King David!

So the Linfield manager wants to change the Setanta cup, he wants it played at the beginning of our season and he wants at least 2 more teams involved in it. It’ll probably happen, because as the Sky Blue fans so rightly said last week, ‘Linfield Are the I.F.A.’, well the I.F.A. are their biggest financial contributor after all. The Irish cup has been rendered virtually meaningless this season, all to suit Linfield in their pursuit of the Setanta cup. Probably the worst thing that ever happened prior to that was when E.U.F.A. in their wisdom cancelled the old cup winner’s cup competition and provided a place in the E.U.F.A. cup for the winners instead. The E.U.F.A. cup competition is the poor relation when it comes to European football, the feeling is that if you’re not in the Champions league, then you’re a fairly average team. Irish league teams would be delighted to be in either competition as they bring in extra money and help to boost club coffers. There’s also the much heralded Inter Toto cup as well which generally entails teams from here playing their first two legs in June. This of course is far from ideal as players tend to take their holidays at that time of year and its tough getting them back to full fitness for a game generally played in alien conditions, e.g. rock hard pitches. This is of course what Jeffreys and his mob want to inflict on a select bunch of Irish league teams. Don’t get me wrong I realise the clubs, ourselves included will be ‘wetting’ themselves in anticipation of breaking into that money making cartel. The people being ignored as usual are the people of have to foot the bill, the fans. I admit to attending pre-season friendlies, but mainly because I want to see how new players are shaping up, if somehow we are going to have to pay another forty pounds a season to watch Setanta games, then I may have to review my commitments to the Sky Blue cause. As the old saying goes, ‘if it isn’t broke don’t fix it’, in other words, ‘for the sake of the game, please leave well enough alone’!