NIFL 'playing Russian roulette' with Irish Championship clubs: Sean Connor

The Irish Championship campaign, which was initially suspended until November 28th, has now been put back until January 2nd and Connor is fearful the decision-makers are gambling with players’ welfare.

Teams are in the dark about how the already truncated 22 game campaign will be completed given the late start date and Connor is unsure about the protocols in place should they be permitted to return to the training pitch on December 12th next.

All 12 Championship managers united in issuing a statement calling for the reclassification of the league to elite status.

However, Connor believes that ‘one voice - one game’ message has fallen on deaf ears.

The IFA last week rejected that request and responded by defining ‘elite’ status as being ‘aimed at a low volume number of individuals operating at the pinnacle of their sport.”

Connor claimed that was a ‘slight’ on those plying their trade at Championship clubs and questioned the rationale behind the decision not to re-classify the league as elite.

And the Belfast man has called for dialogue between the NIFL, the IFA and the clubs.

“There are over 50 professional players and they signed the very same contract the Premier League player signed.

"Most of the managers are either pro licence or working towards it. There’s support staff, physiotherapist, strength and conditioning professionals - everything,” explained the Stute boss.

“The majority of the clubs in the championship have a license to play in the Premier Division. We have a Premier Division license but because we got relegated, without the opportunity to play on the field, the club automatically, overnight, goes from being an elite club to a non-elite club.

“And yet we haven’t changed anything we’ve done. If you get promoted, overnight you become an elite club. If the definition of elite is the smallest number of people then why in England have they gone right down to the seventh tier?

“Why in the League of Ireland did they consider their First Division superior to our Championship?”

Clubs will have potentially three weeks training to get their players up to match speed and the ‘Stute boss believes that time-frame is nowhere near enough.

“This is now the third restart date that we’ve had,” he said. “To be honest, when I told the players about it they didn’t believe it and still don’t.

“We obviously had to cease training during the lockdown. Fingers crossed we can go back training on December 12th. Whether or not we can train with a football then, I’m not too sure.

"We then have basically one week before we play in the North West Cup semi-final. If we win that we have the final on December 28th. Then you’re into the league on January 2nd.”

“As a club we’ve been preparing for about 14 weeks now. We’ve had a break for the best part of three weeks and now they’re asking us to get back up to speed in the space of three weeks. It puts a tremendous strain on your players’ welfare.

"That’s one of the reasons why we’re having the mental health issues and players are feeling frustrated, feeling worthless and not respected. They’re preparing as Premiership players do but we’re not allowed to play.

“The questions needs to be asked. Who made the decision not to grade the championship as elite? Why was that decision made? And thirdly, what was the rationale behind that decision?

“NIFL’s job is to promote the game for all its 36 members and that’s not being done at the moment. Everything seems to be a narrowly focussed, Premiership driven agenda.

“My major fear is that we will not get our season completed and therefore there will be no promotion to the Premier Division and therefore the aspirations of many a player, manager and supporter will be damaged and we will all have lost a year.

“We’ve already got to force 22 games in from January. That’s assuming we don’t have another lockdown or circuit breaker. I think they’re playing Russian roulette with the Championship.”

Institute Football Club have been proactive in protecting the mental health of its players by the creation of ‘mentor groups’ for the players who are urged to talk about their issues to club members and staff.

“This bunch of players have been fantastic from day one. However, their mental wellbeing has been tested to its limits and some of them have struggled.

“Thankfully we have some experienced players who have all helped and talked to the younger players. We set up mentor groups of four or five players with a mentor, one from the coaching staff and one from the board for outside the playing staff where people can go and talk to individuals or talk together about issues or worries they have.

"We felt we needed to do that to protect players’ mental health and wellbeing.”

Despite an apparent reluctance for dialogue between the governing bodies and championship clubs, Connor remains hopeful of a resolution and some clarity.

”I haven’t given up hope because I think the managers have found a voice. I think we have a right to be listened to and have dialogue which is simply what we’ve asked for between interested parties within the sport which seems to be falling on deaf ears at the moment but we live in hope.”