Impossible Dreams!

I know all Irish league fans will be surprised to hear that Ards’s plans for a new ground have fallen through once more. I am joking here of course, as everybody and their Aunt knew that the possibility of Ards getting a new ground were as remote as Linfield sharing their £250,000 yearly handout from the I.F.A. for the use of Windsor Park, amongst the other 15 Premier league clubs. The ‘Ards saga’ has been running for quite a few years now and if I’m not mistaken they made a pledge to the I.F.A. two seasons ago, that if their ground wasn’t started by the end of the 2004/05 season, they would pay a fine of £10,000. What a joke that has turned out to be as Ards are now in receivership and can’t afford to pay anybody, never mind paying a fine to the governing body. Ards are I have to say not alone in dealing in a despicable manner with people who have showed absolute faith with them. Take our own dear friends, better known as Coleraine Scum, didn’t they run up an outrageous overdraft and then refuse to pay it and were allowed to continue as a football team, instead of being ‘wound up’. In fact the only people who were ‘wound up’, were the creditors that Coleraine owed money to. This sort of action gives out the wrong impression to aspiring clubs that you can ‘have your cake and eat it’ as the old saying goes. Just imagine the scenario a few years down the line, Wakehurst and Donegal Celtic have run up a bill of half a million each. So what do they do, they follow the example of Coleraine and go into receivership, continuing on as if nothing has happened. Surely it’s time the I.F.A. amended their ‘archaic’ rules and laid down some guidelines to punish teams who allow their debts to spiral out of control. Then maybe we can get back to having a level playing surface, for the future of the game, it is the only logical course. Maybe while they’re at it they could look into their ‘hilarious’ contract with Linfield for the use of Windsor Park. But wait a minute, what am I saying, ‘miracles happen everyday, but the impossible takes a little longer’ and as far as the I.F.A. are concerned, it’ll just never happen!