Gerry Thornley On RugbyThe IRFU's assertion that their decision to disband the AIB League as it exists and revert to qualifying provincial leagues for the first half of the season is based on "feedback" from their much trumpeted consultative process is being somewhat selective.

Judging by the immediate reaction of clubs around the country, the 24-man IRFU committee is utterly out of touch with the grass roots of the game, which is ironic given it was the clubs who put them there in the first place.

It is the union's intention to issue a statement within the next 48 hours and hold a media briefing at Lansdowne Road tomorrow morning to highlight exactly what their brave new dawn for club rugby in this country entails; the details heretofore having been typically vague.

How did it come to this? When the IRFU committee met for the third time on this issue last Friday night, the key decision appears to have been the ruling that there would be no vote taken on the status quo, namely a season-long, three-divisional league structure.

This was ruled out on the premise that the "feedback" from their consultative process indicated a need for "change" to the club structure. However, this also conveniently overlooks that when push came to shove, the First Division Clubs Association (who will meet on Thursday evening), the joint Second/Third Division Clubs Association (who meet tomorrow night) the Connacht Branch and the Munster Branch all recently agreed that given a choice between a return to provincial leagues or retaining the status quo, they'd opt for the latter.

In the event, the IRFU Committee was either given little choice, or contrived to give themselves no choice once the status quo was ruled out without even a vote being taken. Instead, the committee was given the option of a return to provincial leagues for the first half of the season followed by an AIL, the difference in the two proposals being whether the leagues should serve as qualifiers for the AIL, or whether three divisions of the AIL be based solely on final standings from the previous season, thereby disregarding the provincial leagues.

A majority of about three-to-one looked upon the provincial leagues acting as qualifiers as the lesser of two evils.

Hence, at the end of next season, all 48 clubs will be ranked from one to 48 based on their final AIL standings.

Two teams will be relegated from the first division at the end of this season, and one promoted, to reduce it to 13 clubs, and then at the end of next season the club who wins the second division will be ranked 12th, with the bottom two teams in the top flight ranked 13th and 14th. However, the clubs will not obtaining rankings for themselves, per se, but instead will be earning berths for their provinces.

In other words, if there are four Munster clubs ranked in the top 12, along with three from Ulster, four from Leinster and one from Connacht (as would be the case as things currently stand) then the top four clubs in the Munster Senior League, the top three in Ulster, the top four in Leinster and the top team in Connacht would qualify for the post-Christmas AIL first division in the 2005-6 season.

Under this format, Shannon could win the league next season, yet by finishing fifth in the Munster League the following season, would not even qualify for the first division. Also, clubs would not be earning promotion for themselves by winning Divisions Two or Three, but instead would be obtaining berths for their provinces.

The union's motive behind all of this seems to be primarily one of cost-saving (though further cutbacks could have been made on travelling subsidies), and perhaps too a desire to ensure something concrete came out of the union's consultative Process.

At least the provincial leagues will be ensured of some value though mismatches will assuredly remain.

For the last two seasons in Ulster, Belfast Harlequins haven't lost a match, Dungannon have lost three and Ballymena four. They only ever lose to themselves, and often rack up 50, 60 or 70 points against the rest.

Shannon have won the Munster League for the last three years in succession, and in one game this season the referee ended the match 10 minutes into the second half after they'd run up 70 points. Who does this benefit, least of all talented and aspiring professionals?

And the curtailed AIL will then henceforth be competing with the Six Nations and the European Cup.

The apparent logic to this decision is that the onus to produce professional players will no longer be on the clubs, but instead on the schools system and the much diluted and much distrusted Academy. As Donal Lenihan (scandalously under-used by the union) argued so passionately and reasonably in the Examiner last week, "It is too simplistic to suggest schools and academies alone would be responsible for producing the next generation of provincial and international players."

But he, too, was ignored.

Media coverage of the club game will decline further, players will lose interest, sponsorship and financial backing will be harder to obtain, volunteers will be lost to the game, coaches will feel they have have nowhere to cut their teeth.

Undoubtedly, were the 48 clubs given a choice to revert to provincial leagues for the first half of the season, with a curtailed AIL to follow after Christmas, or retain the current format, the vast majority would have voted for the latter.

But, as can be evidenced by the current debate on Croke Park, the GAA is far more answerable to its grass roots at its annual congress than the IRFU ever is. By comparison, the 24-man IRFU Committee seems somewhat self-electing and self-perpetuating. Even its a.g.m., which numbers about 75-80 as it is also open to 10 delegates elected by each province as well as the union's dozen or so past presidents, is not particularly answerable to its grass roots.

Any GAA club in the country can bring a motion to congress and genuinely influence policy at the top level of the organisation. Within the IRFU, this potentially momentous decision appears to have disregarded the feelings of the clubs. Of the two sports bodies, the GAA is patently more democratic, and maybe that is part of its greater strength.