Gaynor Cup preparations disrupted by FAI funding issues
The 2025 Carlow Gaynor Cup Squad
The Gaynor Cup is just days away but preparations have been affected by the FAI’s cutting of funding to the SFAI who run the Kennedy and Gaynor Cups. The draw for the group stages hasn’t been done yet, the team hasn’t been allocated its villages or its houses yet. However, Carlow manager Alan Smith says he’s determined to not let it affect his side’s preparation.
“The SFAI rely heavily on the funding given to them by the FAI. With the debate on calendar year soccer going on and the SFAI saying they’re not 100% behind it, and that they’re in favour of each league having their own choice what they want to do, that’s a large part of it. The FAI withheld funding from the SFAI and I don’t think they’re getting it at this point but what they’ve done is said that the different leagues can apply directly to the FAI for funding.
"If they do that though, they’ll be looking for those leagues to have their back on pushing through Calendar Soccer, so I don’t think the Carlow team will be doing that. We can adapt fairly quickly though in our preparations once we get the fixtures, we’ve kinda been doing that anyway. We just want to make sure that the girls get the proper experience, that they get the same experience that girls have gotten in previous years. With the SFAI behind schedule, we don’t want any potential little hiccups to take away from the experience."
"Apart from the delay in getting the information, the fixtures and the groups and stuff, we’re looking forward to the tournament itself. We’ve a new squad again this year, preparations have been going well, the girls are starting to find their form, we’re starting to gain a little bit of momentum, we’re starting to get a bit of cohesion together in the team.
"We took part in a pre-Gaynor Cup tournament up in Navan a few weeks ago so everything is starting to build towards Limerick. You never know til you get down there [how you’ll get on], you play teams throughout the year and you win or lose and then you go down there and it’s completely different teams, everyone is looking to peak for the June Bank Holiday weekend when the tournament starts.”
He’s hoping that they can go on to win some kind of silverware.
“There’s some very good teams in it this year like Galway who ran away with the Interleague, Wexford are very strong, South Belfast, Kerry, Sligo-Leitrim, Cork. It’s very hard to judge how we do against them. The group will have a big bearing on how we do, if you get a winnable group, you have a great chance of topping the group, if the draw doesn’t go your way, and you get some of the bigger teams like last year, you can be unlucky. We’ll be hoping that whatever we do, we can win a competition, whether we top the group and win the cup or we come second or third, whatever way we finish up, it would be great to go on and lift some silverware.”
Smith says they have a strong group of players heading to Limerick this year.
“We’ve some fantastic players, it’s difficult to name them out, we’ve a really good squad, we’ve great parity throughout the squad, we’ve some fantastic strikers, girls that are good finishers, girls that work really hard. The engine room in the midfield, we’ve asked the girls to work really hard over the last few months, two really good ‘keepers and a solid defence. I don’t really like naming out players, I know in previous years, we’ve had the likes of Ciara Milton on the squad, who’s doing great things with Ireland.
"This year I feel like we’ve got great balance across the squad, there’s no star players to watch out for, we have the squad at the same level. This is the first time in a long time that we have girls going over who are the right age. 16 of the squad are actually under 14, whereas in other years, even the year we won the Gaynor Cup. only 11 of the 20 were the right age, we had a lot of younger girls. That’s testament to the work the clubs are putting in and the quality that’s in the league. A lot of the clubs have done well this year, Fiacc’s, Hanover, Killeshin, New Oak have all done well in the SFAI cups. A lot of these girls were actually part of the squad the year we won it too so they’ve got the experience there throughout the squad.”
