Blunder Boots!

What a farcical situation has arisen because the I.F.A. is so busy bending over backwards to kiss the arses of the directors of Linfield football club that they’ve made themselves a complete laughing stock. Ballymena and Linfield had agreed that if a replay of their Irish cup match was necessary, it should take place next Tuesday 13^th March. Then of course the I.F.A. has to stick its nose in by quoting that the rule states that the game must be replayed within 4 days (Sundays don’t count seemingly) and therefore the match could take place no later than tonight, Thursday 8^th March. Either date was acceptable to Ballymena, but alas Linfield were not happy with the new date and appealed against it and their appeal was upheld. I foolishly assumed that the match would go ahead next Tuesday as first planned, but no it now seems that the I.F. A. are going to have yet another meeting on next Monday night to decide when the match should be played. Now I hope you’re all following this closely as this means that there’s no possibility of the replay taking place next Tuesday as it’s only being decided on Monday (at least I hope I’m right in thinking this, but with the I.F.A. one can never tell). Now I’m only a layman but wouldn’t it have been wiser for Linfield to have postponed their Setanta cup game with Glentoran on last Monday night and then the cup replay could have been played on the Tuesday as is the norm. This is after all the ‘number one’ competition in our league, especially with the fans and it would be a tragedy if it was demeaned in order to allow the rich clubs to get even richer. Linfield and Glentoran may talk all day about the prestige of winning the Setanta cup, but in truth it’s all about money. Remember what happened a few seasons ago when the mighty Manchester United chose to go play in South America rather than in the F.A. cup? That was the beginning of the end for that great competition and it’s now reached the stage where some of the top teams don’t even field their top players anymore. Hopefully we won’t let our priorities be compromised just because somebody starts throwing silly money about. For the sake of the game please get your act together, local competitions must come first, anything else is just anarchy!