Leage AGM Debacle - No point in next Season

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Originally Posted by higgins

I think UCD fans are the culprits for creating this panic.. Can you guys relax a bit. ?

You say everything off the field is in order at UCD and you told me of the great plans you have to move to another site! Great!! now relax and go about finishing in the top 10 so as you dont have to rely on others not meeting the criteria.

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Has any of that ever stopped other eL fans being utterly disgruntled at our usual place in the Premier Division? We're not liked because we're a small club with a small fanbase in spite of the fact we don't do anything wrong. The feeling is that the FAI don't want small clubs in their new league. The constant cropping up of the words fanbase and marketability are what is making us nervous. They're not quantifiable criteria, they sound like tools to wield to get what the FAI wants and I doubt that's us in the top flight.

I think fanbase is quantifiable ?

If they use that then thats fair enough and as was said in many other threads its only for the start of the new look league. If you finish top of the 1st Division in the 2007 season, IF , then you would be promoted as usual I guess as long as you then fit the criteria?

They will not keep the same 10 teams in the premier every season.

Your painting a very bad picture here...

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Originally Posted by higgins

I think fanbase is quantifiable ?

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Is it? How many fans did Cork get in Bishoptown? How many fans did Limerick get the season before last attending their games? How many fans did Athlone get last season? Fanbase is just a guess i.e. subjective. They're always fluctuating. Our own attendences are a lot higher than when we won the FAI Cup and finished high in the league.

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Originally Posted by higgins

If they use that then thats fair enough and as was said in many other threads its only for the start of the new look league. If you finish top of the 1st Division in the 2007 season, IF , then you would be promoted as usual I guess as long as you then fit the criteria?

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One arbitrary relegation is not a risk a club can take. Yes, perhaps we could bounce back lack our last relegation or perhaps we could undergo the fate of the likes of Dundalk or Limerick and stagnate indefinitely. Arbitrary relegation could see an exodus of players and falling attendances. There's no telling what effect it could have on a club.

Anyone else think (and I may be wrongly assuming something from this, everyone else seems to be so why not me? I am the usual harbringer of doom on this forum anyway), but does anyone else think that if the FAI do go through with their plans and re-shape the league based on geography and financial clout, and Limerick do get promoted, (and this is in theory) and pushed into the top flight despite not actually getting promoted that this is just plain ****? I'm all for Limerick in the top flight, but what happened to good old fashioned competition in football? Is this now to be outlawed along with challenging for the ball or celebrating a victory? There's a reason Limerick is in this division and that is that sadly we deserve to be. I don't want some pencil necked geek (copyright: Bobby Heenan:) ) in merrion square to decide that Limerick FC should be bumped up the Premier because Lonely Planet reckons Limerick City is on the up.

Again I may be wrong in assuming that this is what will happen under the proposed plan, but no-one else seems clear on it either and I wanted to rant a bit

I am very conflicted on this issue - I can see the benefit in having a geographical spread and in encouraging better facilities (and selfishly there is a good prospect of Limerick in the premier). However, the more I think about it the less sense it makes:

1. Already the licence arrangements were there to encourage ground developments.

2. A geographical spread can only be achieved arbitrarily - over the longer term clubs will be promoted and relegated based on results and who knows where those clubs will be based. Unless you enforce a geographical spread it can't be achieved.

3. The FAI seem to want to cherry pick teams - and this may be all optics. Two years after dumping UCD or Dublin City out of premier they will point out that since the merger attendances are much higher.

4. There is a dangerous precedent here. While we benefit (potentially) from this, other clubs (that over a longer time period ran their operations better than us) lose because by their nature they struggle more than others to have a fan base (i.e. transient student population who are actually not at college for a large portion of the season). Is it possible that the FAI later decide to reduce the number of Munster clubs? Have a 10 team premiership with two Munster teams? Can we then compalin if its not us when we didn't complain when it happened to UCD etc. Like the line in the Christy Moore song (Yellow Triangle) "When they came for the students i did not speak..... Eventually they came for me, there no-one left to speak":)

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Originally Posted by LFC in Exile

4. There is a dangerous precedent here. While we benefit (potentially) from this, other clubs (that over a longer time period ran their operations better than us) lose because by their nature they struggle more than others to have a fan base (i.e. transient student population who are actually not at college for a large portion of the season). Is it possible that the FAI later decide to reduce the number of Munster clubs? Have a 10 team premiership with two Munster teams? Can we then compalin if its not us when we didn't complain when it happened to UCD etc. Like the line in the Christy Moore song (Yellow Triangle) "When they came for the students i did not speak..... Eventually they came for me, there no-one left to speak":)

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The very same struck me last night (Well, except the Christy Moore song :) ). Although this new jokeshop might be beneficial for Limerick in the short-term (and thats arguable given the kip that is Rathbane) can we really as football fans stand idly by and watch self-serving, small minded morons boot decent clubs out of the league, all of whom will most likely have as good if not better criteria then Limerick their only problem being they don't represent the 4th largest city in the league. The more I think about it the worse it seems to get :(

I think this new proposal is complete and utter rubbish. If the clubs need a new league structure to give them an incentive to improve themselves the whole league is a sham anyway.

The day that Dublin City, UCD, Kilkenny and Monaghan are kicked out of the league because Galway United have a neat accountant, Shamrock Rovers have 'history' and Limerick and Waterford are cities is the day that I walk away from domestic football.

This whole farce is motivated 100% by self-interest on the part of most of the 18. And John D is right, this season is more or less irrelevant, Shamrock Rovers and Galway United will be playing top division ball next season while Dublin City and UCD will be lucky not to be shoved out. That's not right and I haven't heard a single word to make me feel otherwise. Thew whole 'potential marketability' may well serve us well enough but the rest of Europe must be laughing themselves stupid at us... :rolleyes:

Yes, all good points.

As you can see I have adopted the UCD avatar to show my position on it.:ball:

Well Said SLK and LFC in Exile. We prob will do well out of this as we are the only team in the mid west and are a city etc. But I do not want to buy sucess and it must come from on the field of play. I want nothing to do with the death of Clubs and as Limerick FC's board voted for this change then they are guilty as charged of killing Football as we know it.

I think it is a shameful episode in the history of Irish Football. :(

Isn't this new plan supposed to encourage better support nationally for the Eircom league, to try to get the stereotypical Irish football supporter who follows the English Premier to come out for their local teams? Considering that the majority of Irish football fans I know think that the Eircom League is a joke at present, and has been for years/decades/forever I don't see how eliminating competition and creating an enviroment akin to nepotism in the league structure is going to change this opinion.

Its the geography standpoint in all this that has me bewildered. Fair enough clubs can't come up unless their grounds/finances etc. haven't met certain criteria, theirs a form of this to be found in every football league on the planet but not allowing a club prootion because their population is significantly smaller than any of the four major cities is alarming to say the least

Is this definitely happening or is it just a proposal? Obviously it's the most flawed horrible idea. Surely the romance of football and the whole attraction of it is any team can become a success if they get the results on the pitch. If something like this happened in England Wigan could go down a few divisions.

I agree with those who have said it, even if Limerick got promoted by this idea, the majority of fans (me included) would not be happy with it. I want to see us get promoted cos of great attacking skill and 20 goals each by Robbie and Derek, not cos of a potentially big fanbase.

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Originally Posted by LFC in Exile

Yes, all good points.

As you can see I have adopted the UCD avatar to show my position on it.:ball:

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And I'm about to follow your lead. :) :ball:

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Originally Posted by sadloserkid

And I'm about to follow your lead. :ball:

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Traitors, Traitors all, let the Students do their own dirty work :eek: :p

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Originally Posted by LFC in Exile

Yes, all good points.

As you can see I have adopted the UCD avatar to show my position on it.:ball:

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It's UCD's marketability at work, admit it.;) We're on our way to become Ireland's first nationwide supported club. Delaney we want to change our vote!:D

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

It's UCD's marketability at work, admit it.;) We're on our way to become Ireland's first nationwide supported club. Delaney we want to change our vote!:D

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Well, I am an alumnus, so I don't feel compromised. SLK really is just a slut. :)

Seeing as the FAI are up to their old tricks by getting clubs to vote on something that they haven't clearly explained, but presumably will at some stage, this new league has all the hallmarks of becoming another embarrassing fiasco along the lines of the licensing system. If I'm right, and do correct me if I'm wrong but isn't there going to be another vote at a future date on the new league? I'm still trying to figure out what exactly will happen this season. Firstly, is it 100% certain that this season will be the last of the current format? What if the new proposals don't get ratified? What happens then? And another thing that came to mind: everyone seems to be certain that the new league will contain 22 clubs, but if the FAI stick rigidly to whatever standards new league members must meet, than surely if some of the current eircom league teams don't come up to the mark they will be left out. And if they are what do they do?