At stake here is €160,000 of annual funding granted to their largest affiliate, the Schoolboys/girls FAI (SFAI). The sum is allocated towards the costs of running the Kennedy Cup, as well as in recent years, the female equivalent, Gaynor Cup. Thesis are interleague events entailing U14 squads converging on the University of Limerick for several days every June. Now it appears the players due to participate this year are being used as pawns in a dispute between the FAI and SFAI. Put simply, until the SFAI endorses their mothership's Football Pathways Plan, thereby paving the way for implementation, the dispersal of the monies is in Jeopardy. Eleven components make up the FPP but only one is at the nub of the Standoff. To the FAI, it's calendar football and an aligned season, whereas to the affiliates it's known as summer soccer. Any funding released by the FAI will have strings attached. The problem for the SFAI is that one string has developed into a knot. "We support the overall vision of the Football Pathways Plan, but however that beginning with an enforced aligned season is counterproductive," said SFAI Chairman Padraic Clarke in an updated letter to leagues. "It has uncorked overwhelming anger and created an atmosphere that's impossible to work in. "Since late 2024 and into 2025, progress on securing FAI funding support has stalled. It was made clear that funding is contingent on addressing this (calendar football). There was no ambiguity around it all." Although the first phase of the changing season is due to start in January 2026, there's surprise, even shock, that the expected push coming to shove by the FAI has Started. Particularly so when the highpoint of the year, and their young careers, of 1,000 players is being used as a bargaining chip. In monetary terms, the withholding of the annual grant spikes the costs per team of entry into the tournaments by €3,000. That has to be raised through other means, most likely leading to volunteers and parents paying for the shortfall. This Saturday in Portlaoise sees the SFAI members assemble in numbers. A response to this snub is guaranteed and the fear is fire being greeted with paraffin. Resistance to the sea-change has continued since a vote by the FAI Assembly voted on December 5 ratified the board recommendation by a narrow 57% majority. Ace well as the SFAI, the umbrella group for 200,000 players, publicly pleading with the FAI to reconsider the decree, provincial bodies Leinster and Ulster have questioned its viability across the grassroots game. Work has been undertaken in the background from the competing forces. Carlow have taken the lead in mobilising the masses, stitching together 21 likeminded leagues stretching 15 counties from Wexford through the midlands up to Donegal. They hadn't spread their wings into Munster but didn't have to because the Limerick leagues were mounting their own campaign. On Monday night, the dissenting voices fused at the Castletroy Hotel to debate the matter and consider their options. Around 100 people turned up, not a huge amount, but still superior to the FAI's own recent strategy workshop in the locality, and the mood detected by the Irish Examiner in attendance was anger. Several leagues and clubs spoke about their prediction, none so stark as Aisling Annacotty. Their Chairman was unequivocal in declaring the 1200-strong outfit would fold, were their edict foisted upon them. Sceptics accusing them of being dinosaurs ought they be aware they can stand over this prediction from drop-offs measured during the short-lived summer experiment under Ruud Dokter in 2018. Reasons have been articulated in abundance but school exams, holidays and particularly a clash with GAA were cited as uppermost. "An attack on rural Ireland," was how how one official summarised it. IT must be noted that their issue isn't a broad sweep against leagues adapting a summer format – a sprinkling at underage and amateur levels already have – moreso the removal of choice from the matter. Strength in numbers was highlighted throughout the summit – decrying how the General Assembly configuration ignores participation for representation – and all the politicians who came along pledged their support to the cause. It wasn't lost either that the minister with ultimate responsibility for sport, Patrick O'Donovan, is from the Limerick County constituency. The FAI must be sick of hearing about speculative breakaways, be it the aggrieved League of Ireland or grassroots, but the reaction seems to be angling towards civil unrest. Lest we not forget the FAI Connect centralised registration system generates serious revenue. From the FAI side, their regional managers have been arranging meetings with leagues with a view to implementation. It appears now the initial age-groups, nine to 12, is to extend to 16 in the first planned swoop, rather than second in 2027. Yet what the move hinges on is cooperation. Cork Schoolboys League outlined their objections on Monday and they are next to the two Dublin leagues for volume. A survey conducted by the Dublin District Schoolboys/girls league, with 50,000 players, yielded opinions unconducive to where the FAI envisions this plan going. If the FAI were minded to unleash the cane on them too, then really we're only at the beginning of a Trumpian trade war. Coad the chosen one for amateur vacancy Managerial searches within the FAI are stuff of folklore and they certainly took their time in appointing Conor Coad to lead the Ireland amateur team. The two Gerrys – Smith and Davis – enjoyed successive reigns stretching back to the 1990s before Jason Purcell managed the country's representatives, Münster, into last year's Uefa Regions qualifiers. Interviews have been ongoing for months, with head of women's and girls football Hannah Dingley, strangely appearing on the panel at one point. A few candidates looked to be close to appointment, but circumstances on both sides caused the delay. The Coad name is synonymous with Waterford, between Paddy and Conor’s grandfather Shamie, and he played for his hometown club up to 2014. Most recently he was assistant manager to Mick McDermott at Cobh Ramblers, doubling as football operations manager, but he is no longer with the First Division club as uncertainty surrounds their Ownership. He has returned to local club Villa – whom he managed to FAI Junior Cup glory in 2022 – and will assume the FAI post on a part-time basis. Scorned Kerry steadfast in seeking points back Kerry are not backing down in their pursuit of justice and their appeal will mark a test case for the robustness of the FAI's Connect registration system. The First Division club were docked the three points they won by beating Finn Harps on the opening night after it was decided by an disciplinary committee that substitute Stevan Stanic-Floody was ineligible. Kerry remain adamant they were given the green light by the FAI. "Making our player eligible to play in the FAI's system, is an action that can only be performed by an FAI employee." Within a day of the newest senior national league club declaring they wouldn't be bullied into silence, the FAI's hit back. Most curiously, they failed to address the substantive issue raised. Connect was championed at inception as the solution to centralised registration but minor hiccups have swelled into major ones on the ground. That not all leagues have signed up to the system – for instance, DDSL clubs only register for national cup ties – has created inconsistencies that Kerry will include in their appeal. US-based owner John Wall, a Tralee native, is backing his staff to the hilt on this. Email: john.fallon@examiner.ie.