Cathal Dervan, Editor
Dion Fanning is the chairperson of Dalkey United, one of the clubs that famously gave Paul McGrath to the world. It’s important to note Dion’s involvement in grassroots football before we share his views on club football’s European structures and UEFA’s vulgar distribution of funds.
As the chair of a grassroots club, and this I know from personal experience closer to home, we can assume that Dion gives hours of his time to the needs of every footballer and member young and old attached to one of the most famous clubs in South Dublin.
His phone, I suspect, is constantly on. That’s the way of a chair or any official involved at the very heart of the game that some in the FAI leadership prefer to think of as a business like Tesco.
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Shielding the ball…
Dion is also a journalist steeped in the finest traditions of a dying industry. He’s been in as many if not more press boxes across the world than he has graced sideline viewing points in grassroots football so his views on our beautiful game are well founded.
On any given Sunday, Dion’s column can be found on the pages of the Sunday Independent, still Ireland’s biggest selling newspaper in a declining market and the publication that allowed him to cut his teeth in football journalism.
Dion’s column this past Sunday was all about European club football at the start of the week that sees Shamrock Rovers fly the flag as the last remaining Irish representative in Europe when they travel to KuPS for Thursday’s Conference League play-off, with the game finely balanced at 1-1.
As confirmed in Dion’s article, Rovers are playing for €3.17million in Finland this week and will pick up another €400k for any win that may follow if they can qualify for the group stages, a bit of a tall order based on the evidence in Tallaght last Thursday night.
Those figures are a small fortune for an Irish club but they are dwarfed, as Dion pointed out, by the riches available to those who dine at the Champions League table, the haves of European football who are the real beneficiaries of UEFA’s generosity.
Consider the figures quoted - UEFA contributes 74 per cent of its club competition revenue to Champions League clubs, seven clubs received more than €100million from UEFA in revenue last year, UEFA distributes more than €3billion in prize money per year but only €308million goes in solidarity payments to clubs who don’t qualify for either the Champions League, the Europa League or the Conference League.
It is as lopsided as it sounds but that’s the way UEFA and FIFA (via the new club World Cup) operate, cosy cartels that protect those with the most to lose and not those with the most to gain.
Rovers will be delighted if they get their hands on that €3.17million in Finland this week and rightly so. That sort of money will allow them to further develop their academy, strengthen their squad over the winter and dominate the Premier Division again next season. Money buys power and €3.17 million represents significant power in this marker.
It’s peanuts though next to the sort of riches PSG and Real Madrid will receive and have received from UEFA. Is there a better way?
Well one better way was proposed by the independent Union of European Clubs, an independent body founded to improve support and advocacy for non-elite professional clubs across Europe with my friend and former Ireland international Gareth Farrelly as CEO.
As Dion Fanning’s article outlines, they proposed an alternative revenue funding model for the UEFA competitions that would see 50 per cent go to the Champions League, 30 per cent to the Europa League and 20 per cent to the Conference League.
Crucially that money would be distributed proportionately, via the national associations, to the leagues those clubs represent and then divided equally amongst all the clubs in those leagues, not just the clubs who qualify.
It’s a revolutionary theory - the rising tide carries all boats etc - but one that the big boys will never accept in all reality, even if it would allow real prize money in the League of Ireland for example and not the pittance currently on offer.
It’s definitely, however, a proposal worth listening to and a debate worth having as Rovers look to rescue Europe for Irish football this week. So a thank you to Dion Fanning for raising it - and carry on the good work in Dalkey!
AROUND THE HEADLINES
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Celtic in injury sweat over key star as he misses training day before huge LASK Champions League play-off - Scottish Sun
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Former Irish League star predicts ‘flurry of transfer activity’ if Larne reach Conference League - The Newsletter
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On this week's Coaching Corner, Larry Mahony and editor Cathal Dervan talk up Keith Andrews, Damien Duff and Stephen Rice after Brentford's big win over Spurs and throw in a bit of Jose Mourinho, Roddy Collins and Welcome to Wrexham for good measure. You can catch up with Larry at bigpicturecoachingireland.com.
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