Setanta Cup very Setanta-esque in nature

Fittingly, they are both heading for the wrong goal

With the news that Setanta USA is ceasing broadcasting on February 28 [EDIT: may not be official], and the well-publicized troubles for the parent company over the last year, this is a story we just couldn’t pass up.

There is a competition for top teams in Ireland and Northern Ireland called the Setanta Cup, and today one of those teams, Derry City, were expelled from the Cup for having gone into administration. That’s right, there is a club that is too bankrupt for a competition named after a bankrupted company. O. Henry just said “No Wai!” from beyond the grave.

The Setanta Cup format is such that there are three groups of three teams each who play a home and home series. Derry City (of Northern Ireland) were grouped with Northern Ireland’s Linfield and St. Pat’s of Ireland. Before going into administration in November, Derry City had already played both clubs once in the competition, drawing each team 1-1 once. These results will stand.

The weird part is how Derry City were bounced from the cup. It seems that Linfield publicly announced they would not play a team in administration as “the Derry City that qualified for the competition has ceased to exist”. Which, in fact, is true. After entering administration in November, the club were booted from their league. This month, the club re-emerged with a new board and chairman, effectively dissolving the previous club. So, Linfield are correct that the team they were refused to face are not the same one that made it into the cup.

What strikes me is that, at some point in this two month span, the club did cease to exist, but the officials of the Setanta Cup did not notice until Linfield said something. Then they decided to act. Perhaps they were too caught up in the global meltdown of everything Setanta to notice. Or they were stealing office supplies from a closing business. That’s what I would do.