What can be done to improve the League of Ireland?

First off I want this to be a serious thread with real ideas from real LOI fans. Don't want to see EPL fans post and add riveting ideas like "nowt can be done its crap"

You can guarantee that clubs will more than likely receive patched up licences again before the new season starts next year. Only to find themselves on the brink again half way into the season.

So if you were to find yourself in the position where you could decide what to do with the league of Ireland what would you do? How would you change things? be it on the field, in the media from a marketing perspective or whatever.

Whatever ideas you have let us know.

Heres my 2 cents worth.

We have far too many clubs. Amalgamating certain clubs obviously is not an option due to rivalries etc. However we do have some big towns with good schoolboy leagues that really should have no problem sustaining a LOI club.

1) We need qualified coaches at all levels from u-10 up to senior. If you are not qualified with the minimum UEFA licence then you ain't coaching a team. Fair enough it may take away the community feel for things but its about standards. I'm sure everyone has stories of coaches when they were that age who had not got a clue.
With the amount of people out of work now also surely some money can be put aside by the FAI to finance or part finance these courses for people with an interest. Incentives should also be there to go as far as possible in relation to coaching badges.

2) A national centre of excellence also needs to be set up. The best players from the 4 corners of Ireland need to be brought together from the age of 14 upwards for sessions throughout the year. Encourage youngsters to stay in Ireland and work their way into the new improved league. Regional teams should also compete in an all ireland cup competition once a year giving players a sense of pride of where they come from also.

3) Like Major league soccer in the US, i'd like to see a central contracting system in the LOI. All players in the LOI would be under contract to the FAI. Players wages would be paid by the FAI with clubs effectively run by the association with all revenue the clubs make being put back into the association. Let this be the way forward for the forseeable future until the profile of the domestic game rises and crowds start coming back in their droves. And maybe when clubs show signs of being able to stand on their own 2 feet then they can manage some of their own affairs.

4) Tie more of the clubs in with Colleges, I.T's and Universities. Like UCD, offer good players the chance to stay at home, study and play for their LOI side.
Alot of the clubs in the premier and first division have a corresponding third level facility within their town or county. give these players a sense of professionalism that makes them feel important by way of facilities that alot of the third level colleges can provide.

5) Finally and probably most controversialy, relax the work permit requirements in relation to sporting potential and achievement. Attract some of the worlds most talented kids/teenagers with scholarships in our universities. This is a very grey area, and I do understand some of the best in the world won;t have english or even an interest in education at that. However even if we are choosing from the second tier of talent in that respect, well at least we are still attracting outside talent that will make our domestic game more rounded. It can only help our domestic talent by playing with those from another playing culture altogether.

Overall I feel that this would give us somewhat of a better hotbed of irish talent. And knowing that the cream of irish talent was playing and playing regular first team football in Ireland having had top class coaching from a young age along with talented foreign nationals, would have the scouts flocking. And this could also net the FAI and windfall when the time comes for some players to move abroad. And encouraged to move further afield than the UK in some instances.

My views are somewhat rough around the edges as you can probably tell. But its a start.
Tell me what your own plans would be.

- Set up a new 18 team league
- close off relegation for three seasons and tell the clubs they have that time to balance the books or they are out
- during those three seasons set up a pyramid structure under the LoI Premier consisting of three provincial leagues with the county leagues underneath that
- make it a requirement that LoI clubs have underage sides entered in their local leagues up to u-18s
- give clubs time to do so but implement your coaching idea (i've looked into getting a licence for training kids myself, it just takes time)
- during those three years provide grants for improving facilities, and/or work more closely with clubs when they have to deal with their local councils (case in point is trying to get Limerick council on board for a move back to the Market's Field, having the FAI back you to the hilt would be a help)
- I'd agree with trying to tie clubs into colleges and the FAI setting up a national centre of excellence
- I don't agree with relaxing work permits so we can nick kids from abroad 9if they were any good they'd go to England ahead of us anyway and am unsure about centralised contracts as I haven't read fully into how that works in the MLS
- Keep summer football but scrap Friday nights bar one live game on RTE a week and set the fixtures for 3pm as there are rarely live English games on at this time, the 3pm slot would be good for families on a Saturday afternoon and by having only one game on Friday it might encourage more of us to watch RTE2 and get ratings up

I don't think drastic changes are needed though, improve the facilities and enforce your laws would be the advice I'd give the FAI

Jebus, totally agree with your last point about scraping the friday night games.Have thought that for ages.Friday night games make it far too difficult for away fans to travel in numbers.Even for home fans it can be be a pain in the arse to get in from work after 6, grab some quick dinner and rush back out the door again, plus alot of people are knackered from a weeks work on a friday night. I was raised on LOI from when I was a kid, going up to the old Terryland with the father on a sunday and there were regularly hundreds of away fans travelling to each game.Its perfect for families looking for something to do on a sunday.

I also think the point of having central contracts like the MLS is worth looking in to

Standard liege got me thinking about this tonight.

Surely without being completely naive, but there must be some very good players in unkown places where if all possible contacts were exhausted some gems could be found and paid the same/less than currently done. These players could make a huge difference in terms of progress in europe and i think that is the key to improving viewing figures and attendances of the LOI as people start believing that its "not sh1te". Thos clubs could in turn sell on some of these players to bigger clubs throughout europe but mainly england and earn some extra cash.

I really think that progress in Europe is the key, and thats from the outside looking in. BUt if a loi team made the group stages of CL, it could really set the ball rolling. Facilities are also a key factor but without substantial investment these aren't going to change overnight, again money from Europe could make a huge difference to this.

18 clubs for the size of ireland is far too many, there just isn't the population and money to keep that many going. I would see the bigger cities being the only possible places where football can survive and then thrive. Thats about 8 teams then give or take.

It will take a well concentrated effort to keep people who currently just watch football on the tv to actually get off their ass and out to watch their local team regularly.

1. Better facilities. An often used example is greyhound racing. 20 years ago the facilities were crap and attendances much less than now but with a bit of effort, improvement of facilities, many people who normally would never have gone near a greyhound track regularly attend. Let at the success of the Tallaght stadium as another example.

2. Competition. Lets face it, the EPL and CL are going to be of more interest to the standard couch potato football fan in Ireland. Having league and cup games on big CL nights or clashing with big EPL games are non sensical. I know some people may not like this, but with relatively simple effort or co-ordination this kind of clash could easily be avoided.

3. Community. Again some people may not like this, but a gaa style community bond/effort is required. Look at the success of Fingal. Coordination with local councils to create a club that has strong roots in the community and for example is affiliated with local schools to get kids in for free etc.

start by making the prem bigger to 16 teams,
the 10 team league is a load of bull and playing the same teams 4 times a season is boring.
id also get rid of clubs like mervue, fingal and ucd who bring nothing to the league with little to none supporters.

Not allow "bar men" and "coaches" to play football.

Every club should have their very own Tom.

15 teams max with just one division. the teams should come from areas that have an above average population the likes of dublin, galway, limerick, cork, waterford and derry. Theoretically these clubs should be able to draw on greater numbers in terms of support and attendances. I dont believe the league will ever see attendances of 20-25 thousand. if the league could attract 10 to 12 thousand at home games it would be absolutely brilliant. facilities are a big draw back. if you look at some of the norweigan clubs their grounds hold between 10 and 15 thousand at some of them are fabulous. Financing them here would be next to impossible. However when you look at munster rugby and the revenue they have generated through concerts it must be worth looking at. From a football side of things all clubs should have schoolboy teams up to u21 with proper coaching structures. clubs should be limited to 22 pros to start off with so as to help bring through local talent. better tv and media coverage with at leat one live league game per weekend shown on tv. Government funding of some sort.

I dont think sunday afternoon matches would work because you would have many of the lads going to the pub to watch the arsenal-united matches etc instead. .some clubs need to to lower their prices because its a bit much askin people to pay ?20 for an adults ticket in the middle of a recession

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Originally Posted by roinuj

start by making the prem bigger to 16 teams,
the 10 team league is a load of bull and playing the same teams 4 times a season is boring.
id also get rid of clubs like mervue, fingal and ucd who bring nothing to the league with little to none supporters.

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I'd personally would like to get rid of Waterford and it's soulless Athletics Stadium

I definitely think one league is the way to go, with the top clubs struggling and becoming more parttime the gap is bound to be smaller. Ok so there would be occasional trashings but would the gap between bohs and the youths be bigger than Spurs & Wigan, or Utd & Hull, Portsmouth etc?

All clubs should be obliged to have ticket scanners and provide official, un-fudge-able attendance figures. No we do/we don't include season ticket holders. The FAI should either provide the facilities to do this or else incentivise it somehow.

This will prevent clubs saying they're getting 2,000 people through the gates when in reality they're only getting 1,500. They'll then be forced to budget accordingly for gate receipts.

Marketing is a powerful tool which the FAI/Clubs have singularly failed to use properly in the last few years. People need to be bombarded with advertising to have any chance of getting bigger crowds, especially in this country where you have non stop EPL everywhere you look these days.

The miserable attempts at promoting the league are doing us no favours.

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Originally Posted by Strongbow10

1) We need qualified coaches at all levels from u-10 up to senior. If you are not qualified with the minimum UEFA licence then you ain't coaching a team.

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That's reasonable.

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Originally Posted by Strongbow10

2) A national centre of excellence also needs to be set up. The best players from the 4 corners of Ireland need to be brought together from the age of 14 upwards for sessions throughout the year.

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That's reasonable also. The best players need to be playing with their peers, in regards ability, much younger than what is the norm currently. God forgive me for mentioning "them" but he French have an excellent set-up.

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Originally Posted by Strongbow10

3) Like Major league soccer in the US, i'd like to see a central contracting system in the LOI. All players in the LOI would be under contract to the FAI.

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I don't see clubs ever backing that to be honest.

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Originally Posted by Strongbow10

4) Tie more of the clubs in with Colleges, I.T's and Universities. Like UCD, offer good players the chance to stay at home, study and play for their LOI side.

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I think this should be done with the best players in secondary education also. Having players tied to a club, but also having education make up a large part of it. Although, having thought about it a bit more, a national full-time centre of excellence is the only viable way of going about doing this really.

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Originally Posted by Strongbow10

5) Finally and probably most controversialy, relax the work permit requirements in relation to sporting potential and achievement. Attract some of the worlds most talented kids/teenagers with scholarships in our universities.

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This is not a great time to be talking about investing in such scholarships, with cutbacks in education, left, right and centre. You won't find any politicians willing to support it anyway.

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Originally Posted by jebus

- Set up a new 18 team league
- close off relegation for three seasons and tell the clubs they have that time to balance the books or they are out

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Anyone outside of the top 7 or 8 realistically able to challenge for Europe would suffer tremendously from terrible attendance figures. No threat of relegation would mean no reason to win any games really, apart from minuscule differences in prize money offered for different league placings. Not to mention what the likes of Bohs would have done to Kildare County if they were in the same division this year.

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Originally Posted by jebus

- during those three seasons set up a pyramid structure under the LoI Premier consisting of three provincial leagues with the county leagues underneath that

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You stated that you wished the league would be closed to relegation for 3 seasons? How would having a pyramid structure beneath that for them 3 seasons make any difference? Notwithstanding the fact that these leagues already exist. If they wanted to enter the league, they would have applied already, as far as I'm concerned.

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Originally Posted by jebus

- make it a requirement that LoI clubs have under-age sides entered in their local leagues up to u-18s

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I agree wholeheartedly with this. None of this nonsense allowing clubs to have sham "partnerships" with Junior teams should be allowed either. Galway United used to have a strong under-age structure, that produced local talent whose first choice was to play for Galway United. We have a situation now where kids in Galway City and County usually have no aspirations to play for us. In the 90's and early 00's I would have considered United to have been THE under-age club to play for in the province. I have match programmes from the turn of the century with reports from under-age teams winning every competition they entered at some age-groups. (Local, provincial and national)

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Originally Posted by jebus

- Keep summer football but scrap Friday nights bar one live game on RTE a week and set the fixtures for 3pm as there are rarely live English games on at this time, the 3pm slot would be good for families on a Saturday afternoon and by having only one game on Friday it might encourage more of us to watch RTE2 and get ratings up

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I'm not saying that you are right or wrong, but there would be huge resistance to this. I wouldn't mind having a 3pm kick-off at all. I don't watch the Premiership so that isn't an issue for me. Clashes with GAA might be a problem though. I would be easier for people to attend away games though, but again, not for me. I like the idea of a daytime trip across the country. It might encourage more of a family vibe to away trips also.

I'm not saying nothing can be done but as long as we have ridiculous scandals that we've had the previous few years (Cork bus incident, Derry duel contracts etc) you could have the marketing you want and it won't make a blind bit of differnce because these are the incidents people will remember. Very easy to say but first and foremost we need to eradicate stuff like that, and only then should they try market the league, it's just ****ing in the wind otherwise

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Originally Posted by dong

Marketing is a powerful tool which the FAI/Clubs have singularly failed to use properly in the last few years. People need to be bombarded with advertising to have any chance of getting bigger crowds, especially in this country where you have non stop EPL everywhere you look these days.

The miserable attempts at promoting the league are doing us no favours.

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I agree with this, the FAI don't really bother with the league at all - it always seems like a halfhearted attempt

Getting rid of Tom Coughlan would be a huge step forward for the league.

I see 3 basic options
1 - Accept it for what it is and get on with it
or
2 - Continue tinkering in the hope of getting it right possibly/probably furthering damaging its already shot to pieces reputation safe in the knowledge that it can't really get much worse.
or
3 - Accept that it is beyond repair, scrap it and start from scratch with a clean(ish) slate, possibly as part of an AIL.

Re attendances, advertising will only work to a certain extent. If someone has never been to a LOI game before then some flashy poster in his local Spar isn't going to convince him, and annoying junk mail through his door certainly won't do it.

As far as I'm concerned, its up to us who go to games to increase the attendance. I've brought many friends and family to games over the years, and its taken weeks of pestering to get them to go the first time. Most of them have been back and go to around 5 or 6 games a season, some of them even have season tickets now, and the ones who never came back again are in the minority.

Its the way to do it, if everyone brings a mate then your attendance has doubled. Granted it doesn't solve the wider licensing/structure issues but it must be accepted that the heart of all the wider problems lie in the fact that people don't go to matches.