Beautiful Dreamer!

Another season is almost over and what has been achieved by any team or organisation? In essence it has to be said, ‘sweet Fanny Adams’. Linfield have won all the domestic trophies so far, but as they’re getting a £250,000 of a leg-up from The I.F.A., that’s hardly surprising. They’ve also been given every possible chance to win the fourth trophy, the Irish cup, as the final is on their own ground. There was never even talk of a neutral venue and anyway Linfield and Glentoran fans have a tendency to go missing for games outside the Belfast area, as witnessed at Ballymena last Saturday. What of our dear governing body the sweet F.A., sorry I’ve missed out a letter here haven’t I, it should be the (I.) F.A... On reflection maybe F.A. is closer to the truth, as evidenced by the Brian McClean saga, which has enfolded recently. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you about this ‘fiasco’, how Brian should’ve had an International cap in a competitive game before he was 21 years-old, in order to qualify for Northern Ireland. The Glasgow Rangers player, loaned out at present to Motherwell, has been left high and dry by the bungling of our F.A.. If that’s not bad enough, they are now appealing to F.I.F.A. to try and have the ruling overturned. Glentoran (never a team to miss an opportunity), are watching this development with interest, saying that if it is overturned, then it’ll establish a precedent and they’ll be entitled to have their £5,000 fine for failing to register Gary Smyth  a few years ago returned. Then just this week we learned of another ‘cock up’, involving for the second time our dear neighbours (Coleraine Scum) and the F.A.. Coleraine you may remember were fined a £1,000 for playing an ineligible player, Ryan McLaughlin in the C.I.S. cup, when he had already played for Dungannon Swifts, at the start of this season. I’m just wondering here if they actually did pay it or was it ‘written off’ with the rest of their debt? But I digress, Cliftonville (haven’t these teams heard the old adage, ‘people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones?), have raised a matter referring to Coleraine signing Sean Hennegan from Tobermore United during the January transfer window, stating that the player wasn’t properly registered and in that case they should’ve been awarded the points in a recent game where they lost one nil to the Coleraine Scum. The F.A. have quickly stated that there is no case to answer, too quickly to my mind and I’m sure Cliftonville with I.F.A. president Jimmy Boyce on board, must have been pretty sure of their facts before raising the matter. As I’ve stated many times in the past, the I.F.A. is a ‘cancer’ in our midst and we all know that if cancer isn’t cut out completely, it will eat away until it kills you. If the Premier league clubs really want to progress, as they say they do, they must disband the I. F.A. immediately and replace it with a real professional organisation, otherwise our local game will continue to dwindle until there’s nothing left. That’s enough ranting from me, I’m off now to do a bit of gardening and play a lot of golf, but I will return all nicely refreshed in September I hope, but remember, ‘Sky Blue Sport’ will keep you updated with all the news from the Showgrounds during the close season. Have a nice break and  remember, ‘North, South, East or West, Sky Blue Sport, is the best’!

Tom Dick (Head)!

Did you read the article by Glentoran Chairman Tom Dick last Friday in the Belfast Telegraph calling for a ten team league, in order to cut down the number of games played each season? What a load of rubbish is what sprung to my mind! To start with, all Tom Dick is thinking about is one thing and one thing only, money. So forget about 18 games, what he wants is 36 games, 8 more than we play at present. To accommodate this he wants the C.I. S. cup to be solely a knock-out competition and to relegate the County Antrim Shield to a junior competition. Let’s look at this objectively, after all nobody forces teams like Glentoran to enter the County Antrim Shield. As for cutting the league down in order to play Setanta Cup matches on a Saturday, could the Glentoran chairman enlighten us as to what the other six teams in his supposed ‘super league’ are going to do on a Saturday? I’ll tell you what, absolutely nothing, as at the end of the day he doesn’t give a fiddlers. The Glentoran chairman is thinking of one thing and one thing only, how many pay days that the Glens can have against the Blues and how much money they can make playing teams from south of the border on a Saturday. Yes we admit this league is not perfect, but we’ve tried all sorts of permutations and this is the best we can come up with. Instead of looking at changing things he should be thinking of ways to enhance our league as it is. If he wants to decrease the number of games, maybe we should try an eight team split after 15 games, the top half play each other once and the bottom half likewise. This would reduce the number of games teams have to play till 22,therefore leaving ample free Saturdays for Setanta cup games. But it still wouldn't suit the 'Big two' as they'd be losing out on a guaranteed fourth meeting. That's what you have to acceptTom, even in a perfect scenario it wouldn’t be perfect, so let’s just make the best of what we have!

Pitch Invasion!

It was interesting to read the comments of Ballymena Mayor Tommy Nicholl at last Saturday’s corporate dinner, when he hinted at further development plans for the Showgrounds. There was nothing too elaborate I have to say, the principal point being the long talked about demolition of the old O’Kane stand and the erection of a control tower in its place. So there wasn’t too much for the gathered audience to get excited about, although the Portadown fans who occupied four tables, were getting a bit carried away, to put it mildly. There had been a ‘jackanory’ doing the rounds that Stock car racing was finished at the Showgrounds, I took this news with a pinch of salt as I’ve heard it so many times before, but I was assured this time that the Stock cars would never have the use of the main Showgrounds complex again. Imagine my surprise when I read in the local papers this week that there is a massive Easter meeting with a full programme of races this Friday and Saturday. The Showgrounds pitch has been looking quite well recently and this Saturday sees United play their most important home game of the season, when their derby rivals, the Coleraine Scum, pay their seasonal visit. What chance does the pitch have of being in good condition when the stock cars blatantly use the pitch as an escape lane? Ballymena Borough council were supposedly quite annoyed at United losing the Irish cup semi-final, which went to Windsor Park. But how can they expect the footballing powers that be to take them seriously, when they allow these ‘people’ (I use this word in its loosest form, Hallions is much better word to my mind), to plough up the football pitch at their will? As the debate goes on about the proposed new National stadium at the Maze, maybe the council and the United board could be looking ahead and formulating plans to develop the Showgrounds as a reasonable alternative. Everybody and his Aunt knows that the ‘Maze’ is just a ‘white elephant’, it will never be built. The government will dilly and dally, until one of the big superstore chains comes along and offers them several million pounds for the site and that will be the end of the National stadium pipe dream. The government will of course blame everybody only themselves, but the crux of the matter will be that Northern Ireland will still be playing at an ever decreasing capacity ground, Windsor Park. Maybe if our council got their act together they could have plans to develop the Showgrounds, after all they wouldn’t have to actually do it, but they’d have to be ready. The first move in my opinion would be the relocation of the stock car track and the widening of the Showgrounds pitch. If they did this and set out plans for future development, then The I.F.A. would have to take them a bit more seriously!

Political Jimmy!

I see Jimmy Boyce has been returned unopposed as president of the I.F.A. for another term, just what is the criteria to be I.F. A. president I wonder. It reminds me of the old joke about the dispute about what part of the human body would be boss? I’m sure you’ve heard it (if you haven’t just drop me a line and I’ll tell you). He, apparently, has been returned unopposed, but what ‘is’ the criteria to oppose him, I ask once again? Must you be colour blind? A strange colour blindness after all, not able to tell the difference between Red and Green (this refers to Jimmy Boyce’s insistence that Cliftonville supporters only have red flags at matches under the I.F.A. umbrella). We of course know that it is very different and in fact red flags are conspicuous by their absence at Solitude and at away games. But maybe we are being somewhat 'sectarian' here, after all isn’t Jimmy Boyce an ‘all singing, all dancing’, I.F.A. president? Hasn’t he championed (I do hope that’s not too strong a word), the move from Windsor Park, to a new stadium at the Maze (Lisburn)? Why, oh why, has he done this, I ask myself? The answer of course is that he wants to be all things to all people. Winston Churchill, that ‘Great’ war leader (1939-45), is attributed with saying, ‘You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time!’ Jimmy Boyce is a long way into making that statement, seem totally and completely false. I had the misfortune to almost run into him at the Irish cup replay between Ballymena United and Lisburn Distillery at the Showgrounds. I enquired of a United official as just to what he was doing there and the reply was, ‘it’s a good night out for him’. You see the problem we have is that Jimmy knows a ‘good thing’ when he sees it. Have you ever listened to one of his speeches? I mean have you ever listened (objectively), to one of his speeches? If you have, you must agree that (fundamentally), they are pretty inconclusive and in fact are all things to all people. Jimmy is in fact a political genius, he tells us exactly what we want to hear, not all of the time I must admit, but some of the time. But and I must emphasis the word ‘but’, I, personally, still, don’t like him!