LOI Funding

[nr637]

Hi,
Just thinking about several comments on various social media recently about funding and investment into sport here in Ireland.

How vital is Government Investment in the league?

Should we be able to support a full-time league and is investment into academies the only way to make real progress?

[LTFC]

I think all can agree that capital investment in the industry is needed, to improve grounds/stadia, but also for the development of facilities for academies. How many of our clubs own more than 1 pitch, or how many own training pitches ? (you could have a club like Rovers, Cork or Galway owning training pitches whilst renting stadia).

On the current expenditure side dont see how that could be done directly to clubs, so would be sceptical if we could sustain 10 plus full time professional clubs. I cant see how you run a full time club on under 2m, and cant see where all 10+ clubs make that each season.

[Martinho II]

Im hoping that with Minister for Sports attendance at last wks season launch Charlie McConlogue that things will finally go in the right direction!

[2 Year Contract]

Interesting article from Dan McDonnell here on the owners of every club. Some points I wasn’t aware of that were raised: Average wage in the premier division is €1000 a week. Valeo are no longer a part of Athlone


https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/irish-billionaires-us-investors-multi-club-and-member-run-models-who-owns-the-league-of-ireland-clubs/a1313143073.html

[D24Saint]

The prize money on offer is a big issue considering how quickly the league is developing. It has to be improved and in the near future.

[kingdomkerry]

It's like this clubs will do well to fund their current day to day spending. The Government need to step up big time for capital (stadium improvements).

[Elfman]

Headline from the 42.ie is that the League is threatening to break away from the FAI but in reality it sounds more like a dispute over the lack of government or FAI funding for academies: https://www.the42.ie/league-of-ireland-fai-split-6646290-Mar2025/

Seems the attempt to centralise the underage training at FAI headquarters to increase contact hours was poorly received by clubs and is what kicked all this off:
https://www.the42.ie/fai-pca-6645806-Mar2025/

[Another Bohemia]

Headline from the 42.ie is that the League is threatening to break away from the FAI but in reality it sounds more like a dispute over the lack of government or FAI funding for academies: https://www.the42.ie/league-of-ireland-fai-split-6646290-Mar2025/

Seems the attempt to centralise the underage training at FAI headquarters to increase contact hours was poorly received by clubs and is what kicked all this off:
https://www.the42.ie/fai-pca-6645806-Mar2025/

When every club in the PCA is in agreement that something is poorly thought out it must be an incredibly poorly conceived plan. You probably couldn't even get them to agree on what colour the sky is on a given day but this they can all agree on.

[Elfman]

Haha very true. It did smack of stupid on first impression, although I did want to give them credit for trying to make the best of a bad situation.

But as you say, they rarely agree on anything so it must have been uniformly bad. I did notice the contradictions on Academy cost €30k all the way up to "millions". Any idea what the annual cost per team is?

[Mr A]

Why in under f*** is a discussion about academy funding happening between the PCA and the FAI? D1 clubs and women's clubs have academies too.

Surely it would make more sense to engage the clubs on a league wide basis.

The premier clubs are already in line for a massive boost in solidarity yet they seem to be the only ones with any info on this. D1 clubs are facing having to wind down their academies, the €75k a year didn't go close to covering things and now it's reduced to €45k at best yet we have not been party to the conversation at all? €30k a team is probably quite accurate on the cost.

Nobody coming out of this one well TBH

Talking about a breakaway when the PCA didn't bother talking to the other senior clubs, WTAF is going on at this stage

[Acornvilla]

I've always thought the concept of the PCA was good but utterly stupid if it doesn't include all loi clubs. Sure different clubs will have different needs, but all should be represented.

It would be different if we had a massive pyramid to contend with, but it's currently what 21 clubs?

I genuinely think with the massive increase in Uefa funding for PD clubs, in the short term any increases in prize money should be funneled to the 1st division to help compensate for what has been happening. It's counter intuitive and against everything that probably ever happens, but maybe clubs qualifying for Europe shouldn't be getting the largest proportion of prize money :D

[Nesta99]

There is an uncanny sense of a lack of unity among LoI clubs which was the reason for the league becoming uder FAI control, no consensus, no decisions, no progress so we sold our souls to an organisation that cared even less and were worse. Now the PCA are showing similar traits while ironically takling about spliting from the FAI. Im presuming that the exclusion of clubs is so that there wont be talks of sharing solidarity payments. Clubs should remember that trying to survive as an island is what has held the domestic game back for decades and all clubs need to advance together. You would think this would be at the core of the PCA not elitism. Dundalk are already in the mix for the solidarity windfall and on the PCA so im not just exasperated by this now that Dundalk are in the 1st Division.

[Another Bohemia]

Haha very true. It did smack of stupid on first impression, although I did want to give them credit for trying to make the best of a bad situation.

But as you say, they rarely agree on anything so it must have been uniformly bad. I did notice the contradictions on Academy cost €30k all the way up to "millions". Any idea what the annual cost per team is?

I had read it as 30k per team fielded and usually a figure like that is the lower end costs. You'd imagine Rovers are spending more than that and probably a fair few of the Dublin clubs would be in that boat with them, Pats certainly would be and Bohs are ramping up their academy with Crolly as the head and recently hired Gary Deegan as a coach in some capacity. But if it's 30k per team and you run 13s, 15s, 17s & 20s for Boys and girls ,which would be the minimum as far as I know, you're looking at 240k p.a. Now id say most clubs are running some form of team in local leagues at the in-between age groups as well as some form of nursery for any players too young for the national set up. Costs easily build up as you field more teams, need more pitches for training/matches etc