Let gets a Billionaire to buy a League one club

[Strongbow10]

OK so i've just had a fantastic idea. Lets buy and League 1/Lower Championship club and completely disregard the clubs history. Buy up the best Irish players at Senior and underage level, hire a manager and basically run the international side as a club side.

Deep pockets obviously needed (or not).

Fantasy football style.

Feck it, lets get the international manager to double job aswell, he can coach the ****e out of them.

Who are we signing? Best 24 players in the country in senior squad and best underage prospects for reserves/youth set up.

[elatedscum]

You probably don’t want more than 11 irish players because then you’ve got loads of promising players not playing. So you basically want your starting 11 to be irish and the rest can be supplemented with whatever

[Stuttgart88]

They'd get relgated to L2!

[tetsujin1979]

Darren Ferguson would be the manager, at least twice

[ifk101]

Can a billionaire afford Evan Ferguson?

[osarusan]

No sure if serious, but...this is just the same idea as the Dublin Dons - that they provide regular top flight exposure for our best players.

In reality, as a club and as a business, at the first real sign of trouble, the club would need to go out and buy non-Irish players to stave off relegation, and then you have players not getting that exposure. Or they don't buy non-Irish players, and then the whole lot drop down a flight.

A billion could be far far better spend developing a better domestic football infrastructure and a tidy domestic league.

[NeverFeltBetter]

I have friends who still insist the Dublin Dons or some new project like it was/would be a great idea for this exact reason, it would be staffed with nothing but Irish players, would be great for the national team, etc. No understanding of how these things work. I know it's a hypothetical OP, but makes me think of Wrexham in a way, and that's something I am convinced will end in tears and recriminations within a few years.

[irishfan86]

I think it would be disrespectful to whatever lower league team you took over and did that to.

If there was a way to merge the LoI and the Football League, especially at the lower tiers of English football, I think that has the potential of being great for everybody (and given the state of the SPL I think there's reason to explore one league between Britain and Ireland incorporating Scottish and Welsh teams too).

I know people on this forum are very critical of MLS, and things work differently in North America, but the US-Canada combined league works well in that it helped launch Canadian professional teams to a different platform.

The big issue would be the costs of travel at the lower tiers, but this could be addressed by having conferences which primarily focus on playing teams closer to you, again using the North American model.

The benefit is that people could watch an interesting on-field product while still in their home communities, rather than travelling to the UK to watch a team of mainly Irish players represent whatever random English team is hijacked for this purpose.

[pineapple stu]

If there was a way to merge the LoI and the Football League, especially at the lower tiers of English football, I think that has the potential of being great for everybody (and given the state of the SPL I think there's reason to explore one league between Britain and Ireland incorporating Scottish and Welsh teams too).
I doubt anyone in the English game would have the slightest bit of interest in merging with the LoI. The English league is too well established for us to bring anything to it. Arguably Colwyn Bay have gained from leaving it and joining the Welsh league instead; they were promoted last year and could reach Europe now this year (albeit they're struggling so far).

I think we have to stop trying to run away from the core problems in Ireland of public and official apathy and start getting behind our league - like most other countries in Europe do. Anything else is just a smokescreen.

[EalingGreen]

I doubt anyone in the English game would have the slightest bit of interest in merging with the LoI.Understatement of the Year! I mean, when they're not interested eg in inviting the Old Firm from up the road to join them...

Oh, and apart from that, it would never be permitted by UEFA, what with them being implacably opposed to trans-national leagues for fear it would undermine their National Association members.

But all that aside (and a hundred other objections), great idea! :good:

[Jolly Red Giant]

A straight HELL No from me - billionaires are ruing the game.