Are they that different from where Wexford Youths would have been at their outset ? Happy to be corrected if so.Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter
In all fairness, I think Cabinteely have been a grand addition to the league.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
The attitude they have towards the league is the important thing.
Imagine the horror show some of the clubs that moaned about not being let in would be if they have LOI teams. Fielding teams in a league in which teams that actually want to be there find it difficult and this other lot then almost doing it under protest. No thanks.
A team in Navan would find it very tough to draw any type of meaningful supporter base. In Meath, gaelic football is king and always will be, even if the county team has gone to sh!te recently. Navan has a decent population (around 30k i think) and a big catchment area, but there's a bunch of v well established and successful GAA clubs in and around the town (O'Mahoney's, Simonstown, Senchalstown, Wolfe Tones, Rathkenny, Skryne etc) and Navan rugby club has been very prominent in the town for years too. Navan Cosmos and Park Villa are decent football teams but it's a gaelic football town, with rugby and football battling it out for a distant 2nd place. Same applies for other urban centres like Ashbourne.
Also, Colm O'Rourke still has a big influence in Navan. He's the principal in the main boys secondary school in the town (which has about 1000 pupils listed at any time). He's involved with the school's gaelic football teams and they are usually v good. I don't think the school has ever even had a soccer team. which further entrenches the GAA dominance.
GAA dominance hasn't stopped Kerry teams being part of the old U21 league, defunct A Championship and recent U17 league.
The upcoming U15 league and existing LoI underage leagues are a suitable platform for soccer people in Meath or any area.
https://foot.ie/forums/117-Kerry-FC
A Championship: 4 years - 8 first teams - 0 financially ruined. First Division '14: 7 first teams.
Opportunity lost for new clubs/regions to join the LoI family.
I'm not saying it can't be done - simply explaining that Navan (and Meath in general) is not, and never has never been a hotbed for soccer so a LOI club would find it hard to survive. I heard recently that we've never had anyone from the county earn a cap for the ROI team. There's very little tradition of soccer in Meath, even less than Kerry i'd say. At least you have Tralee Dynamos who've been interested in joining the LOI in the past.
Our proximity to Dublin probably hasn't helped though. The best kids in the meath leagues are quickly spotted and brought to a Dublin club or Drogheda boys if they're good enough so our underage (club and representative) teams tend to be quite weak too. It's a cycle which perpetuates itself. The biggest club in the county would be Parkvilla in Navan. They're a middling LSL team and have never shown any interest in becoming a LOI club. Maybe they know that it would be too much of a struggle.
If that's the lie of the land, it's the way it is. Hopefully as the underage leagues become established, more areas will join.
https://foot.ie/forums/117-Kerry-FC
A Championship: 4 years - 8 first teams - 0 financially ruined. First Division '14: 7 first teams.
Opportunity lost for new clubs/regions to join the LoI family.
I just don't see what's in it for 99%+ of current non-LOI teams to want to enter the senior ranks to be honest.
Beyond Board room ego or ill-defined ideas of 'ambition', why would they ? It's a huge step-up in costs with little additional income generated, and they'll have seen the likes of strong clubs like Monaghan, Kilkenny, St Francis etc give it a go and get their fingers burned. Much simpler and strategically beneficial for clubs to instead focus on their own facilities, their underage set up etc, rather than roll the financial dice on joining a League that most of them look down on anyway.
Until the FAI pumps significantly more money into the prize funds available for finishing at every rung of the senior ladder, I just don't see what's in it for anyone new to join. The lack of clubs knocking on the FAI's door for entry would seem to support that view as well.
The reason the DDSL clubs want to join is to prevent their players leaving to join the Dublin LOI underage setups from 14 years old.
They could run an amateur team of their 18 and 19 year olds in the LOI first division...finish bottom every year and still get the transfer fees to the UK for the kids they send over at 15.
Your post seems to suggest that there is a movement amongst DDS clubs to want to game the LOI First Division to take advantage of overseas transfer fees.
Is there any evidence of this ? Which DDSL clubs are genuinely trying to join the LOI ? Have any of them expressed a firm interest (St Kevin's was mentioned above, but it seemed to be more rumour than fact) ? I can't see the FAI wanting more Dublin clubs in the League anyway, so what clubs want and what they may be able to get could be too very different things.
Even if there was a few looking to join - I still can't see the economics of it working out. How much in transfer fees do these clubs genuinely pocket in the average year ? And how would that compare to the cost of having to run a senior club in a national league ? And how much would the underage development etc suffer (and thereby the pot f gold at the end of the rainbow) if the same small pool of volunteers were having to run a senior club as well as their usual underage set up ? They'd attract very little if any additional help by being a senior club, so someone has to cover the additional workload involved
Last edited by EatYerGreens; 14/11/2016 at 3:29 PM.
St Kevin's def were in contact with the FAI about joining the 1st Div. more info here - http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-31518488.html
Thanks - an interesting read.
It's probably unfair to assume the FAI refused entry to them just because they didn't want too many Dublin clubs. Surely it was that, combined with the fact that they thought there were other Dublin Clubs who's involvement was preferable ? In which case I can't see how they would get into a First Division that currently contains 3 Dublin clubs out of 8 already ? In otherwords, a) Already contains too many Dublin clubs, and b) Has others that are in a stronger position to make a claim on a place than St Levin's ? Cabinteely were 'right time, right place' lucky to get in when the FAI were desperate to not have a ridiculous 7 team league, but I can't see that being repeated unless something unexpected happens.
Also - is it just me or is there something grubby about a boy's team wanting to join the senior set-up entirely to pursue player sell-on fees?
We'll see over the next few years. There is support in some quarters for an intermediary league. Again I can't see it being given consideration until the U13 league is in place.
If non-LoI teams are in the underage leagues and an intermediary/U23 league is formed, it would seem fair to invite them as well.How that might lead to any joining senior ranks will be up to the powers that be.
https://foot.ie/forums/117-Kerry-FC
A Championship: 4 years - 8 first teams - 0 financially ruined. First Division '14: 7 first teams.
Opportunity lost for new clubs/regions to join the LoI family.
Heard a ridiculous rumour Mullingar town are looking to join the league. Didn't one of the Mullingar teams make a big push years back to try get in and it went tits up? Would be great for ourselves and athlone to have another Derby but wouldn't see them having any support or facilities.
That was about 15 years ago alright; maybe even longer.
Had a team full of foreigners too - Nigerians and Poles and all sorts. This was in the days before that kind of stuff of course! Was a weird one.
Yep, a Mullingar bloke who had gone to England and made a bit of money had hoped to create a LOI club in his home town. Not sure why he chose Mullingar Town, because they've always been the v poor neighbour of Mullingar Athletic - the big club in town. Athletic have always been very well run and have outstanding facilities and big membership. They won an FAI award for best junior club in the country a few yrs back. They have 5/6 pitches that are like billiard tables and a few astros, one of them full size, lovely big clubhouse - they'd put a lot of LOI clubs to shame.
Anyway, i think the deal was that Mullingar Town and their new investor were allowed to enter a team into the u21 (as it was then) league and if they showed enough progress and won the u21 league they'd be considered for entry into the senior league. They brought a coach and a whole squad over from England - all lads from in and around London who had been trialists at football league teams but hadn't made the grade. I think they were all getting between 100-200 quid a week. They did ok for a few yrs in their u21 leinster group - think they finished 2nd or 3rd, but then the team was pulled out. Not sure if their investor lost interest/money or if they were eventually denied entry to the senior division or what, but the dream died after a few yrs and they went back to being a v ordinary junior club. They had an ok little pitch with a small shed on one side and a small astro but nothing else. And they were located in a less than desirable part of the town.
Funnily enough, around that same time (early to mid noughties), Mullingar Athletic were considering becoming a LOI club one day too, so they also entered a team into the u21 league. So, for a few yrs i think there were 2 LOI u21 teams in the town, but they played in different groups (Leinster had double the amount of teams to every other province so they split it into 2). Unlike Town, Athletic had a squad full local lads, only a couple of whom got any money. They finished mid table for about 2/3 yrs in a row but then i think they pulled out too. I think they realised that there would never have been enough support in the town to keep a senior LOI club afloat. I think Athletic are back playing in the midlands league now, where they're one of the top teams along with a couple of good junior clubs from Athlone.
found an old article explaining the Mullingar Town set-up from that period - http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-26078551.html
They seem to get mentioned from time to time because of the year they applied to join. Like everyone else, they'll link up with the underage leagues first if they are genuinely interested.
https://foot.ie/forums/117-Kerry-FC
A Championship: 4 years - 8 first teams - 0 financially ruined. First Division '14: 7 first teams.
Opportunity lost for new clubs/regions to join the LoI family.
Yeah I've seen the facilities out at Athletic, absolutely unreal. If they could build a stand like in Feerycarrig it would be more than suitable as a LOI ground apart from the distance it is outside the town. The ground would need to be bang centre if Mullingar if they were to ever attract anyone to games.
I recall being told some years back that there was such bad blood between the two Mullingar teams that the fans/members of one would rather support Longford than the other lot if they were in the LOI. They didn't like Athlone either apparently.
Upwards to the vanguard where the pressure is too high.
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