Still Learning!

There's an old saying which supposedly goes, 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'. Senior football came to Ballymena 80 years ago, in 1928. The team was originally known purely and simply as Ballymena and for the first ten or so years things went along normally, more or less. We won the Irish cup in our first year, 1929, beating the 'famous' Belfast Celtic in the final. This was a major achievement, but we finished runners-up in 1930 and 1931 also and so our love of the Irish cup was born. Things as I said went along normally, until an 'off the cuff' remark by the then club chairman, relating to the payment of amateurs (even more illegal then, than now), caused the forming of the new club, Ballymena United. By a strange coincidence we have just been fined £1,000 for breaching this rule this season, not that it's illegal to pay amateurs now, it's just illegal to pay them excessively. United were guilty of that, but so are most of the other 15 clubs in the present Premier league set-up. United I was told had the ammunition to fight back against the I.F.A., but chose to 'bite the bullet' on this occasion and pay the levied fine. We were 'rapped over the knuckles' by the authorities, but chose to eat 'humble pie', but for whatever reason I simply cannot Understand. Hopefully though we've learned from our 'gaffe' and if we can now get 'our house in order', it may well prove a small price to pay. On the other hand, if a similar situation comes up again, then surely 'heads' will need to roll in the Showgrounds management committee. We not only need to be 'squeaky clean', we need to proclaim our innocence, indeed shout it from the rooftops and only in that way can we have our good reputation restored once again!