2016 League of Ireland.

The 2016 SSE Airtricity League season will commence on Friday, March 4, 2016.The EA SPORTS Cup Final will take place on Saturday, September 17, 2016 and the Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup Final will take place at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday, November 6, 2016.

The Mid-Season break will commence on Monday, June 6 and run until Thursday, June 23 (both dates inclusive). The League will recommence on Friday, June 24, with a full programme of fixtures.

This is a rest-day during the EURO 2016 Championship Finals.

When will we see the real (1st Division) LOI fixtures?:)

Is there any talk of new (or old) teams joining the First Division this year?

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Originally Posted by fionnsci

Is there any talk of new (or old) teams joining the First Division this year?

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St Kevins Boys has being the talk of the preseason so far!

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Originally Posted by Martinho II

St Kevins Boys has being the talk of the preseason so far!

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Cool, thanks. Obviously would prefer more provincial sides to another Dublin side but if they can replicate what Cabo are doing then I don't see why not. Only a stone's throw from Morton Stadium.

Hopefully the underage leagues will also prompt the likes of Monaghan, Kilkenny, Newbridge (Kildare County) to get back involved in some capacity. An 8 team division is a bit meagre.

Has there been anything about St Kevins since the summer rumours? Good to see Kerry and Monaghan/Cavan in the U-17 League. It would take a while before these will graduate to senior level if at all you'd imagine

Kevin's are unlikely to be admitted, this year anyway.

Didn't know Cavan/Monaghan had entered the 17's. It's safe to say Cavan will never ever ever have a LOI team, be great to see Monaghan back though.

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Originally Posted by outspoken

Didn't know Cavan/Monaghan had entered the 17's. It's safe to say Cavan will never ever ever have a LOI team, be great to see Monaghan back though.

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And they would run into the same problem again.

Monaghan were stable for a long time before they pushed the boat out the year they folded. But they never really were able to draw crowds / support from the area so it'd be hard to convince people to put the shoulders to the wheel and re-enter the senior game.

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Originally Posted by outspoken

Didn't know Cavan/Monaghan had entered the 17's. It's safe to say Cavan will never ever ever have a LOI team, be great to see Monaghan back though.

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Cavan/Monaghan is the one side.

So Cavan/Monaghan were admitted to the 17s, but Galway United are excluded. Almost as if league rules are rewritten behind the scenes. Funny that.

Fielding youth teams in a national league is expensive, but this is a ridiculous situation. The usual player factories in Dublin were (rightly) excluded, but two junior clubs in Galway are special somehow?

You may have answered your own question a bit - is it possible the FAI are aware of the financial burden of running youth teams and are holding Galway back a bit from broadening the player base too quickly. Cavan/Monaghan without a senior setup would manage ok. Wonder if they will play out of Gortakeegan?

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

You may have answered your own question a bit - is it possible the FAI are aware of the financial burden of running youth teams and are holding Galway back a bit from broadening the player base too quickly. Cavan/Monaghan without a senior setup would manage ok. Wonder if they will play out of Gortakeegan?

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They did in the U-17 season just gone so I assume they'll do so again

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

You may have answered your own question a bit - is it possible the FAI are aware of the financial burden of running youth teams and are holding Galway back a bit from broadening the player base too quickly. Cavan/Monaghan without a senior setup would manage ok. Wonder if they will play out of Gortakeegan?

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It's the other way round as far as I know. The original deal was that GUFC weren't allowed to field any underage teams but when the u17 league came in Mervue and Salthill realised they couldn't afford to run both them and an u19 team and Galway bailed them out.

A better question to ask is if any of the existing First Division teams is thinking of packing it in. Are Cabinteely happy enough? Was the Drogs chairman just blustering?

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

It's the other way round as far as I know. The original deal was that GUFC weren't allowed to field any underage teams but when the u17 league came in Mervue and Salthill realised they couldn't afford to run both them and an u19 team and Galway bailed them out.

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Its never a surprise when someone is complicating things with obstruction. So is it a case that Galway is paying for an U17 team in Galway or that one just doesnt exist due to previous arrangements when Galway Utd were joining the league. I no little about the underage setup in general but it would be ironic if Salthill and Mervue blocked Galway from running underage teams, realised then that this insistence would overstretch them and it ended up that none had an U17 team.

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

Its never a surprise when someone is complicating things with obstruction. So is it a case that Galway is paying for an U17 team in Galway or that one just doesnt exist due to previous arrangements when Galway Utd were joining the league. I no little about the underage setup in general but it would be ironic if Salthill and Mervue blocked Galway from running underage teams, realised then that this insistence would overstretch them and it ended up that none had an U17 team.

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That's precisely what happened from what I've been told. Because the FAI insisted that Salthill and Mervue had to be part of GUFC before it would be allowed to apply to the league, Salthill and Mervue were able to make it a pre-condition that GUFC doesn't compete in underage football. I'm guessing they didn't foresee the u17 league happening so quickly.

Bray's Denis O'Connor gets a mention here: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime...gins-1.2494510

Link via twitter- https://twitter.com/IrishTimes/statu...84417224142849

First Division fixtures to be released tomorrow