Soccer: Brian Kerr made what is threatening to become an annual call for more responsible management of club finances and a greater sense of common purpose amongst often-bitter rivals in the Eircom League as he helped to launch the new domestic soccer season yesterday at Dublin Castle.
A year ago, the Republic of Ireland manager called on clubs to ensure they could meet their commitments through the whole campaign by managing their budgets more effectively and not promising to pay wages to players that they simply couldn't afford.
After a season in which several clubs yet again struggled to make ends meet, Kerr again called for collective prudence, as well as a less damaging approach to the disputes that rise between clubs over the course of the campaign.
At yesterday's launch there was a decidedly upbeat mood amongst club representatives in the wake of recent announcements of greatly improved television exposure and significantly increased prizemoney for the coming season.
While several clubs have sought to rein in spending after running into difficulties last year, there remains some concern that the pressure to achieve success at the top of the table (or to avoid relegation)will again lead to problems between now and November.
"I'm sure that the clubs' incomes haven't increased as quickly as players' wages in recent years," Kerr said, "and the only solution to that is either for the clubs to increase their income so that they can pay out the extra money or to cut their cloth to suit the budget that they have to work with.
"Once again, I'd urge the clubs to show restraint in what they pay out in wages - not least because I'd urge them to invest in other areas of their organisations like the development of their coaching staffs and things like the use of nutritionists, greater resources for physios and the youth development side of things."
The former St Patrick's Athletic boss expressed the hope that the new campaign would be competitive with both divisions tightly contested until the very end of the season and that it would produce further improvement in the standard of football produced.
He also called on players and clubs to show greater respect for referees at a time when finding the next generation of match officials is becoming increasingly difficult.
"The schoolboy game is suffering because of it and how can you expect new people to come forward when they see the way our existing referees are treated?" he asked.
Kerr added that the circumstances that led Anders Frisk to announce his retirement constituted "a ridiculous situation" which did further damage to the game.
"Disputes between clubs should be resolved with a bit of dignity because we need to avoid the sort of problems that we've had over the last few seasons."
On the international front, Kerr conceded that the fact that just two league players had managed brief appearances for the national senior team during his time in charge would be viewed as disappointing, but he said, "we've had 12 in the under-21 teams over the past two years and that's a lot better than in the past. There are opportunities to make further progress, particularly at under-21 level.
"The reality is that the squeeze is on in British football, there's less of our young lads going away and so the chance is there to have a real football industry back here at home."
Referring to last year's European runs by Shelbourne and Cork City, Kerr observed that it would be difficult to reproduce that sort of form during the coming months.
"The drama and success will be hard to achieve again, but the hope will be that they will represent Ireland and the league with pride and do enough to further enhance the standing of the league."
At a meeting of the league's clubs later in the afternoon, Eamonn Naughton of Galway United was elected as the organisation's new treasurer with Tony Conaughton of Athlone Town and Cobh's Barry Walsh securing places on the Board of Control.
Kerr will name his squad for Saturday week's game against Israel this afternoon. Don Givens named his squad for the under-21 European Championship qualifier, making six changes to the group that travelled last month to Portugal where the Irish were beaten 2-0 in a friendly.
Aidan McGeady, a candidate for elevation to the senior squad if Kerr suffers any withdrawals next week, is included as are two National League players - Stephen Paisley of Longford Town and Daryl Murphy of Waterford United.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND UNDER-21 SQUAD (v Israel): Henderson (Aston Villa), Deeney (Notts County), Foley (Luton Town), Kelly (Tottenham), Fitzgerald (Bury), Kohlmann (Borussia Dortmund), Paisley (Longford Town), Flood (Manchester City), McStay (Leeds Utd), Whelan (Sheffield Wednesday), Potter (Liverpool), O'Brien (Bolton), Thornton (Sunderland), Bell (Rushden & Diamonds), McGeady (Celtic), Tabb (Brentford), Murphy (Waterford Utd), Quigley (Millwall).
