Emmet Malone

Soccer correspondent

Shelbourne chief executive Ollie Byrne has insisted his club's proposal, to be considered at a meeting of eircom League clubs today, that the league completes its merger with the FAI has the potential to bring considerable benefits to senior football while providing a basis for stronger links between different levels of the game here.

Byrne maintains that, having voted for a merger back in the early 1990s, the league's clubs should now press ahead with bringing it to a conclusion. He claims that only when it is completed can the FAI be expected to take full responsibility for the league and provide it with the resources it requires.

"If this goes ahead then I would expect the FAI to provide us with the backing that we need to take things on," he said. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the league needs serious investment and I would expect the association to help us with developing the strengths of the game by getting involved with our marketing and administration - we need to take that away from the vested interests - but I don't think that you can do that unless you accept that things are going to be under the direct control of the chief executive (Fran Rooney)."

Today's meeting has been seen as a test of Rooney's influence on the league, with his supporters among the leading clubs tending to lean towards greater integration and his critics tending to question the benefits of giving up the league's independence, particularly in the area of finance.

League chairman Brendan Dillon is expected to be among those opposing the merger proposal. The Dublin solicitor has argued that the league's long-term prospects for development would be damaged by subservience to the national association, which would, in future, decide on what funding to give the league just as it does at present with its other affiliates from around the country. Clubs have of late been divided fairly evenly on the issue and it is far from clear yet how a vote this afternoon might go.

Byrne also criticised a proposal from Bray Wanderers, which may be considered today, aimed at restructuring the league and introducing, in the short term at least, a single 22-team division.

"I can understand where some of these clubs are coming from," he says, "but where I disagree with them is that I don't believe you can make progress by playing weaker opposition every second week."

There is some support for Bray's plan around the country, particularly among first-division clubs frustrated by their current plight and the limited opportunities to escape it, but it is unlikely the two-thirds majority required to alter the status quo could be mustered if a vote takes place at next month's a.g.m. of the league.

Alan Matthews, meanwhile, was last night presented with the eircom/Soccer Writers Association of Ireland Personality of the Year award for 2003.

Matthews, formerly Dermot Keely's assistant at Shelbourne, led Longford Town to their first piece of silverware in October, when they beat St Patrick's Athletic at Lansdowne Road to win the FAI Cup.

The Flancare Park outfit also reached the final of the league cup and finished fourth in the premier division. Shelbourne's Steve Williams won the Goalkeeper of the Year award after a season in which his side conceded just 28 on the way to winning the title, and Billy Young, who recently stepped down as Don Givens's assistant with the Irish under-21 side, was presented with the Special Merit award.