2007 Shelbourne F.C. season-Cedar Herald Index

In the 2007 season, Shelbourne finished 5th in the League of Ireland First Division.

Overview

Following the financial crisis of 2006, at the start of the 2007 season, the club was left with just two senior players by January, and the club's financial crisis resulted in the club pulling out of the Setanta Cup. The crisis even began to threaten their participation in the Champions' League for 2007. Shelbourne's woes were deepened on 25 January 2007 when owner and general manager, Ollie Byrne, was taken to hospital with a reported brain tumour, most likely, stress-induced.

2007 Shelbourne F.C. season

Shelbourne, with no manager and just one remaining senior player by February were said to be massively in debt – some reports putting it at €6 million, and others between even €10 million and €12 million. The fiasco only served to increase the pressures on the FAI, who already had to find two new replacement clubs to participate in the league following the extinction of Dublin City F.C. and Limerick F.C. in 2006. The association decided to set up a review of the awarding of a Premier Division licence to the club and eventually decided that the club should be stripped of the chance to compete in the Premier Division. Shelbourne had their Premier licence revoked and were, instead, considered lucky to be placed in the First Division for the 2007 season. There had been worries that the club would face outright extinction and that the FAI would throw the club out of the league altogether, especially after Limerick, who had less severe problems than Shelbourne, were denied a First Division licence. Liam Moggan, the chairman of the FAI's Licensing Committee resigned in protest after the decision was made to grant Shelbourne a First Division licence as he believed that the club - manager-less, player-less and heavily in the red - did not meet the criteria for the awarding of such a licence, even though its criteria were less strict than those required to pass for a Premier licence. It is probable that the Committee as a whole took an extremely sympathetic view while taking into account the long history of the club and, facing a minimal time-frame for exploring alternatives before the kick-off in March, logistical factors, such as ensuring that the league began with the preferred number of teams, when coming to a final decision to keep Shelbourne in the league.

2007 Shelbourne F.C. season

However, the FAI did not specifically announce whether their decision was punishment for continuing off-the-field abuses from 2006, such as failing to pay players their wages, or whether it was a repercussion of Shelbourne failing to meet the requisite criteria for partaking in the 2007 Premier Division (although it is likely that the course of action taken was due to the latter as if it were a punishment for the 2006 season a deduction in points from that season's tally would be the usual penalty, which would have led to the club being stripped of their title in this scenario). If the relegation was indeed due to a failure to meet standards for 2007, the club's off-the-field abuses during 2006 remain to be seen as having been permissible for that season.

2007 Shelbourne F.C. season

Meanwhile, Waterford United were invited to take Shelbourne's place in the Premier Division for 2007 as they were the next best-placed First Division club in the Independent Assessment Group's rankings. Waterford United accepted the invitation, while the task of sourcing funds, a manager and squad before the transfer-deadline of 28 February remained at the forefront of the club's worries by mid-February. On 23 February, Shelbourne announced that Dermot Keely had been appointed as their new manager. The signing of a new squad of players commenced immediately afterward - quite a few of these players being youngsters and loaned players from other clubs, although the club did also manage to entice a number of ripened seniors to Tolka Park for the 2007 season.