FAI boss hands out goodies

Football Association of Ireland (FAI) chief executive John Delaney was the guest of honour at the Meath & District League (MDL) annual awards ceremony at the Ardboyne Hotel, Navan on Wednesday of last week where Trim Celtic's Derek Donohoe scooped the player-of-the-year accolade. Delaney handed over a cheque for €30,000 to the MDL, the third instalment of a €90,000 development grant which was originally sanctioned in 2007. "The Meath League deserve this grant, it's a well organised league and I hope to attend a function in Duleek in August to mark the official opening of a some new facilities for the club," stated the FAI boss. Meath players fared well in the player-of-the-year awards list with two of the three divisional awards going to the Royal County along with the overall accolade. Kentstown's Sean Doyle took the Div 2 accolade and Athboy Celtic's Michael Duignan was the Div 3 recipient. Louth player Conor Murtagh from Marsh Celtic broke the sequence when he was voted as the Div 1 winner. MDL secretary Gerry Gorman explained that the number of votes received for the Div 4 honour was insufficient to produce a winner with only three clubs voting, each for a different player. Meath Branch referee Alan Sherlock took the referee-of-the-year accolade with the club title going to Kingscourt Harps and the manager's trophy to Shane Bradish of Rock Celtic. Speaking to the Meath Chronicle after the awards ceremony, the FAI chief executive outlined the value of the contribution which the MDL and its affiliated clubs make to the well-being of the game nationally. "I visit upwards of 800 clubs around the country on an annual basis, it's not an onerous task, it's what I should do and I enjoy it," commented the Waterford man who only a few weeks ago attended the 30th anniversary celebrations of Kentstown Rovers in the Walterstown GAA centre. "I had a wonderful night with the Kentstown Rovers players and officials on the occasion of their 30th anniversary and Clones Town was also on our agenda this year when they celebrated 125 years, an achievement they capped off nicely by winning the MDL Challenge Cup. "There are so many good clubs in the MDL, Kingscourt Harps and their fine facilities which earned the club-of-the-year award, totally deserved," he added. Delaney then went on to explain about the old image of the FAI and how it is slowly changing, for the better. "In the past, the image of the FAI may have been one of dealing with international matters, it was also very Dublin-based, but my thinking is that we need to develop the game all around the country, not just in Dublin. "Tonight is an example of that and it's also a recognition of the terrific work which the Meath & District League do, they have been operating now for 30 years and it's a very well organised League. "On the international front, we have to look forward to the forthcoming European Championships, we are disappointed that we didn't make it to the World Cup, but that's in the past. "The international team had two good warm-up games against Paraguay and Algeria, both qualified for the World Cup and we beat both of them. "Our team has improved, the fact that all the players turned up for those friendlies at the end of the season is a good sign, we were only missing Richard Dunne and Shay Given, they were both injured. "We can go forward to the European Championships with great optimism. "The Aviva Stadium will host a League of Ireland selection against Man Utd on 4th August and a week later Argentina will visit, Messi and Maradona in Dublin. "Our experience following the World Cup play-off debacle against France in Paris is now well in the past, but I know that when we qualify for our next tournament that it will be enhanced for everyone because of what happened in Paris last November," he added. Regarding the possibility of a team from Meath competing in the League of Ireland, the chief executive had very clearly defined ideas on the matter. "I would like to see it happen, but it would have to be supported from within the county by all the clubs. "Tralee Dynamos in Kerry play in the A Championship and it's important for the FAI to get a good geographical spread. "I have no doubt that there are good footballers in Meath and the one way that I think it would work would be if it was done as county Meath team. "It's probably something that would have to be discussed amongst the clubs within the MDL with a view to getting everyone in the county behind the team. "Initially, perhaps, Meath could play in a one-off competition as a representative team, but not in a league-style format where the team would be in action on a weekly basis. "That's all down to the FIFA rulebook at the moment," he concluded. MDL ROLLOF HONOUR Premier League - Rock Celtic (runner-up- Carrick Rovers); Div 1 - Marsh Celtic (Cavan Town); Div 2 - Kentstown Rovers (Kells/Blackwater); Div 3 - Athboy Celtic (Knightsbrook); Div 4 - Moneymore (Donore Rovers); Premier Reserve - Rock Celtic (Carrick Rovers); Premier A Reserve - Marsh Celtic (Navan Cosmos); Premier B Reserve - Kells/Blackwater (Longwood); Premier C Reserve - Woodview Celtic (Abbey Celtic); Challenge Cup - Clones Town (Knightsbrook); Reserve Cup - Woodview Celtic (Rock Celtic); Fitzsimons Cup - Black Bull (Bailieboro Celtic); Gerry Reilly Cup - Woodview Celtic 2nds (Oldcastle Utd 2nds); Kilmessan Shield - Rock Celtic (Duleek); O'Neill Shield - Knightsbrook (Rathkenny).