Are you in favour of proposed new league format?

[Bluebeard]

Lads (and ladies;) ;) )! All this fighting over who is the candidate to stay in the league, or in what division, is just what the muppets at the top of the banana tree want. We are all in here kicking each other in the shins over this - is Galway a better choice than UCD, is Bray is a better choice than Sligo. Everyone is gossipping over who should be looking over their shoulders. John Delaney must be chuckling to himself in that really disturbing self congratualtory fashion he has.

Our focus should be firstly on whether this is a good or bad thing for the league. If we differ, fair enough: but those in favour of it should try to explain why they are, as should those against, for the benefit of those who are unsure what to think. Fair play to those of differing opinion who have given their reasons, but don't badger the poor folk who have said something that you disagree with, ffs.

If most of us are against, (as appears to be the case) we should be doing something about it - contacting our clubs, etc. AFAIK, the four abstinant clubs were Waterford, Dublin City, Mon Utd and Bray(??). The rest of us need to find out why our club thinks that this is in their best interest, report back here, so we can assemble some kind of idea of what is really going on here, and then do something in a unifed and coherent manner - it isn't completely ratified yet.

Yes, I am against, vehemently against, and amazed that it was passed. Personally, I think that this is potentially taking even more of the little power that supporters have in this league, and removing it to the possibly the single most compellingly incompetent organisation in a country that has a surplus of incompetent organisations as is (the league itself being counted among them). The flesh of the proposal doesn't seem (to my naive eyes) to actually exist yet, so the vote should have been on whether the matter should have been further researched, not bleerin' implemented at the end of a season that will be half over before the parameters be decided upon.

Those goons in Merrion Square are laughing at us with our silly infighting when we should be intelligently discussing this.

[REVIP]

Did I say Sligo is bigger?:confused:.

What is your point anyway, what you're saying is actually making Bray Wanderers look worse cos you're saying Bray is a bigger town so they should have bigger support than Rovers, which they don't, so I'll ask again, apart from a geography lesson there, what is you point?:confused:.

Pineapple Stu neatly sums up the proposals as follows:

"An invitational league with acceptance based on crowds, marketability, facilities and (to a much lesser degree) league placing and ability"

Bray is a major potential market area - the most affluent and most rapidly growing area in the country is on the doorstep, Cherrywood alone will have 20,000 people.

Suggesting that people in south Co Dublin and north Wicklow might travel to Phibsborough or Tallaght is pointless - if Bray were not given the chance of playing at top level the potential fan base would simply be lost to Sky Sports

[Roverstillidie]

Pineapple Stu neatly sums up the proposals as follows:

"An invitational league with acceptance based on crowds, marketability, facilities and (to a much lesser degree) league placing and ability"


but pineapple stu is struggling badly to back up these doomsday prophecies....

[pineapple stu]

Yeah, I've only give quotes from national media, FAI documents and eL personnel...:rolleyes:

[Roverstillidie]

Yeah, I've only give quotes from national media, FAI documents and eL personnel...:rolleyes:


but you havent really

[CollegeTillIDie]

Grow up and get beyond your own self interest.

We don't have the details of what is being proposed, the franchising talk is scaremongering by those who will refuse to endorse any strengthening of infrastructure and other requirements.

Smoke and mirrors on both sides.......

Which is why in the words of Groucho Marx " I'm Against It".
But I am in favour of the smoking ban :D

[hamish]

I leave it up to you folks about the format 'cos you know more about it but I refer back to my points in the "new clubs" thread.
What's the point of the FAI hoping that some people in Tralee, Mullingar, Letterkenny etc etc MIGHT enter a club.
As the organisation in control of all football in the Republic they have to join with all levels of the game and take a completely new course toward the senior game in this country.
Look, one way or the other, the FAI will probably end up with some hotch-potch of a 12 twelve team Premier and a 10 team First Division.

Then what?? Don't see any difference TBH. Ok, we'll have better financial controls, better grounds but where is the future thinking for, say, 10 years from now?? The Dutch, Norwegians and Danes did that when they had sh!t leagues back in the 60s and 70s. Look at how they improved.
I repeat my post from that thread.

The word that comes to mid about the FAI "plans" at the moment is
"Tinkering"


"Presuming the Irish League and EL don't ever amalgamate how about this......eh....fantasy league in.........eh.........2012? - based on today's data

Premier
Cork City, Derry City, Shelbourne, UCD, Bohemians, St. Pats., Longford Town, Sligo Rovers, Waterford United, Dublin City, Drogheda United, Bray Wanderers.

First Division North:
Athlone Town, Finn Harps, Monaghan United, Galway United, Dundalk, Meath County, Mayo County, Roscommon County, Mullingar/Westmeath X!.

First Division South:
Cobh Ramblers, Kerry County, Tipperary County, Wexford County, Laoise County, Kilkenny City, Limerick, Shamrock Rovers, Kildare County,

Leave the smaller competitions - Provincial Cups, League Cups for pre-season mini-tournaments to help get clubs match fit for Europe and the upcoming season.
All Divisions: One home and one away game for each club, plus FAI Cup no replays of games in that - on the day results.
Top Two teams in Div. 1 North v Top Two teams in Div 1 South in a mini-league - home and away games.
Top two teams in this mini-league promoted/Bottom two in Premier demoted.
Third and fouth play third and fourth from the Premier in two semi finals and a final. Winner occupied remaining Premier Division spot.

Simple formula and leaves out an overdose of league games in all divisions.

The above county teams then have six years to improve facilities with the help of FAI and government monies, planning advice from economists, marketeers and with an active role given to the local football associations who'd have local knowledge.

There's a true nationwide league and the new county clubs have the opportunity to play in the FAI Cup too.

Just a thought at 2.50am in the morning but I feel, if the FAI REALLY want to generate a true nationwide league then the above makes it simple for even them to understand.

One last thing, if, say, eg. Tipperary couldnt make it, then you have St. Michael's or Clonmel as an alternative.
Like Australia, this would take leadership from the top, have local associations and clubs in full involvement and cut out the need to drop any club unless that club starts to break the licence rules already established since Genesis.

We're not such a small poverty ridden country that we couldn't rise to that challenge and put away any petty differences to do the above. It's completely achieveable."

[hamish]

Re my above post. Have a question for you folks involved in the game - CollegeTilIDie, Magicme etc etc.

What if that idea was introduced as a discussion document by a league or club??

Is it too late to do so now??

For example, if I was to chat to my mates in the Ros.League, Athlone Town FC and if they were to (agree to it at first) bring it via the Connacht FA or something like that, could it be done??

I'm not going above my station, so to speak, just thinking out loud here and wonder could it be done via the usual channels??

Help me out here.:o

[Magicme]

no comment.

[Snoop Drog]

Monaghan United field 8 or 9 Schoolboy teams, an Under-21 team, 3 women's teams as well as a senior team. The LMC leaggue uses CHP for its Oscar Traynor Cup games and the clubhouse for its meetings, as well as supplying virtually all of the players for the Under-21 team. We could not be more rooted in the local Junior soccer scene. We are sitting on land worth a fortune and could easily sell a tract to build a stadium that would be one of the best grounds in the country. Hmm maybe we should be part of the elite league.

But the Monaghan public don't give a toss about Senior football.

[monutdfc]

Regrettably, I cannot disagree with you on that.
However, to put my quote in context, it was a response to a Galway United poster claiming that it was the fact that Galway United was embedded in its community rather than its geographical location that was the main reason why they considered themselves certs for the elite division. Your point bears out my point that if this was the case MUFC would also be front-runners for the elite league, which is clearly not the case.

[Snoop Drog]

I am a big fan of all the great work the Mons have done (doing) for football in their community. It is a shame that the locals don't respond by supporting the club the way they should.
Regarding GUFC- I have been at games there Vs Drogs, in both premier and first divisions, with very decent crowds (2,000+) and that wasn't all that long ago. So I guess there is definitely potential for Galway to draw decent crowds.

[Mr A]

Galway definately have the capacity to draw good crowds, but not always consistently. The problem in Galway seems to be that its a hard city to get consistent support in. In recent years it has not been unusual for Terryland to be packed for a big cup game or whatever and the next week the crowd will be way down again. The Galway GAA teams and Connacht rugby suffer from the same thing- it's a particularly difficult city to consistently big crowds in, unless the team is really flying. However, the season ticket campaign that they've run over the past couple of seasons has been brilliant and will hopefully boost crowds consistently over the season. Mostly, as everywhere else, it'll depend on how the team is going though, but the capture of Alan Murphy has generated great interest and if the team can perform it could be a really good year for them. Then again, it's going to be a tough year down among the dead men in the first....

[JC_GUFC]

An invitational league with acceptance based on crowds, marketability, facilities and (to a much lesser degree) league placing and ability.

This seems strange - you more than anyone else keeps going on about how the divisions are going to be decided on the above criteria.

You're obviously privy to a lot more information than the rest of us but you also seem to have decided that UCD have no place in this "Elite" division.

As far as I can see the proposals are in order to take the league up another level after years of neglect from the FAI.

Maybe you're happy the way the league is at the moment but would you not prefer to travel to better stadia, to have bigger crowds at games, to have better run clubs?

I really can't see why anyone would be against this - apart from the fact that you seem to think UCD offer nothing to the league. Unless of course you want Dublin University promoted to the league and that way all your chants aimed at Trinity would have some relevance! ;)

[CollegeTillIDie]

This seems strange - you more than anyone else keeps going on about how the divisions are going to be decided on the above criteria.

You're obviously privy to a lot more information than the rest of us but you also seem to have decided that UCD have no place in this "Elite" division.

As far as I can see the proposals are in order to take the league up another level after years of neglect from the FAI.

Maybe you're happy the way the league is at the moment but would you not prefer to travel to better stadia, to have bigger crowds at games, to have better run clubs?

I really can't see why anyone would be against this - apart from the fact that you seem to think UCD offer nothing to the league. Unless of course you want Dublin University promoted to the league and that way all your chants aimed at Trinity would have some relevance! ;)

I can't speak for pineapple stu but I would be largely against an "invitational" League. Any team that does not qualify for the Premier Division on merit has no basis to be there end of story. As regards facilities UCD could always groundshare if that were necessary until the Bowl came up to scratch if it came down to that. We would not exactly be the first Dublin club to do that now would we? If Dublin University were to enter the League ( or a combination with Trinity Corinthians) ye(JC I know you are a Trinners graduate) would probably have to ground share with someone. If the Bowl comes up to scratch I am sure we could accomodate you if the fee was decent enough:D
P.S. Dublin University are members at present of the Under 21 League ergo they are members of the EL in a manner of speaking ergo the Trinity chants are slightly relevant :D

[pineapple stu]

Maybe you're happy the way the league is at the moment but would you not prefer to travel to better stadia, to have bigger crowds at games, to have better run clubs?
Remind me again what UEFA Licencing is for?

Invitational leagues have no place in sport. They defeat the entire purpose of a league system.

[JC_GUFC]

I'm not sure where you got the idea of this being an "invitational league" - would you regard the SPL as an "invitational league" or the English football league?

I agree but what's the point of implementing the UEFA licensing programme if it's not going to be enforced? If the FAI are taking over the running of the league they want to make it the best product possible. UCD & Dublin City are both in the Premier Division on merit and no-one can take that away from them yet the 2 sets of fans, particularly UCD, seem to be petrified by this new league.

Do you seriously think you're going to be kicked out of the Premier Division because of your lack of support? From what I understood any team who finishes in the top 10 of the Premier next season can't be demoted and any team who finishes outside the top 2 in the First Division can't be promoted.

[pineapple stu]

Quote from the eL PRO - you may make what you want of it...

"This is seen as the first full step towards...clubs being placed in divisions according to their league placing, facilities and marketability."

I also don't see the point of "winding up" the old league for something which is exactly identical. Implementing something is already in place, it doesn't need a vote. If UEFA Licencing is the answer, grand. Why not implement it rather than vote in a new league?

Anyhoo, I've said my bit. Plenty of others hold similar views from all other clubs. Let's see what happens now.

[superfrank]

Dead against it.