WHO IS WINDING UP WHO?

By Stuart Gilhooly

It was early November and the most exciting title race in recent memory had just reached its heart-stopping climax when myself, Stephen McGuinness and Ollie Cahill travelled to the FIFPro conference.  After listening to many other countries relay stories of strife and discontent, I turned to Stephen and said "isn't it great that we have no stories to tell for once.  It's been a really quiet year."  To which the ever prescient general secretary replied "This is the League of Ireland.  There is always a crisis around the corner".

And what were the players to do?  Lie back, get screwed and think of the glory days of Bohs?  No, surprisingly, some players weren't willing to do that. They thought of their families, their children, their mortgages and paying their bills.  They thought they had a contract and they thought their employers would honour it.

Wrong.  Their employers wanted them out so they could replace them with a cheaper version.  Brian Shelley and Steven Gray weren't going to take this.  They have this old fashioned view that when you sign a contract, you honour it and you treat the other party with respect.  Bohs didn't.  They made promises which were broken and then turned off the tap.  The players had enough.

Brian Shelley and Steven Gray are very good footballers and very decent guys.  They came to me wanting to know their options.  I spelled them out.  None were good.  Having seen the way which Bohs had behaved to date, I formed a view that a threat to wind the club up should be enough to ensure that the two players would be paid their wages to date. The amount outstanding at this point was three weeks wages and had Bohs chosen to pay it, it would have cost less them less than €5,000 between the two players.  Yes, they could have stopped the whole winding up process by paying the two players their wages in that very small sum.  They chose not to.

With no effort made to pay the players, they felt they had no choice but to take the next step which was to petition to wind the club up.  This was done reluctantly but they felt backed into a corner.  Bohs were making it clear that there would be no deal for Shelley and Gray unless the all players agreed a severance package.  This was a ridiculous stance.  So, I was instructed to bring the petition before the court and a date was obtained for 7 February.

Suddenly, there was action.  Bohs wanted to sort the matter out.  The FAI got involved and then John Delaney started to bang heads together.  Be under no illusion, it was the prospect of Bohs appearing before the High Court facing a winding up order that produced this impetus.

Eventually, a deal was brokered and nine weeks after they were last paid, Steven Gray and Brian Shelley agreed a severance package which allowed them to leave the club.  During this time, they endured considerable abuse from supporters and while they appreciated the fans' frustration, they couldn't understand why it wasn't directed at the board.

And that's the point.  There is no sense in blaming players for enforcing their rights.  Clubs need to realise that contracts are worth the paper they are written on.  If clubs stop winding up the players, the players won't wind up clubs.

Of course, no sooner had the ink dried on the deals with the Bohs players, then Sporting Fingal imploded.  Deals had been done with certain players at this club a matter of weeks and, in one case, days before the walls came tumbling down.

As if the league wasn't enough of a laughing stock, the unedifying sight of Fingal players joining the supposedly penniless Bohs really took this play out of the realms of tragedy and into farce.  If wasn't so serious, it would be funny.  Ireland's top footballers are being treated like dirt and it's got to stop.

This can all be avoided and it's very simple really.  Agree a deal you can afford, pay the players according to the terms of that deal and I will be redundant.  Nothing would make me happier.

Will it happen? Probably not.  It's the League of Ireland.