22 Team League ?

[EireBadBoy]

I've been hearing rumours that Bray have motioned for a '22 Team Premier' and it will be seriously discussed at a forthcoming meeting in Merrion Sq. - The 22 Team League is to last for 2 Seasons and the bottom 6 at the end of the 2 Seasons will then be demoted (relegated even!) to 'Junior Football'.

Now that's a turn up for the books.......I'm just being optimistic or what ?? ;)

[TommyT]

Bray have been pushing that for years. Thankfully it's too ****e an idea even for the league to consider.

[Martinho II]

22 teams is a bit much . 16 would be the right number. This country is way too small to sustain a 22 team league.

[A face]

Originally posted by MARTINHO II
22 teams is a bit much . 16 would be the right number. This country is way too small to sustain a 22 team league.

22 Team league ..... We couldn't really take the p!ss out of the Yanks anymore, them not having relegation an'all in their footie league.

Seriously ..... Bad idea but 22 teams = 42 games (21 away, 21 home) is not that bad if you were to look at it, but no way .... it would never work. Get back to that drawing board.

[Ringo]

Given that theres already a huge gap between the quality of the top teams in the premier & lower teams, bringing in the first division teams would be a disaster. Bray would be better off trying to win the first division, than pedaling this ****e.

[Dodge]

Originally posted by Ringo
Given that theres already a huge gap between the quality of the top teams in the premier & lower teams, bringing in the first division teams would be a disaster. Bray would be better off trying to win the first division, than pedaling this ****e.
I'd establish yourself in the premier before you say things like that...

But any league without relegation/promotion would be a disaster.

[Ringo]

Originally posted by Dodge
I'd establish yourself in the premier before you say things like that...
.

your comment supports the arguement or do you think we're as strong as yourselves?

[Dodge]

Originally posted by Ringo
your comment supports the arguement or do you think we're as strong as yourselves?
Sorry should have had a smiley there...

If anything as a fan of a team in the first last year you're better placed to comment than me...

[dortie]

Originally posted by EireBadBoy
I've been hearing rumours that Bray have motioned for a '22 Team Premier' and it will be seriously discussed at a forthcoming meeting in Merrion Sq. - The 22 Team League is to last for 2 Seasons and the bottom 6 at the end of the 2 Seasons will then be demoted (relegated even!) to 'Junior Football'.

Now that's a turn up for the books.......I'm just being optimistic or what ?? ;)


A 22 team league would be pure balls....too many teams. So would that mean no first division....?? We were at the wrong end of the table this year but relegation is required for competitiveness......Why not go back to 12 in the premier and 10 in the first.

[Martinho II]

Is it true that next season will be the last under this experiment?

[A face]

Originally posted by dortie
relegation is required for competitiveness

a ..... Nutshell ...... In

[EireBadBoy]

Well, I basically like the idea, considering Aul' Devlin is behind it! :D

We all appreciate that we need Relegation/Promotion in a League to make it competitive and interesting but we could forsake it for the betterment of the League for 2 Seasons, surely?

I reckon a 22 Team League would be interesting in itself for a couple of Seasons anyway, finally an end to 3 Matches in the First Div. and trips to places not visited in many a year by even the most hardcore EL fan (I admit I was VERY harsh on Limerick when I look back on it now it was nice to have done it and have a story or two -HYPOCRITE! :rolleyes: -)

The fact that missing Relegation/Promotion (a very nasty business in itself - I do know) seems to be the main objection just goes to show the sadistic mind of the average League Of Ireland fan!! :D

I hope it goes through - we try it, like Summer Football, with nothing to lose and see how it goes. For sheer interest, for we all know that the League needs a bit of that, if not for us then the 'Stoolers'. Stop with the insular and lets go marching into the New Year with a new approach to a new experiment. It sounds crap but if it leads to a 16 Team League then I, for one, am all for it!! :ball:

[dortie]

Originally posted by EireBadBoy
Well, I basically like the idea, considering Aul' Devlin is behind it! :D

We all appreciate that we need Relegation/Promotion in a League to make it competitive and interesting but we could forsake it for the betterment of the League for 2 Seasons, surely?

I reckon a 22 Team League would be interesting in itself for a couple of Seasons anyway, finally an end to 3 Matches in the First Div. and trips to places not visited in many a year by even the most hardcore EL fan (I admit I was VERY harsh on Limerick when I look back on it now it was nice to have done it and have a story or two -HYPOCRITE! :rolleyes: -)

The fact that missing Relegation/Promotion (a very nasty business in itself - I do know) seems to be the main objection just goes to show the sadistic mind of the average League Of Ireland fan!! :D

I hope it goes through - we try it, like Summer Football, with nothing to lose and see how it goes. For sheer interest, for we all know that the League needs a bit of that, if not for us then the 'Stoolers'. Stop with the insular and lets go marching into the New Year with a new approach to a new experiment. It sounds crap but if it leads to a 16 Team League then I, for one, am all for it!! :ball:


I personally think the standard of football is improving due to a smaller premier, the basics being if your not strong enough you get relegated or enter the play-off. I think you NEED relegation and promotion to keep things interesting. At least with a smaller premier league a few games can change things dramatically, with 22 teams I would fear we could have numerous 'pointless' league games ! As ive said on the Derry forum the fact that we have so many Dub teams is simply to do their proffesionalism, they are there through merit. I would love more rural teams in a '12 team' premier but it has to be through merit.

12 teams for me !

[TheRealRovers]

Originally posted by dortie
As ive said on the Derry forum the fact that we have so many Dub teams is simply to do their proffesionalism
And the fact that Dublin teams have the advantage of being located where the main pool of players want to live compared to the west where feck all players of good quality want to live.

[Éanna]

You need relegation, the bottom half of the table would be a borefest otherwise. Best thing would be a 16team premier with a first division split into northern and southern sections.

[Dr.Nightdub]

22 teams is too many, it'd mean another six midweek games to be squeezed in if the season is gonna stay at its current length. And don't forget that with the financial situation clubs are in, not too many of them will be keen on extending the period in which they have to pay wages.

I'd sacrifice promotion and relegation if it meant moving away from this cráp of playing each other four times a season.

Anyway it could always be retained in a different format if there was say 18 teams and the bottom two went into playoffs against the top non-League teams.

[Martinho II]

If the 16 team league experiment does go through, maybe they should have the six lower teams plus the best non league teams maybe six of them might make a very intersting league.

Imagine Mayo Co , Kerry Co, Cavan Town,Mullingar Town, Clonmel Town,Fanad United

probably wont work but hey it might be intersting!

[Martinho II]

To reiterate , this would be for the lower tier of ten teams,.

[sadloserkid]

Find 2 more teams and run with 2 twelves for 2 years. If that's working out ok, you can look at finding two more and going with 12 & 14 or 14 & 12. You can add teams as appropriate until you find the level that works. Personally I doubt you'll find many more teams unless you examine Éanna's suggestion of having two regionally divided (North/South or East/West). Not a lot of teams want in right now.

[pineapple stu]

The manager of Ballymena United (I think) in the North was being interviewed on BBC in their NI Sports round-up and he said that the 16-team league was a bad move for football in the North - "Not enough quality" were his exact words. The same argument should hold here surely?

Two twelve team divisions is the best way forward I think, providing you can find the extra two teams. Regional North and South could be interesting if it led to more league take-up.

[Estar]

I'm just woundering if Bray were promoted would they be so pushed about the idea?

I wounder how Kildare will vote? I'd say Kildare will go yes if Devo has a word with them.

[adamcarr]

a 22 team league will never happen. i say a 12 team premier division was the best.

[crc]

Even though I'd like to see a more balanced spread of clubs around the country, 22 is definately not the way to go. I would be in favour of Éanna's idea; 16 team Premier division, with an organised regional structure below (Part of the 1st div clubs' woes is the cost of travel & accom). What shape the lower tier takes is another debate, though there could be as many as four regional divisions.

However, more teams would have to be relegated, maybe two down automatically and two Premier teams and two other teams in a playoff for one spot.

Part of the reason that Bray and other clubs feel in dispair is because the odds on actually getting promoted are quite low - a more fluid situation would lead to more competitiveness, and it would also mean that its not the end of the world for clubs who get relegated.

16 teams means 30 games, slightly less than at the moment. The League cup could be expanded, possibly with the carrot of an intertoto cup place: 1) to fill in more games, 2) to give lower division clubs more opportunity to play with bigger teams.

[4tothefloor]

Whatever they do, say in this 2 year experimental period thats proposed, the league must start looking for extra teams to join the league. Kildare County are a great example of what can be achieved.

Places like Kerry, Clare, Mayo are big soccer areas with very strong junior leagues, while Tipperary has 2 junior leagues north and south. They're all capable of providing a team each, and should be encouraged to do so. There's plenty of other counties that would join the bandwagon aswell. This has to happen down the line anyway if the FAI's plans for regional academy's and schools of excellence are to come to fruitition in the coaching development plan. We need more clubs. A regionally split first division could therefore prove to be a good idea initially, but certainly not in the longterm.

[derm]

Why change at all? I don't think the current system has been given enuff of a chance yet - why must we ALWAYS tinker?? De NL has changed structure more times in de last 13 years than any other league I know of

[tiktok]

the problem with the twelve team league is that you're back to unbalanced fixtures, playing two away and one home against certain teams, and we've proven this season that we're unlikely to manage a fixture list with forty-four games, so thirty three it'll have to be.

i think the current format should be given a few years, at least until the county sides that have been mentioned are up to scratch, remember that they'll have to fulfill UEFA licencing requirements too and very few would pass at the moment.

the idea of one division with no relegation or promotion would kill the league as it is currently doing to the first division, teams adrift at the bottom ten games in seem more concerned with 'consolidating' for the following year than competing.

[pete]

We've only had 1 season of the ten team premier & already people want changes - is there any woinder the eL so badly off when no one seems able to stick with decisions.

The eL can barely sustain 22 teams so little chance of any junior clubs making the jump to the eL.

10 team league has definitely improved the quality of the Premier. A few seasons ago we had Monaghan & Kilkenny adrift at the foot of the table getting trashed week in week out but thats not likely to happen anymore.

The top teams are struggling financially already so why change to a larger premier division where they'll just subsidise the smaller teams???

[pineapple stu]

Originally posted by pete
We've only had 1 season of the ten team premier & already people want changes - is there any woinder the eL so badly off when no one seems able to stick with decisions.

In fairness, a lot of people (myself included) weren't exactly in favour of the ten-team league when it came in in the first place. Given how clubs from the Pale have increased their dominance of the league in the two seasons since, it's not surprising there's still a few calls for change.

[derm]

Originally posted by tiktok
i think the current format should be given a few years, at least until the county sides that have been mentioned are up to scratch, remember that they'll have to fulfill UEFA licencing requirements too and very few would pass at the moment.


And we should wait a bit after de licensing comes in to see if all teams can survive it. It still could cause de biggest shake-up of de league - with clubs going to de wall or merging to comply with it. We may yet end up with one division of stronger teams - who knows

[TheRealRovers]

Originally posted by 4tothefloor
Places like Kerry, Clare, Mayo are big soccer areas with very strong junior leagues,
Mayo is not a big soccer area most people from their don’t give a **** about the eL when we played them in the league cup there was only 300 at the game and that’s including 200/250 Rovers supporters