Worked out spectacularly well for them both alright.
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Neither got financially burned for testing the water. Perfect examples that underage is the place to start.
The A Championship then has to be factored in. It was to be the pathway for clubs to join the LoI. Kerry are back to where they were over 10 years ago. There'll probably be a team entered into underage league in the next year or so. Work's being carried out on facilities at Mounthawk.
All is not well in Waterford financially..again, it seems. Don't know the specifics just a few cryptic tweets doing the rounds.
Edit: Rumoured to be releasing all Dublin and Cork based players
At least the first division will have an old friend back in it again next year. Cant wait :(
Rumoured on twitter today that 6 Waterford players released and the rest offered reduced wages.
Just seen on twitter that they've released Gavin Kavanagh, Peter White, Conor Meade, Kynan Rocks and Shane Murray. Big blow for them
http://www.waterford-united.ie/water...tement-040514/
This is starting to look like Galway United's last season.
I seriously think the best thing the FAI could do for the league at this point is hire a retired business studies teacher for eight hours a week and send him around the boards of each club to teach them how to structure a basic household budget.
Seems to be an annual thing with Waterford, only it's come earlier than usual this time. Feel sorry for them
Was that whole medical expenses thing ever sorted out for good?
Seriously though what are we, two months into the season?! And the Waterford board realise the economies a bit grim?!
Having said that, while its easy to criticise (and fun too) its a sad indictment of irish football when fielding a team in the worst first division of all time isnt sustainable.
Back of a matchbox calculations being generous id say the likes of Waterford United are earning 10k a month.
You wouldnt run a decent schoolboy setup off it.
The first division is a basket case. The FAI seem intent on closing their eyes to the problem. Having said that, financial problems can happen very easily in either division. All it takes is a slightly ambitious budget and a lower gates than expected.
The first division should have merged with the A championship a few years back. Established clubs should have been given an opportunity to join an expanded premier. It's still something which can be given consideration. Promote the top 4, invite clubs to join a regionalised second tier with less stringent fudgy criteria and allow Premier clubs the option to enter a B team.
It is hard to understand why the club are in this position so early in the season and a lot of fans are fed up with the board going on the internet comments. It's not easy for them running a club in the current economic climate but surely the budget agreed and approved in the off season by the licensing board should have been right for the season. Our first 3 home crowds were above the normal amount for last season too.
I'm genuinely sorry to see Waterford in this position again.
I have little time for the way the licencing system is run in this country.
Any accountant worth his salt would have looked through Waterford's budget & seen that it was unsustainable. Due diligence is not being carried out by the licencing board as this type of situation is happening far to often.
The other thing that comes to mind & one which should seriously worry all Waterford fans is that the Waterford board put forward to the licencing authority a budget for the season & are running the club from a second different budget.
If this is the case then Waterford fans need to get rid of the board totally as they obviously haven't learned anything from the previous well documented incidents.
What all Waterford people need to ask themselves is " Do they really want League of Ireland football in the city & if so what are they prepared to do about it" ?
Perhaps they need to go down the road of a fans owned club. If so there is plenty of advice available from people who have gone in this direction.
Only the Waterford fans themselves can answer that question.
The FAI should introduce a licencing system, where clubs have to submit a budget for approval before receiving a licence to compete…
Not just the FAI – look at some of the posts in this thread and see that plenty of fans will reject stuff that might help clubs in the first, potentially revitalise the 1st and the teams in it with more promotion and relegation etc. Lots are happy to run with it as is, once they’re in the premier and don’t have to worry about it.
FAI are in charge of the league and licencing. A few posters from the FAI finances thread that think Delaney is doing a great job should pay a bit more attention!
I hadn't realised I had to be fair!
I really think a big part of the problem with the 1st is that it's so hard to get out of - clubs/ fans/ committee's get disheartened with another slog with no prospect of promotion (pretty much you have to win it to go up, as premier team usually wins the play off). I've no idea what's going on in Waterford, and I don't think it's an acceptable response, but part of the issue could be the realisation even at this stage they ain't going up this year so they might as well cut costs than chase bucks to support the playing budget. It's the exact consequence that people who argue against a single division league because of no relegation use, only it's a lack of promotion opportunities that causes the same effect.
But if every club thought that way in one division league then we'd have 8+ clubs looking to cut costs as they'd have nothing to play for?
I'm happy for more promotion/relegation places but think that clubs can't just argue about economic difficulties 2 months into the season. That's a cop out
I'd prefer more promotion and relegation places to a single division, but when that was suggested there was plenty arguing against, reduce down the places, saying it's too many clubs in the play off mix in the 1st etc. I agree it's a cop out, and it isn't right (and I don't even know if that is the mindset or reasoning) and clearly most clubs don't go about their business in such a way, but I do think perma premier division clubs don't realise just how bad it is in the first! It does show, yet again, what a farce licencing is - will the FAI ever get that bloody right?
Having gone to Limerick games when they were in the first division, from my experience of it, I wouldn't agree that promotion from the first is an issue. The division was great a few years back when there were some strong teams in it and a gripping promotion push. With the premier re-expanding to 12, it's gotten stronger and a weaker first division was left behind.
At the same time though Macy might have a point. Two up and two down could see more virbrancy of new teams going between the divisions. The Premier was 10 a few years back. Now it's 12, is there any harm in the teams 11th and 12th dropping down with the first division winner promoted and however many is agreeable entering a play-off? All clubs are stakeholders in the game as Delaney put's it. Will the push have to come from clubs for change?
Im kinda puzzled by all the first division fans looking to the premier as some kind of panacea.
Id safely say eight of the twelve premier clubs havent a pot to **** in and the other four are a wet weekend from joining them.
Look at Athlone Town playing to micro crowds. Id imagine Limerick are losing our arse this year aswell and the longer it goes on the more worrying itll get.
When teams do go to the wall in this league it tends to be Premier teams.
Why?? Because you wake up one morning and realise that piddly little four figure holes in your first division cash flow have became massive, gaping, six or seven figure chasms in your club budget.
Why?? Because when you get to the promised land of the premier the costs of EVERYTHING needed to compete increase in massive increments that your income will struggle to keep up with. If you choose not to shell out the extra bucks on the team expenditure.side you're an Athlone Town and youre.shagged anyway.
In short, careful what you wish for!!
Yeah, but why do promoted teams upgrade their squads? Because they have to play to a higher standard. If there were more teams, they'd still be picking from the same pool of players, so it's not like Wexford will suddenly be competing with Bohemians for players. There'll be a more rational distribution than that.
Stupid question probably, but is there any sign of any interest from any club not already in the LOI to make an application?
Edit: Apart from "Meath FC" or whatever the hell that is.
Simple answer, no. Most of the bigger junior clubs are based in Dublin, where there's **** all room for expansion. There's not enough competition in most of the rest of the country whereby a team could rise up on merit. I don't think a new team can really enter the league until there are strong regional leagues where success brings the incentive of progressing to league football. There really doesn't seem to be any hope of that happening.
The alternative would be something similar to Northern Ireland, where the FAI dictates that every league feeds into the pyramid, in which case we'd see Dublin clubs who don't particularly want to be part of the league ending up getting promoted and finding they don't have the income to do it, will have to play on a different day than they're used to and will have to file their accounts like a normal business, none of which they have any interest in doing. And that's before you even get into the fact they'd have to switch over to summer football.
In related news, the English FA look like they'll be introducing "B" teams into their league pyramid in some capacity as well: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/27289819
Same old England, always copying Shamrock Rovers...
In all seriousness, it's hard to see how a B team system in England can do anything except benefit the top teams at the expense of the lower league sides. It's different in Ireland and other smaller European countries where players are on one-year contracts and loans aren't really a realistic option, but in England if you have a player on a three or four-year deal and dozens of clubs willing to take them, there's no reason you'd need a B team except to benefit the top of the pyramid.
Waterford had a meeting tonight. It's been said no players will be released and that the players want to play for jersey.
Do they have a choice?