Mahon slams league failures
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
St. Patrick's Athletic manager Pete Mahon believes that the FAI has missed a ‘golden opportunity’ in reshaping the league and insists that MNS has no effect on helping the game here.
Speaking ahead of his sides match against Sporting Fingal on Sunday, Mahon admitted he has no time for MNS and believes the money could be better spent.
“I had an opportunity last Monday to watch MNS and they showed a bit of the Pats v Dundalk game. And the analysts were speaking about Dundalk. We won the game 3-0, why weren’t they talking about St Pats? You have people sitting on that show that I think have agendas. So I would scrap that show tomorrow. Tough. It does nothing for me.”
“I got confirmation last Monday of what I’ve been told all along. I thought people were being paranoid. People sitting there commenting on teams and they haven’t got a clue of what goes on on a day to day basis in a club because none of them manage a club at the moment. Why don’t they come back? If it’s so easy why don’t they come back and try it again?”
“There’s people now in football that have toed the party line, say what people want to hear, rather than what’s really happening.”
Mahon had sympathy for the situation at Bohemians as defeat in the Champions League may lead to the end off full time football in Ireland.
“I don’t think full-time football can carry on here. It’s a pity in one sense, because Bohs have been full time since Roddy Collins came in. I was there as part of that. I just don’t think it’s sustainable.”
“In spite of everyone’s best efforts crowds are down. If you look at us here we’ve gone from full time to part. The full time model was in situ for three or four years, it didn’t really work. We are now gone back part time, we’re doing every bit as much as we were last year as a full time club. It’s not the budget you have, it’s the type of people you get in, the type of players you have, players you sign, type of characters they are, all that can determine whether you’re going to be successful as a part-time club of a full-time club. To run a full-time club is very expensive.”
The St. Patrick’s Athletic boss was also unhappy with how the league structure has still not changed, and insists that the FAI have missed their chance to restructure the league.
“We keep harping back to this, this 10 team league, I don’t think it works”, Mahon said. “We’ll have played Sligo seven times this season; by the time we’re finished it could be eight. I said this before, time and time again; the whole thing should have been restructured.”
“I think when the clubs dropped out.....it was a golden opportunity missed. An 18 or 19 team league, a bit of pain for a year or two, give the clubs three years to sort themselves out, this is what you need to have, a, b and c and maybe all this money that’s coming from the FAI, I think its €5 million a year. A lot of its going to MNS I think. I think they should forget about that because I don’t think it’s actually brought one extra person to the games.”
“I don’t think for the resources’ pumped into it, that it has the desired effect. I would rather see every club given that money for the next ten years and saying ‘you’re getting the MNS money and this is what you have to do with it.”
“Clean up the stadiums. You go to some places and you’re afraid to go to the toilets. I’ve said it before, I’ve had the misfortune of being in two grounds this year where there was definitely a health and safety issue, there’s no question about that at all. That money could be used to market the league in a better way. I think we should have a long look at the rugby and how that was done.”
Despite having sympathy for Bohs players who may lose out, Mahon has no sympathy for the club if they are running their affairs on money they do not have and are depending on results.
“If Bohs are running their affairs on the European money well that...live horse and you’ll get grass. We have a structure here. We were given a budget at the start of the season, that’s your budget. You work within in. You don’t depend on European money. You don’t depend on Setanta cup money, anything else you get is a bonus. That’s your money, work within that.”
“The business of ‘well you might get half a million off UEFA, or you might qualify for this or we might qualify for that’, crazy. You can’t run a business on what might be, that’s what has this country in the shit that it’s in.”
Speaking ahead of his sides match against Sporting Fingal on Sunday, Mahon admitted he has no time for MNS and believes the money could be better spent.
“I had an opportunity last Monday to watch MNS and they showed a bit of the Pats v Dundalk game. And the analysts were speaking about Dundalk. We won the game 3-0, why weren’t they talking about St Pats? You have people sitting on that show that I think have agendas. So I would scrap that show tomorrow. Tough. It does nothing for me.”
“I got confirmation last Monday of what I’ve been told all along. I thought people were being paranoid. People sitting there commenting on teams and they haven’t got a clue of what goes on on a day to day basis in a club because none of them manage a club at the moment. Why don’t they come back? If it’s so easy why don’t they come back and try it again?”
“There’s people now in football that have toed the party line, say what people want to hear, rather than what’s really happening.”
Mahon had sympathy for the situation at Bohemians as defeat in the Champions League may lead to the end off full time football in Ireland.
“I don’t think full-time football can carry on here. It’s a pity in one sense, because Bohs have been full time since Roddy Collins came in. I was there as part of that. I just don’t think it’s sustainable.”
“In spite of everyone’s best efforts crowds are down. If you look at us here we’ve gone from full time to part. The full time model was in situ for three or four years, it didn’t really work. We are now gone back part time, we’re doing every bit as much as we were last year as a full time club. It’s not the budget you have, it’s the type of people you get in, the type of players you have, players you sign, type of characters they are, all that can determine whether you’re going to be successful as a part-time club of a full-time club. To run a full-time club is very expensive.”
The St. Patrick’s Athletic boss was also unhappy with how the league structure has still not changed, and insists that the FAI have missed their chance to restructure the league.
“We keep harping back to this, this 10 team league, I don’t think it works”, Mahon said. “We’ll have played Sligo seven times this season; by the time we’re finished it could be eight. I said this before, time and time again; the whole thing should have been restructured.”
“I think when the clubs dropped out.....it was a golden opportunity missed. An 18 or 19 team league, a bit of pain for a year or two, give the clubs three years to sort themselves out, this is what you need to have, a, b and c and maybe all this money that’s coming from the FAI, I think its €5 million a year. A lot of its going to MNS I think. I think they should forget about that because I don’t think it’s actually brought one extra person to the games.”
“I don’t think for the resources’ pumped into it, that it has the desired effect. I would rather see every club given that money for the next ten years and saying ‘you’re getting the MNS money and this is what you have to do with it.”
“Clean up the stadiums. You go to some places and you’re afraid to go to the toilets. I’ve said it before, I’ve had the misfortune of being in two grounds this year where there was definitely a health and safety issue, there’s no question about that at all. That money could be used to market the league in a better way. I think we should have a long look at the rugby and how that was done.”
Despite having sympathy for Bohs players who may lose out, Mahon has no sympathy for the club if they are running their affairs on money they do not have and are depending on results.
“If Bohs are running their affairs on the European money well that...live horse and you’ll get grass. We have a structure here. We were given a budget at the start of the season, that’s your budget. You work within in. You don’t depend on European money. You don’t depend on Setanta cup money, anything else you get is a bonus. That’s your money, work within that.”
“The business of ‘well you might get half a million off UEFA, or you might qualify for this or we might qualify for that’, crazy. You can’t run a business on what might be, that’s what has this country in the shit that it’s in.”
About Brendan White
Brendan White is Extratime News Editor and is responsible for the news section of Extratime.ie. Brendan also covers matches in Dublin and Waterford. You can contact Brendan on twitter @whitebrendan. View Full Profile