Sean Connor blasts 'nonsense' 12 team Irish Cup suggestion

The Irish FA were unable to secure elite status for the tournament which was scheduled to kick-off on January 9th, resulting in the delay of the round of 32 ties.

When the NI Executive extended lockdown until March 5th, the Covid-19 measures cast further doubt on whether the competition could be completed in its entirety.

Coleraine striker Eoin Bradley recently argued an Irish Cup involving just the 12 top flight teams would be better than scrapping this season’s competition altogether.

“If the Irish Cup was cut down to 12 teams, you could run it off quite quickly, Bradley said, “It’s not ideal but it may be a worst-case scenario for one year because of this pandemic. A Cup with 12 teams is better than nothing and it does carry a European place.”

However, Institute boss Sean Connor hit back at the striker’s ‘flippant remarks’ claiming the exclusion of Championship and Intermediate teams would ‘strip away the integrity’ of the competition.

“When I read what Eoin Bradley said about an Irish Cup, about 12 teams being better than with no teams, I thought that was absolute nonsense,” fumed Connor.

Should NIFL’s non-elite teams be excluded from this year’s tournament, Connor reckons there should be no alternative but to scrap it.

“If the IFA were considering this it would be concerning,” he added, “In my opinion it strips away the integrity from the Irish Cup and it would devalue the competition.

“It would be a sad indictment on the game to diminish the ‘Blue Riband trophy’ as they all call it, and reduce it to a 12 team competition. I think that’s just nonsense.

“If they can’t complete a full and proper Irish Cup they would be much better writing it off for the year and bringing it back when it’s suitable.

“With that comment, he (Bradley) has shown total disregard and disrespect for the Championship clubs and Intermediate clubs.

“You only have to look at the Irish Cup last year when Queens University beat Linfield. Every year the cup throws up games like that.

“Ballinamallard got to the final a couple of years ago. That was a fantastic story for that football club and that community. So a flippant remark, to say an Irish Cup with 12 teams is better than no Irish Cup, I totally disagree. An Irish Cup with 12 teams isn’t an Irish Cup, it’s a Premier Division cup.”

The former Sligo Rovers and Bohemians manager admits it’s now highly unlikely the truncated 22 game Irish Championship season will go ahead given the extended restrictions.

And while he’s ‘frustrated’ with the lack of dialogue from the governing bodies so far, he hopes both NIFL and the IFA can begin to discuss the potential of a summer league.

“It’s a very real possibility that there will be no Championship football or football below the Premiership this year,” he admitted.

“They’ve extended the lockdown for another four weeks so if you got back to training after that four week period it would be nearly 11 weeks that the players will have been out of action. So you would want another three or four weeks of a pre-season.

“There’s been no real thought about what’s happening with Championship clubs and that’s why we need to have a discussion immediately about whether we should look at starting a new league in May or June and running a summer league.

“Even if we trial it for a period. I think we need to have a look at summer football and ask is this the time now to take a radical step?

“You only have to look at the quality of the game at Premier League level. Look at the Crusaders v. Larne game last Saturday, it was a really good advert for Irish League football. Two full-time teams going head to head, six goals.

“The product is getting really good but we need to be careful the Premiership doesn’t separate itself from the rest of the football pyramid. FIFA said recently that solidarity, promotion and relegation, and subsidiarity are the foundation of the football pyramid.

“When you take away the hope and aspirations of football clubs to compete at the top level, you’re killing sporting integrity.

“But right now, as a football club, we’ve heard nothing from the IFA or NIFL with regards to the next move or what’s happening which is poor.

“Then you read comments from a Premier League player saying what he said, it makes you worry. Do they think that football in this country now is just about the Premier League?

“Every football club has a community attachment and people within that community working for their football clubs, so it’s disappointing to say the least.

“If the Irish Cup final has to be put back and delayed until August or September, then why not? Wasn’t the Scottish Cup final from last year only being played this season so there’s no reason why they can’t delay the Irish Cup Final.

"I think a delayed Irish Cup with all teams in it would be much better than a 12 team Irish Cup with just Premiership clubs.”

Institute, who had hoped for an immediate return to the Premiership, is now looking at the prospect of another season as a Championship club and Connor is concerned about the financial implications.

"Automatically when you get relegated there's a financial impact to the club in terms of your gate receipts, sponsorship. For a club like ourselves, our plan was always to attempt to get back at the first shot and that's not going to happen.

"Even if we do go back playing football, my concern is we will only play 11 games and is that any way to decide any championship?

"To win the cup you have to play six games and that's a knockout competition so to decide a league potentially over 11 games I just think it's a non-runner.

"We understand now that with the current situation we're not going to get elite status but we still think it should be sought at the appropriate time in the future.

"The one thing that has come out of all this is that we do believe that both NIFL and the IFA are now behind elite status for Championship clubs so we hope they will continue to fight for that when appropriate."