Roy Coyle on All-Ireland League

[dcfcsteve]

From Setanta's site :

COYLE : ALL-IRELAND LEAGUE IS NEXT STEP

Glentoran manager Roy Coyle believes that the Setanta Cup could be a precursor competition for an All-Ireland League in years to come, but insisted that any such merger between the competitions north and south of the border would need exclusively full-time teams.

"I don't think you can judge which league is stronger from one-off games such as ours against Longford on Tuesday," he told The Sun.

"It is only in the context of all All-Ireland League, whereby teams are playing week in week out that you can seat which teams are strongest.

"The fact that many of the clubs in the eircom League have turned full-time has to be a massive advantage for them.

"There are six teams in the Setanta Cup and I would love to see it expanded to include more teams. If it doesn't work out, so be it, but why not give it a try?

"Maybe that would lead to an All-Ireland League, which would certainly have the potential to be a success.

"But I cannot see there being an All-Ireland league unless every club involved is full-time. It's the only way as far as I can see.

"The travel involved would be enormous. It is hard enough for players to get time off work for European games and the like and it would be next to impossible if there was an All-Ireland league."

[pete]

I think the IL sides have the impression a lot more fulltime players in the eL than there really is.

AFAIK Longford don't have that many fulltime players if any.

IL sides could easily survive part-time as farthest they'd have to travel is dublin with few games further which is istuation for Waterford, Derry & Cork City.

[Poor Student]

Is there any precedent for a cross border league? Does anyone see UEFA sanctioning such a thing? I thought they are big into keeping things organsied within borders except for exceptional circumstances.

[De Town]

AFAIK Longford don't have that many fulltime players if any.
We don't have any full-time players :eek: :)

[ShelsTim]

Surely Paul Keegan would be full time after being at Bohs? And Eric Lavine would surely not want to travel this way to work as a plumber.

As to travel costs, All the Dublin clubs would have an extra few trips up north, not to mention the reduction in the percentage of Dublin clubs, therefore increase in Northern trips, plus maybe more teams which means more trips.

[De Town]

Surely Paul Keegan would be full time after being at Bohs? And Eric Lavine would surely not want to travel this way to work as a plumber.
I may be wrong, but I am nearly sure our squad are all part-time. Ask Longfordian, he'll tell you for sure :)

btw, Eric works in some sports shop in Galway.

[Longfordian]

Lavine doesn't work at anything, the lazy git :p ..He used to work in a sports shop in Galway alright but that's a good while ago. Not the most reliable in terms of a 9-5 job is the bould Eric!. We have a few fellas who don't work including Keegan but that's up to themselves, they're not really training as full timers.

[crc]

Is there any precedent for a cross border league? Does anyone see UEFA sanctioning such a thing? I thought they are big into keeping things organsied within borders except for exceptional circumstances.
UEFA and FIFA are big into keeping things within borders, but Britain and Ireland have always been given a derogation (something to do with England having codified the laws of the game). This is why there has never been a UK team, but rather English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish teams.

Notwithstanding that, this is certainly an exceptional circumstance. Almost every single other sport in Ireland is orgainised on an a 32 county basis. Its not like we're Germany and France saying "we'd like to have a bigger, better league so we're joining together" (although I think Germany tried a rather more aggressive way of achieving the same thing, but it wasn't so successful in the end! :p ).


Other instances of extra-International border leagues are:

China: though technically China is one country (albeit with "two systems"), China and Hong Kong have different leagues and international teams. Taiwan also fields an international team under the banner "Chinese Taipei", even though strictly it is not an independent country.

Canada: has no league of its own, but instead fields teams in cross-border semi-pro leagues with teams in the US (not MLS).

Wales: best teams play in English structure.

Liechtenstein: Vaduz play in the Swiss structure (n'est-ce pas, Longford?).

[SÓC]

Dont forget Monaco!

Or the mighty Berwich Rangers

TBH I'd say FIFA/UEFA would be all in favour of it, it would look good; Football Building Bridges etc

[observer]

Eric's problems in getting employment outside soccer may be more complicated now. An article in the Mirror last week stated he lost his driving licence for 6 months (plus a fine) for speeding. It appears he never showed up in court for the hearing which is not a clever move. Just as well he does'nt enjoy driving the white mobile so much. :rolleyes:

[crc]

Dont forget Monaco!
Problem is that Monaco doesn't have an international team, but it does cross an international boundary.
I once tried to wind up a French person who was going for Monaco (Champs League final, I think) by saying that Monaco weren't French. They responded that Monaco are indeed French, just living under a different constitutional arrangement from the rest - a bit like our own situation.
I think the only resistance, if any, to an all-Ireland league would come from certain parts of Belfast or Portadown rather than Nyon or Zurich!

[Longfordian]

Eric's problems in getting employment outside soccer may be more complicated now. An article in the Mirror last week stated he lost his driving licence for 6 months (plus a fine) for speeding. It appears he never showed up in court for the hearing which is not a clever move. Just as well he does'nt enjoy driving the white mobile so much. :rolleyes:

To be fair that wasn't his fault, he was in Barbados when the offence occurred, he'd given his car to Luther Watson who being a good pal never told him anything about the incident or the summons. He'll get it overturned on appeal.

[dcfcsteve]

Dont forget Monaco!

Or the mighty Berwich Rangers

TBH I'd say FIFA/UEFA would be all in favour of it, it would look good; Football Building Bridges etc

If the 2 Irish authorities went to UEFA/FIFA to seek approval for a single league, they would get it. European and world football is all about politics. The 'bridge-building' arguement would be more than enough to sway any doubters.

The more complicated issue would then be one of the presence of 2 international teams but only one league. This would be much more difficult to justify, but again - as football is all about politics, there'd be ways round this. Particularly if a deal was sorted alongisde the agreement to switch to a single league.

[crc]

The more complicated issue would then be one of the presence of 2 international teams but only one league.
It would certainly be unusual, but not unprecedented. As I said before, Canada has an international team, but no league of its own. Likewise I can't imagine the leagues in San Marino or Andorra are up to much, but they have international teams.

[Slash/ED]

If the 2 Irish authorities went to UEFA/FIFA to seek approval for a single league, they would get it. European and world football is all about politics. The 'bridge-building' arguement would be more than enough to sway any doubters.

The more complicated issue would then be one of the presence of 2 international teams but only one league. This would be much more difficult to justify, but again - as football is all about politics, there'd be ways round this. Particularly if a deal was sorted alongisde the agreement to switch to a single league.

Regionalised first divisions, the IFA in charge of one and the FAI in charge of the other is probably a way around that. I agree, the 'building bridges' argument would be more than enough for UEFA, they would be happy for it to happen I think.

[Rochey]

As
The more complicated issue would then be one of the presence of 2 international teams but only one league

Dont thing uefa would mind. While people might be keen for an all ireland league a lot of people in the north would not like to lose their Northern irish national team. The league would be the first step!!! and definitly a way to build bridges.....