Quo vadis?

BRIAN  de SALVO discovers  that Commitment is neither pure nor simple. 

Last Saturday the Wexford Youths squad climbed on the bus for the long trip to Donegal to play Finn Harps.   You are entitled to nominate eighteen players for an Airtricity League fixture.   Youths travelled with just twelve, placing themselves at a serious disadvantage before the match had even kicked off.   An injury and late withdrawals, I am told, decimated the squad.   An embarrassment for a senior club to offer diminished opposition and a breach of faith with the four hundred paying customers in Ballybofey.   Youths were two down in eight minutes, four by half time.   Game over. 

And it was not just any old game, no meaningless end of season fixture; a box that has to be ticked.  Had Youths won they would not now be contesting with Salthill Devon the unenviable distinction of being the bottom club in the entire Airtricity League.   Wexford’s goal difference is currently better than the Galway club’s by a margin of ten goals.   But, as it is, they stand equal on points.   Winner takes all then and Youths will be without three key players, Packie Holden, Ben Ryan and Danny Furlong, all suspended.

Commitment.   Noun.  An obligation that restricts freedom of action. 

It’s a black or white issue.   Isn’t it?   You either are or you aren’t.   Committed.   True, but when you put the matter in context, you find commitment is not as pure or simple as it may seem.

On the morning of the Harps game Youths had an FAI Youth Cup tie involving their under eighteen squad and on the day following hosted an Airtricity Under 19 League game.   Three such games within forty eight hours makes unreasonable demands in terms of structure and playing resources not to mention a financial commitment (there’s that word again) surely beyond the means of a small community club.   There is an assumption that there is a separate Airtricity League squad but Youths are not so named without reason and several potential first team players will overlap with the so called underage squads.

So the fixture planners are to blame, then?   I do not think they would admit liability and, whilst I am anxious not to put words in their mouths, I think they would argue that it is a club’s responsibility to fulfil its obligations as per regulation.   Which is all very well except that it pays no heed to the way we live now.

I mentioned earlier that Youths were entitled to have seven players on the bench in Ballybofey.   That’s fine as an edict from Europe but there are few enough Irish Premier Division managers with squads big enough, given the average season’s wear and tear, to service it.   Three subs from a bench of five is often custom and practice; three from one does not compute, admittedly, and is unacceptable.

So where do Wexford Youths, and clubs like them, go from here?   I understand there will be no relegation from the First Division this season although the powers that be seem reluctant to say so officially.   I imagine this is because they are waiting to see the fallout from this season’s chaos and whether, or in what form, Bohs and Galway United and possibly other clubs might present for season 2012.   Whatever transpires I suspect the need will be to recruit rather relegate if there is to be a First Division at all.

The good news for the Wexford community is that there is no shortage of commitment to the future of Youths from Mick Wallace.   He’s raring to go, to make changes, anxious to recruit players and involve more local expertise in running the club.   He assures me that he has secured its future despite his own well publicised financial problems.

At times like these we need to bind together; we need to commit.   For players such a commitment is extremely demanding in terms of time and impinges on social and even family life.   To participate you need to sacrifice a great deal and, these days, often pay for the privilege since even your expenses are unlikely to be covered.   Whatever the future of professional football in the domestic game, when it comes to many first division clubs this is the new era of the true amateur and local squads.  

Which is, at least, different from the English Premier League, where most squad members weren’t even born in the country, let alone county, in which they play.   Will it be worth watching?   Come back next season and find out.