*Cathal Jones. Photograph: Natasha Barton
OUTGOING TREASURER OF THE CSSL, Cathal Jones has been praised for putting the league’s finances back on a solid footing.
For the first time since October 2018, the Clare Schoolboys/Schoolgirls Soccer League (CSSL) recorded a surplus in their finances.
Question marks have surrounded the accounts of the CSSL in recent campaigns with doctored accounts presented to delegates in 2019 while the 2020 AGM had to be abandoned when matters became heated whilst discussing the finances.
Accounts for 2022 showed a surplus of €9,125, the healthiest position since 2018 when a surplus of €16,188 was in the bank. Recent years have seen deficits of €5,019 (2019), €20,567 (2020) and €2,025 (2021).
An income of €89,268 was recorded in 2022, double the €40,916 of the previous year, this was coincided with the resumption of all underage programmes, a near doubling of gate receipts and registration fees plus the addition of fundraising and sponsorship.
Registration fees was the biggest source of revenue at €45,593 followed by underage programmes (€27,393), gate receipts (€9,510), fundraising/sponsorship (€4,155) and grants received (€1,000).
Expenses almost doubled rising from €42,941 last year to the 2022 figure of €80,503. No transport costs were incurred last year while this year they amounted to €13,950. While the underage programme costs were a source of revenue, they also came at a cost of €16,537, almost quadrupling. Gear and kit costs were reduced, at a fee of €8,022 with other outlays including insurance (€7,395), medals/trophies (€5,582), tournament fees & SFAI registration (€5,480), rent of pitches (€4,950), referee costs (€4,542) and printing (€4,152). Less money was spent on accounting, gear and referees this season.
Pouring through the figures, outgoing treasurer Jones acknowledged registration fees “went up significantly” with the rate going up by fifty percent, having been halved in 2020. “There are more kids coming up from U8, U9 and U10. I think those numbers, the amount of kids in teams coming through are only going to grow, my advice from committee perspective is we won’t need to see any more increases, we’ll be funded well by the numbers coming through. We have the numbers coming up, registration is good, there was no fines last year everybody was either very good or we were lenient. The only way in changing behaviour is by fines, the frustration of the life of a registrar, the bulk of those fines aren’t from behavioural issues, some of it are for late registrations,” he stated.
No grants from the FAI were received by the CSSL this year but Burren Utd did receive financial funds for their “great work with the Ukrainians”.
For Cup finals, the contribution of €50 from each team towards the costs for match programmes which were then given to all spectators that paid to attend the games was a smart move, the Bunratty man maintained.
Having gate receipts “save us running a fundraiser, if we do well on our cup finals it means we can do well on our cup final gates. Whatever fundraisers we do it all comes from the same pocket”.
All funds for the underage programmes are managed through ClubZap, “we don’t handle cash,” Cathal outlined, “all of that money is paid for by the parents. This year we’ve introduced a discounted rate. We do need the money because the cost in running the ETP programmes are significant. The underage programme costs are up significantly because this was the year they were up on the road again, in 2021 we only had a few squads whereas this year all of our squads were back.
Transport costs were from organising buses to county games, he explained. “We have relied on parents to drive in the past, when representing the county it’s not fair to ask parents to drive the length and breadth of the country, the more successful you are the more you’re spending on buses. From committee perspective, the only expenses charged were the reimbursement of expenses to do with underage programme, no one is taking expenses for driving around the county, I’m not sure it is sustainable that nobody has claimed but it has helped to put us on a solid footing, we need to continue to get the right people, we can’t get people up year after year”.
Reflecting on the CSSL’s finances over recent years, Cathal said he “felt it was important to show the last five years” worth of accounts. “In 2020 we saw situation where whole world shut down in March, an element of both costs that had spiralled in those years and also in that year that COVID hit and we didn’t have the income to match some of the costs we had”.
Elected Treasurer in June 2021, Cathal told the CSSL’s AGM he was going to remain on. “It is not a tremendously difficult job but it is a time consuming job, the clubs have been great to be me”.
He believed a formal policy was needed for coaches involved in the ETP, “we do need some sort of formal policy for coaches in terms of out of pocket expenses, we’re getting coaches in to give of their own time to train kids and put them on a rewarding path, it is a step and the ETP coaches help the kids get on that, I’m not advocating that we pay people but I’m advocating that we don’t have people out of pocket for the time they give, if they’re driving up and down to Dublin three times for matches, you shouldn’t see a situation where it is costing people to train our kids”.
Next year’s accounts are likely to show an ETP grant worth €6,000, Cathal flagged with a COVID support grant also on the way. He also spoke of the importance of having a consistency in the costs associated with all county teams.
Of importance for the CSSL is filling the role of PRO, he stressed. “A job we haven’t really had fully driven for the last while which is the job of a PRO, we haven’t had someone doing the full-on social media aspect which is necessary, I don’t know how we’ll do it, we all do a bit here and there, it is something that needs to be done, I’m not sure if we have to incur a cost to do it”.
Committee member, Tommy Molloy paid tribute to the departing treasurer. “Expenses and everything like that, there was never any problem if I was going to Dublin for SFAI business, we were often below in the County Grounds giving out about him for tea and coffee, the effort is being put in and what we’ve done in the financial report shows a good man behind it results in money saved”.
Newly elected CSSL Chairperson, Deirdre Shannon said, “Cathal Jones did an unbelievable job to get CSSL finances (on track). I don’t think anyone could have done the job you did, they were in a controversial position before I left the committee”.
