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Apparently St. Pats & St. Francis have mergered to form the Dublin Saints. They'll use Richmond Park for eL team & Baldonnel pitch for training & under 21's. Might sell Baldonnel pitch eventually too for big bucks!
One less team from the Pale can only be good news?
Bet the Pats players are worrying about their positions now with so many fantastic Francis players joining.
From eircom site
Apparently they'll keep the St. patricks name now but new nickname of Dublin Saints.
Sounds a lot more like a takeover by me :confused: Merger? i'm sure.....
So St francis are gone so who will join the league. I hope that a country club like Tralee Dynamoes or Clonmel Town join the league to make the league a real National League.
In light of recent developments I've dug out this article which forst appeared on Hoof! (hopefully some of ye will remember what that was!) a couple of years back. Suggestion 2 is of particular relevence:
League Restructuring
Those crazy funsters at the FAI are always up to something in their spare time. With quite a lot of spare time on their hands coming up this summer, it'll give them time to turn their collective intelligence to the National League (or the League of Ireland, as they still refer to it as). Restructuring will probably be top of their list, as this is the cheapest way to show how much they care about Irish football. Just in case they get stuck for a few ideas, we here at Hoof! decided to give them a helping hand.
Suggestion 1: The Pale League
Initially, the first division would be abolished, with all the division 1 sides being demoted to their respective provincial leagues. Then, the sides in the Premier from outside the Pale would be sent packing to the nearest other leagues, Sligo Rovers to the American leagues, Finn Harps to Iceland and Cork City to the French leagues, leaving just the Pale sides left.
Advantages: Would ensure winners would be from within the Pale.
Disadvantages: Traveling costs may be a little prohibitive for the provincial teams.
Suggestion 2: Amalgamation
Based on the structure of the British rugby league restructuring (and we all know how great the British are!). Cork City, Cobh Ramblers, Waterford United and Limerick FC would all join to form the Killarney Lakers. Harps, Galway, Sligo, Longford, Monaghan and Athlone would join to form the Shannon Leprechauns. St. Patrick’s Athletic and Shamrock Rovers would be allowed keep their names on the grounds that they sound really Irish, with all the remaining Dublin clubs joined to form Dublin City Celtic.
Advantages: the catchy names could attract huge American sponsorship, I mean who could resist the Shannon Leprechauns?
Disadvantages: those dam die-hard "League of Ireland" fans mightn't go for it.
Suggestion 3: Regionalised Divisions
Made up of two divisions, a Northern Section and a Southern Section. The Northern Section would have five teams, Bohs, Dundalk, Drogheda, Shels and Shamrock Rovers. The Southern Section would consist of two teams, Bray and Pats. The winners of each league would play each other at the end of the season. Perhaps this game could be played at half-time in an international match.
Advantages: Traveling costs would be greatly reduced, so sides wouldn't have to come to the FAI looking for money all the time.
Disadvantages: The cost of the stamps when writing to the regional clubs explaining to them that their services are no longer required could be prohibitive.
Suggestion 4: The All-Ireland league (Survival of the fittest league)
Put every team in the country into one big nationwide league. Make them play each other 4 times. Construct a complicated points system, e.g.: 23 points for an away win in Leitrim if your goalkeeper's name begins with an X, etc.
Advantages: The system would be so complicated, teams would be playing each other for ever and ever, never knowing who was top of the table, hence saving us the money of a trophy. The existing trophy could be melted down into a nice broach.
Disadvantages: The Irish League sides mightn't go for it.
Suggestion 5: The 5-a-side league
Make all the existing sides play only 5-a-side, cutting club's wage bills in half. They'd have loads of money then.
Advantages: Teams could play indoors in basketball courts, enabling them to sell their grounds to British clubs coming into the country.
Disadvantages: All the players laid off could form a dangerous left-wing military group which could lead a bloody revolution against Merrion Square.
Suggestion 6: The "Don't bother playing at all" league
Don't bother sending out teams to play at all! 'Sher those die-hards will still turn up anyway. They're so thick they probably wouldn't notice anyway, and any fans who did notice would have their heads shaved and branded as loonies. Maybe the league could then be decided by who has the fattest manager.
Advantages: The clubs would have a load of money, and St.Pats would win the league every season.
Disadvantages: RTE mightn't buy the TV rights.
Suggestion 7: The "RTE" league
Would consist of two teams, St. Pats and Shels. They could play 12 times a day. RTE could set up the soccer channel, showing Pats-Shels games 24 hours-a-day, with expert commentary from Eoin "****e" Hand and Mark "Chirpey" Lawernson, along with controversial half-time interviews with "*****o" Richardson and "Fats" Dolan on the state of the game in general.
Advantages: The FAI and RTE could show how much they are doing to promote the game.
Disadvantages: The players could get tired.
Suggestion 8: The European Super League
We could enter Wimbledon.
Advantages: They have loads of money.
Disadvantages: None.
So there you go, all sorted. Surely our esteemed FAI leaders will be able to use one of these suggestions. Maybe they could have a conference on them! Loads of TV coverage and free bottles of Ballygowan!!!! Ho, ho, save some for us, guys!