"Ah, Jamsie Kirk, the Ballyclare Comrades manager," said MC Jackie Fullerton in his household velvet tone.

"So, Jamsie, what does it mean to be playing in the CIS Cup then?"

Did he just say CIS Cup? I thought it was the new-look Co-Operative Insurance Cup..?

Yes, local footie fans, the Irish League — and Co-Operative Insurance Cup — campaigns are fast approaching and the old hands of the game did their level best to kick a little bit of excitement into it with a new format for the old CIS Cup.

They did their utmost to remind us over and over again of the competition's new name, which comes with a new logo. Then they did their bit to remind us that the new 17-team packed junior league would be called the IFA Championship. That was just before the IFA's president, Raymond Kennedy, stood up and told us how exciting it was for the plethora of second-string clubs "from the PIL" to be involved in the new-look competition.

"Did he just say PIL?" I asked a learned colleague.

"I think he did you know," he replied out of the side of his mouth.

Jackie then glided his way over to former Irish League president Jim Semple, who told us that the "general view" was that the game (in general, I presume) "had gone a bit stale". Oh, really, Jim? You don't say.

And, now for the draw. Opps. No draw. No draw? What's this then? A first-leg plug?

Speaking of first-legs, there's plenty of them. And, second-legs too. In fact, this new competition will have a tally of 28 games — seven rounds, including a preliminary round (because of the odd number of IFA Championship members) and the final, which, incidentally, will be held next February. Weather permitting, of course.

Kennedy said the "large attendance" at yesterday's plug-fest in the plush surrounds of Malone House in leafy south Belfast, "reflected the interest in the competition".

The smiles on the faces of the Killymoon Rangers contingent would have made Cheshire cats paranoid but there wasn't too much flag-waving from the bulk of the 29 participation clubs. And, I suspect, that when the IFA Championship clubs digest the new format of the old CIS Cup this morning, they may see it as a subtle merger of the old First Division/Ulster Cup/Daily Mirror Cup/Fancy a Cuppa competitions into a 'slight chance' of mixing it with one of the fancy Dans of the IFA Premiership (that's the old Irish Premier League).

This season the Co-Operative Insurance Cup will promote a knock-out thrill. But it won't be that thrilling to the recently lowered/relegated/didn't-turn-up-on-time clubs in the new IFA Championship.

Larne, Donegal Celtic, Portadown, Limavady United and Armagh City were all under the impression they would play-on in the old 16-club format of the old CIS Cup. But now, in order to land gate receipts to make it worthwhile competing in the new Co-Operative Insurance Cup, they must take on their new bed-fellows in FOUR, potentially FIVE, games before the IFA Premiership teams come in to play. So, the likelihood is the majority of the safe-guarded glorious 12 will take up their places in Round 4.

Paddy Kelly, the Donegal Celtic manager who did not attend yesterday's coffee and cream gathering said: "What's the sense in playing so many games? Is that 11 games before a Championship team can get to the final? That's gonna cost us. Hardly worth the hassle is it?"

We love the sponsors. We love that they love the local game. We love them because they plough £50,000 of prize-money into the competition and we love what it does for grassroots football, the fee kit giveaways to all the kiddie teams; and we love them for the services they offer to 5.5 million people across the UK .

But is this a 'co-operative' cup competition? Or is it a carefully calculated 'insurance' that the big stay big and any chance of an intriguing, winner-take-all, knock-out, bowl-me-over classic tournament has passed local football once again?

See ya in February when Linfield and Glentoran meet in the grand finale then.