St. Patrick’s Athletic boss Stephen Kenny has been left annoyed by the FAI’s refusal to postpone their game with Galway this Sunday, ahead of their second-leg Europa League tie against Sabah of Azerbaijan next week.
The Irish side and Galway are due to lock horns on August 11, but before that, the Pats will play against Sabah this coming Thursday. The turnaround in terms of recovery and preparation between flights and training leaves little room for manoeuvre for Pats between the three ties.
Kenny has claimed that Pats requested the game against Galway this coming Sunday be called off to help his side prepare for the second leg of the contest, but the FAI has told Kenny and co. to make a request to Galway, who have said “no.”
“We have requested the Galway game be cancelled because we have to come back from Galway and literally get on a flight in the early hours of the morning to Turkey, and then hang around for a lot of hours, and in the end, we’ll be on two separate flights,” said Kenny.
“We have asked Galway, and we have asked the FAI. The FAI said you have to make a request to Galway, but Galway has said no, so that’s fair enough; that’s their decision.
“But I think there is a provision in the rulebook for the Director of the League to make a decision.”
Kenny also believes that the FAI does a lot of talking with mission statements and plans but does very little to back up and support Irish clubs in Europe, like the Pats. This, according to a frustrated Kenny, is something that needs drastic change.
“My problem is this: you need a bit of vision here. All of the mission statements in the FAI state that we want to have two or three teams in the group stages within a certain number of years, added Kenny
“But there is no evidence that it is actually supported.
“We have had games cancelled. We were given a two-week break; we had no match in the first round, so we can’t have a one-size-fits-all in Europe and say that all the European teams have no match.
“So we had to organise friendlies in those weeks because we had no match.
“We then had six matches in a two-week period when I came in before that, and now we have five matches in 15 days, including going to Switzerland and Liechtenstein and going through three time zones to get to Azerbaijan.
“Yet, at the moment, we haven’t had a positive response. We just have people who want to make sure they don’t upset people.
“Ultimately, the FAI board should rule on this. They can’t hide behind it.”
Pats play Sebah at 19.45 on Thursday