National LeagueLimerick manager Mike Kerley faces a scramble to recruit a squad of players during the next two weeks after his club was yesterday granted the licence it requires to participate in the Eircom League.
Club officials returned from Dublin yesterday delighted and relieved they had been successful in their bid to preserve Limerick's league status although they will have to wait another day or two before discovering what conditions have been imposed by the FAI's licensing committee.
The club's commercial manager, John Purcell, expressed confidence yesterday that the club would meet any requirements laid down and said the granting of the licence was hugely welcome news. "It was a good meeting and there was a lot of goodwill in there towards football in Limerick so I don't think there will be anything insurmountable asked of us," he said.
Purcell said the board's long-term aim is to bring the club back to the Marketsfields and he confirmed talks are in progress with a number of parties with a view to putting together the sort of deal that would be required to achieve the move.
More immediately, however, the club's manager faces the task of putting together a competitive squad in the space of just a couple of weeks after many of last season's players were poached by rival sides while Limerick's fate remained uncertain.
"I suppose it's great news," said Kerley. "We're still in the league, all we need now is a team."
The club has about six players and Kerley said he will talk to them about the situation this evening when they are due to train. He remains unsure, however, as to where the rest of the panel is going to come from.
"The important thing is to bring in players that will enable us to be up there around the top four again because we saw what happened when we were doing well last year, we were getting 1,500 for some games compared to 50 at the start of the season.
"I don't think money will be the biggest problem now, it's simply getting players with the sort of ability and experience you need to mount a challenge just a couple of weeks before the season starts."
UCC and University of Limerick have both made it through to the semi-finals of the Budweiser Collingwood Cup in Belfast.
UCC, who are going for their third successive Collingwood title, qualified for the last four in style with an incredible 13-0 win over St Patrick's, Drumcondra, yesterday and now face hosts Queen's University Belfast in today's semi-final.
University of Limerick will take on University of Ulster Coleraine in their semi-final after yesterday's 2-0 victory over Trinity.
YESTERDAY'S RESULTS
Collingwood Cup: University of Ulster Coleraine 2, St Mary's College 1; University of Ulster Jordanstown 6, NUI Maynooth 0; University of Ulster Magee 2, Royal College of Surgeons 1; University of Limerick 2, Trinity College 0; Queen's University Belfast 2, UCD 2; Dublin Institute of Technology 1, NUI Galway 0; UCC 13, Patrick's Drumcondra 0.
