If you are a little confused about what’s going on with all the attention on the SFAI cup this year. This well scripted article explains a lot about what’s gone on. Here it is:
Richard O’ Donovan discusses the current state of schoolboy soccer in Ireland, a topic that is very close to his heart.
“Legitimacy is based on three things:
- The people who are asked to obey authority have to feel like they have a voice – if they speak up, they will be heard;
- The law has to be predictable (i.e. it should be the same or similar from one year to the next);
- The authority has to be fair. It can’t treat one group differently from another.”
Malcolm Gladwell (citing Tom Tyler, David Kennedy & Lawrence Sherman) in his new book David & Goliath
The legitimacy of the rule making, or perhaps more accurately the rule administering of the FAI may about to be tested at the grass root level of Irish football, and yet despite its gravity, the story thus has largely been unreported across the country.
As of this weekend (8th/9th February) 24 of the 25 qualifying teams (11 clubs) from the Cork region of the Schoolboy Football Association of Ireland’s (SFAI’s) National Cup Competitions will, as things stand ,refuse to fulfil their fixtures at the current stage of the competitions – the stage where the nation’s 8 regions begin to interact.
If this turns out to be the Cork club’s decisions, the SFAI, will in almost all likelihood award the ties in question to the Lee sider’s respective opponents and in doing so, they will quickly seek to brush what has become an ugly episode in underage Irish football under the rug.
However if this is what is actually allowed to happen, and no light is shone on the actions of those around the country who are supposed to be guiding and governing our young players then that would be a great injustice.
For now we can still hope that an amicable solution will prevail before the impending fixtures arrive, but if things go as expected then at least we can hope that this shameful episode does not go under reported.
Make no question, the conduct of the FAI as a whole should be in the spotlight here, this is not just a small issue to be dismissed.
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