RUGBY: All would seem to be quiet and harmonious on the All-Ireland League front, but underneath, discontent is clearly still rumbling. The IRFU have proposed swingeing cuts in their budget for the clubs this year, but although the clubs - in the guise of their recently formed, 48-member, all-divisional association - vehemently oppose these cuts and wish to propose alternatives, the Union refuse to discuss the matter with them.
The Union intend cutting club funding in three areas: by reducing their allotment of international match tickets by a total of 700 (potentially worth 1 million), by cutting expenditure in their Clubs of Ireland Scheme by one-third (almost 500,000), and by cutting their travel and accommodation by 50 per cent (200,000).
In response the All-Ireland Senior Rugby Clubs Association (AISRCA) wrote to the IRFU on July 30th - two days after a meeting between their representatives, the Union and the four Branch secretaries - requesting the cutbacks not be implemented until the association's finance sub-committee had met Union officials to discuss the matter.
The AISRCA have ideas they want to put to the Union. They also asked for a more detailed breakdown of income and expenditure relating to the domestic game and the proposed cuts in the professional game.
Such a proposed meeting has been rebuffed in writing by the IRFU's honorary treasurer, John Lyons, who expressed a preference for addressing these issues at the four Branch Executive Committees, where all the senior clubs are represented.
No less than their marketing sub-committee, the AISRCA have put together an impressive group of people in their Marketing Sub-Committee, namely John Dickson (Ballynahinch, chairman), Hugh Coyle (Connemara), Frank Cullen (Blackrock), Billy Boles (Dungannon), Macdara Hosty (Galwegians) and Michael Higgins (Corinthians). But likewise, they have not had any success in meeting with the IRFU's marketing department.
IRFU officials will meet with representatives of the All-Ireland Senior Rugby Clubs Association today in the latest round of discussions about the composition of the All-Ireland League. But the agenda, as outlined by the Union, does not include the financial issues the clubs' association want to raise.
The IRFU chief executive, Philip Browne, adheres to the Union line: "The Union is a federal structure, and its constituent members include senior clubs, junior clubs, schools and referees, and the branches are the proper democratic medium for dealing with these issues. You can't deal with one aspect (the senior clubs) of these issues in isolation from the others."
Be that as it may, the Union's stance smacks of resentment that the 48 senior clubs are now up and running with a vengeance, and that they forced the Union into a U-turn on their ill-conceived proposals for a revamped All-Ireland League.
Traditionally, the Union don't like having their authority questioned, never mind being forced to buckle, as Connacht and the Irish Rugby Union Players' Association can testify.
If the Union see the AISRCA (much like IRUPA) as something of an unwanted monster, then they can take the credit, as by putting a gun to the clubs' heads, they galvanised them into belated unity. The AISRCA's proposals for a three-divisional league of 16 teams each, divided into two conferences of eight playing home and away, with more meaningful home-and-way play-offs and two-up, two-down, without recourse to any nonsensical provincial qualifying leagues, along with an All-Ireland Cup, was far better thought out than the IRFU's own proposal.
To the Union's credit, they backed down on September 9th and ratified the AISRCA's alternative (itself far from perfect). But the point here is that such an agreement could never have been reached if the clubs had laboriously gone through the provincial structure - which long predates the AIL - to air their proposal.
Never mind the logistics, or quadrupling the number of meetings required, or that the branches have long since been consumed by politics and personal ambitions. "Eh, through the chair . . . what about the All-Ireland League?" It would have been laughably unwieldy.
The emergence of the AISRCA as one body actually made the whole process of coming up with an alternative All-Ireland League structure, and thereby preventing civil war between the clubs and the Union, more manageable, and the Union should be grateful for that.
The Union argue the cuts they propose in part come under their Clubs of Ireland Scheme, affect the junior clubs as well, and so are not the sole concern of the senior clubs. But Browne also admits the vast bulk of the cuts in their Club of Ireland Scheme affect the senior clubs.
Each of the Division One clubs will receive €28,000, a cut of 13,910 from last season's total of €41,910; the Division Two clubs' share will be cut from 27,940 to 18,600, and that of the Division Three clubs from €20,320 to €13,500. These cutbacks amount to €467,760.
The Union's 50-per-cent deduction in their travel and accommodation allowance for the clubs will amount to 200,000. As for the deduction of 700 international match tickets from the clubs, not unreasonably, the clubs want to know if they'll be getting these tickets back one day. "Eh, through the provincial branch committees, please."
Putting aside age-old provincial structures for a moment, wouldn't the Union see it as common courtesy to listen to what the AISRCA, and able people giving of their time to help the club game, have to propose? Wouldn't they want to hear any proposals that might forestall such cutbacks? And whatever about the IRFU's cherished provincial structures, the AISRCA could not be more transparently democratic or representative of the 48 senior clubs. The Union's dismissive attitude toward them seems, at the very least, provocative.
