Clubs on the spot as UEFA outline plans

Barely more than a week after Bohemians were forced to play Kaiserslautern in Tolka Park representatives of the 12 teams in the Premier Division will gather in Dublin this Friday to hear what the game's governing body in Europe has planned for the future.

The briefing, by the three-man delegation, that met with leading European administrators last week, will outline UEFA's plan that requires clubs in the top division of every member's league to obtain a "licence" before being allowed to compete in any of its international competitions.

So far the reaction here has been largely one of dismay with club officials reacting strongly to the proposed stipulation that participating clubs should play games in grounds containing at least 10,000 covered seats.

Given that the new regulations are scheduled to come into effect for the 2002/3 season, such a rule would mean that only Shelbourne would have any realistic chance of hosting European games. If that were really the case, then the proposals would represent a nightmare for clubs here but, of course, it's not.

In fact, UEFA makes it clear that it will make exceptions to the 10,000 covered seat requirement "according to the size of the country (or city)". Such an exception is certain to be granted in the case of Ireland where the majority of clubs do not even aspire to having that large a capacity.

Most of the rest of its proposals, meanwhile, will have the effect of defining in more stringent terms many of the changes adopted in fairly aspirational form by the league's clubs towards the end of last season.

In terms of financial regulation clubs will be required to provide audited accounts for the previous 12 months, projected figures for the following two years and guarantees that they will be able to fulfill all their fixtures for the following campaign. The upshot should be the sort of transparency that club officials currently lie awake worrying about.

Youth development programmes will be mandatory (the forthcoming changes to the transfer system will make them essential in any case) and all of coaches involved will have to be qualified. Where players involved in development schemes are full-time then the club will have to ensure that they continue their education. Training facilities at most clubs will have to be improved, in some cases quite dramatically, with teams required, under the new proposals, to have guaranteed access to an indoor hall and at least one outdoor training pitch for every 25 players registered.

In each case these are just the sort of improvements discussed over the course of last season and raised first in the blueprint document put forward by the league's officers.

The difference with UEFA's proposals is that they are vastly more detailed and far more specific. The UEFA changes envisaged are positive and on the issue of seating it would be a good thing for a minimum figure to be set to encourage clubs to move on from the 1,500 currently required by the league itself.

On balance the proposals represent a challenge to clubs here to raise the bar a little and should provide adequate motivation in a league where carrots have never proved nearly as effective as sticks.

Bohemians midfielder Kevin Hunt has been named as the Eircom/Soccer Writers Association of Ireland Player of the Month for August. The award, sponsored for the first time by the telecommunications company, is further recognition of the Englishman's outstanding contribution to the Dublin club's improvement over the past 20 months.

Having formerly played at QPR and Gillingham, Hunt spent a couple of seasons in Asian football before moving to Dalymount Park in late 1998. Since arriving he has consistently been one of the club's best performers. During the summer he was named as the club's player of the year for last season.

The 25-year-old recently signed a new contract and should now be a key member of the team until at least the summer of 2002.

(Emmet Malone is contactable at emalone@irish-times.ie)