European money debate rages on

Linfield and Coleraine were eventually nominated as the league’s representatives for the Champions League and Europa League qualifiers, with both clubs open to discussion over a possible donation to the remaining clubs due to the season being curtailed.

The final European place is due to be decided tonight as Glentoran take on Ballymena United in the Irish Cup final.

The matter came up for discussion again in the pre-final press conferences.

Sky Blues boss David Jeffrey felt it wasn’t the right time for that discussion saying: “I’m here to talk about the Irish Cup, not about the outcomes and consequences.”

But Glens head coach Mick McDermott said it would be a matter for the board to discuss.

“It hasn’t come up in any discussions or within our own board or even other clubs,” he said.

“The telltale thing on that would be what the other two clubs do. I don’t know the answer and I haven’t thought about it until now but it’s an interesting question.

“Would we? What if the other clubs were to do that same? The argument would be, and I’m being devil’s advocate here, that Ballymena or Glentoran would have exactly completed a tournament and we’ll have a rightful winner, whereas the other two were sort of awarded it because of the circumstances.

“That would be the argument for some people but look, the board will have to make the decision and as we always said, it would have to be approved by UEFA.

“Would UEFA approve it if one club wanted to do it, I don’t know. Would they approve if all three because it would be unanimous, that’s more likely.

“The UEFA rule is written to stop, I believe, to stop teams paying off other teams, meaning ‘you let us win and we’ll give you £50,000’ or ‘you let us win and we’ll buy a player from you’ - I think that’s the basis of what you have to get approval for any third party to get some of the money.

“But I think if all three clubs went to UEFA and said they’d like to share the money based on solidarity and helping out our smaller clubs, I can’t see UEFA saying no.

“But at a board level we’d have to have consensus. But it would be a good discussion.”

Meanwhile, United boss Jeffrey has revealed that a number of players have given up their ticket allocation so that fans can attend the game.

“We were given 250 tickets as a club and the response of the players has been fantastic in terms of sharing those tickets among fans,” he said.

“We had a very strict allocation, for some it was two, others just one and these are players who have been working the last five weeks to get themselves into a final.

“The number of players who texted me to say ‘It’s OK, David. I’d rather mine went to a supporter’, so there’s a real sense of togetherness which has been borne out of Covid-19.”

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