Finbarr Flood was today unveiled as the new Chairman of Shelbourne FC, a post he had previously occupied for four years up until 1999, and spoke of his club’s vision for the future of Irish football.
The withdrawal of the Donnelly family, erstwhile owners of the club, from Shelbourne’s affairs has prompted the club to form a new Management Committee, the composition of which will be announced over the coming weeks, to take advantage of "the exciting developments taking place in European football."
"Shelbourne was the first Irish club to realistically take up the European idea an run with it", says Flood, "the first to say that we could compete regularly at a decent level in Europe."
"Our aim is to emulate clubs like Rosenborg and Brondby, and become regular participants in the Champions League group stages. We’ve formulated a ‘Three Year Plan’ and during that time we aim to prove that that is a feasible proposition. We see no reason why it shouldn’t happen."
Former Chairman Gary Brown, who stepped down today in order to devote more time to his business and young family added: "the way for the league to move forward is by obtaining some level of success in Europe, unless we obtain that, the league as we know it will have to be radically overhauled."
Referring again to the Scandanavian clubs, Brown said: "Players at teams like Brondby are on £45,000 to £50,000 a year. Our lads aren’t very far off that . . . so it’s fair to aspire to the same levels of European success as them."
"Club football in this country is at crisis point," continued Flood. "The big clubs can’t go on carrying the overheads they do at the moment . . . but we certainly don’t want to see clubs going backwards and retreating from the full-time status their players have now." The solution, for Flood, is to try to grab a greater piece of the lucrative European pie.
"It is now clear that League of Ireland clubs can compete and do well in Europe. The challenge now is for us to go on to the next level where we are accepted as regular Champions League participants. If over the next three years or so, National League clubs don’t make that breakthrough, I personally believe some clubs won’t be able to continue. That’s just realism."
Shelbourne pride themselves on being "the club everyone in Ireland wants to beat", and are determined to manoeuvre themselves into pole position to take advantage of any re-structuring of European football apart from the Champions League. Like Celtic and Rangers in Scotland, the club does not rule out joining any eventual derivative of the English Premiership, or some pan-European league.
"Nobody knows exactly what’s going to happen in the next few years," explains Flood. "It could be that television companies, rather than national associations, start to dictate who participates in European competition. And with the size of the Dublin and Irish markets, they’d surely be interested in Irish clubs . . . it would be crazy, for example, if a city like Dublin was not represented in a European League. All Shelbourne want to ensure is that we are best geared up to benefit from whatever changes take place."
"I was with the Brondby chairman the night Copenhagen beat Lazio 2-1," continued Brown, "and he said the result might not be so great for the rest of Danish football because it could mean Copenhagen will move way ahead of all the other clubs. "It’s the same with Rosenborg in Norway, and Sturm Graz in Austria."
For new Chairman Flood, Shelbourne’s ambition is to become equally dominant in Ireland. "It's probably inevitable that one club will dominate at first, but it should be spread wider with time as other clubs make progress of their own."
Perhaps. But would it not make more sense for certain big Irish teams to merge in order to better compete in Europe?
"Personally, I think there’s too many clubs in Dublin, and I can definitely see mergers happening," says Brown. "I know people will buck against that for various vested interests . . . but I can see it happening . . . .Shels aren’t working on anything at the moment though!"