An idea.....

[barglee]

wouldnt it be great if soccer could be included among GAA sports(such as hurling football handball international rules etc) - where GAA clubs would also have soccer teams and we cud get rid of FAI altogether.........

As well as club leagues such as EL we'd have county teams and an all-ireland (tho i think dublin and Cork wud be the only teams with much chance).......

GAA is a very well run organisation compared to FAI at underage level in my opion, but FAI has a lot more obstacles such as international teams/ professionalism etc.....

Then soccer could use Croke park all it liked!!!!!

As Carey said over the weekend Soccer and GAA are not in competition with each other-
its sport which is in competition with alcohol and drugs

just an idea........

[Dublin12]

Not much work to do today then over at Merrion Sq :D

[holidaysong]

Great apart from the fact that soccer is not a Gaelic sport.. :rolleyes:

[stojkovic]

Great apart from the fact that soccer is not a Gaelic sport.. :rolleyes:
True. It was invented in China.

[barglee]

Is this fella on drugs?

no not on any drugs just "thinking outside the box"......

its an idea which in my opinion would increase popularity of soccer and gaa sports around the country.
i just think it would make sense for one National Organisation to rule over all major field sports.

i know it will probably never happen or if it does it would be a long way away but its just a thought.

[paul_oshea]

barglee that would be a dictatorship of sport.

[CollegeTillIDie]

Well seeing as according to some people on the Cork County Board...Gaelic football is a foreign sport....... :D

[onenilgameover]

I was thinkin it was about time John Delaney started to share his idea's on here. Welcome to foot.ie John

[Snoop Drog]

Who wants to be the one to go to the GAA with this idea...
"Guys, I know you hate our sport, you used to ban your members for playing it, you won't let us play it on your pitches & you see it as being the game of your historical enemies, but we were wondering if you would mind running the administration of soccer for us."

[gaf1983]

barglee that would be a dictatorship of sport.


Yeah but what would be wrong with a dictatorship of sport? I don't see the problem as long as the new organisation would provide better facilities and organistational skills for all field sports. Would you include rugby in the list? I think it would be great if they could all pool their resources together like that.

[The Legend]

As Carey said over the weekend Soccer and GAA are not in competition with each other-
its sport which is in competition with alcohol and drugs

just an idea........[/QUOTE]

You must be on crack... hey lets combine Water Polo and Ice hockey... they both involve water!

[2Olegend]

I was thinkin it was about time John Delaney started to share his idea's on here. Welcome to foot.ie John


HAA! Class :D :D

[gustavo]

hehe well if that idea did work here is the sligo county soccer team!

gk phillip greene ( well he did play at one point ! )
rb ian rossiter
lb lee marshall
cb micheal mc namara
cb barry o dwyer
rm rafael cretaro
lm alan cawley
cm conor o grady
cm ciaran martyn
cf sean flannery
cf alan flynn

subs
steve feeney
barry cogan
keith gilroy
ryan o donnell
keith carty

[Dawn_Run]

wouldnt it be great if soccer could be included among GAA sports(such as hurling football handball international rules etc) - where GAA clubs would also have soccer teams and we cud get rid of FAI altogether....

Would be better if it fell under the IRFU umbrella - defo not the GAA!! ;)

[macdermesser]

As part of a thesis I wrote a few years ago, I had a conversation with the then Marketing Manager of the Eircom League who mentioned that in a marketing sense that the EL should try not to see the GAA as a competitor, but rather to learn from them. I don't think the idea ever got off the drawing board though.

I thought it was a really good point ... instead of aping English/Scottish clubs, that Irish clubs could play more on their county allegiances as is the case in the GAA. And drop the "Athletic" and "United", "Rovers" and so on, and come up with more local sounding names ... bit stumped for names ..er .. for example ..Wexford Gaels vs Dublin Fingals.

It might also involve dissolving the whole league, merging clubs and creating new clubs for the different population centres. E.g. One northside Dublin team , one south side team, a Cork city and county team .. Galway, Kildare, Limerick, Wexford and so on. Maybe even make the whole thing amateur to begin .. link it in with junior football clubs, so that spiralling player wages woul d not strangle progress. Perhaps Northern teams might be interested too (would be interesting to see the new team names they might come up with ). Of course, 99% of EL fans would be against this idea .. history, allegiance etc etc. And the danger is that you could ruin the whole league by getting rid of the die-hard passionate fans and having noone interested to replace them. It would place Irish soccer in a different market than premiership football .. one is a product largely consumed on tv and the other would be local, live on the doorstep. Provincial rugby has to a large extent played on this too.

Perhaps the GAA might be fractionally more interested in assimilating the Eircom league in this case .. but it really is a non-starter. So, I would say think that Barglees out of the box thinking does have some merit in that we should market and structure Irish football closer to what the GAA are doing. Perhaps even having the final of an All-Ireland soccer cup on the second Sunday of September.

I know this is in the wrong section .. but it was just a comment on Barglees initial post ..

[Don Vito]

Who wants to be the one to go to the GAA with this idea...
"Guys, I know you hate our sport, you used to ban your members for playing it, you won't let us play it on your pitches & you see it as being the game of your historical enemies, but we were wondering if you would mind running the administration of soccer for us."

Jesus not the GAA, I've heard some stories which I can't elaborate on about how it's run, its just mustn't showing up really because they generate such cash every year.

[Slash/ED]

It might also involve dissolving the whole league, merging clubs and creating new clubs for the different population centres. E.g. One northside Dublin team

I think one Northside team and one feeder club is ideal to be honest :)