There is a cloud of uncertainty hanging over Drogheda United just days before Tuesday's UEFA Conference League draw, and it’s not one created by tactics or results.
It’s the kind of confusion that doesn’t happen on the pitch but in UEFA boardrooms and legal departments.
As of today, Drogheda United will not be allowed to take their well-earned place in Europe this season. And that’s as bizarre as it is unacceptable.
The issue centres around multi-club ownership. Drogheda, owned by the Trivela Group, also share ownership ties with Walsall in England and, crucially, Silkeborg IF in Denmark - recent qualifiers for the Europa Conference League.
UEFA’s regulations prevent clubs with the same owners from competing in the same European competition to preserve sporting integrity.
And now, with Silkeborg’s European spot secured, Drogheda’s hard-fought right to represent Ireland is under threat.
They’re not alone in this. Crystal Palace are reportedly caught in the same net after their surprise FA Cup win, thanks to John Textor’s stake in the London club and his business group’s control of Olympique Lyonnais, who also qualified for Europe.
This isn’t a new issue, but it’s one that seems to be applied with increasing rigour.
And yet, in recent years, we’ve seen the rule bent to accommodate clubs of greater financial and political weight.
Manchester City, Nottingham Forest, and Manchester United have all had complex ownership links with clubs across Europe, yet all managed to navigate the rules.
The mechanisms are there—loopholes, blind trusts, share dilution, corporate shell games. So, the question must be asked: why haven’t Drogheda and Palace exploited those same mechanisms?
In Palace's case, maybe European qualification simply wasn’t on the radar. Sitting mid-table for most of the season, the odds of a cup run culminating in European football were slim.
Only once in the last eleven years has a club outside the traditional "Big Six" won the FA Cup, Leicester in 2021.
You could maybe understand if the paperwork wasn’t a priority. But Drogheda? Their FAI Cup win came last November. They’ve had over half a year to prepare, to plan, to seek clarity.
And this is where it gets uncomfortable.
Because Trivela has done an excellent job at Drogheda by any footballing metric. Under their stewardship, the club has returned to full-time football, shown marked improvements around the ground, and is punching well above its weight in the league under the excellent leadership of Kevin Doherty.
There are plans for a new stadium. Optimism. Progress. Professionalism.
Which makes the current uncertainty even more baffling.
If the deadline to restructure ownership under these new rules was, as rumoured, in March, why wasn’t something done? Was Trivela not informed of the deadline?
If not, who failed to pass on that crucial information? Was it UEFA? The FAI? Or was it simply assumed that Drogheda, a club running at a much smaller operational scale than its European counterparts, albeit with a multi club ownership model, would figure it out for themselves?
It would be hard to accept that a group as competent as Trivela simply missed something this important. Their track record doesn’t suggest a group prone to administrative oversight.
Which leads us to the possibility that the rules, or at least the enforcement of them, are shifting. And Drogheda are the ones being made to pay the price.
But the ramifications could stretch beyond Europe.
Club licensing is based on various metrics, including financial projections and future revenues.
If Drogheda were to lose out on European income due to a procedural fault, do they now risk falling foul of those licensing targets? Could this, unbelievably, turn into a domestic sanction issue? That would be catastrophic.
And entirely avoidable.
'It's been turned into a case study in red tape and ownership bureaucracy'
Kevin Doherty and his players will be disappointed and angered with how this has unfolded after working so hard to get the club into Europe, the highlight of their season taken from them because of an administrative gap.
Drogheda’s story should be one of triumph, an overachieving team getting its moment on the continental stage.
Instead, it’s been turned into a case study in red tape and ownership bureaucracy. A club that has done so much right now faces missing out on Europe not because of anything that happened on the pitch, but because of what didn’t happen off it.
Whatever the outcome in the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday, the multi-club ownership debate comes back into the spotlight once again.
If Drogheda are to miss out on their place, it would feel like more than just a footballing disappointment, it would raise fair questions about the consistency of UEFA’s rules and regulations.
It’s hard to understand how Drogheda could be excluded while the Red Bull model continues to operate across multiple clubs in Europe.
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