BY HARRY WALSH

ONE of Donegal's most successful soccer managers has called for an end to summer football. Fr Michael Sweeney, a founder member of the Ulster Senior League, said the experiment of summer football had failed to live up to the hopes of those who proposed it.

Fr Sweeney, Parish Priest in Gaoth Dobhair, believes the game is losing too many promising young players to the GAA that would love to have the opportunity to play both codes.

Having reached the end of the second year of experimenting with summer football for the USL, Fr Sweeney, who led Fanad United to FAI Intermediate Cup success together with a number of USL titles, said it was time to access it's success.

His comments come a week after the conclusion of this year's USL campaign which was won by Letterkenny Rovers.

"I'm sure their motive was to improve the game and increase attendance at Ulster Senior League games but it has done neither," Fr Sweeney said.

"In my opinion, as one who has been involved in Donegal Soccer for years, it has failed to live up to the hopes of those who proposed it," he added.

"Unfortunately the weather was so bad that there was as many postponements as there were during winter football and the attendance has been very poor. The other suggestion that we would have to compete with the GAA would never work. In fact we lost so many promising young players to the GAA that would love to have the opportunity to play both codes. It is only natural that these young lads will feel their first duty is to their parish team. We deprived them of making the grade in soccer which many of them could have done," he said.

Fr Sweeney said that another drawback with summer football is that supporters never knew when their team was playing unless they kept reading the local papers.

"Games could be played any day of the week at any time of the evening. It was nice when we had winter football to know one could have the Sunday dinner and head to support one's team at 2pm," he said.

"The biggest drawback however is for the teams that progress to play in the National Intermediate Cup. The other provinces are still playing winter football while the Ulster teams are sitting idle. I think that is very clear from recent results when the two top teams in the Ulster Senior League. Letterkenny Rovers and Kildrum Tigers, have already been defeated at this early stage, teams one would expect to do well in the Intermediate Cup.

"I hope those in charge of football, and who give so much time to promote the game, will take a serious look at the state of soccer in the county at the moment to see how it can be improved. I suggest a winter break of six weeks which would, hopefully, escape the worst of the weather and give our pitches a rest.

"As for the standard of the pitches I must congratulate the Ulster Senior League on the wonderful progress made there. All we need now is the same progress with the players and I'm afraid Summer football is not the way to do that," Fr Sweeney said.

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