I can’t remember the last time I was as proud to be a Pat’s fan, and volunteer, as I was last night.

Below is an official statement from the board in response to the slap in the face from the FAI this week.

The board of St Patrick’s Athletic FC has decided that it will not accept the offer of 5,000 euro made by the FAI towards the expenses of each club in preparing a 5 year plan. The board’s decision followed a report by its General Manager on the meeting with the FAI at which this proposal was made by the Association and the board’s decision acknowledges the lead given by the board of Derry City FC, a fellow member of the Premier Clubs Alliance (PCA), on the issue. The board of SPAFC wants its decision to serve as a clear message to the FAI that it has utterly failed in its responsibility to the domestic game and to those clubs who, in spite of its indifference, have managed to keep some semblance of professionalism within football in Ireland. The board is of the view that the Association’s move and its timing was deliberately aimed at encouraging non Premier League clubs to stand with the current administrators of our league as the PCA set about its agenda of change. That it would do so in a week when Cork City FC and particularly Dundalk FC performed on the European stage at a level and with a verve that belies the manner in which they and the other clubs have been treated, is particularly disappointing. The board of SPAFC is committed to the establishment of a strong PCA which must be focused on rooting out the culture of disinterest that has prevailed throughout the FAI’s management of our League for too many years. Offering the proverbial “crumbs from the rich man’s table” will not shift the resolve of those clubs and those individuals determined to create a properly funded and professionally managed league in Ireland.

Turning down €5,000 might sound like an extremely petulant move on behalf of a LOI club, but this €100,000 grant that the FAI are patting themselves on the back for, is split across 20 teams, and 5 years, so in truth clubs have been given €20 a week, to redevelop the league.

The FAI received €11 million last month alone for Ireland’s performance at Euro2016.

Going down to home matches an hour early and playing some music, and reading out the teams is no bother to me, I don’t even really see it as doing a service to the club. It’s fun, and I like it.

But I’ve also been down in Richmond Park with the usual suspects, players and fans, painting the toilets, painting the stands, cleaning up the place, helping with tournaments, and club events.

And I’d say what I do is absolutely minuscule compared to most of the people down there.

It’s not a dig at anyone, people are entitled to like what they like, but you’re asked “Why do you bother? That league is shite!”

It’s the volunteers that keep this league alive. It’s not just a sound bite for a captain to rattle off before he lifts a trophy.

It was volunteers that travelled the length and breadth of the country in 2012, literally getting the begging buckets out to save Dundalk.

It’s the volunteers that spend umpteen hours inside a community centre the week of a big game, painting and orchestrating displays that get held up for moments before being cast away to oblivion, and it’s volunteers that do their utmost to ensure that their clubs don’t go to the wall.

People who aren’t involved with League of Ireland football might think that the anti-FAI, anti-John Delaney rhetoric from LOI fans is old hat, and an easy blame for all of their problems, but even the top LOI clubs are run almost exclusively on a volunteer basis.

If you took every LOI club member who receives any kind of wage, and added them all together, you wouldn’t get half of John Delaney’s €400,000 annual salary.

Below is a list of just some of the reasons as to why the man is so universally hated by those on these shores

John Delaney earns more money a year than Barrack Obama

John Delaney’s salary is more than the salaries of the heads of the Italian FA, and the Spanish FA combined, both of whom have won multiple World Cups, and Champions Leagues in the last decade.

When the last league of Ireland team went bust (Monaghan United in 2012) John Delaney was putting thousands of euro of FAI money behind Polish bars at Euro2012

League of Ireland teams receive the princely sum of €0 whenever their league games are shown on TV, the only country in the world where this happens.

The Irish national team’s replica jerseys are the only ones out of 211 FIFA nations to be sold with a sponsor.

The prize money received for winning the league is only a quarter of John Delaney’s salary.

John Delaney refers to the League of Ireland as “The Problem Child of the association”

The entry fee for the league every year, is higher than the prize money for all but the top 4 finishing teams, so straight away 8 teams are working at a loss of thousands of euro per year.

The TV money is supposed to be a part of this prize money, as can be clearly seen, it is not.

John Delaney has in the past banned questions from press conferences so he doesn’t have to answer for his actions.

So to see my team flip them the proverbial bird made me very happy. I saw someone say that Dundalk should send the FAI back their €5,000 in 1c coins after their historic win on Tuesday night. I think all clubs should follow suit. It’s a shame for clubs like Waterford, and Athlone who really need the money, but we can’t let the short term outweigh the long.

There’s been a lot of talk about turkeys voting for Christmas this week, with fans of other clubs wishing Dundalk well in Europe. You’d need to win the LOI 76 years in a row in its current format to earn what Dundalk will get from this Europa League campaign, and even more if they make it to the Champions League.

Of course I wish it were Pat’s waiting to take a crack at Legia, and not Dundalk, every LOI fan wishes it was their team, but progress has to start somewhere. It’s far too easy for Delaney to ignore the problem child when its teams go out of Europe after a round or two of qualifying every year, and when Irish people as a whole, just don’t care about domestic leagues in any sport.

If we had teams in the world’s biggest annual sporting competition, people would soon be asking why the Irish champions and European representatives play in a rusty, uncovered death trap.

They’d be asking why Irish clubs receive absolutely no TV money for their league games.

They’d be asking why the CEO of the national association earns four times as much money as the league winning team every year.

They’d be asking why teams are going bust, and unable to field teams for domestic matches, while the CEO is on prime time television talking about his girlfriend.

The reality is that it’s very likely that this financial windfall will give Dundalk the means to go on and dominate Irish football for the next few years, but they said that about Shamrock Rovers in 2011. In their first big test in the league after that, they came to Richmond and were hammered 5-1 by Pat’s, and that was with Dundalk’s current Messiah in charge, Stephen Kenny.

But another way to look at it, is in the first season of Shamrock Rovers’s reign where they were supposed to be dominating Irish football for the next 10 years, ignoring the media hyperbole was a team who had the begging buckets out, and somehow managed to survive a relegation play off with Waterford. Now they’re 180 minutes away from doing the impossible, and reaching the promise land. There’s no reason why other teams can’t follow.

The miracle of Irish football this week isn’t Dundalk’s European run. It’s that we still have a league, when the FAI does everything in its power to ensure we don’t. The fact that the problem child hasn’t been killed by the negligence of its patriarch is up there with any miracle you could dream of.

Hopefully more clubs will follow Derry, and Pat’s’s lead, and refuse to bow to the crumbs from the FAI head table. And hopefully it will see the start of a change that will mean more Irish teams make it to Dundalk’s position in the next 5-10 years. As a league, we are stronger together. Ní Neart Go Cur Le Chéile.

UPDATE: Having seen the latest statement from Pat’s regarding the FAI’s claims of extraordinary behaviour from the club, in today’s Irish Independent, I only feel more pride.

The FAI last night attempted to undermine the statement issued by this football club by suggesting it was “extraordinary” that our General Manager had attended a meeting at which the Association’s proposed grant to clubs was tabled and had not objected to it. There is nothing extraordinary about the actions of the club or its General Manager. As we said in our original statement last night, the club’s most senior executive attended the meeting and brought the outcomes to the board of the club for its consideration. The board made its decision and in light of Derry City’s announcement made that decision public. The context for this is important. At a meeting of the Premier Clubs Association in 2015 a decision was made to engage with the FAI on a number of points. The Board of St Patrick’s Athletic agreed to continue to engage with the PCA as these points were common to most clubs and there was complete agreement. These were based around further clarity in areas such as transparency on revenue received by the FAI on behalf of the League from UEFA, FIFA, Sponsorship, Government, municipalities, etc. The rationale deployed in deciding policy on TV coverage, match selection/timings/revenue etc. A breakdown of the annual running costs of the League and the basis for the league affiliation fees. Further clarity on income streams used by the FAI to support running the League – major sponsorship sums, Cup gates etc. Finally it was agreed to look at participation agreement issues and the level of fines and the use of those fines. Our game is in crisis. That is why the clubs established the PCA so that the Premier League clubs would consider their responsibilities and attempt to engage with the governing body with a view to effecting change. Ten months since we brought these issues forward nothing material has happened. We have made Association aware of the seriousness of the challenge facing the senior clubs – and the domestic game at all levels – but there has been no serious engagement. To demonstrate its commitment the PCA appointed Senior Counsel, Michael Cush, to lead its engagement with the FAI but, to date, his efforts have been largely rebuffed. It may appear strange in a week when two of our clubs brought such distinction to our domestic game to talk of the League being in crisis but that is by no means an exaggeration. It is not the FAI’s role alone to address the crisis. The responsibility for this lies with various stakeholders including the clubs. The board of St Patrick’s Athletic is perfectly prepared to accept its part in this however all the senior clubs are beholden to the Association which has utterly failed to create a suitable environment in which a sustainable, commercially sound League which would nurture young talent and generate public support. It is ten years since the Association took control of the League of Ireland. In that time it has displayed nothing approaching leadership. It is also not the case that addressing the needs of the PCA or indeed all 20 League clubs across the two Divisions is sufficient because, as senior clubs, we recognise that there is a need for an integrated approach where the game is developed from the ground level up and from top down at the same time and our schoolboys clubs have an enormous amount to contribute to this effort. What prevails with the FAI is an approach whereby it decides everything and where it dictates policy with the occasional PR flurry to try and create a public image that its senior executives are committed to change and to improvement. This is the great irony of its primary criticism of last night’s statement by the club. When our GM brought the FAI proposal to the board for review and it decided not to accept it and announced that decision, the FAI chooses to paint that as an “extraordinary” outcome. The GM behaved absolutely appropriately and if the FAI considers a process where an executive brings proposals to his board for discussion and decision as “extraordinary”, then that is a reflection on the way in which the FAI conducts its business not on St Patrick’s Athletic.