Omar's moving finger writes.....

I.F.A chief executive Howard Wells paid a visit to the Showgrounds last Saturday, he is reportedly in the process of visiting every Premier league club and it was our turn last week. He was, according to reports, suitably impressed by the old place and congratulated the club on their forethought. One of the questions put to him was, ‘How much of a percentage of gate receipts, do Linfield receive from the governing body for Internationals?’ This was a matter that had been raised at the I.F.A. annual general meeting, but couldn’t be answered as the figures weren’t available. A strange A.G.M. that must have been, no figures available, seems to me more like the person responsible was put on the spot and didn’t want to answer. So the United board kindly asked the chief executive if he could supply this information. Are you sitting down, because if you’re not, the shock could be too much for you? This year has been an exceptional year, what with the visit of England, Wales and last week’s friendly against Portugal, but it’s still a surprising amount, even taking these factors into account. The sum we are told is fixed at 10%, which works out at a staggering £200,000, yes two hundred thousand pounds, can you believe it. Just imagine the edge which this gives to Linfield in Irish league terms, at least half their wage bill paid up front, quite a leg-up from the I.F.A. No wonder Linfield fans are putting pressure on the I.F.A. to abandon the proposed International stadium at the Maze near Lisburn. If the ‘Norn Iron’ games were to be played away from Windsor Park, Linfield’s revenue would suddenly dry up and their habit of ‘poaching’ the best players from other league clubs would go down the tubes. How do Linfield keep the I.F.A. ‘sweet’ as regards International matches, I wonder? Surely Jimmy and the boys wouldn’t take any ‘perks’ now would they? One might speculate that our Governing body have been less than ‘circumspect’ in the past and where there’s ‘muck there’s brass’. Yes you might think hands are being ‘greased’ behind the scenes. You might think so, but I could never say it, now could I?