Greatest League in the World 2024 [new thread available]

topmanamillion

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

Where are Dublin County based? Are they the old St Francis club? Or a reimagining of Sporting Fingal?

I'm not buying the story and i think it's the usual tabloid rubbish.

They'd be based in North Dublin so most likely Morton. They have absolutely nothing right now, not one player unless they pull a rabbit out of the hat and reveal they've teamed up with Kevin's or one of the other big Dublin Schoolboy clubs.

It doesn't bode well that Cabo turned down their offer of "investment" of €1 for 90% of the club only last summer.

League badly needs a rule where new clubs have to be admitted a year in advance of playing their first game and/or have an underage presence.

4 weeks from the league starting and Bray have no idea who they are playing on the opening day

Chuck Noland

So the fixtures will be ripped up to accommodate the 3 clubs rather then the 1 TBC?

johnnyryan89

Chuck Noland wrote: »

So the fixtures will be ripped up to accommodate the 3 clubs rather then the 1 TBC?

Pretty sure they said weeks ago that two lots of fixtures will be drawn up for a possible 10 team league and 12 team league. But it wouldn't be the FAI if things weren't done stupidly.

Wouldn't be shocked if they had no fixtures drawn up and had to knock up the ten team fixture list after Treaty announced Tommy Barrett as their manager and everyone talking about how they were awarded a licence.

joeysoap

Bob the Seducer wrote: »

I sort of get the logic they're following in bringing Cherrie in since he's a former player and knows the league, particularly if they end up signing that young American keeper as well.

On paper though, signing a 37 year old goalkeeper and an unproven Albanian doesn't feel like they're upgrading on Rogers and Rogers looked in need of replacing at times over the past couple of seasons.

Probably our best (only?) keeper in the 1st division. But personally I would have stuck with Jimmy Corcoran or previously Ross Tracey or even Odumsu when he was with the u19s. Proven keepers who never got a chance.


Fun fact: Cherrie was booked in the last minute of the final match in 2014 .. And so was Sava ( on the bench ) the reserve keeper

pgj2015

Why did Derry let him go? or was it that he wanted to go?

pgj2015

Johan Slow Vision wrote: »

Cherrie is quite poor , surprised Dundalk went for him over trying to develop a younger player.

would you prefer Cherrie or McNulty?

pgj2015

Johan Slow Vision wrote: »

Considering McNulty is 3 years older Id take Cherrie but that doesnt mean much. Dundalk want to challenge for titles and in Europe. If Cherrie is 3rd choice fair enough, if its a case of the Albanian lad being useless and Cherrie stepping in Dundalk are in trouble.

I get the impression keepers are hard to get at the moment. maybe we could go for a premier league youth player like Derry did with Hodge.

NIMAN

pgj2015 wrote: »

Why did Derry let him go? or was it that he wanted to go?

He didn't have a great season last year, and I think he was on the slide, so not surprised he was let go.

But then again, may have been issues behind the scenes? As a club, we have a manager who has a rep for dealing badly with players.

Big Ears

scouserstation wrote: »

Club officials and fans don't seem to realise how big the support base is, I can see a situation where there won't be enough capacity for most of their games within the next 3-4 years

Bohemians have one of the league's stronger support bases. They also have increased their support dramatically in recent years, and perhaps more so than seen as their attendance for games has obviously been capped. With the excellent work the club is doing I expect their fan base to grow further.

But your suggestion the majority of their games will attract 6,000+ supporters on a regular basis in just 3-4 years seems fanciful to me.
I'm 31 years of age and I can't even be certain that there's been even 10 league games with 6,000+ attendance in my lifetime !!, and yet Bohs are going to start having more than this every second week from 2024/2025 ?

I'd be delighted to be proved wrong, but I have to say I'm sceptical.

Zebra3

topmanamillion wrote: »

Considering the debt that was cleared by the council at both clubs

What Shels debt was cleared by DCC?

eire4 wrote: »

I hope that none of that happens but would not be surprised at all if something like that happened. Really hope not it is an absolute disgrace and an indictment of the FAI that Dalymount Park is the kip it is. The historical home of Irish football should have long ago been taken care of.

The state of Dalymount is the fault of Bohs. The FAI have no obligation to maintain a ground they don’t own.

dreamers75

So best away gear is in the bag for us, our entire squad model it in this pic.

https://twitter.com/stpatsfc/status/1362810499591778308

topmanamillion

........ And welcome to 2007 folks! The boom is back baby!

League of Ireland set to expand to 22 teams as Dublin County and Treaty United get green light

https://www.extratime.com/articles/26650/exclusive-league-of-ireland-set-to-expand-to-22-teams-as-dublin-county-and-treaty-united-get-green-light/

Amazingly, the fact their manager/shareholder was manager/shareholder of a Ukrainian 3rd division start up club that played for 2 seasons before going belly up didn't raise any questions for the "licencing committee"

ben.schlomo

dreamers75 wrote: »

So best away gear is in the bag for us, our entire squad model it in this pic.

https://twitter.com/stpatsfc/status/1362810499591778308

Design is nice but the sponsor is cat bad on it.

ionadnapokot

Whatever about Treaty United is this Dublin City ****e about to trigger another wage fiasco?

dan1895

No players signed and most clubs starting preseason friendlies this weekend, they are already at a massive disadvantage. I'd assume they'll be signing LSL players that want to continue playing and LOI players that are currently free agents. Anyone being brought in from abroad would have to isolate for a while too.

dfx-

Sweepstake on how long Dublin County last?

Pawwed Rig

dfx- wrote: »

Sweepstake on how long Dublin County last?

Will they make it to the first day of the season?

scouserstation

Big Ears wrote: »

Bohemians have one of the league's stronger support bases. They also have increased their support dramatically in recent years, and perhaps more so than seen as their attendance for games has obviously been capped. With the excellent work the club is doing I expect their fan base to grow further.

But your suggestion the majority of their games will attract 6,000+ supporters on a regular basis in just 3-4 years seems fanciful to me.
I'm 31 years of age and I can't even be certain that there's been even 10 league games with 6,000+ attendance in my lifetime !!, and yet Bohs are going to start having more than this every second week from 2024/2025 ?

I'd be delighted to be proved wrong, but I have to say I'm sceptical.

Corona virus could well cause problems for match day attendance for the short to medium term but if you look at the direction things were going pre covid then it's not that far fetched
I would say Bohs have a similar amount of support as Rovers and if you put it into perspective the last time both these teams played each other in Tallaght their was over 7000 in attendance (when you could allow fans into the ground) Also the last time Rovers played Dundalk pre covid there was well over 7000 fans in the stadium so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that league of Ireland games can attract big attendances like this

dan1895

dfx- wrote: »

Sweepstake on how long Dublin County last?

Less than three seasons.

CrabRevolution

scouserstation wrote: »

Corona virus could well cause problems for match day attendance for the short to medium term but if you look at the direction things were going pre covid then it's not that far fetched
I would say Bohs have a similar amount of support as Rovers and if you put it into perspective the last time both these teams played each other in Tallaght their was over 7000 in attendance (when you could allow fans into the ground) Also the last time Rovers played Dundalk pre covid there was well over 7000 fans in the stadium so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that league of Ireland games can attract big attendances like this

I don't think anyone's claiming big attendances are impossible; they're disputing the idea that within a few years Bohs will have home crowds so high every week that a 6'000 capacity stadium won't be enough.

"Build for your highest imaginable attendance" was the mantra in GAA stadium developments in the 00s and resulted in some desperately oversized and underused stadia especially in Munster and Connacht.

Thankfully this trend has stopped in recent years, with most counties planning for modestly sized grounds. On top of that after Cork's eye watering ego project in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, GAA HQ have said they'll be taking a firmer hand in future projects to avoid such waste.

I'd hate for the LOI to fall into the same mindset of "1 or 2 of our games a year have attendances over X, so we need our stadium to be X and a half just in case"

Omackeral

Who would even support them? Anyone from Whitehall area who cares about LOI will already be following Shels or Bohs. If this was exclusively a Swords project it could possibly work but not from Morton. Fingal and Dublin City can attest to that. I just don’t see it at all.

Chuck Noland

Anyone else on the touch site having issues with posts not showing?

joeysoap

With no attendances they're at no real disadvantage at the menent though. Assuming the Fai give then the same as they're giving Galway, Shels and say City. Great for Rovers though. Definite advantage.

Big Ears

scouserstation wrote: »

Corona virus could well cause problems for match day attendance for the short to medium term but if you look at the direction things were going pre covid then it's not that far fetched
I would say Bohs have a similar amount of support as Rovers and if you put it into perspective the last time both these teams played each other in Tallaght their was over 7000 in attendance (when you could allow fans into the ground) Also the last time Rovers played Dundalk pre covid there was well over 7000 fans in the stadium so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that league of Ireland games can attract big attendances like this

In the last fully completed season Rovers average attendance was ~3,500 (Bohs was ~2,900)
The attendance numbers for 2020 were positive, however attendances are usually a lot better earlier in the year, before dead rubbers and poor performance dull attendances, but if we take into account Rovers title win last year and growing popularity in Tallaght maybe we could say they'd up their average attendance to 4,500.

If Bohs are as popular (and that's no certainty), where are they going to find the extra 1,500+ that will attend most games. Not the odd game Vs Rovers and Dundalk or other top teams, but 17+ home games a season with that crowd ?

I'd love to see it, because if Bohs had that level of support, Rovers grow theres and a Cork team was to get themself back into the Premier Division and be competitive it'd mean some serious attendances overall and probably lead to a much greater interest (both in the media and general public) towards the league.

But it's such a jump it seems implausible.
If Bohs could average 4,500 for games in 3-4 years time they'd be doing fantastic, and that I believe is a far more realistic aim for them.

Ohmeha

dan1895 wrote: »

No players signed and most clubs starting preseason friendlies this weekend, they are already at a massive disadvantage. I'd assume they'll be signing LSL players that want to continue playing and LOI players that are currently free agents. Anyone being brought in from abroad would have to isolate for a while too.

I dunno I'm a bit surprised that so far none of the top players from the LSL have signed up for first division teams in order avoid going to rust as there is no prospect of LSL new season starting until the summer at earliest

ionadnapokot

dfx- wrote: »

Sweepstake on how long Dublin County last?

Enough time to cause mayhem after this season!
Back to the 2K a wk stuff?

With Champions league money up for grabs I’d give them at least 4 years.

Oat23

According to a translated article, the Ukrainian club some of these Dublin County lads were involved in had an open police investigation in the country as of 2019 due to unpaid bills/wages.

They'll fit in nicely.

CSF

I’m almost excited to see the usual small group of contrarian f*cks that decide they want to support this team to be different.

wadacrack

Oat23 wrote: »

According to a translated article, the Ukrainian club some of these Dublin County lads were involved in had an open police investigation in the country as of 2019 due to unpaid bills/wages.

They'll fit in nicely.

Id say they just looked at Ireland and thought yea good place to try this. FAI have shown to completely inept dealing with this issue in the last few seasons. Seems to be denial that anything untoward is going despite the evidence with a number of games.

Oat23

wadacrack wrote: »

Id say they just looked at Ireland and thought yea good place to try this. FAI have shown to completely inept dealing with this issue in the last few seasons. Seems to be denial that anything untoward is going despite the evidence with a number of games.

Here's an article I found on Yandex. It says Dennis Lukens fired 2 club employees and 4 footballers due to match fixing.

https://news.pn/ru/sport/195830

Here's another article I found on Yandex listing "Суднобудівник" (the name of the Ukrainian club) among a list of over 30 clubs the police suspect of fixing matches. Raids were carried out.

https://www.05366.com.ua/news/2047651/desatki-ukrainskih-futbolnyh-klubov-podozrevautsa-v-dogovornakah-v-tom-cisle-i-kremencugskij-video

Also another funny one on there where he had to sack a player after being attacked by him in training.

kksaints

Oat23 wrote: »

Here's an article I found on Yandex. It says Dennis Lukens fired 2 club employees and 4 footballers due to match fixing.


https://news.pn/ru/sport/195830


Here's another article I found on Yandex listing "Суднобудівник" (the name of the Ukrainian club) among a list of over 30 clubs suspected of fixing matches.

https://www.05366.com.ua/news/2047651/desatki-ukrainskih-futbolnyh-klubov-podozrevautsa-v-dogovornakah-v-tom-cisle-i-kremencugskij-video


Also another funny one on there where he had to sack a player after being attacked by him in training.

Looks very much like that Athlone fiasco from a few years ago.

tastyt

It’s an absolute joke and will obviously only end in tears

The fai should be trying to grow the league around the country and make it easier for teams in areas that has no representation to join .

Another Dublin team with no supporters will do absolutely nothing for the interest in the league

For Forks Sake

dan1895 wrote: »

Less than three seasons.

Less than three rounds of games more like

johnnyryan89

https://twitter.com/McDonnellDan/status/1363166822804111364

Oat23

johnnyryan89 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/McDonnellDan/status/1363166822804111364

Looks like a big blunder from Extratime with that exclusive. McDonnell saying Dublin County didn't get a license.

https://twitter.com/McDonnellDan/status/1363171407585230851

johnnyryan89

So looks like it's going to be a ten team league and Treaty will be the TBC in the fixtures released.

CrabRevolution

Looking at this thread you'll see plenty of logical reasons for disapproving of a club like Dublin County FC entering the league e.g. past experience, dodgy owners, poor organisation, unclear motivations etc.

But looking at twitter a lot of the opposition is due to nothing more than "We don't need another Dublin team". While obviously it'd be nice to have more teams from around the country, it's not like there's applicants from Kilkenny or Mayo being rejected in order to fit Dublin teams in. There's nothing stopping a club as flimsy as DCFC being set up in any county in Ireland, yet for some reason nobody is doing it.

Would people really rather no additional clubs come in, than another club from Dublin? Rejecting Dublin County FC does absolutely nothing to help increase the number of LOI teams across the country.

Even if we did start creating a pyramid, I remember a post (possibly on another forum) where someone looked for the top teams in Ireland not in the LOI based on the FAI Intermediate cup, LSL/MSL results etc. and they concluded that if you created a third tier from the best teams in junior football in Ireland it'd be mostly Dublin teams with the rest Cork. The anti-Dubs would want to be careful what they wish for as any process bringing existing clubs into the LOI system would increase the number of Dublin teams.

CSF

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Looking at this thread you'll see plenty of logical reasons for disapproving of a club like Dublin County FC entering the league e.g. past experience, dodgy owners, poor organisation, unclear motivations etc.

But looking at twitter a lot of the opposition is due to nothing more than "We don't need another Dublin team". While obviously it'd be nice to have more teams from around the country, it's not like there's applicants from Kilkenny or Mayo being rejected in order to fit Dublin teams in. There's nothing stopping a club as flimsy as DCFC being set up in any county in Ireland, yet for some reason nobody is doing it.

Would people really rather no additional clubs come in, than another club from Dublin? Rejecting Dublin County FC does absolutely nothing to help increase the number of LOI teams across the country.

Even if we did start creating a pyramid, I remember a post (possibly on another forum) where someone looked for the top teams in Ireland not in the LOI based on the FAI Intermediate cup, LSL/MSL results etc. and they concluded that if you created a third tier from the best teams in junior football in Ireland it'd be mostly Dublin teams with the rest Cork. The anti-Dubs would want to be careful what they wish for as any process bringing existing clubs into the LOI system would increase the number of Dublin teams.

I don’t really understand your point here. What does having more teams for the sake of it achieve?

The reason people want teams to come in from places where there aren’t teams is to potentially create new interest in the league in those places.

Dublin County, Sligo United, Cork Celtic (definitely possible that this has already been a team) and Louth Rovers don’t do that.

CrabRevolution

CSF wrote: »

I don’t really understand your point here. What does having more teams for the sake of it achieve?

The reason people want teams to come in from places where there aren’t teams is to potentially create new interest in the league in those places.

Dublin County, Sligo United, Cork Celtic (definitely possible that this has already been a team) and Louth Rovers don’t do that.

I'd have thought the more teams the better. Reject a club because it brings nothing to the league-fine, but we shouldn't be rejecting applications from Dublin teams simply because we're waiting on an application for a team in Mayo or Cavan. We'll be waiting forever.

You mention Cork not needing another team as well. But I think it should be an embarrassment that a city of 300'000 and the surrounding area can only sustain a single club, and barely at that. If we used the population/club ratio of Cork City we'd only have about 15 clubs in the entire country.

Oat23

CSF wrote: »

Cork Celtic (definitely possible that this has already been a team)

Not only has that been a real team but it's the one who sullied the career history of one club man Uwe Seeler by tricking him into playing a league game he thought was a friendly!




George Best also played for that Cork team I think.

Zebra3

Oat23 wrote: »

Not only has that been a real team but it's the one who sullied the career history of one club man Uwe Seeler by tricking him into playing a league game he thought was a friendly!




George Best also played for that Cork team I think.

Yeah but he just has one of the best goal averages at a club in world football!!

johnnyryan89

CrabRevolution wrote: »

I'd have thought the more teams the better. Reject a club because it brings nothing to the league-fine, but we shouldn't be rejecting applications from Dublin teams simply because we're waiting on an application for a team in Mayo or Cavan. We'll be waiting forever.

You mention Cork not needing another team as well. But I think it should be an embarrassment that a city of 300'000 and the surrounding area can only sustain a single club, and barely at that. If we used the population/club ratio of Cork City we'd only have about 15 clubs in the entire country.

Yet we can barely look after the clubs that we already have.

CSF

CrabRevolution wrote: »

I'd have thought the more teams the better. Reject a club because it brings nothing to the league-fine, but we shouldn't be rejecting applications from Dublin teams simply because we're waiting on an application for a team in Mayo or Cavan. We'll be waiting forever.

You mention Cork not needing another team as well. But I think it should be an embarrassment that a city of 300'000 and the surrounding area can only sustain a single club, and barely at that. If we used the population/club ratio of Cork City we'd only have about 15 clubs in the entire country.

Why is more teams better? And why does adding another team into Cork bring more people out to watch LOI football?

I understand what you’re saying, just not quite why.

CSF

Oat23 wrote: »

Not only has that been a real team but it's the one who sullied the career history of one club man Uwe Seeler by tricking him into playing a league game he thought was a friendly!




George Best also played for that Cork team I think.

Just went and read the story behind that. That’s so funny.

CrabRevolution

CSF wrote: »

Why is more teams better? And why does adding another team into Cork bring more people out to watch LOI football?

I understand what you’re saying, just not quite why.

Expanding the number of LOI teams and implementing a pyramid system in Ireland are some of the most popular wishes expressed among posters here, so it's not like it's some far out notion I'm alone in holding. There's countless discussions about having a third tier, incorporating promotion/relegation between the LSL/MSL and the LOI etc.

You reckon we shouldn't put teams near existing clubs yet having teams in Monaghan, Kilkenny and Kildare didn't really get more people out watching the LOI either.

Hence my question; what's the logical reason for people opposing having teams with few fans in Dublin, yet be all in favour of having teams with few fans in other parts of the country?

Chuck Noland

Leagues announced. Premier as expected but TBC in division 1 is Treaty United. Rovers B don’t get invite despite getting a Licence

For Forks Sake

For Forks Sake wrote: »

Less than three rounds of games more like

Seems I overestimaded even that

https://twitter.com/McDonnellDan/status/1363171407585230851

CSF

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Expanding the number of LOI teams and implementing a pyramid system in Ireland are some of the most popular wishes expressed among posters here, so it's not like it's some far out notion I'm alone in holding. There's countless discussions about having a third tier, incorporating promotion/relegation between the LSL/MSL and the LOI etc.

You reckon we shouldn't put teams near existing clubs yet having teams in Monaghan, Kilkenny and Kildare didn't really get more people out watching the LOI either.

Hence my question; what's the logical reason for people opposing having teams with few fans in Dublin, yet be all in favour of having teams with few fans in other parts of the country?

I have told you why there is more benefit into moving teams into areas that don’t have teams. No guarantees they’ll be successful, but at least there is an untapped market for them to reach out to. In Dublin that market has been reached and reached out with no avail.

So the only reason you think adding random teams with no catchment area into the league is so there are more teams and potentially more leagues eventually as a result? Or is there another benefit to it? Or is it just a ‘I don’t see why not’ situation? Because that feels kind of unnecessarily contrarian.

Big Ears

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Expanding the number of LOI teams and implementing a pyramid system in Ireland are some of the most popular wishes expressed among posters here, so it's not like it's some far out notion I'm alone in holding. There's countless discussions about having a third tier, incorporating promotion/relegation between the LSL/MSL and the LOI etc.

You reckon we shouldn't put teams near existing clubs yet having teams in Monaghan, Kilkenny and Kildare didn't really get more people out watching the LOI either.

Hence my question; what's the logical reason for people opposing having teams with few fans in Dublin, yet be all in favour of having teams with few fans in other parts of the country?

You're making the assumption that if we had a proper 3rd tier (even if it was regional), that the current MSL/LSL clubs would be the ones at the top of it.
Some of them may indeed be, but you'd also likely get the likes of Kerry/Carlow who've dabbled in underage but nothing at Senior level (since the A Championship anyway) decide to make the jump when the requirements and investment is lower than the 1st Division.

A proper 3rd tier (if regional) would see top teams in Munster from outside Cork involved. A creation of a Connacht Senior League and expansion of Ulster Senior League, creating more third tier teams from places that mainly produce top level Junior football clubs at the moment, but have no pathway to Intermediate football.
As you'd likely only have 1-2 sides from counties currently outside Intermediate structure at the moment, you'd probably see an accumulation of a lot of the better Junior players (ones who want to test themselves anyway) towards these clubs and in essence I'd expect some of the strongest clubs would be from places like Galway, Mayo, Limerick, Kerry and Tipperary.......places that currently do not have Intermediate football.

So yes, some top Dublin/Cork teams might still be contending on the next tier of the pyramid, but if created properly don't be surprised to see a lot more teams from Junior football strongholds contending.

topmanamillion

Big Ears wrote: »

So yes, some top Dublin/Cork teams might still be contending on the next tier of the pyramid, but if created properly don't be surprised to see a lot more teams from Junior football strongholds contending.

What are you basing this on? The junior and intermediate Cups are dominated by Cork/Dublin clubs. So potential candidates are Fairview Rangers(limerick), Avondale and Crumlin.

We are pretty much where we are in terms of clubs. The big urban areas that can support a club are well tapped.
It's down to a sort of novelty factor now in wanting clubs from Kerry, Mayo and the likes in the league. I don't see any of those clubs bringing decent support and doing anything other than struggling along the lines of Wexford.

Junior football is crying out for reform but we have an incredibly weak FAI who are in no position to dictate anything to clubs at that level. They couldn't push through summer football, Ruud Doketer wanted the amount of junior league's slashed to 10 and there will be another strong push against the U13 LOI league which will do well to hold out.