how to fix our league! - Mod Warning in OP

Ferris_Bueller

Interesting the league format suggested in the letter to the FAI, could potentially work but can't see the FAI ever going ahead with it. Agree with what Ebbs said in that football in this country needs a DRAMATIC change, there is so much wrong that it is not even funny.

It is such a shame that there are so many people who would do anything to improve the league, such as the author of that letter and many of us on here, but the guys who are actually involved in the league don't seem half arsed about it. Is there ever going to be anything we can do about it or will our ideas/enthusiasm just go to waste?

Henlars67

A league is a league and should be decided as such.

Raoul

Mushy, I know its not your letter but I really think that it would draw in bigger crowds at the end of the season but it does devalue the league campaign in a way. I would love to see it implemented for a season and see what would happen. Unfortunately, it will never happen will it?

Raoul

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

Interesting the league format suggested in the letter to the FAI, could potentially work but can't see the FAI ever going ahead with it. Agree with what Ebbs said in that football in this country needs a DRAMATIC change, there is so much wrong that it is not even funny.

It is such a shame that there are so many people who would do anything to improve the league, such as the author of that letter and many of us on here, but the guys who are actually involved in the league don't seem half arsed about it. Is there ever going to be anything we can do about it or will our ideas/enthusiasm just go to waste?

Unfortunately, it is more than likely just going to waste.

Richard Hillman

They talked about the Devaluation of a straight league system in Premiership Rugby at first but after a year nobody was bothered about it. People will get used to it quick. Every other progressive sport is doing it.

Football is so far behind other sports in providing a spectacle for the match going fans and TV viewers. I dont give a toss if the best team over the whole season wins in the end, I just want to be entertained for my €15 or my 2 hours of TV viewership.

I posted in another thread about not watching the lower English leagues unless it is the last day of the season or the play offs. The rest of the season it is horrific to watch. If we can get people paying in at the door and watching on TV for the run up to the play offs, then it is a whole lot better than nobody watching at all.

osarusan

Ebbs wrote: »

Small incremental changes wont work for the league and the national squad, dramatic change is the only way forward.

Small incremental changes are the only thing that will work.

People need to get these radical overhauls of the LOI out of their heads.

Zebra3

Pighead wrote: »

Pumping money? Our weekly budget is €12000. We are outside the top four spenders in the league of Pats, Shams, Sligo and Derry.

Where is this list of budgets available for me to see on the web?

10green bottles

Zebra3 wrote: »

Where is this list of budgets available for me to see on the web?

Dundalks budget is defo 12k.Players,leccy,gas.etc. ok 500 euro either way but still small in terms.

Zebra3

10green bottles wrote: »

Dundalks budget is defo 12k.Players,leccy,gas.etc. ok 500 euro either way but still small in terms.

Can you provide me a link for this figure and for those of the other clubs?

upandcumming

Zebra3 wrote: »

Can you provide me a link for this figure and for those of the other clubs?

Its up on the national private company internal documents website.

10green bottles

Zebra3 wrote: »

Can you provide me a link for this figure and for those of the other clubs?

http://utv.vo.llnwd.net/o16/LMFM/2013/08/18/1808ciaranBond(1).mp3

No links for other sides bar Dundalk sorry.

kksaints

Prop Joe wrote: »

Sorry should of mentioned when the split happens teams go back to zero points then are allocated points on there position before the split.

1st 10 points
2nd 9
etc..

Should keep the league competitive for longer..All games would be of importance,Plus teams wouldnt be playing each other as regularly..Just an idea anyway

Fair enough. Its not the worst idea but its something Im not really a fan of.

legendary.xix

Niall Quinn in fairness has been bringing up good points on the subject of the next international manager. On a number of radio shows today his been making the point that Ireland cannot depend on English club's picking up Irish players. It might have worked over 10 to 20 years ago but not any longer. He was discussing the need to youth academies, centres of excellence to develop players and then maybe when they are men in their early 20's, the better players would go to play in across the water in the Premier League.

In discussing how to fix the league, the league's best players will always go across the water. It's not just something that happens in football. If you look at music etc., to be successful, the UK is always a market to get into.

Youth academies and centres of excellence should be set-up in a number of regions around the country. It's mainly urban areas I'd imagine that would make centres of excellence viable. North Dublin, South Dublin, Cork and Galway at least should be areas to have centre of excellence. I don't think youth academies/centres of excellence should be separate to the League of Ireland. It should be done with the involvement of clubs.

NIMAN

I do think Irish football has reached a turning point, where we look like we are heading downwards in the quality dept, and risk becoming a lower tier nation. Bit like Scotland, Wales and NI, as the guys on the panel mentioned last night. Recovering from this is a long, slow process so whether we address the problem now or not will decide if we have any form of decent football in the next decade or two.

I think fundamental, grass roots football needs to change in how its taught. Physical, hit and run hoofball simply does not work any more. It used to, then the technical country learned how to get fit and physical and yet stay technical and skillful. If we continue to raise our football youngsters in the English model, based on strength, then we are going nowhere. We need to go the Dutch and Spanish route, and do away with the nonsense of Under 11s playing on full size pitches with 4ft keepers in 24ft nets. And where winning is all that matters.

Nuturing technically competent youngsters is what we need to do. The Brazilians, Spanish, Dutch etc aren't born being able to play football, they are taught it, so any other country in the world can learn to do it too, as long as the will to do it is there.

But have Irish people the will to raise their kids playing 5-a-sides, using small goals, stop screaming from the sidelines etc? Not so sure they do, as long as our game is so dominated by the English game.

Nows the time to grasp the nettle.

bohsboy

Good post regarding grass roots football. There is a dreadful "win at all costs" characteristic of 90% of clubs at underage level.

I got involved with an u12 team a few years ago and was appalled by grown men scanning the league table and trying to switch upcoming fixtures to gain an advantage on rivals. I couldn't face a bench of eight kids looking at us hopefully for a game as the first eleven were kept on to try and win a game.
Sometimes if we had the numbers, the "first team" game was normally followed by a kick about for the subs. Awful stuff.

Across Germany and Holland, there are no league tables or trophies handed out at the end of the season up until u-16 level. All winning results are recorded as 1-0s. There is nothing to be achieved by putting 16-0 drubbings on websites or in local papers.

We're talking about changing things at grassroots level but I think its nigh on impossible. The average underage manager couldn't give a toss about player development, he's just looking for the "silverware" at the end of the season, wear the stupid manager jacket and act like Ferguson on the side line. Its rotten to the core.

Lawrence1895

bohsboy wrote: »

Good post regarding grass roots football. There is a dreadful "win at all costs" characteristic of 90% of clubs at underage level.

I got involved with an u12 team a few years ago and was appalled by grown men scanning the league table and trying to switch upcoming fixtures to gain an advantage on rivals. I couldn't face a bench of eight kids looking at us hopefully for a game as the first eleven were kept on to try and win a game.
Sometimes if we had the numbers, the "first team" game was normally followed by a kick about for the subs. Awful stuff.

Across Germany and Holland, there are no league tables or trophies handed out at the end of the season up until u-16 level. All winning results are recorded as 1-0s. There is nothing to be achieved by putting 16-0 drubbings on websites or in local papers.

We're talking about changing things at grassroots level but I think its nigh on impossible. The average underage manager couldn't give a toss about player development, he's just looking for the "silverware" at the end of the season, wear the stupid manager jacket and act like Ferguson on the side line. Its rotten to the core.

Would you have any link for that? I know, there is no trophies for under age teams in Germany alright, but every winning score 1:0? That's new to me,

Thanks.

Gavin "shels"

bohsboy wrote: »

Good post regarding grass roots football. There is a dreadful "win at all costs" characteristic of 90% of clubs at underage level.

I got involved with an u12 team a few years ago and was appalled by grown men scanning the league table and trying to switch upcoming fixtures to gain an advantage on rivals. I couldn't face a bench of eight kids looking at us hopefully for a game as the first eleven were kept on to try and win a game.
Sometimes if we had the numbers, the "first team" game was normally followed by a kick about for the subs. Awful stuff.

Across Germany and Holland, there are no league tables or trophies handed out at the end of the season up until u-16 level. All winning results are recorded as 1-0s. There is nothing to be achieved by putting 16-0 drubbings on websites or in local papers.

We're talking about changing things at grassroots level but I think its nigh on impossible. The average underage manager couldn't give a toss about player development, he's just looking for the "silverware" at the end of the season, wear the stupid manager jacket and act like Ferguson on the side line. Its rotten to the core.

Hopefully Shels and their link up with Coerver is the start of a change on this front.

upandcumming

I don't think its fair to do that to younger players. They deserve to play in cup finals and leagues and whatever.

Lovely Bloke

upandcumming wrote: »

I don't think its fair to do that to younger players. They deserve to play in cup finals and leagues and whatever.

So, Germany do it the wrong way and Ireland are doing it right.

Cool.

Lawrence1895

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

So, Germany do it the wrong way and Ireland are doing it right.

Cool.

Well...Germany didn't win a major tournament since 1996. Utterly failure.

carlop

A couple of ideas I've had off the top of my head. I should state that I'm not really a huge follower of the league (I could tell you who is top and who is bottom, but I probably couldn't really tell you why) yet when I lived abroad always adopted my local side and went to games. I recognise the absolute hypocrisy of this but anyway...

I don't know if these measures already exist, maybe they do.

1) When I was in school myself and my friends loved football, playing and watching. However, at no time did any LOI side or the FAI come to our school and try to sell the domestic game to us. There are lots of empty seats at LOI grounds, could clubs go to local schools and give out free tickets?

Aim for the kids who are in the 10-14 bracket, old enough to be into their football, young enough to still be impressionable and not distracted by naggins and tits. Don't make it for one game only, but instead maybe to each school you give the kids three free home games. It becomes part of their routine, they grow to like it, and then you give them some special discounted offer on a season ticket. Obviously there will be some extra costs such as stewarding, but I think in the long-term it will help local kids identify with a club. Which brings me on to my second point...

2) This is aimed more at Dublin, but clubs need to do more to keep up with population trends. There are three clubs all based within the city centre, Pats, Bohs and Shels. These clubs grew out of traditional, residential working-class parts of the city (although Shels have moved north of the river). The problem is that as Dublin has spread, the population has moved out to the suburbs. Inchicore, Phibsborough and Ringsend (Drumcondra) are very small communities that represent a fraction of Dublin's population.

Clubs need to aggressively market themselves to wider communities. Shamrock Rovers have done this to an extent in Tallaght. But there are huge chunks of Dublin where there would be absolutely no sense of having one LOI side that represents the community. This is by no means easy, but it can be done. The best way to do this is through local junior clubs.

3) For the long-term benefit of the game here, the existing model of sending our top young players to England at the age of 14/15 needs to stop. With the globalisation and commercialisation of the game, it is no longer sustainable and we have to take responsibility for blooding our own talent. The problem is that the top junior clubs here very rarely tend to be the big LOI clubs.

Let's take the example of Crumlin United and Cherry Orchard. Both come from pretty big population areas, Crumlin and Ballyfermot, neither of which have an immediately recognisable LOI side. Both are amongst the most well-known junior clubs in the country, and I'm sure that both are well-supported in the local community. A quick google reveals that they have links with Nottingham Forest and Man City. This is what needs to be changed. They should have links to Shamrock Rovers and St Patrick's Athletic.

This should be the dream that coaches are selling young kids at the club, keep training hard and you can make it to Tallaght Stadium. Every junior club in the upper levels of DDSL should have a clear feeder system to a local, or the most local, LOI club. This would help to keep more talent here while also spreading the brand of LOI clubs in untapped areas. If every club in Balbriggan, Santry and Swords was sending their top U14/U15 players to play for Bohs, within a generation Bohs will have become the LOI side that represents that area.

4) Obviously the above all costs money to implement, and this is something that our clubs don't have. The FAI needs to take responsibility for this, and it will only do so if the media and the public pressurise it to do so. The selection of a new manager always provokes a bit of debate in the national press about the state of Irish football. Now is the time to aggressively push the concept that fixing the problems of our national league is not only in the interest of those who follow it. It is in the interest of all those who care about the future of Irish football. Those pints and Polish women in Poznan will become firmly a thing of the past if it doesn't change. That is the message that needs to be got across.

gimmick

carlop wrote: »

1) When I was in school myself and my friends loved football, playing and watching. However, at no time did any LOI side or the FAI come to our school and try to sell the domestic game to us. There are lots of empty seats at LOI grounds, could clubs go to local schools and give out free tickets?

CCFC do this with underage cluibs rather than schools. There are 4 teams play a little game in each half at half time on the pitch. They all have freebies. But when their own team aint playing, they are not back. Its a good idea in theory.

2) This is aimed more at Dublin, but clubs need to do more to keep up with population trends. There are three clubs all based within the city centre, Pats, Bohs and Shels. These clubs grew out of traditional, residential working-class parts of the city (although Shels have moved north of the river). The problem is that as Dublin has spread, the population has moved out to the suburbs. Inchicore, Phibsborough and Ringsend (Drumcondra) are very small communities that represent a fraction of Dublin's population.

Clubs need to aggressively market themselves to wider communities. Shamrock Rovers have done this to an extent in Tallaght. But there are huge chunks of Dublin where there would be absolutely no sense of having one LOI side that represents the community. This is by no means easy, but it can be done. The best way to do this is through local junior clubs.

The Shell's franchise didnt work for them as there is still hardly anyone supporting them. Re new clubs in the suburbs - again, in theory, sound, but look at the rise and fall of Sporting Fingal. Huge catchment area - no one cared.

dan1895

gimmick wrote: »

CCFC do this with underage cluibs rather than schools. There are 4 teams play a little game in each half at half time on the pitch. They all have freebies. But when their own team aint playing, they are not back. Its a good idea in theory.

Same at Shels and I guess other clubs. Great to have them there but they don't come back, not in any significant numbers anyway.

The Shell's franchise didnt work for them as there is still hardly anyone supporting them.

What??

Re new clubs in the suburbs - again, in theory, sound, but look at the rise and fall of Sporting Fingal. Huge catchment area - no one cared.

Agreed

Whippersnapper

Bray Wanderers have a whole county to draw from yet they only scraped a couple of hundred to their last home game (granted it was Sunday and against UCD).

Bray alone has a population of just under 30,000 people. I walk up the town the weekend of a match day and I wouldn't even know we had a club never mind that there's a game coming up. The club needs to link its identity with the town if that means getting posters/flags in local shops etc.

I'd also love the match posters to look a bit more attractive and colourful rather than the white a4 paper with green highlighter over certain words. I know nothing about graphic design but surely we could do better than that. I may even try it myself. Can't do much worse anyway.

carlop

I wasn't talking about a new club in the suburbs, but more an existing club marketing itself as the team that represents a particular area.

Gavin "shels"

carlop wrote: »

I wasn't talking about a new club in the suburbs, but more an existing club marketing itself as the team that represents a particular area.

Shels tried doing it out in the Fingal catchment, it didn't work.

carlop

Gavin shels wrote: »

Shels tried doing it out in the Fingal catchment, it didn't work.

I think it's the kind of thing though where the results would only be noticeable in the long-term. I understand that Shels don't really have the money to sustain a long-term marketing campaign.

legendary.xix

The main problem is having the money for centres of excellence. A number of GAA counties had grandiose plans for centres of excellence but have had to scrap them due to costs. LoI clubs finances aren't any better really. Has any LoI club got a decent youth structure?
LoI clubs should be at the centre of the development of the game within an area and develop links with local junior clubs.

HalloweenJack

Whippersnapper wrote: »

Bray alone has a population of just under 30,000 people. I walk up the town the weekend of a match day and I wouldn't even know we had a club never mind that there's a game coming up. The club needs to link its identity with the town if that means getting posters/flags in local shops etc.

Every now and then there is a spike in public interest. The last time we reached a cup semi (2009?), I remember there were loads of posters around town and we were the talk of the town. Also the clothes shop that's on Quinsboro Road (can't remember the name now) used to stock the jersey. There was another time, I think 2005, when Tarzan was the person to switch on the Christmas lights. I also remember one Friday night I was out in Newtown where a friend of my organises a poker game. Wanderers were on the telly and people actually started watching it, delaying the poker until it finished.

There is an interest there, it just needs to be exploited better.

Unfortunately, there is a largely fickle interest in Wanderers. In the first few years back in the Premier and we were doing alrightish, we had an average home crowd of about 800 but now that we've gone to the dogs, the numbers dropped dramatically, coupled with the economic problems.

If we were challenging for a European place or got to the semis of the cup, you can be sure loads of people would be turning up.

Captain Havoc

Last time I was in Bray, there were large banners for Wanderers down the street with pictures of players on them. It's a given if a team is doing well crowds will go. I think it's a pity more people don't go to the FAI cup final, it's only €12 into the Aviva and the last two were great games (this years from about the hour mark).

overshoot

apparently the FAI paid for a few ads on a local station in donegal for the cup QF. fair play! strange (most likely fleeting) feeling of good will towards them now :eek:

blingrhino

it does nt help when there is little or no suppoert from the likes of tv3.
last monday on tvam ,there was not one mention of any airtricity game from the weekend-including the louth derby from oriel pk with drogheda.
and again this morning no mention of the three cup matches that are on tonight.
is it any wonder trappotoni thinks there is no league in ireland !

[Jackass]

I'll be heading to my first LOI game in a long while next weekend, for the bottom of the table, massive game between Shels and Bohs.

Two of the biggest club sides in the history of the game in Ireland, and only that I keep an eye on the LOI as a very casual fan, I would have had no idea it was coming up.

The league really has no commercial presence in Dublin city, let alone the country, considering the core of the league is based in and around Dublin, you'd think the FAI / clubs could pool some resources together to promote it.

Looking forward to the game, but given the magnitude of it in Irish football, no doubt I'll be very disappointed with the turn out.

[Jackass]

On a side point, I'd be interested on hearing opinions on these two issues:

1/ From everyone, but particularly Shels fans, what do you think the merits of Shels moving back to D4 would be? Similar to how Rovers found a big support base by moving out to Tallaght, do you think Shels could tap back into their roots by moving back to Ringsend or surrounding areas? Potential stadiums being RDS or Donnybrook? Or even a new council backed small stadium initiative in the heart of Ringsend?

2/ Should we look at admitting defeat and trying to lure a major English championship side to relocate to Dublin and try and eventually establish an English Premiership side in Ireland, similar to how Wales have teams in the English league? The use of Lansdowne Road could be a carrot and judging by the amount of people who showed up to see Celtic and Liverpool play, would a Dublin City team catch on? Even if only fans went to support Man Utd or Liverpool when they play them? Long term it could be looked to establish English league teams in Cork / Limerick also?

It could bring major money into Irish football and bring academy structures over here with clubs that are commercially viable whilst also having the incentive of the LOI being feeder to these pro clubs, looking at the success of many LOI players in England over the years.

Paul Tergat

What happens to the current fans of the championship club though? Why would they go for it?

[Jackass]

They wouldn't

Sadly, it would be screwing them over, but it has happened before. Very much in the American style of "moving franchise", teams like Wimbledon have moved (to Millton Keynes, becoming the MK Dons) and a new Wimbledon football club was set up, starting from scratch.

Actually, by coincidence, Wimbledon considered a move to Dublin when looking to relocate, it was the only time I recall a pro team from the English league ever seriously considered setting up roots in Ireland, a massive untapped resource of football fans with no major sides (very little affiliation to LOI sadly), and commercially the Irish market, particularly Dublin, is a potential gold mine.

The Internet

By going to a match you are supporting the league more than the majority of Irish fans but the idea of planting an English team in Dublin is something that will never happen.

gnfnrhead

[Jackass] wrote: »

They wouldn't

Sadly, it would be screwing them over, but it has happened before. Very much in the American style of "moving franchise", teams like Wimbledon have moved (to Millton Keynes, becoming the MK Dons) and a new Wimbledon football club was set up, starting from scratch.

Actually, by coincidence, Wimbledon considered a move to Dublin when looking to relocate, it was the only time I recall a pro team from the English league ever seriously considered setting up roots in Ireland, a massive untapped resource of football fans with no major sides (very little affiliation to LOI sadly), and commercially the Irish market, particularly Dublin, is a potential gold mine.

A big issue there would be the cost of travelling. As is it, they can just get a bus for the day. If a team were to relocate to Ireland they would have to pay for flights or a ferry along with a bus every second weekend. Can't see the other sides in the league being too thrilled with it either. Unless they had a rich backer, I don't think any club would find it worthwhile.

Omackeral

Who would support this Dublin City* team? Current EPL fans won't abandon United/Liverpool/Aresnal. Exisiting LOI fans would rather kill themselves I'd imagine.



*There already was a team called Dublin City. Nobody went to see them either.

Henlars67

Having a team here competing in England is never going to happen, and if it did I would at the very least make an attempt to burn their stadium to the ground.

Captain Havoc

Irish people would get behind a team playing in the big show, it would be a success. A couple of problems, UEFA won't allow it and it would screw our league over, definitely not a way to fix our league.

legendary.xix

Year's back in Mick McCarthy's time there was a match between a League of Ireland XI and Rep. of Ireland B XI. To show how far back it was, Mattie Holland played on the B team that night. He made a crunching tackle on a League of Ireland player. Someone shouted from the crowd "another tackle like that mate and we'll take back your passport!"

I'd like to see a LoI XI take on a B team once or even twice a year. Maybe once outside Dublin and once in the capital.

Prop Joe

Captain Havoc wrote: »

Irish people would get behind a team playing in the big show, it would be a success.

Fair point but what happens if that team slipped down a few divisons and ended up playing league 1?

Henlars67

legendary.xix wrote: »

Year's back in Mick McCarthy's time there was a match between a League of Ireland XI and Rep. of Ireland B XI. To show how far back it was, Mattie Holland played on the B team that night. He made a crunching tackle on a League of Ireland player. Someone shouted from the crowd "another tackle like that mate and we'll take back your passport!"

I'd like to see a LoI XI take on a B team once or even twice a year. Maybe once outside Dublin and once in the capital.

What would be the point of that?

Gavin "shels"

[Jackass] wrote: »

The league really has no commercial presence in Dublin city, let alone the country, considering the core of the league is based in and around Dublin, you'd think the FAI / clubs could pool some resources together to promote it.

It gets worse, the Womens League has billboards in Ballybough and probably elsewhere.

[Jackass] wrote: »

On a side point, I'd be interested on hearing opinions on these two issues:

1/ From everyone, but particularly Shels fans, what do you think the merits of Shels moving back to D4 would be? Similar to how Rovers found a big support base by moving out to Tallaght, do you think Shels could tap back into their roots by moving back to Ringsend or surrounding areas? Potential stadiums being RDS or Donnybrook? Or even a new council backed small stadium initiative in the heart of Ringsend?

1/ Irishtown Stadium was the plan, then the Celtic Tiger went tits up and the Docklands Authority (who backed this) went along with residents not wanting it. Plans were quality.

Home Farm was next, but that was rejected by Home Farms members as they felt Shels under age structure would kill them off. 10,000 seater, fully kitted gym, etc... and they rejected it in 2007 iirc.

Ringsend is were we need to go imo!

legendary.xix

Henlars67 wrote: »

What would be the point of that?

Simply a couple of games for the best players in the league and the players on the fringe of the national team to play in. It's not a game that will appeal to everyone but there would be interest in it. It'd be an opportunity for players on both teams to raise their profiles. When the LoI took on a RoI B those years back the media gave the game coverage.

Essien

There's a lot of short term measures that could be taken like improved exposure for the league by the Irish media, the FAI and the clubs themselves. Better player contracting and better day today running of clubs to ensure sustainability.

The long term answer for me is better coaching of youth players as well as retaining these players for as long as possible. I have a couple of questions for people who a little moe on this subject than me...

What's the highest standard of coaching a young player could receive in this country at the moment?

How would this compare to the proposed centres of excellence?

What sort of time and financial commitment would a young player and his parents have to make to go to a centre of excellence?

Would the young lad still go to regular school while attending a centre?

NIMAN

Captain Havoc wrote: »

Irish people would get behind a team playing in the big show

Thats for sure, as a lot of Irish are glory hunters and love to get involved in sport when there's a bit of success or a chance for a trip and a bit of a p1ss-up.

Not so many hang around when the going gets tough and success fades though.

Strongbow10

Essien wrote: »

There's a lot of short term measures that could be taken like improved exposure for the league by the Irish media, the FAI and the clubs themselves. Better player contracting and better day today running of clubs to ensure sustainability.

The long term answer for me is better coaching of youth players as well as retaining these players for as long as possible. I have a couple of questions for people who a little moe on this subject than me...

What's the highest standard of coaching a young player could receive in this country at the moment?

How would this compare to the proposed centres of excellence?

What sort of time and financial commitment would a young player and his parents have to make to go to a centre of excellence?

Would the young lad still go to regular school while attending a centre?

4 centres of excellence would be great (if money was no object which unfortunately it is)- One in Dublin, One in Munster, one in Connacht and one in Ulster.

The idea of talented lads from North Donegal or West Cork having to travel to Dublin on weeknights has caused problems and resentment in the past.

legendary.xix

Strongbow10 wrote: »

4 centres of excellence would be great (if money was no object which unfortunately it is)- One in Dublin, One in Munster, one in Connacht and one in Ulster.

The idea of talented lads from North Donegal or West Cork having to travel to Dublin on weeknights has caused problems and resentment in the past.

Money unfortunately is the object. On centres of excellence, is there enough of a playing pool in Ulster counties for it? I think you'd want a centre of excellence in Galway, Limerick, Cork and two in Dublin to cover the large urban areas to begin with.

There's a bit of short-medium term pain at the moment with the FAI needing to sort out finances due to the Aviva. With the TV deal for qualifiers and a UEFA fund being there which can help, the Aviva debt should be paid off by 2020.

Surely any plans for centres of excellence should involve League of Ireland clubs? Galway need to sort out their situation. Munster has Limerick FC and Cork City. I don't want to cause offence naming out Dublin teams. Maybe there can be 4 centres of excellence in Dublin? The Dublin Region has 4 areas: Dublin City, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. Bohs, Pat's Shels and Rovers could possibly work with the FAI to develop the game in a particular area?

Some say there's too many Dublin clubs but I think there's definitely a place for all 4. All 4 have such great tradition and history as well. Anyone overlooking that is not going to find a solution to fix the league. The league needs 4 strong Dublin clubs, Cork, Limerick and Galway. I don't come from any of those areas so I'm not being biased. As Sligo have shown, there's no reason or obstacle for a non-urban area to compete at the top.

The league needs new areas to emerge. Unfortunately again money is an obstacle. Carlow FC, Castlebar Celtic, Tullamore Town, Tralee Dynamos and Fanad Utd all competed in the A Championship a few years back. A solution needs to be found to get these areas integrated with the league and to be central to the development of the game in their areas. Other areas like Monaghan, Kilkenny, Kildare, Clonmel, Portlaoise and Mullingar need to be worked with as well. A solution aint easy. Take up in the A Championship wasn't what was hoped for. All the areas I mentioned here for potential is 11. If there was a third tier league, it would need to be regionalised. It'd probably require at least 16 teams to have a north and south league. The other option is a regionalised first division with 16-20 teams split north and south.