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The excitement and anticipation gearing up to the Republic of Ireland's participation in this month's European Championships in France masks worrying times for football in Ireland.

Athlone Town's inability to put together a squad to travel to Waterford United on Friday, as 14 amateur players protested the non-payment of expenses, reflects the parlous situation in which many League of Ireland clubs continue to operate.

If it feels like we've been here before, it's because we have, four years ago.

While Irish fans celebrated on the streets of Poznan and Gdansk win, lose or draw (mostly lose) during Euro 2012, Monaghan United as a senior club was in its death-throes.

The club's sudden withdrawal from the league – brought on by an inability to attract sponsors to maintain a Premier Division budget – showed there's limits to even the appeal of an MUFC brand in Ireland.

And it's a familiar story, as those who've noted the comings and goings of the likes of Dublin City, Sporting Fingal, Kildare County and Kilkenny United can attest.

While all but one of this season's First Division clubs display a shirt sponsor, financial woes have stricken Waterford, whose chairman and financier John O'Sullivan stepped down in April.

That they were due to host Athlone on Friday is a further blow to a club looking to keep afloat in a league that's increasingly showing cracks in spite of the immense work done by volunteers at all levels.

While the prospective gate at the RSC was unlikely to be great – their average gate has plunged from around 460 last season to 350 this, distorted by an opening day gate of 720 for the visit of Limerick – it was to be their only home gate for seven weeks.

The mid-season break coinciding with the Euros is logical and deserved respite for players who, in many cases, are compensated with nothing more than expenses for their commitment in spite of having to provide for families.

Yet the compounding effect of Athlone's financial travails and sometimes unsympathetic scheduling makes it particularly difficult for clubs to stay afloat as the upturn in the economy is yet to filter down to clubs at any level.

The association's willingness to engage with Athlone to examine their difficulties in detail is to be welcomed, but the lack of detail in its statement about the aims or possible results of the inquiry doesn't engender confidence.

Town boss Alan Mathews has cut a disconsolate figure throughout all of this, and his testimony of meeting with the four professional members of his squad at the Red Cow on the evening of the game in effort to resolve the crisis is unintentionally telling.

The licensing criteria that allowed Athlone to be granted a Premier license earlier this season, in spite of encountering the same problems with player payments last year, have to be called into question.

The standards imposed by the FAI since taking over running of the league in 2006 have undoubtedly had a positive effect in curtailing clubs' propensity to spend beyond their means, and the league is more stable as a result.

And few would deny there is a need for the league to be flexible where long-established clubs are provided, as were licensing to be applied to the letter of the law we'd likely see more clubs forced out of senior football.

Yet, in a week when former Bray Wanderers goalkeeper Darren Quigley was granted back-pay, three years after the fact, following legal action with the club who have been granted licenses despite subsequent issues with player payments, it's difficult not to fear the system is broken.

The most worrying aspect is the fact that, unlike the likes of Monaghan, Fingal and Shelbourne, Athlone and Waterford's financial difficulties aren't down to over-ambition or setting irresponsible targets.

Both clubs – Athlone reported a scarcely-believable official attendance of 57 for a home FAI Cup against Letterkenny Rovers – are in the state they are because they can barely stay afloat at the foot of a division without the threat of relegation.

In a year when amateur sides Wexford Youths and Finn Harps have revitalised the Premier Division by competing with – and sometimes bettering – more moneyed counterparts, there should be more positive headlines.

When Cork City and Dundalk, at the top end of Irish football, continue to build positive links in dormant footballing communities through fan and member ownership, there should exist an air of positivity and possibility throughout the league.

And yet such hopeful thoughts are far removed from the reality facing some of the clubs who have battled against reality and circumstance to provide the League of Ireland with some of its most memorable moments.

We can only hope that the independent review in Athlone reaps positive results and the club can rebuild its relationship with the local populace, because the demise of the league's oldest club is a prospect too difficult to fathom.