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Irish Examiner
36 minutes ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Early goal gets Drogs victory over Sligo
SSE Airtricity Premier Division: Drogheda United 1 Sligo Rovers 0 If there were question marks about how Drogheda United's exit from European competition might affect Kevin Doherty's players, those have emphatically been answered. A good showing against Shamrock Rovers last Monday did not result in points. Four days on and despite constant Sligo Rovers pressure throughout, they did the job. Douglas-James Taylor scored the winner. As expected, Drogheda owner and co-chairman Ben Boycott was present at the game. He addressed Kevin Doherty and his players in light of their UEFA Conference League expulsion. The Trivela Group CEO was also seen speaking to supporters prior to kick-off, likely offering apologies and assurances in equal measure. Drogheda had won all three of Sligo's most trips to Boyneside, by an aggregate score of 13-1. It took them only three minutes to extend their eye-catching statistic further, with James-Taylor hitting the net. Warren Davis robbed Jad Hakiki of the ball in the centre circle and he raced towards goal before feeding strike-partner James-Taylor. The Walsall loanee – in what may have been his last home game as a Drogs player – blasted a shot past Sam Sargeant. There are usually plenty of goals when these sides meet and while that goal was not added to in the first half, it was not for a lack of effort on either side. Conor Kane smashed a shot against the corner of bar and upright and before that Andy Quinn and Warren Davis shot over the bar. The latter, certainly, should have done better. Luke Dennison was called into action multiple times to deny an impressive Sligo an equaliser that they warranted in truth. He saved at his near post from Wilson Waweru and then Owen Elding before he scooped Will Fitzgerald's shot over the bar after the restart. It was a confident performance from John Russell's team, in an attacking sense, but there were familiar failings at the back. Only misfortune and misfires kept the deficit at one goal. The Bit O'Red were culpable at the other end too especially when Jad Hakiki shot wide with the goal at his mercy in the 64th minute and then substitute Cian Kavanagh headed wide soon after. DROGHEDA UNITED: Dennison; Cooper, Keeley, Quinn; Cruise (Markey, 46), Heeney, Farrell, Kane; Brennan; James-Taylor, Davis (Oluwa, 79). SLIGO ROVERS: Sargeant; Reynolds, McElroy (McDonagh, 35), Mahon, Hutchinson; Doyle-Hayes, Mallon (Van Hattum, 69); Elding, Hakiki (Lomboto, 83), Fitzgerald; Waweru (Kavanagh, 69).
The Irish Sun
15 hours ago
- Business
- The Irish Sun
Drogheda United's owners can't blame FAI or anyone else for European mess, the responsibility was Trivela's
THE TIMES reported on Tuesday that Liverpool are looking to buy LaLiga outfit Getafe. Manchester City are top of the City Football Group, Chelsea and Strasbourg have the same parent company and then there is Red Bull. 2 Kevin Doherty guided Drogheda United to an unlikely FAI Cup triumph last season 2 Board member Conor Hoey spoke to SunSport this week about the club's dilemma The energy drink group also has a minority stake in Leeds United. And the individual who chairs their largest shareholder is also part of Glasgow Rangers' ownership. Then you have Manchester United minority owner There are reports that Newcastle United's owners will buy it if he sells. There are also owner links between Crystal Palace and Lyon, Brighton and Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, Aston Villa and Vitoria Guimaraes plus PSG and SC Braga. Read More On Irish Football And of course, Last season, Manchester City and Girona, and Manchester United and Nice, were all passed to play in Europe after doing the legal bits necessary to satisfy Uefa. And this year, Nottingham Forest were put in a blind trust by Olympiakos owner Evangelos Marinakis for that same reason before Forest fell short on the pitch. But they did write to Uefa Most read in Football So the worms have long since crawled out of the can when it comes to multi-club ownership and that is not going to change. Just as members made way for rich benefactors, who were replaced by richer benefactors, oligarchs, investment vehicles and wealth funds, football finds a way to find more money. Watch Messi score stunning free-kick as Inter Miami stun Porto 2-1m We can question the pros and cons of them all, but the only truly bad owners are the chancers who leave a club high and dry when the funds run out. When the owners fund the good days, little else matters as James Montague's book 'Engulfed' highlighted in chapters talking to many Newcastle United fans. And it is why Drogheda United members voted 90-1 for their sale to Walsall's owners Trivela in 2023. And while the story of the Drogs since then will centre around Kevin Doherty's management and their players, it was made possible because of Trivela. The Drogs' FAI Cup victory as a part-time club was a fairytale last year. But it was only possible due to Trivela's largesse. Accounts on the club's website show Drogheda made a net loss of €792,848 last season, and total liabilities exceed total assets by €1,042,185. It is why board member Conor Hoey — who led the search for the investment that saw Trivela take over — is sure their expulsion from Europe under multi-club rules is just a blip. He told me this week: 'This changes nothing. Trivela are still the right owner. We won the Cup because of their investment in our players and management. 'Of course we're hugely disappointed, particularly for the players and supporters, but Uefa won't break us.' LOOK INWARDS The club can argue Uefa gave them a raw deal, and cite previous examples where they say clubs were given more time. And one of the three arbitrators at the Court of Arbitration in Sport agreed with the grounds of their appeal. They can also question the FAI on why they did not forward on the relevant rule changes regarding multi-club ownership to Drogheda. Everyone in the league can wonder why no club had their arm twisted to apply for a European licence in case Drogs were expelled. But just as clubs bear responsibility for fielding ineligible players after the FAI compounded clubs' registration mistakes, clubs should not rely on others to hold their hand. And Trivela's first statement on the Drogs in 2023 promised 'to increase investment in the club's front-office operations' before it mentioned football or fans. Club chairperson Ben Boycott said this week when he did list grievances, 'accountability falls on us at DUFC and at Trivela Group'. The problem is not that there was no leeway for Drogheda, but that it was hoped there would be leeway when the issue was spotted. Because while multi-club models are probably here to stay, it is up to clubs to navigate it. After all, Silkeborg's qualification for Europe should not have been a surprise given they had done so twice in the previous three years.
The 42
2 days ago
- Business
- The 42
Drogheda debacle has many fathers, but Uefa are more culpable than all
DROGHEDA UNITED' EXCLUSION from Europe is a dispiriting fact not because they didn't play by the rules, but because they did not follow a Uefa-designed loophole at Uefa's behest. It's easy to lose a grip on the story amid its blizzard of finicky detail, so stick with us for a moment. Drogs are part of a multi-club organisation owned by an American investment fund named the Trivela Group, who first moved into football with a purchase of English club Wallsall in 2022. They acquired Drogheda in February last year, and added Danish club Silkeborg to the portfolio in December last year. They also control a club in Togo. Uefa don't allow clubs controlled by the same ownership group to compete in the same competition, citing integrity concerns, and so we could sound the Danger Here klaxon when Silkeborg joined Drogheda in the Conference League qualifiers at the start of June. To ensure both of their clubs could compete, Trivela needed to follow precedent in transferring its ownership of one of the clubs to a blind trust, which would reassure Uefa they would not be dictating sporting matters at both clubs at the same time. This precedent was set last year, when the owners of Man City and Man United were allowed to transfer Girona and Nice respectively into a blind trust, to allow all four clubs compete in their Uefa competitions. They were allowed to do this in June last year, whereas this year Uefa brought the deadline forward to 1 March. Trivela missed the March deadline, and so went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to argue they should be given dispensation to do the blind trust business this week, in advance of the draw. CAS ruled that Trivela ought to have known the deadline, as it had been properly communicated by Uefa in October last year. Given Drogheda finished lower in their league than Silkeborg, it is they who miss out, and the bigger Danish club are allowed to compete. The story is chiefly a travesty for Kevin Doherty and his players, many of whom will have made career decisions around the expectation that Drogheda would be competing in Europe. The club, meanwhile, have lost out on at least €500,000 in prize money and the league as a whole will now have one club fewer fighting for co-efficient ranking points. (The damage will be somewhat limited by the fact the co-efficient total will be divided by the three competing clubs, rather than four, as was to be the case if Drogheda had been competing.) And, as ever, the fans are probably the biggest losers of all, who have had their European trip taken away from them. If you want to play the blame game, then it's a target rich environment. The FAI insist they flagged concerns with Trivela last November, and while they might have done more to repeat these concerns and urge rival clubs to apply for a European licence in case Drogheda missed out, to turn this into another FAI screw-up story is OTT. Rules cannot be enforced without the principle that those involved have a responsibility to know all of those rules, and if the League of Ireland wants to be taken more seriously, the errors of clubs cannot automatically be pinned on the FAI, just as the Association can't take all the credit for clubs' many recent achievements. No, this is an almighty balls-up by the Trivela Group. They had one club in Europe and bought another presumably with the ambition to qualify for Europe, so they should have known the rules and acted to comply. But take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Advertisement The blind trust business is a legal means of satisfying the obvious sporting integrity issues thrown up by multi-club ownership. These concerns were established ahead of the 1998/99, when two Joe Lewis' owned clubs, Slavia Prague and AEK Athens, qualified for the Uefa Cup. Uefa and then CAS barred the lower-ranked AEK, given the possibility for a conflict of interest were they paired together. CAS pointed to one hypothetical: what if both sides were paired together in a group phase and were incentivised to draw their game? In that instance, the owner would have the power to award the players a bigger bonus for drawing the game than winning. But having acknowledged the many potential issues with multi-club ownership, Uefa did not outlaw it. Instead they found a regulatory means of making it acceptable. The proximity of relationship between Red Bull clubs Leipzig and Salzburg was summed up in 2016 when a Salzburg defender, Andreas Ulmer, accidentally wore a Leipzig shirt during the second half of a Champions League qualification match against FK Liepaja. Uefa initially banned Leipzig when both qualified for the Champions League in 2017, but both clubs were allowed to compete on appeal, once the clubs agreed to limit player trading and Salzburg fiddled about with a few bits and pieces – including their branding and board composition – to the point they could satisfy Uefa that Red Bull were merely sponsors, rather than owners. Multi-club ownership then exploded: a 2022 Uefa report said it had risen by more than 400% across Europe in the space of a decade. Uefa are now trying to sift through the wreckage sprung forth from Pandora's Box. The latest workaround has been the blind trust, piloted by the owners of City and United last year. Both clubs' owners transferred their shares in their secondary clubs, Girona and Nice, to an independent trustee who is overseen by Uefa, while promising not to trade players or share coaching or scouting intel. (City were still allowed to sign Girona star Savinho, who had been on loan the previous season from French club Troyes, whom the City Football Group also own.) Uefa demand that nobody in a multi-club network is in a position to influence the sporting decisions made at more than one club at any one time. That said, the blind trust is a temporary thing, and both Girona and Nice will revert to their old ownership structure on 1 July. So while owners can't in theory exercise control over sporting decisions at two clubs during the season, they are free to do so in advance of that season. While the blind trust complies with Uefa's rules the optics offer a different impression entirely. Evangelos Marinakis, for instance, put his Nottingham Forest shares into a blind trust earlier this year, in order to avoid a potential European conflict with another of his clubs, Olympiakos. He remained a very visible presence during the season run-in, however, infamously storming onto the pitch at the City Ground in May. (Gary Neville, heavily critical of Marinakis' intervention, found himself banned from Forest's stadium for the season's final game.) But Marinakis has satisfied Uefa's rules. Drogheda's owners must take responsibility for their feckless, costly error, though they made one with regard to a rule which ultimately legitimises multi-club ownership. Such is its prevalence now, Uefa can only mitigate against its impacts: it's another malign trend in the sport that moved fast to break things and become too unwieldy to rein in. It is, after all, an easy solution to the original sin of professional football: vast financial inequity. Uefa did initially ban the Red Bull clubs, but their workaround was heavily influenced by the EU's principle of free movement of people, goods, and services. Block a club from the Champions League and a club may successfully argue that Uefa are violating that principle. And were Uefa to lose that, they could lose their right to organise all of European football. This is what the vestigial Super League clubs have argued, with Uefa fighting back by arguing that sport has a special status enshrined within the EU's founding treaty, one that would render moot these anti-competitive arguments. Uefa, though, have been much too slow in finding their voice on this special status, and have been guilty of a terrible paralysis in the face of multi-club owners. Hence they are reduced to enforcing rules like that under which Drogheda have been condemned. It has been a brutal defeat for Drogheda United, but the game as a whole is suffering more than anyone wishes to acknowledge. This is a sport full of rules but missing proper governance and, above all, leadership.
Irish Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Daily Mirror
Drogs chairman says owners will stump up cash to cover Conference League exit
Drogheda United co-chairman Ben Boycott has confirmed that the club's owners Trivela will stump up €525,000 to offset the financial loss of being kicked out of the UEFA Conference League. In an open letter to fans of the Louth club, Boycott also accused UEFA of lacking "consistency, clarity, and fairness" in their treatment of the club. Drogheda earned a place in the Conference League by winning last season's FAI Cup. But Kevin Doherty's side was disqualified from the competition after Danish club Silkeborg, who came under Trivela ownership shortly after Drogheda's cup triumph, also qualified for the Conference League through their league finish two weeks ago. Now, after the Drogs had an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected on Monday, their chairman has hit out at UEFA. Boycott wrote: "Let me say first: I absolutely respect UEFA's aim to uphold sporting integrity in European competitions. "But I believe - strongly- that the way this year's rule changes around multi-club ownership (MCO) were introduced and enforced has unintended negative consequences to that goal. I believe that the process has lacked consistency, clarity, and fairness. And Drogheda United is paying the price." Boycott says Trivela have agreed to pump €520,000 into the club, the minimum prize money Kevin Doherty's side would have received for competing in the Conference League. He said: "Trivela will cover the shortfall in revenue from missing Europe, and we are fully committed to seeing this project through. 'Day-to-day operations are unaffected. I will be meeting personally with our players and staff in the coming days, and I hope that we as a group can remain focused on the task at hand.' But Boycott believes that UEFA did not treat Drogheda with the same level of attention or respect as other clubs in similar situations. He said: 'It seems that some of those that were contacted and began taking steps before this deadline were then given time to implement structures after the deadline. 'We were not ever contacted directly, and Drogheda was not afforded that same flexibility. 'Worse still, historical precedent gave us every reason to believe that we would have a path to resolve any concerns post-assessment date. 'In recent years, multiple clubs have enacted share transfers, blind trust structures, and other remedies after the assessment date. 'Those precedents shaped our expectations—and we acted accordingly. 'I personally believe this decision makes an example of Drogheda so that UEFA can signal a change of approach to its regulation of MCOs (multi-club ownerships) 'It punishes a club that, just a year ago, was still part-time and operating without a CEO. 'It punishes a community-focused organization run with integrity, ambition, and limited resources—while major clubs with compliance departments and vast legal teams were granted direct communication and additional time to comply. 'That said, accountability ultimately falls on us at DUFC and at Trivela Group. 'The responsibility to navigate regulations—however murky or fast-changing—belongs to our leadership. 'And for that, I offer a personal, sincere apology to our players, staff, and supporters. This will never happen again.'
Irish Independent
4 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Bad night all round for Drogheda Utd
SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division – Drogheda Utd 1 Shamrock Rovers 2 There have been some dark days in the history of Drogheda United and Monday will certainly be up there. Kevin Doherty cut a lonely figure on the pitch around 6pm on Monday evening as he was clearly contemplating the ramifications of the decision which had been handed out by CAS 90 minutes previous.
