premier and First Division clubs have agreed an 18-game season to kick off again on 31 July but the actual format of the Premier and First Divisions has yet to be fully nailed down.
Today was supposed to be the deadline for clubs to settle on a structure. There is still no clarity on the path forward however, and McGuinness aired his frustration around a process he says is crying out for firmer leadership.
"The correspondence went to the clubs late last night," he told RTÉ Sport's Tony O'Donoghue.
"We have a meeting with the FAI on Monday, we have our AGM today, so obviously we will discuss with the players the information that we've got up to now. I just think it's taken too long. I think the FAI should have made the decision quite a while ago.
"I think when you're talking to 19 businesses, which is what football clubs are, it’s going to be very difficult to get consensus between them all on any decision.
"So I think the one lesson learned from this is that there needs to be somebody running it and somebody driving it and somebody making the decisions because you’re asking clubs, 19 of them, to make a decision whether it’s about the return of the league whether it’s about fixtures.
"It been proven that it doesn’t work and it does need stronger leadership right from the very top.
"The talk of breakaway leagues, of clubs going out on their own, I think this has proven that that isn’t going to work.
"We have to work together and that has probably worked (in the past) under the FAI, but it does need a stronger decision-making voice. This has taken far too long."
McGuinness said that only Waterford FC - who parted ways with manager Alan Reynolds nearly two weeks ago - have yet to get back training, a situation that he admitted is "slightly worrying".
He added that players are open to deferring wages owed as there is an appreciation of the cash-flow issues clubs are currently facing.
"Its been hugely difficult for [the players]. I will say over the last couple of days, and I expect over the weekend, clubs have become a hell of a lot more active.
"I think we have nearly every club now ready to go back to training. Waterford really is the only one that there’s not a set date to return to play.
"In the First Division there's a bit of work to be done there as well. A lot of players in there are part-time.
"it's been hugely frustrating for the players - anxious - but it looks like we are coming to the end of it now and hopefully over the next couple of days the players will get an end date."
On the suggestion that players may have to take wage cuts, McGuinness added: "I think 75% of our members up to last week weren't being paid what their contracts stated, what’s on that contract. A lot of them were on Covid payments.
"Our players have worked really hard over the weekend, over last weekend and will work hard over this weekend, to get solutions. We need strong clubs, we need vibrant clubs, and we need our members paid obviously.
"There was a talk of a collective view on this. It’s not. It’s a case-by-case, club-by-club decision. And so far, things have gone well.
"I do feel there’s a general drive for everybody to get back to play and for our clubs and our players to have a league to be proud of and to play in I do think that we will find solutions, hopefully at every club.
"[Players' discussions] have been around deferrals to give the clubs that bit of breathing space, and our members have been willing to do that today."
