Kevin Doherty insists Drogheda United have 'strong case' ahead of Court of Arbitration appeal

RTÉ News​

12 hours ago

Drogheda United manager Kevin Doherty remains hopeful that the decision to prevent the club from competing in this season's UEFA Conference League will be reversed and insists that they have a "strong case".
Earlier this week, the club revealed that UEFA had informed them that they will not be allowed to take part in Europe's third tier club competition due to ownership rules.
United, owned by the Trivela Group, qualified for the competition by winning last year's FAI Cup.
However, Danish side Silkeborg, also under the Trivela umbrella, secured a place in the Conference League through their league position.
Under UEFA rules, two sides from the same owner cannot enter the same European competition.
Silkeborg take priority due to their higher league position under UEFA guidelines.
However, Drogheda have appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport with a ruling to come on Monday.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport's John Kenny after Friday night's 0-0 draw with St Patrick's Athletic, Drogs boss Doherty was bullish about the club's hopes of avoiding a costly absence from European competition.
"I know we have a very, very strong case. A very, very strong case," he said.
"For the players, for the staff, we'll do our bit and we'll go out there and fight for everything.
"I fully absolutely trust the people at the club that will do the exact same. Absolutely no doubt in my mind.
"I've been in the loop. I know we've a very strong case."
Doherty also admitted that it was inevitable that he or the players would be impacted somewhat by what has been going on in the background. However, he was keen to get the message across to his players that it needed to be put in perspective.
"You wouldn't be human if you didn't think about it. There's no point pretending we're not thinking about it," he said.
"I've been kept in the loop so we have to probably do our part. I made this point to the players as well. I've been at clubs where you had serious things to worry about.
"There's a club last year for instance that people had serious things to worry about. There's a couple of clubs.
"We're very, very well looked after at this club. Things are going in the right direction and what we as players and staff can do is fight and fight and fight for every ball, every tackle, every header, every point and every clean sheet and as I said, I fully trust the people around the club to do the exact same."
On the pitch, the scoreless draw was the third 0-0 in three that Drogheda and St Pat's have played out in their head-to-heads against each other this season.
"It is unusual," Doherty admitted of the trend.
"And it's three excellent performances from us in different ways. The first time they got in our box was after 18 minutes. We started the game so, so well."
However, Luke Dennison's penalty save from Saints youngster Mason Melia proved vital in preserving Drogheda's clean sheet.
"But then (Pat's) obviously got into it, get the penalty which is a penalty and poor from us but Luke just showed how much these clean sheets mean to him and all of us," Doherty added, who said he had to be happy with the point in the context of the opposition and his own side's 2025 trajectory.