When the League of Ireland starts back up on Friday, the raw reality is that most Irish soccer fans will be reluctant to avert attention from the next day's English fixtures. English fixtures which, to be fair, represent – as the week's Champions League results proved again – the top level of the European game at the minute.

But the intriguing irony is the top level of the European game will be studiously watching the League of Ireland.

Because on Friday just gone, the General Secretary of Uefa, David Taylor, was in Tallaght to launch the 2009 season. This was no Sepp Blatter-style banquet-and-ballot exercise though. Top of Taylor's own agenda for the week was meeting the FAI's compliance officer Pádraig Smith to glean a full understanding of the Salary Cost Protocol – or, for the rest of us, the league's so far so-so implementation of the rule whereby clubs can only spend 65 per cent of their revenue on wages.

We say so far so-so because enforcing it has come with a lot of adverse headlines as clubs cope with a different way of thinking, and a lot of indignant commentary. But amid all the fire-and-brimstone opinion, there is one salving fact. Uefa's interest in the Irish solution to a very Irish problem is as strong an endorsement of the FAI's stewardship as the domestic body is going to get. And, in any case, it's not just an Irish problem any more. Read these quotes.

One: "We have been through a time when clubs have been overspending, with very ordinary players commanding huge wages… owners were looking for richer people to buy the clubs and take on the losses. But we are in a different climate now, where the clubs have to realise it is back to the fundamental basics of managing their costs."

And two: "The financial situation of many of the clubs is critical. I am really afraid about football because the situation is not sustainable in the medium term."

Both applicable to the League of Ireland in recent times, neither – mercifully – about it. They do, in fact, cover the two highest-ranking and highest-earning divisions in Europe. The first is from Keith Harris, the Seymour Pierce banker involved in the sale of so many clubs, on the Premier League; the second is from Angel Barajas, one of Spain's foremost financial experts, on the Primera Liga.

And they're both just as descriptive of Italy, where the clamour for some form of wage control in Serie A has reached noise levels usually reserved for overly-righteous referees. It's in that context Taylor's ostensible fact-finding mission to Dublin came, as his president Michel Platini talks grandly of the "socialisation of football" and introducing common constraints very similar to the Salary Cost Protocol. Effectively leading the way in all this then – the potential restructuring of the game – could well be our own League of Ireland and FAI.

The FAI leading the way? Granted, it's a thought that has no doubt brought a few snorts of derision from some quarters. Indeed, it's a thought many will simply be incapable of. But, in truth, this is the year – the third of John Delaney's five-year plan –when the FAI must change thinking outside the league as much as they have done within. It's essential progress is shown to enhance profile after so much poor press. Well, progress? Maybe even just some peace. Because, lamentably, the big question surrounding the new season isn't about on-field matters such as whether Derry can push Bohemians or how high Shamrock Rovers can build from their new foundations, but whether the off-field ructions of 2008 will be repeated.

In that, the FAI are in a somewhat unenviable position because although much of the maintenance work has been done, if even the slightest snags arise, many will be all too quick to run off shouting the house is falling down again.

One man doing the shouting at the minute is Gareth Farrelly who recently told The Sun, "it's just self-preservation for the FAI… there is no lesson being learned. You look at the league last year, two of the bigger clubs went into examinership but no one takes responsibility."

The two big clubs Farrelly referenced are of course Drogheda United and Cork City and the 'lack of responsibility' is the decision to grant both sides a Premier Division licence after crossing so many parameters last year. For many, it's merely a foreshadowing of the problems the league will again face as the FAI ducked enforcing discipline now it matters most. The haphazard nature of how some clubs settled issues before the 31 January licensing deadline hardly helps such impressions – Drogheda themselves, for example, used their postponed plan for a new stadium to meet the 1,500-seat requirement. Questions meanwhile were still being asked of Cork City up to Friday's launch as it emerged there had been another delay – apparently clerical – in paying players' wages. The club are set to meet with the PFAI and Smith this week to assuage further fears.

But while an image persist of the powers that be, Wire-style "juking the stats," the reality is even such apparent opportunism from Drogheda – and let's not forget a Premier place was the least of their concerns – conforms to the requirements in the licensing manual. And having come out of examinership, both themselves and Cork restart with a blank canvas financially.

There's also enough evidence to suggest a top-down change of attitude has been effected. The most common complaint among managers in pre-season has been small squads, Pat Fenlon recently remarking "we're all in the same boat – lacking numbers rather than quality". In the last few years, budget-busting signings would have been sanctioned. Now, reality has registered.

The hope is it continues to do so until the League's cumulative debt of €3.5m reaches zero, precipitating a new Year Zero for the league. Then – and it's a drum beaten in this space before – clubs can begin properly investing in infrastructure and vital community links ensuring that even if the Irish continue to look across the water they, like Uefa, keep a more attentive eye on the local game.

mdelaney@tribune.ie