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for god sake professional football here is completly viable here as long as the clubs dont spend money they cant afford whats the averag wage in ireland per week can anyone tell me? i have my doubts its over 400 euro so why cant footballers live off anywhere around and above (where clubs can afford it)?
The average industrial wage is just over €600. Professional footballers have to earn a premium because, for most of them, their football earnings are confined to 15 years or so. With the attendances that LoI matches get it's just not viable.
[MOD EDIT: Don't edit your post to apologise for caps, edit the caps out!]
The current difficulties don't underscore it though. The current difficulties underscore the fact that if you spend money you don't have, you'll get into trouble. That doesn't mean professional football isn't possible for some teams.Quote:
Originally Posted by Soccer Mom
To answer your question - you see the national team as superseding all other things when it comes to "Irish football."
Fair enough - in that case I'd say that the LOI isn't of strategic value, not would it be even if it met the criteria set out in the Genesis report.
But I think that the view that you're taking is pretty narrow.
As I've already said, the question you seem to be asking is "how important is the LOI to the Irish national team?", rather than to "Irish football."
There's more caps there than Steve Staunton has :)
OK let's do the maths but first we need some basics:
1) Put a figure on an average weekly wage for LoI players - let's use your original €400
2) Average professional squad ? Let's say 20 players
3) LoI clubs play 18 home matches
4) Average attendance per match? - Last figure I saw was 2,043
5) Average ticket price - lets say €12 (mix of adults, kids etc and erring on the high side)
That works out at a maximum of €424 per player per week. That doesn't leave any money for other costs involved in running the club.
your leaving out income from fund raising, sponsorship, match day income (shop) club merchindice, tv money and prize money...
You think clubs have no income other than gate receipts?Quote:
Originally Posted by Soccer Mom
I fully accept that some clubs can sustain it, if they are financially prudent, but for most it's not a runner.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
No. I'm also questioning the value of the League of Ireland clubs in helping the game at schoolboy level also. I think the LoI clubs need to embed themselves to a greater degree in their local communities.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
The GAA is in a completely different situation. They haven't got one of the largest marketing machines for anything in the world blaring away 70 miles to the east, promoting an almost identical competitor product. If people want Gaelic games, they have the GAA, and nothing but the GAA. If people want football, it's hard to ignore the loud noises and shiny things bombarding us from our neighbours. Going amateur is only going to convince them that the LOI is an inferior product.Quote:
Originally Posted by Soccer Mom
I realise that but without sufficient revenue coming through the gate you are building on sand.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acornvilla
do most builings not contain an element of sand? :)anyway obviously not every club can be professional to suggest that is silly but to say every club should be amature is plain stupid it is definitley possible for teams like shams,bohs,fingal,pats,sligo,dundalk,drogheda,galw ay,limerick,derry,cork with the propper finantial control to be full time obviously not this year or next but it is definitley fesable wth the right people in charge and a moderate degree of sucess.. the rest of the clubs bar wexford,salthill and mervue can comfortably be part-time
There is no denying (and I know this will provoke a backlash) that it is an inferior product and we simply cannot compete with the English product. Trying to compete with it is the road to ruin. Spending money on wages that could be used to improve facilities for fans seems pointless. I think maybe we are getting to a more basic question. Why do people want a League of Ireland? What is it's purpose? If we can get a consensus on that then we might be able to decide upon how we structure, organise and manage it.Quote:
Originally Posted by peadar1987
because we all want to have our own league our own cub somthing we can be proud of. i support chelsea but they mean nothing to me in comparrison to longford.. i'm sure the rest of us feel the same way. we have a right to our own league regardless of who our neighbour is and nothing anybody says can change how iwhat i would consider 'real' Irish fans feel.Quote:
Originally Posted by Soccer Mom
Stupid is as stupid does :) but I don't think that we can have a league made up of a mix of amateur and professional clubs. That is hardly a level playing field. Ireland is too small to support a viable professional league.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acornvilla
It depends what you are after. In my mind, the fact that the league is ours more than makes up for any difference in talent. If the quality of a product was solely defined in footballing terms, everyone in the world would support Barcelona, and the only reason to have other teams would be to give them someone to play against.Quote:
Originally Posted by Soccer Mom
And what is the purpose of any football? I'd love the league of Ireland to be a well-supported league with strong ties to communities, flying the flag in Europe, and be feeding players into the national side. But in the most basic of terms, the league exists to give enjoyment to the people who choose to associate themselves with it. For me, going amateur with no plans to advance would be a step backwards in this regard.
But why does it have to be professional?Quote:
Originally Posted by Acornvilla
Any suggestions?Quote:
Originally Posted by Soccer Mom
I'm serious when say I'd wager that any, and I mean any good idea will have been tried by LOI clubs. Plenty of bad ideas tried too.
It doesn't. But if clubs can afford it, then they should.Quote:
Originally Posted by Soccer Mom
I want a League of Ireland because I love watching live football, and I love supporting a team that represents me and the place I live in. You are right when you say it is utterly inferior to the EPL, but I honestly couldn't care less. And anybody who does, in my opinion, hasn't a clue about what supporting a team means.Quote:
Originally Posted by Soccer Mom
If you go down that line, why have a national team? What's its purpose? Why make everything else subservient to it?
because clubs can sustain it if managed correctly and profesionalism enhances the product, its our baby and we want it to be the best that it can be?Quote:
Originally Posted by Soccer Mom
since when is anything in the world a level playing field?Quote:
Originally Posted by Soccer Mom
I'm all for pluralism in soccer and I don't particularly like the seemingly inexorable push towards a European super league. An amateur LoI would still be ours.Quote:
Originally Posted by peadar1987
Unfortunately I think the League is going backwards anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by peadar1987