Clubs give O'Byrne stadium ultimatum

FAI Chief Executive Bernard O'Byrne will be told today if he cannot persuade the National League by July 27th that Eircom Park is viable then the country's senior clubs will pull the plug on the project. At a three-hour meeting of the league in Dublin yesterday afternoon it was agreed they would present a united front at today's a.g.m. of the association where the league's various representatives will insist that all documentation relevant to the stadium be made available to Brendan Menton, honorary treasurer of the League and FAI.

If Menton, who has previously expressed his doubts regarding the advisability of proceeding with a project that now appears to require £31.4 million in loans by the association, recommends continued support of Eircom Park to the league's management committee on Thursday fortnight then the clubs will give the project additional time to see if it receives planning permission over the next few months. If this fails to materialise then the intention is to call an emergency meeting of the 56-member FAI Council, effectively the association's governing body, where the aim would be to kill it off completely.

With the clubs entitled to more than a third of the votes at such a meeting and with several other represented bodies, including the schools' and universities' associations, believed to be on board it would appear that such a move by the league could succeed. The strength of feeling on the issue at yesterday's meeting almost cost the league's chairman, Michael Hyland, his position. A motion of no confidence in Hyland was proposed early yesterday and that remained on the table until shortly before the conclusion by which time the meeting had been given assurances by Hyland that he would do his best to advance the league's arguments today.

Dissatisfaction with Hyland stemmed from his performance in Wednesday evening's board of management meeting when he was perceived as having identified himself too closely with O'Byrne. The situation now is that if his performance today does not satisfy club representatives then the motion of no confidence, proposed and seconded by Shamrock Rovers and Bray Wanderers respectively, will be back on the agenda on the 27th of this month.

Also likely to be under pressure today is FAI president, Pat Quigley, who league representatives believe is obliged to go under a rule which states that holders of the position may only serve one term of four years. Quigley has been there that long already.

With Hyland and Quigley both having been prominent supporters of O'Byrne and the stadium proposal, the fact both are coming under such pressure will weaken the chief executive's position. His hopes of reviving a scheme he has devoted much of the last two years to will not be helped either by the fact its fate now appears to rest on his ability to persuade Menton that the financial package still makes sense.

If he fails to do that then, John Byrne of Galway United believes that "you will see a lot of support for the position that we will take".

Meanwhile, prior to yesterday's management committee meeting, Paul Buttner, a regular contributor to The Irish Times was named as this year's recipient of the Eircom Soccer Writer Award. A freelance journalist whose other outlets include the Sun and RTE radio, Buttner's award was in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the national media's coverage of the game over the past decade.