Fruitless Appeal!

It was interesting to hear the debate over the choice of Windsor Park for the Irish cup semi-final, between Larne and Glentoran, instead of bringing it to Ballymena Showgrounds. The I.F.A. in their wisdom or to pass the buck, the senior clubs committee, stated that Ballymena didn’t have enough seats for Glentoran supporters. The old stand I’m told has 1200 seats and the new one 1800 approximately. Now when one compares this with Windsor Park it is just not at the races. But let’s compare it with the choice of venue for the other semi-final between Linfield and Bangor, Seaview. To say that seating there is limited is to put it mildly, probably about a third of the capacity of the Showgrounds. So that argument is tossed right out the window immediately, but that allows us to get to the real ‘crux’ of the matter. Semi-finals are seldom taken out of Belfast and Linfield are guaranteed at least two semi-finals and one final during each and every season. How else are Linfield going to fund their huge wage bill, except at the expense of the other 16 Irish league clubs? They’re already getting £200.000 plus from the I.F.A. for the use of Windsor Park for Internationals, but their greed knows no limits and they demand at least two semi-finals and at least one final each and every season. Having said that one can’t argue with the facilities at Windsor as they are top class, but if the I.F. A. were to take over the ground extensions and repairs at any other club, as they do at Windsor, they too could have a top class stadium also. The Ballymena board and the two clubs made an unsuccessful appeal against this decision, which I personally thought was to be commended although in essence it was a complete waste of time. The United board even read out a message from Ballymena Borough council saying that as the I.F. A. (senior clubs committee), allowed that the Showgrounds wasn’t fit to hold an Irish cup semi-final, perhaps they could find another venue for schoolboy Internationals and other representative games. The council allowed that the committee’s decision was in complete contrast to Sky television, who praised the Showgrounds as the best ground for their requirements. This all fell on deaf ears, as at the end of the day the status quo must remain. One cannot go around upsetting the powers at Windsor Park, can one? The next thing you know clubs will be demanding that a neutral referee is selected when playing Linfield. This sort of thing can only lead to anarchy, we make the decision and you must abide with it, if not David Jeffrey will go and huff in the corner and Linfield will refuse to allow Norn Iron to play at Windsor Park. I know I’m being facetious here, but I think you get my drift. At the end of the day we’re just banging our heads against a brick wall, we either accept that we can’t change a thing or we keep our frustrations in check. Either way nothing changes and we just have to make the most of it!