JOHN CAULFIELD is right that the League of Ireland has not progressed in 40 years and all we get is “lip service” from the FAI.

But sadly, I don’t know how his idea that someone will come in and take the league over will work, as no one can even find out how much it is worth.

I read John’s comments on Saturday with interest and agreed with it all.

No one has come close to being as good as the Shamrock Rovers’ four-in-a-row side of the 1980s, so the league has stood still.

The promotional work is also not good enough and the Cork City boss is right that we need our league to bring more players through to the international team.

But his comments about how Iceland are so far ahead of us really hit home.

John’s team were beaten by Reykjavik last year and I know from talking to people at Dundalk that they know they face a really tough game against Hafnarfjordur tonight.

The days when drawing an Icelandic team in Europe meant a jolly up, guaranteed prize money and progress to the next round are long gone.

As we have stood still, Iceland have invested and made giant leaps in their football development. They invested a fortune in coaching education and made it affordable, meaning that everyone involved in football in Iceland has got the qualifications they need.

By contrast, in Ireland, the new C Licence costs €600 and you are talking the guts of €10,000 if you are going to go all the way to Pro Licence.

I know people who would love to do their coaching badges but simply cannot afford that kind of outlay.

Even if you do, it is just a labour of love as there are very few jobs out there where you could make that money back.

We should be paying our best coaches to work in the Under-17 and Under-19 Leagues and also the Under-15 League when it comes along — structures I have consistently praised the FAI for introducing.

But that is a pipe dream.

Instead, John has his Cork team in Sweden tomorrow where they are up against it, St Pat’s are in Belarus and I don’t think they’ve a hope and Dundalk face an Icelandic side tonight. For all three clubs, progress is massive because of the prize money available.

Winning the league doesn’t matter anymore, it is about Europe and that piles on ridiculous pressure.

Every manager should be under pressure to deliver results but it is outrageous that finances now mean they are under pressure to deliver the money that could make or break a club.

All we have now is the usual cycle where clubs win for a few years and then money dries up and someone else takes over.

Nothing is long term. The clubs, obviously, have to look at themselves and, to their credit, some have.

But what are the guardians of the game, the FAI, doing?

There are so many gripes surrounding promotional work and money.

The Association are not doing enough in that regard and when you see their accounts, you wonder if the cash will ever be there.

The books for 2015 appeared in yesterday’s papers and showed that the FAI owed around €50million at the end of last year.

They owed around €67m at the end of 2010 and got an €11.7m debt write-off and the €5m Fifa handout since, so not much has been paid off.

Of course, they recently got a €10m debt write-off and a better interest rate so things have obviously improved.

But when you look at the numbers, it is hard to see how they can be debt-free by 2020.

In the circumstances, I honestly believe that an outside body running the league on behalf of everyone might be the best idea but who would want to do it?

After all, how do you do due diligence?

Even the Conroy Report, commissioned by the FAI, says that it would be “subjective” to put a figure on the value of commercial deals that the Association has that cover the international teams and the league.

Act your wage



NOBODY is spending outrageous money on wages in the league anymore.

So you would imagine there should be little between the big four of Dundalk, Cork, Shamrock Rovers and St Pat’s.

The rest of the clubs are obviously on smaller budgets so I can understand if they shut up shop and looked for a result against the big boys.

But when the big teams go head to head, it should be a battle of the best footballers. So I was appalled when Pat’s arrived in Dundalk on June 24 and played like Wexford Youths.

They were terrible and got what they deserved when they lost 2-0.

The Saints have a good team on paper but have picked up just seven points in their last ten league games.

There is something not right if a team that good keeps getting results that bad.