It should be part of the league licence really, clubs should have to enter an U16 and Youth team. They could operate it in two pools, North and South to minimise travel expenses. 22 LoI clubs would equate to two pools of 11. Could throw in a few A Championship clubs as well who are serious in their intent in developing football.
If Youth structure's i.e. U16 and Youth were set-up, it would operate in pools like:
North:
Derry City
Finn Harps
Sligo
Monaghan
Longford
Dundalk
Drogheda
Athlone
Galway
Salthill
Mervue
South:
Cork City
Waterford
Wexford
Limerick
Bray
Bohemians
Shamrock
Fingal
Pat's
UCD
Shelbourne
Maybe to a small extent but I remember plenty of Sligo Rovers teams with a good few local lads in the team and the crowds were not anything special in those days.Quote:
Originally Posted by bingoballs
Football is a global game. I would not expect clubs to limit their pool to their locality. My call is for youth structures to be put in place so the better youth players can work to the top but naturally players would come in from elsewhere as well.
Basically, you made a factual error there and when I pointed it out you threw up a smokescreen and well, I guess that you've been studying the J Delaney handbook there.Quote:
And your point is.....?
I agree about each club having a full youth set up, BUT do you honestly think it is financially viable? There is not a hope on hell clubs could afford another whack load of expenses like that on travel.Quote:
Originally Posted by legendz
If they didn't do the right things (which they haven't), first mover advantage is ******.Quote:
Originally Posted by dcfcsteve
I know there is that. Expanding the idea further, if 10 additional regions could provide a team, e.g from the A Championship: Tralee, Carlow, Tullamore, Cobh, Tullamore, Castlebar etc, there could be four groups of 8. It's a hard one. There is the finances but also for football to develop, it needs a structure. If a competition was formed with sponsorship, it would be a help.Quote:
Originally Posted by Roo69
Most clubs find the A Championship and U20s team a big financial burden, just couldn't see them going for a league were for example, Bray had to travel down to Cork one week and then maybe down to Limerick etc the next week.Quote:
Originally Posted by legendz
If you had a club from each of the 6 counties of Munster, plus Cobh and one more, I don't think it'd be Bray, travel is being kept minimal. I understand fully where you are coming from. If it's not economically viable, it'd have no chance of ever happening. It's bad for the league though, youth structures is where any foundations should be built.
While it would be an extra financial burden, I think the idea of making clubs field more teams and at a national level where possible is a good one. It should have the effect of diverting funds away from the first team wages and increase the chances of the LOI clubs getting the best youngsters aboard with the least disruption of existing leagues (the last thing the schoolboy leagues want is LOI clubs joining and dominating them by hoovering up the better players).
It also gets more people involved with the club- the aim should be to convert those youngsters who don't make it into fans.
The first step should be to expand the number of games in the U20 league. Currently it's hard to keep players interested because there's just so few matches. Also, integrating the likes of the Kennedy cup with the LOI clubs would be a step in the right direction.
Legendz - you and a few other posters on here always do this.Quote:
Originally Posted by legendz
Why do you perceive the solution to the league's problems being to create more teams in non-footballing areas ? Why would anyone in Dublin turn out to watch one of the many teams there just because Clare had an underage side in the Irish footballing pyramid ?
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Originally Posted by legendz
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Originally Posted by legendz
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Originally Posted by legendz
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Originally Posted by legendz
Do you think that Under 16 and Youth Level teams are important Legendz?;)Quote:
Originally Posted by legendz
So for once England will be following the Irish model :o. Always thought we focus too much on the EPL fans here many of whom will never attend a game (on either side of the Irish sea) and are armchair/bar stool fans as likely to be watching a "big" GAA game or Rugby match as a "soccer" match. trying to entice them to LOI is a waste of time in my opinion.Quote:
Originally Posted by bingoballs
We need to profile a realistic target market and then seek to attract it to LOI. I suspect that the potential number would be a lot less than many think/hope (but more than currently attending.)
Well you know, I'm not talking about an overnight success. I would see it as something the league should work to. The A Championship is a good addition at the moment. I wouldn't see any need for additions to the LoI unless it was shown a few more clubs could hold a Division One licence etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by dcfcsteve
I wouldn't be so sure about that Bingballs.Quote:
Originally Posted by bingoballs
A correction is undoubtedly overdue and needed in English football, and it's only a matter of time before a club hits the wall (if only the Revenue would grow some balls and deliver the killer blow when they should e.f. Portsmouth). But it's likely to be the smaller clubs that go first.
Football also operates within its own little world largely insulated from normal economic conditions, norms and behaviours. For example - English football's rule that footballing debts must always be paid first reduce the likelihood of the collapse of one club doing much to negatively impact any others. The government/tax men should kill that particular rule, as it's just wrong on so many different levels. Even in Scottish football - with a fraction of the value of the English system - it's the banks that keep the likes of Rangers afloat as they don't want to be the organisation that pulls the rug from under a massively popular institution. Hence the big football clubs in Britain get away with things no other business would (and no smaller club would either).
So unfortunately I can see the English bubble staying inflated for quite some time. That's not to say that it'll continue to grow - it might just stall at a bloated level for a while. Whilst a correction is overdue, I don't think it's in any great hurry. The fact that there are still rich people - and even countries - seemingly queuing up to buy EPL clubs shows that for every sugar daddy that goes there's another one waiting in the wings.
P.S. Don't forget also that 'carryiong significant amount of debts' appears to have largely been the motivation and interest in Man Utd from the Glazers. There are canny business people out there who WANT their assets to be loaded with debt, as it serves the purposes of their broader financial dealings. So far form killing interest in football debt appears to be both the result of and the sustaining element within some investment in the game.
The Financial Fair Play Rules should bring some amount of balance to the crazy spending.
Bringing this back to an earlier discussion, Rovers-Pats is the lead soccer story on the Times website this morning and second-lead sports story: http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/soccer/
Haven't seen the physical edition yet but it's probably the same.
What's the general view on the A Championship? Has it been a good addition to the league?
My not-quite-girlfriend-but-I-still-have-met-the-parents is Dutch, and when I was over there a few weeks ago, I was astonished at how dissimilar to Germany Holland is. Completely different culture and outlook on life, and the same could be said about all the rest of my travels through Europe. Bavaria is less of a slave to Berlin than Ireland is to the UK. We listen to the same music, we adopt the same idiom, we have a very similar outlook on life, which extends far beyond the football teams of choice for the vast majority of the population. If you didn't recognise the accent, you couldn't tell whether you were walking down the street in Dublin, Cork, Birmingham or Cardiff.
As for the football side of the discussion, I've spent the last year in Scotland, and they seem far more proud of all things Scottish than we do about Irish culture. You'll rarely meet a Glaswegian who takes any more than a passing interest in English football, despite all the great Scottish players who have played there over the years, for example. They have all of the exact same excuses as we do, right down to the poor standard outside the Old Firm, the difference is, they don't seem to rationalise selling out their national league as deftly as Irish people seem to.