Eircom League clubs asked for proposals on structure...

From: BreakingNews.ie

Eircom League clubs asked for proposals on structure
28/10/2005 - 13:37:56

The 22 eircom League clubs have been invited to make proposals for the formation of next season's League.

The League will run from March 10 until the first week in December with a two-week summer break during the World Cup.

Last season, the clubs returned to a 12-team Premier Division after a three season experiment with a 10-team top flight though proposals to increase the number of matches to 44 were dismissed.

This season, a number of clubs are already proposing a 22-team top flight with no First Division while others favour a 16-team Premier Division.

A number of other clubs are in favour of implementing a 10-team top flight in line with the Genesis Report.

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What kind of messing around is this? Surely they have already sorted out the league format for next year with it very clear who will be relegated and promoted?

It appears not:rolleyes:

The suggestion of a 22 one team league is appalling. 10 team premier is the only way to go.

The 2 week break for the World Cup is fair enough I suppose though the league should start the first weekend of March to finish earlier.


KOH

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Originally Posted by NY Hoop

It appears not:rolleyes:

The suggestion of a 22 one team league is appalling. 10 team premier is the only way to go.

KOH

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But surely they can't just decide with a few weeks left that two extra teams will be relegated to make up a 10 team premier! :mad: Can they...? :eek:

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Originally Posted by NY Hoop

It appears not:rolleyes:

The suggestion of a 22 one team league is appalling. 10 team premier is the only way to go.

The 2 week break for the World Cup is fair enough I suppose though the league should start the first weekend of March to finish earlier.


KOH

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Personally i think this season has been far better than last season, better quality football as well. I'd like to see it stay as a 12 team league, or even a 16 team league with the 1st expanded.

Every county should be able to produce at least 1 club good enough in the league of ireland, something along the lines of the gaa

The 12 team doesn't work. Having more home than away games and vice versa is ridiculous.

This league cannot afford to being in more teams. As it is we are struggling for fans. By all means bring in more teams but stick them in the U21 league.

A 16 team premier is a non runner as well cos the quality wont be there.


KOH

Back when the league was at it's strongest and much of the international team played in it the top division had 16 teams, so I don't think the argument that the quality isn't there cuts any ice at all. In any case the major dividing line in terms of quality in Irish football is between the top three and the rest rather than between the two divisions.

I don't see how they could possibly expand the league enough in time for next season to have a 16 team premier though- two new teams would be hard enough to find without looking for four.

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Originally Posted by NY Hoop

The 12 team doesn't work. Having more home than away games and vice versa is ridiculous.

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The 12-team league has been a great success. The 10-team system, was a disaster from a fixture and attendance point of view.

The FAI actually got something right with the current system for a change. :) Leave it alone.

I think 10 teams is the optimum for the development of the league but from the clubs and fans point of view it smacks of playing the same teams week in week out.

Lads, peoples preferences: 10 team league, 12 team league etc. has been done to death already.
The issue here is that we're a month from the end of the season, and they're only starting to decide what to do next season. Surely any proposed major changes (e.g. number of prem teams) should be on a 2 year phased in plan or something.
Ir just sounds so typical of this league/the FAI: "Right lads, that's this season out of the way, now what will we do next year?"

The two week break is a good idea alright. I could see it being kept on for non-world cup years.

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Originally Posted by mypost

The 12-team league has been a great success. The 10-team system, was a disaster from a fixture and attendance point of view.

The FAI actually got something right with the current system for a change. :) Leave it alone.

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I would love to be able to start drinking this early in the day as you must do!

How was it a disaster? From an attendance point of view there has been no significant increase or decrease. From a fixture point of view the 12 team is a fiasco. You must be blind not to see that. With a 10 team league at least you know you have 2 home and 2 away games against every team.

The only criteria for having the 10 team league really is the playing standard. When it was there it was more competitive.

Galway Harps: "Back when the league was at it's strongest and much of the international team played in it the top division had 16 teams, so I don't think the argument that the quality isn't there cuts any ice at all. "

Yeah back then. Those days are gone and besides there was no choice back then cos there was only 16 teams in the entire league! It does cut ice NOW because after the first round of games you would be left with about 5 teams completely cut off from the rest. How is that competitive?

KOH

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Originally Posted by NY Hoop

How was it a disaster? From an attendance point of view there has been no significant increase or decrease.

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Fans got sick of the sight of each other every season, with at least 4 games to play against each other, and in some cases, 7 times a season. Too many games were postponed/re-scheduled for all kinds of reasons, which led to a massive backlog at the end of the season, teams regularly facing each other in the same week, and an entire round of fixtures crammed in a month. Such congestion only harms the league, and there is less of that madness now.

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With a 10 team league at least you know you have 2 home and 2 away games against every team.

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A 10-team league never worked. The Scots tried it several times, but are now back to a 12-team league, as the other alternative failed miserably.

The ten team league had too few away trips for my liking.

We should stick with 12, there's no point in changing every couple of seasons.

I like the current system of switching between ten and twelve every few seasons. It keeps things interesting.

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Originally Posted by mypost

Fans got sick of the sight of each other every season, with at least 4 games to play against each other, and in some cases, 7 times a season. Too many games were postponed/re-scheduled for all kinds of reasons, which led to a massive backlog at the end of the season, teams regularly facing each other in the same week, and an entire round of fixtures crammed in a month. Such congestion only harms the league, and there is less of that madness now.

A 10-team league never worked. The Scots tried it several times, but are now back to a 12-team league, as the other alternative failed miserably.

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Agree it should'nt be changed every few seasons. That's why the 3 year experiment was wrong. Should have been for a minimum of 5 years.

We play each other 3 times as is. What with the Cup and League Cup what it's hardly going to make much difference playing each other another time. The season you're referring to was 2003 when they scheduled about 8 games in a month whcih was madness. You cannot dismiss it because of the incompetence of the league. A 10 team would work and if done right can be a success.

You cant compare our league to the scots'. Actually they divide up their season anyway after the new year into a bottom six top six cos 44 games was too much.

KOH

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Originally Posted by NY Hoop

they divide up their season anyway after the new year into a bottom six top six

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Ooh, that sounds like fun, let's do that! Also, we should go back to awarding 4 points for an away win and 1 point for a home draw and 7 points for a home win during a lunar eclipse (or something). :D

I never thought I'd say this but, as a Pats fan, a 22-team or 16-team Premier Division is starting to look very desirable!

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Originally Posted by NY Hoop

10 team premier is the only way to go.

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As a hoop, are you sure you want to be suggesting this for next season :confused: Do you know something we don't? :)

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Originally Posted by NY Hoop

We play each other 3 times as is. What with the Cup and League Cup what it's hardly going to make much difference playing each other another time.

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Losing 1 of the 3 games, is now much more important than losing 1 of the 4 games as before.

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The season you're referring to was 2003 when they scheduled about 8 games in a month whcih was madness. You cannot dismiss it because of the incompetence of the league.

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But it only happened because of the 4-round system. If there was the current system, such fixture chaos would have been avoided. Last season, Longford had 6 games to play with 3 weeks left. That hasn't happened this season.

We played Longford and Pats 6 times last season. This season, we played them only 3 times. Big difference, as the games assume greater importance with less meetings between the sides.

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You cant compare our league to the scots'. Actually they divide up their season anyway after the new year into a bottom six top six cos 44 games was too much.

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They split their league into top/bottom 6 after 31 games. As there are only 5 more games left to play, teams will play more home than away games in the season, and vice versa, like over here.

Obviously you didnt read my previous post. If the 10 team league was scheduled properly you would not have fixture congestion at the end of the season.

We played Longford 6 times last season but 2 of them were in the Cup and we played Pats 4 times not 6.

Bottom line is that the 10 team league is only 3 games more.

And no it would be preferable not to have the 10 team league in place til 2007!!


KOH

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Originally Posted by NY Hoop

Obviously you didnt read my previous post. If the 10 team league was scheduled properly you would not have fixture congestion at the end of the season.

We played Longford 6 times last season but 2 of them were in the Cup and we played Pats 4 times not 6.

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We played Pats 6 times in 2003, 4 league, and 1 in the FAI/League Cup.
Last year, we played Longford 6 times, 4 league, and 2 in FAI Cup, including 3 times in 3 weeks.

Did you enjoy playing Home Farm 4 times? Or UCD? Or having to make 3 trips to Cork in a season?? Well I didn't. The current system is the only way the league can function. The 10-team league was like the top/bottom 6 experiment, i.e. an unqualified disaster.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mypost

We played Pats 6 times in 2003, 4 league, and 1 in the FAI/League Cup.
Last year, we played Longford 6 times, 4 league, and 2 in FAI Cup, including 3 times in 3 weeks.

Did you enjoy playing Home Farm 4 times? Or UCD? Or having to make 3 trips to Cork in a season?? Well I didn't. The current system is the only way the league can function. The 10-team league was like the top/bottom 6 experiment, i.e. an unqualified disaster.

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You should make it clearer then. You said we played Pats 6 times last season. The only reason we played in cork 3 times was because of that infamous "home" game. You are picking out one off examples to justify your argument. Is playing every team away twice such a hardship? The current sytem is a joke, a proven failure as you shouldn't have more home than away games and vice versa. The fact that the clubs voted to go back to it shows their lack of vision.


KOH

NYHoop

I am with Mypost on this one. He is making points I made on this very issue in another thread. 4 times against the same team in the League does not work. It is boring. If you factor in League Cup and FAI Cup you can end up playing the same team 6 if not 7 times ( including F.A.I. Cup replay). Some fans only went to one of the home games in the League during 2003 avoiding the second time around at home. Several clubs supporters noticed this phenomenon.