DDSL go back to September to May season

[sbgawa]

This affects the LOI so its not really just a schoolboy issue.
The DDSL are taking advantage of the chaos in the FAI to pull a fast one and change away from summer soccer in direct defiance of the FAI strategy while the FAI are otherwise engaged.
St Kevins were tweeting how great it was which really shows how they view their "partnership" with Bohs but its the same old dinosaurs in charge of the league that are trying to cling on to power and stop the drift of kids into LOI clutches.
Entirely driven so they get to keep sending them over to England for 5k at 15 years old and claim they are "getting kids over to England".
Best example was the 3 kids sent by Kevins to Stevanage recently but any of the hundreds of kids sent over who come back broken are an example of how Kevins / Joeys etc are destroying generation after generation of kids.
Summer soccer was set up by the DDSL to fail with a two month break rather than what should have been a one month break to allow people to go on holiday.

The FAI needs to go back to the DDSL and tell them if they want to go against the FAI fine but there will be no grant money from the FAI for DDSL clubs and the FAI will set up a league and invite clubs who want to be eligible for grants to join that league.
Iron fist is the only way to deal with these dinosaurs.

[dublinred]

As a coach this did not work we welcomed this and trialed it for 2 years but is its a disaster to deviate away from the traditonal school year with underage players . July is a holiday month but it was next to impossible to field teams in June due to holidays , exams , communions etc . Last season started in March and finished in November out of boredom we were back training in January both DDSL and NDSL organised Futsal to fill the gap until March then season season started followed closely by Paddy's Day , Easter and 2 bank Holidays again struggling to field teams on these weekends , throw in the fact that acadamies follow the school year and winter can happen anytime between September and April it did not work despite looking good on paper . A majority of clubs voted to try it and now a majority have decide to move back Ireland unlike Holland very much revolves around the school year.

[seand]

NDSL are following suit. Watching the DDSL child labour pimps squirm has been a highlight of the national underage system.

[dundalkfc10]

NDSL are following suit. Watching the DDSL child labour pimps squirm has been a highlight of the national underage system.

DDSL Dundalk District League are going to do the same ive heard. Teams cant get players every week over summer (Holidays, Exams, GAA etc)

[sbgawa]

As a coach this did not work we welcomed this and trialed it for 2 years but is its a disaster to deviate away from the traditonal school year with underage players . July is a holiday month but it was next to impossible to field teams in June due to holidays , exams , communions etc . Last season started in March and finished in November out of boredom we were back training in January both DDSL and NDSL organised Futsal to fill the gap until March then season season started followed closely by Paddy's Day , Easter and 2 bank Holidays again struggling to field teams on these weekends , throw in the fact that acadamies follow the school year and winter can happen anytime between September and April it did not work despite looking good on paper . A majority of clubs voted to try it and now a majority have decide to move back Ireland unlike Holland very much revolves around the school year.

It could have worked if the DDSL had wanted it to.
A fixture list published at the start of the season and stuck to (underage Rugby can do it) (rearranged matches played midweek) would have allowed people to plan holidays (or at least the top teams where commitment is greater) .
A shorter break so it feels like a few weeks off rather than another season starting.
Like i said earlier it was set up to fail and the Kevins Joeys etc who run the DDSL are trying to get control of the ball again while the FAI are asleep.

[dublinred]

If you shorten the gap you still can't pluck players out of thin air in June or August , another issue we had was we had 4 teams coming out of the academy in May ready to start in September but because last seasons u8s have not moved on we had 8 x u8 teams competing for training facilities and pitches , moving the academy was not an option as clubs competing with GAA and Rugby for new players every September , I was all for summer soccer but it did not work.

[sbgawa]

If you shorten the gap you still can't pluck players out of thin air in June or August , another issue we had was we had 4 teams coming out of the academy in May ready to start in September but because last seasons u8s have not moved on we had 8 x u8 teams competing for training facilities and pitches , moving the academy was not an option as clubs competing with GAA and Rugby for new players every September , I was all for summer soccer but it did not work.

I think proper fixture scheduling would have helped , people can plan to be around if they know when they will be needed.
There is no doubt there are issues but going back to school year type season isnt the solution the last year before the move to summer soccer there were teams that hardly played any matches between October and January due to pitches being off.
If anything all that the schoolboy leagues did to "try" summer football was "officially" declare the pitches off from November to Jan and shorten the summer break from 3 months to two.
There us a solution but the Schoolboy leagues wont come up with it.

[pineapple stu]

Will this have any impact on the national underage leagues, particularly the 13s and 15s?

If people now have a choice what season they want to play (or want their kids to play), will the national leagues weaken cos people want to play Sept-May?

Has to be said, the LoI move to summer football has had some benefits, but overall it surely ranks as one of the most short-sighted decisions ever taken in Irish football. The whole structure is unhelpfully disjointed at this stage.

[Nesta99]

Will this have any impact on the national underage leagues, particularly the 13s and 15s?

If people now have a choice what season they want to play (or want their kids to play), will the national leagues weaken cos people want to play Sept-May?

Has to be said, the LoI move to summer football has had some benefits, but overall it surely ranks as one of the most short-sighted decisions ever taken in Irish football. The whole structure is unhelpfully disjointed at this stage.

This is true! By now all football, bar winter leagues, should be playing the same season. The resistance then at inter, junior, and schoolboy levels is still there now. Of course it can be made work but too many noses were put out of joint. I swear if LoI went back to a winter season other leagues would switch to summer!!!

[sbgawa]

Will this have any impact on the national underage leagues, particularly the 13s and 15s?

If people now have a choice what season they want to play (or want their kids to play), will the national leagues weaken cos people want to play Sept-May?

Has to be said, the LoI move to summer football has had some benefits, but overall it surely ranks as one of the most short-sighted decisions ever taken in Irish football. The whole structure is unhelpfully disjointed at this stage.

National leagues will continue in the Summer i would say and this should drain the schoolboy clubs of their best players particularly if the FAI say that only kids playing for LOI clubs will be considered for National selection.
At elite level the kids (and parents) are motivated to fit there holidays etc around the fixture calender (which the National leagues actually have unlike the DDSL)
The problem will be for LOI clubs who dont really have an academy but just let a Schoolboy club play on their behalf St kevins\Bohs Joeys/Bray spring to mind.
Given its only 4 teams though i'm sure Bray and Bohs could keep those teams going through the Summer if Kevins or Joeys did'nt co-operate.

[disgruntled]

Will this have any impact on the national underage leagues, particularly the 13s and 15s?

If people now have a choice what season they want to play (or want their kids to play), will the national leagues weaken cos people want to play Sept-May?

Has to be said, the LoI move to summer football has had some benefits, but overall it surely ranks as one of the most short-sighted decisions ever taken in Irish football. The whole structure is unhelpfully disjointed at this stage.

I bet you'd like Winter football back again stu :o

[seand]

There's not much difference between a summer season where you kick off in Feb take July/Aug off and finish in November and a winter seson where you kick off in Sept take Dec/Jan off and finish in May.

[disgruntled]

This affects the LOI so its not really just a schoolboy issue.
The DDSL are taking advantage of the chaos in the FAI to pull a fast one and change away from summer soccer in direct defiance of the FAI strategy while the FAI are otherwise engaged.
St Kevins were tweeting how great it was which really shows how they view their "partnership" with Bohs but its the same old dinosaurs in charge of the league that are trying to cling on to power and stop the drift of kids into LOI clutches.
Entirely driven so they get to keep sending them over to England for 5k at 15 years old and claim they are "getting kids over to England".
Best example was the 3 kids sent by Kevins to Stevanage recently but any of the hundreds of kids sent over who come back broken are an example of how Kevins / Joeys etc are destroying generation after generation of kids.
Summer soccer was set up by the DDSL to fail with a two month break rather than what should have been a one month break to allow people to go on holiday.

The FAI needs to go back to the DDSL and tell them if they want to go against the FAI fine but there will be no grant money from the FAI for DDSL clubs and the FAI will set up a league and invite clubs who want to be eligible for grants to join that league.
Iron fist is the only way to deal with these dinosaurs.

Yes but the dinosaurs are / were in control of the Zoo that is the FAI :rolleyes:

[pineapple stu]

I bet you'd like Winter football back again stu :o
On a personal level, the summer season suits me better.

But there can hardly be any argument that it was idiotic of the FAI to bring in such a fundamental change with no real idea as to how to manage the issues of division in the whole football structure. And when such a change is really just for four clubs - who we've seen are still more than capable of messing up in Europe anyway - then that for me becomes the very definition of short sighted

[dublinred]

This affects the LOI so its not really just a schoolboy issue.
The DDSL are taking advantage of the chaos in the FAI to pull a fast one and change away from summer soccer in direct defiance of the FAI strategy while the FAI are otherwise engaged.
St Kevins were tweeting how great it was which really shows how they view their "partnership" with Bohs but its the same old dinosaurs in charge of the league that are trying to cling on to power and stop the drift of kids into LOI clutches.
Entirely driven so they get to keep sending them over to England for 5k at 15 years old and claim they are "getting kids over to England".
Best example was the 3 kids sent by Kevins to Stevanage recently but any of the hundreds of kids sent over who come back broken are an example of how Kevins / Joeys etc are destroying generation after generation of kids.
Summer soccer was set up by the DDSL to fail with a two month break rather than what should have been a one month break to allow people to go on holiday.

The FAI needs to go back to the DDSL and tell them if they want to go against the FAI fine but there will be no grant money from the FAI for DDSL clubs and the FAI will set up a league and invite clubs who want to be eligible for grants to join that league.
Iron fist is the only way to deal with these dinosaurs.

Yes but the dinosaurs are / were in control of the Zoo that is the FAI :rolleyes:

Yes but who sublets part of Abbottstown from the FAI ?

[marinobohs]

Will this have any impact on the national underage leagues, particularly the 13s and 15s?

If people now have a choice what season they want to play (or want their kids to play), will the national leagues weaken cos people want to play Sept-May?

Has to be said, the LoI move to summer football has had some benefits, but overall it surely ranks as one of the most short-sighted decisions ever taken in Irish football. The whole structure is unhelpfully disjointed at this stage.

While not in favour of it at the time the move to summer football has proved a success. the LOI will not be going back to winter football any time soon. it was farcical of the FAI (normal practice so) not to have put a timeline on ALL Leagues moving to similar seasons and allowing no unilateral deviation from that season.

[Jofspring]

The summer switch is only coming into Limerick Schoolboy soccer this summer and everyone else looks like they will be going back the other way.

Football is all over the place in this country.

[swinfordfc]

DDSL run the show! ... FAI have no balls for a long time ... Every youth league are doing they own thing for years and the FAI couldn't care less! ... No wonder they in the state they in!

[RathfarnhamHoop]

DDSL run the show! ... FAI have no balls for a long time ... Every youth league are doing they own thing for years and the FAI couldn't care less! ... No wonder they in the state they in!

Sure the DDSL paid for the FAIs offices that they keep going on about as one of Delaneys achievements, no wonder they run it

[jimhacker]

The question of summer vs winter season affects far more than the elite players that schoolboy clubs allegedly "pimp" to England.

The vast majority of schoolboy players will never make their local senior side not to mind become even semi-professional players.

For that cohort, the winter game is far, far better coinciding as it does with the school year - it's what makes lads get out of bed on a November morning, it's what puts boots under the Christmas tree, and it's what sustains them through the dreary months of the year.

These lads don't need football in the summer when they have plenty other things to be going on with - swimming, camping, holidays and chasing after young wans.

personally, I'm delighted with this outbreak of sanity in the game even if the dreaded DDSL will claim the credit for it.

[Mr A]

That's kind of what I was thinking jimhacker, as the national underage leagues come on stream and hoover up the best players, perhaps alignment with the other strands of schoolboy football is less important.

[sbgawa]

That's kind of what I was thinking jimhacker, as the national underage leagues come on stream and hoover up the best players, perhaps alignment with the other strands of schoolboy football is less important.

The problem is the under 13's DDSL season will kick off in September 6 months earlier than originally planned.
So Cabo as an example or Joeys will enter a team in the DDSL premier and come next February that entire team will transfer to the National league team and not be able to finish the DDSL season out.
The Cabo or Joeys second team will become the first , 3rds become 2nd but ultimately some teams will fold.
For some smaller country clubs with only one team in a particular age group where do they go?

[EAFC_rdfl]

I'm pretty sure Galway under age football is now also moving to winter season, and being welcomed by clubs in strong hurling areas so that youngsters can play both sports.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Crumlin United have just shared a link to a petition asking to keep calendar football and try fix the issues instead of just scrapping it. Wonder are there many other DDSL clubs against moving away from calendar football.

[Martinho II]

Crumlin United have just shared a link to a petition asking to keep calendar football and try fix the issues instead of just scrapping it. Wonder are there many other DDSL clubs against moving away from calendar football.

i seen something in media today that the northern ireland league is moving over to a summer season. thought I would never see the day that it would happen!

[nigel-harps1954]

i seen something in media today that the northern ireland league is moving over to a summer season. thought I would never see the day that it would happen!

I like their May-February idea. Best of both worlds having summer football and the traditional christmas fixtures. Really wish League of Ireland had done similar.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

As a side point, Carlow Kilkenny didn't have an U13 team this season because they're basically run by the leagues so with the different calendars they couldn't get a team to start as players were already with clubs. They're starting a team for next season but I think that means players will go from now until February/March without competitive football unless they do a deal with clubs which isn't ideal. Just an example of the mess having different seasons causes