What can be done with the League of Ireland?

Jayob10

First off I want this to be a serious thread with real ideas from real LOI fans. Don't want to see EPL fans post and add riveting ideas like "nowt can be done its crap"

You can guarantee that clubs will more than likely receive patched up licences again before the new season starts next year. Only to find themselves on the brink again half way into the season.

So if you were to find yourself in the position where you could decide what to do with the league of Ireland what would you do? How would you change things? be it on the field, in the media from a marketing perspective or whatever.

Whatever ideas you have let us know.

Heres my 2 cents worth.

We have far too many clubs. Amalgamating certain clubs obviously is not an option due to rivalries etc. However we do have some big towns with good schoolboy leagues that really should have no problem sustaining a LOI club.

1) We need qualified coaches at all levels from u-10 up to senior. If you are not qualified with the minimum UEFA licence then you ain't coaching a team. Fair enough it may take away the community feel for things but its about standards. I'm sure everyone has stories of coaches when they were that age who had not got a clue.
With the amount of people out of work now also surely some money can be put aside by the FAI to finance or part finance these courses for people with an interest. Incentives should also be there to go as far as possible in relation to coaching badges.

2) A national centre of excellence also needs to be set up. The best players from the 4 corners of Ireland need to be brought together from the age of 14 upwards for sessions throughout the year. Encourage youngsters to stay in Ireland and work their way into the new improved league. Regional teams should also compete in an all ireland cup competition once a year giving players a sense of pride of where they come from also.

3) Like Major league soccer in the US, i'd like to see a central contracting system in the LOI. All players in the LOI would be under contract to the FAI. Players wages would be paid by the FAI with clubs effectively run by the association with all revenue the clubs make being put back into the association. Let this be the way forward for the forseeable future until the profile of the domestic game rises and crowds start coming back in their droves. And maybe when clubs show signs of being able to stand on their own 2 feet then they can manage some of their own affairs.

4) Tie more of the clubs in with Colleges, I.T's and Universities. Like UCD, offer good players the chance to stay at home, study and play for their LOI side.
Alot of the clubs in the premier and first division have a corresponding third level facility within their town or county. give these players a sense of professionalism that makes them feel important by way of facilities that alot of the third level colleges can provide.

5) Finally and probably most controversialy, relax the work permit requirements in relation to sporting potential and achievement. Attract some of the worlds most talented kids/teenagers with scholarships in our universities. This is a very grey area, and I do understand some of the best in the world won;t have english or even an interest in education at that. However even if we are choosing from the second tier of talent in that respect, well at least we are still attracting outside talent that will make our domestic game more rounded. It can only help our domestic talent by playing with those from another playing culture altogether.

Overall I feel that this would give us somewhat of a better hotbed of irish talent. And knowing that the cream of irish talent was playing and playing regular first team football in Ireland having had top class coaching from a young age along with talented foreign nationals, would have the scouts flocking. And this could also net the FAI and windfall when the time comes for some players to move abroad. And encouraged to move further afield than the UK in some instances.

My views are somewhat rough around the edges as you can probably tell. But its a start.
Tell me what your own plans would be.

chopperbyrne

Some good points there.

I fear going the rugby way and letting the FAI completely run things would be disastrous though as they have shown numerous times just how little they care for the LoI.

Walsh

Jayob10 wrote: »

2) A national centre of excellence also needs to be set up. The best players from the 4 corners of Ireland need to be brought together from the age of 14 upwards for sessions throughout the year. Encourage youngsters to stay in Ireland and work their way into the new improved league. Regional teams should also compete in an all ireland cup competition once a year giving players a sense of pride of where they come from also.

Just want to say this does exist as far as I know, 'Emerging Talent' I think it's called

DSB

Agree with all of that aside from the centralised contracts.

the untitled user

Oat23 wrote: »

The big 2 in Uruguay average over 20k fans a game, which gives them money to develop players to compete in the group stages of the copa libertadores. Which pays them almost $1,000,000 each year.

There's no comparison to be made between Ireland and Uruguay just because we have small populations. A much larger percentage of their population attends games which is the only important stat.

That's a stupid, limited, self defeating reponse. We need to be asking why? Why do a much larger percentage of their population attend games? That's the question we need to be asking. That's what we need to be trying to affect.

citytillidie wrote: »

Football is the number one sport in Uruguay which is also important to remember

Soccer is the number one sport in Ireland btw. So that's moot.

dfx-

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