Eircom League votes on radical revamp

I suspect that this will be the classic eL "Turkeys voting for Christmas situation where all will agree that it is the ideal plan, that it will be good for the game, but only about eight to ten clubs voting for it.

Personally there is an awful lot of it, with which I would have serious concerns. Apologies to the clubs which I defame by use of example.

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These include provisions for the 2006 season, including no promotion or relegation, and agreement to wind up the Eircom League at the end of the season.

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Much as I was glad we escaped it, the threat of relegation brings a crowd (and atmosphere) to a club. If, say, Shelbourne are lying in 10th position wiht a third of the season remaining, and can still be pulled into a relegation situation (;)), their usual crowds will simply not come if there is nothing at stake, which in turn will screw them up financially (I presume that the theory is that the league should progress to a point where the gate pays a large part of the bills), and crowd figure wise for the final decision.

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According to Genesis, the FAI is best-placed to ensure that the Eircom League is run for the benefit of football in Ireland. In addition the FAI has greater resources which would be directed towards the League.

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Well, that makes me feel so much better - the FAI have always done what is best for football in this country, and have been always concerned with spending their money and time on the local teams :eek:

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How will they be selected?
All 22 clubs will apply for membership of the new FAI-run Eircom League and the FAI will use soon to be formulated selection criteria to decide which clubs it will put into the Premier Division with the rest making up the lower flight. League positions in 2006 will only form part of the criteria. The rest is likely to centre around facilities, business plans, level of support and marketability.
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Some clubs currently in the Premier Division might not make the cut because they don't have high levels of support, their facilities are not up to standard or they don't have the potential to attract investment. They might conceivably win the Premier Division next season but if they don't fulfil the other yet to be announced requirement they won't be in the top flight.

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So, in theory, Galway Utd could finish bottom of the heap this year, but, if their infrastructure is good, their business plan top grade, with good support and a large and relatively unchallenged catchment area, and their facilities up to the knocker, they get a place in the Premier, while Dublin City, without a home or fully developed fanbase, and challenged strongly for the few fans in Dublin may get relegated though they might win an Inter-toto spot (I cannot bring myself to say Dublin City will win the league), may get shunted back to the First. Nice little thank you to the players

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The First Division champions will be entitled to replace the bottom team in the Premier but only if they fulfil all the criteria needed to play in the top division. If they can't do that then the bottom team survives.

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That sounds potentially mondo dodgy. I hear cries of "But the Premier needs representation from Cork / Limerick / Dublin. Similarly if Cobh were to be promoted, I can imagine cries of "But there is already a club from Cork in the Premier".

And besides, two up, two down makes gives eveybody more to fight for.

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The bottom team in the First Division will face a play-off against the winners of a round-robin play-off featuring intermediate teams eager to climb the footballing ladder.

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Good idea, but long overdue. Why not the bottom two, I mean to say, we have been putting both up for re-election for the last God knows how long anyway. It will also give the bottom teams something to fight for.

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What will the First Division be like from 2007?
Hard to know but few are predicting it is going to get better than it is. At present it is a footballing wilderness and the feeling is that from 2007 onwards the Premier Division is going to reap all the benefits making the gap between the Premier and First Divisions even larger than it is at present.

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I can't imagine it getting any better, but this is a problem anyway. The threat from below might make it more active in mid table, but it might also might make it more paranoid than ever.

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Will we have some franchise areas?
That's not clear at the moment. Franchise areas would make sense as it would allow the Eircom League club to sit at the top of the football pyramid in their respective areas. We won't know until the full criteria is worked out but it appears unlikely.

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The blueprint sounds like it was made for franchise, but I would dearly like to avoid that.

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What will be the benefits of an FAI-run League?

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You would have to admit, we would find the whole thing funnier than before.

Just read the Indo piece on lunch in work, totally crazy. If there's going to be no promotion relegation then why not just sell all your players and put out an U21 side every week? Plough those wages into taking John Delaney out for dinner?

I love this by the way "...others believe that the entire League should put their faith in the FAI and their Chief Executive John Delaney":eek: :eek:

Who are these people...? One can only assume they are referring to the Delaney family?:o

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be speculation on the behalf of the journo's out there, the FAI expect the clubs to agree to this on Saturday, and then tell them what the criteria will be for selection in July. So you agree to allow the FAI to run rough shod over any club it wishes.

Have to say i'm not in favour of this suggestion at all. and not because i support one of the leading names to be slashed from Premier Division football. I think the only way we should be changing the league is to include the northern teams. An island this size can not afford to sustain so many clubs. We should pool our resources and come up with the goods on that issue. Why change something that is fundamentally not broken.

If the premiership had included this, there would be no Wigan Athletic in the premiership, and look how well they are getting on.

I think a fully implemented Licence, where non compliers are relegated to First Division or to Intermediate football would be much better than this. Get all the clubs admin stuff up to scratch, and the rest will look after itself. A well run club shouldn't have any problems with retaining the status quo. The likes of Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk and even Galway United would be the likely beneficiaries while Dublin City, UCD and possibly Bray would be lumped out of the premier division, whether they finish bottom or not.

No where should non footballing issues (except breaches of licensing) affect the league status of a club.

This is ridiculously silly. Rather than improve things this can actually lead to stagnation. In Scotland when non-footballing criteria were introduced to help decide promotion and relegation it caused huge problems. The requirement on ground standards meant that teams would be playing a game of chicken. Thhey could only afford the improvements if they got promoted yet they could not know if they were going to be promoted for sure by the deadline. I can't believe they'd actually take something as subjective and impossibly to quantify as potential support into the equation. A two thirds majority is what? 15 clubs? You can probably already count UCD and Dub City voting against it.

Maybe I am just paranoid, but I am very suspicious of this. How can the Eircom League make an informed decision when details of the criteria for next year's league haven't even been announced?

Are the FAI and John Delaney trustworthy enough for the league to take such a leap of faith?

I am also concerned that this secret selection policy for next year's league could be used to blackmail clubs into accepting ground-share deals on the FAI's terms.

I believe one of the advantages of the merger would be no need for separate eircom league marketing & admin people. Let face it do you really need a fulltime eL marketing & communications person when FAI person could easily do. I think the eL office employers 5-10 fulltime people & its hard to know what they really do.

I predict a riot....

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Originally Posted by pete

I believe one of the advantages of the merger would be no need for separate eircom league marketing & admin people. Let face it do you really need a fulltime eL marketing & communications person when FAI person could easily do. I think the eL office employers 5-10 fulltime people & its hard to know what they really do.

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In the grand scheme of things does it matter? It's one set of people or another who won't get the finger out and do anything. You may argue it would at least save money, but save who's money? Plus it wouldn't be put to any better constructive use. Shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic comes to my mind.

Rumour has it that the only Dublin clubs that will be in a premier division will be Shamrock Rovers, Shelbourne and St.Patrick's Athletic.

I agree pete, there are some good proposals here. Cutting down on staff, increased marketing and the same promise we hear every year to properly implement the licensing but there is no reason why these things have to be conditional on a hair brained proposal for the league structures.

Next season the top five or six clubs will be challenging for europe. Below that, no club has any reason to compete. There is no relegation so my club, UCD, can finish mid-table or bottom of the table and it will make no difference. With no promotion on offer the entire first division next season will be a series of 36 games less improtant than an early round tie in the league cup.

Bohs?:confused:

So that supporters can still experience the joy of watching their team get promoted, may I propose that bucket seats be installed in the board room in Merrion Square?

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

Bohs?:confused:

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I am aware that I haven't listed Bohs, and they are the team I support.

This party is a franchise league and apparently Bohs, UCD and Dublin City aren't going to be invited.

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Originally Posted by ThatGuy

I am aware that I haven't listed Bohs, and they are the team I support.

This party is a franchise league and apparently Bohs, UCD and Dublin City aren't going to be invited.

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I know you are, I was hoping you'd elabourate.;)

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

I know you are, I was hoping you'd elabourate.;)

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There have been rumours circulating for a while that Delaney only wants 3 Dublin clubs, the clubs that I have mentioned. I had no idea how on earth this could be done until reading this ludicrous article.

The FAI have an agenda. This whole thing stinks, and the fact that they are trying to get the league to vote itself out of existence before the FAI even reveal any information about next year's league and what clubs they want in it speaks volumes.

I am worried for Bohs, as unbelievable as the prospect an Eircom league without the club is. I think that if this happens UCD and Dublin City have absolutely no chance of being involved. It should be resisted at all costs.

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Originally Posted by northside hoop

I cant believe its not dublin dons

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:D Very good, never heard that one!!!

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Originally Posted by northside hoop

lesser clubs like ucd and I cant believe its not dublin dons?

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Watch yourself, it's "smaller clubs".

This proposal isn't quite asking turkeys to vote for christmas. More like asking turkeys to vote for a season and refusing to comment in advance on wheather it's christmas or not.

Who said they were not having Promotion and Relegation ?? The newspaper articles contradict themselves don't they ? League standings will come into play and should you finish 1st in the First Division you will be looked at ahead of the 11th and 12th placed Premier Division teams.

Teams still have a lot to play for as if you meet all the criteria for Premier Division and are bottom of the First Division you then have to pray 11 clubs above you don’t fulfil the criteria first. There are still relegation and Promotion but this way its not a guarantee.

Only problem I have with this is that I was of the understanding that Licensing was already in place dealing with the above. I feel like I've gone back to the year 2001 again?

One thing that is great about the deal in the promotion from the regional leagues by means of a play off. Not having the trapdoor in the first is a big problem so glad to see its changing.

I can see this getting the required 15 votes as 8 or 9 of the current Premier teams will fancy their chances of being involved while 7 or 8 of the first division will fancy their chances they are better run then some of the big boys.

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Originally Posted by pete

I believe one of the advantages of the merger would be no need for separate eircom league marketing & admin people. Let face it do you really need a fulltime eL marketing & communications person when FAI person could easily do. I think the eL office employers 5-10 fulltime people & its hard to know what they really do.

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I've nothing against a merger in principle but a merger with a Premier Div based on the "beauty contest" criteria propsed by the FAI is ridiculous.

The fact that (as I'm led to believe) Genesis were not allowed to consider an All Ireland league as part of their report shows how short sighted the FAI are.

They say "the league is dying so we have to pick the teams for the Premier Div based partially on non football criteria". What real difference will that make as most of the teams will be same as at present anyway?

But they won't consider the one proposal that would literally transform domestic soccer on the island.

The other frightening thing is that we all know that using the eL section of the Genesis report as a point of reference is both frightening and laughable. We all know it contains the professionalism and quality level of a primary school project. That's not even an exaguration. The attendance figures from both the eL and other sports used as a comparison as sketchy and wrong.