Omar's moving finger writes...

There’s an old saying that ‘you shouldn’t kick a man when he’s down’, but there’s also one which contradicts that, ‘strike while the iron’s hot’. Maybe the man in question at this moment (well in reality it’s not a man, just an organisation), isn’t really down, but in my opinion they definitely should be. I refer of course to my old ‘chestnut’ the Irish Football Association. I have always believed that Jimmy Boyce and his band of misfits were the most incompetent bunch that one could hope to meet. I was of the opinion that the ‘way forward’ for the Irish league was to form a completely new organisation, which had no links whatsoever with the old. This of course didn’t ‘stand a snowball in hells chance’, why would a dictator like Jimmy Boyce relinquish his powers, of course it was never an option. But one of the proposals put forward by the Government, was for the executive committee to be five in number, four elected representatives, plus the chief executive. But no the I.F.A. chose to ignore this and instead went ahead with a top heavy thirteen man committee. How can a thirteen man committee be held accountable, I ask you? If it had been five men, then any ‘dead wood’ would have been plain for everyone to see, but with thirteen those ineffective participants can remain practically unnoticed. Take the ongoing fiasco of players’ registration. We have been told by our chief executive that all players’ registration would be computerised. This of course hasn’t taken place, if it had surely then clubs could be informed when purchasing a player from another club, which competitions they were eligible to take part in. How long can it take to set up a data base for sixteen Premier clubs? Is it going to take sixteen weeks, or maybe all season and until then we’ll continue to add mix-up after mix-up. A rumour is also doing the rounds at present that the I.F.A. is considering pulling out of the proposed new National stadium at the Maze, near Lisburn. This would of course be just like them, but why would they be even considering it? Could it be the fact that F.I.F.A. wants Windsor Park to be upgraded over the next couple of years and the I.F.A. feel it would be a waste of money to fund something they would get no further use of? This is of course what they’d like us to think, but in reality I’m afraid it has more to do with the executive committee’s ‘deep pockets’, a 25 year agreement with Linfield and a few ‘perks’ for Jimmy and the boys, is I feel, much closer to the truth. There’s another old saying that goes, ‘where’s there’s muck there’s brass’ and when Jimmy and the boys are involved, there’s usually plenty of both!