Not sure why discussion on an AIL has got bundled in with the three tier league nonsense, so am creating a stand alone thread for it here :)
Any info/leaks coming out from today's meeting in Dundalk yet?
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Not sure why discussion on an AIL has got bundled in with the three tier league nonsense, so am creating a stand alone thread for it here :)
Any info/leaks coming out from today's meeting in Dundalk yet?
Reports from 5 clubs I've seen so far all very positive. Seems everyone very impressed, and there are concrete financials in place too, just not being made public yet.
This might actually happen.
Dundalk's Mark Devlin
.Quote:
Excellent presentation from the All-Island League team this evening. Of course there will be challenges, but nothing worthwhile is ever achieved without hard work. It is definitely a very exciting project & there is great potential but obviously there is more work to be done
https://twitter.com/markdevlin7/stat...70612995796992
According to Lucid "the vast majority of invited clubs" turned up, so I'd say that Irish League clubs were there. who was invited and who the minority were that didn't show is another thing.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50179427
The BBC up north are giving it a fair bit of coverage.
The European places is the big issue for me. I can imagine a case where the FAI Cup and Irish Cup could continue for RoI and NI teams and that'd be accepted for Europa League/Conference (ala Liechtenstein clubs playing in Switzerland but qualifying for EL) but just don't see how it could be a runner to expect 7-8 places overall. There was some suggestion that the overall finances would make up for the fewer European places which seems like an extraordinary claim to me, but even if that were the case you're still going from the glory / novelty / excitement / incentive of Euro football for 7-8 Irish teams down to 4. It's a hell of a leap of faith to accept fewer Euro spots and fewer top division places on the promise of an unprecedented TV deal and other income streams. I mean what happens when the TV company who are offering 1m+ get cold feet and decide late on that actually this is only worth 200k to us?
It cannot be claimed that everyone was impressed. Granted the majority that spoke expressed positivities, in fact the Finn Harps rep was falling over himself to support it, they were not the majority in the room of those who expressed concerns and those who did not speak.
Crues seem prepared to recommend it to members.
https://www.crusadersfc.com/newsdetail/ID/1793
As I said elsewhere in response to that statement.
Strange statement from Crusaders. My understanding is that the overall league prize money pot is increasing. However the prize money for 1st and 2nd has been reduced given those 2 teams gain substantial UEFA money through qualification, with the money 'saved' plus other additional revenue now be spread further down the league in terms of what each club receives. And as surprising that this payment schedule was unanimously passed by all the clubs, including Crusader, at a recent NIFL meeting. :huh:
Btw, as there comparisons being made in this AIL discussion thread, an interesting comparison between the LOI and NIFL Prem would be to look at the total prize pots based on last year's figures.
While NIFL''s last season was circa £390k and the LOI's was about €370k, the LOI clubs themselves have to contribute, from their own pockets, some €200k in entry fees. NIFL Premiership clubs entry fees are just £18k.
£18k between the 12 teams - as in £1,500 each?
That's what I wanted to confirm alright :)
May as well all the question!
Peter Collins asking Mooney about the funding on RTÉ just now.
Mooney blustering some nonsense about Government funding.
"We should dream. We should be ambitious"
"Potential to lose European places".
Not convincing at all. Sounds like another Platinum One tbh.
What I thought was most interesting on that segment was the body language of Byrne and the looks he was giving when Mooney mentioned about 'not moaning about the past'. Mooney was very civil in his manner but it concealed a few barbs. That aside I dont know what else he could say really. Nothing concrete has been decided on an AIL or LoI plans. The FAI are still waiting for reports so its all as you were until these are forthcoming. All he could say he did say imo without getting in to hot water.
https://twitter.com/allislandleague
Not sure if anyone has seen this.
https://twitter.com/allislandleague/...943760384?s=20
I had something with more substance myself but tried to edit and deleted the post.
Couldn't quite put my finger on it originally, but finally figured out what annoyed me so about the video.
It's fecking Ollie Byrne's shels only with the whole league!
Agreed. European success and the money it would generate would be great, but I don't think there's any particular indication as to how it would come about.
Figure of 5mil being bandied about with league winners getting 800k. Now Peter Collins said something similar so probably where those figures are what people were talking about since - be very interesting to know where such money will be generated and whether it can be sustained. Even if a lucrative TV deal was reached for say 5 years, if it wasnt renewed to similar figures what is the fall back position. How have other leagues eg lower division in Scotland covered their backs in the event of a fall off in sponsorship/TV money. There has to be something there if the last team in 3 division in Scotland is getting something like 7 times what both IL and LoI champions get.
Well we saw with the ITV Digital collapse that clubs hadn't covered their backs in the event of a fall-off.
So yeah, if this were to go ahead and then collapse after five years, where does that leave clubs? Can you go back to two leagues? Would clubs - being encouraged to go with 2/3 year contracts - suddenly find themselves going bust?
The aims are absolutely admirable. They've painted the right picture of the future of the league - I just don't see how it's going to happen.
It's actually a very similar idea to the old PCA document, although in that case, Europe/transfer fees was a measure of success, to be achieved by a much greater investment from the FAI and incremental increases, with a portion of proceeds being reinvested into the league and the FAI. But in this case, Europe/transfer fees almost seem to be the starting point - is it Lucid who's talking about being the 25th ranked league in 6 years? It's like the cart is being put before the horse.
I'd be steering away from this from what I've seen so far.
That's not really an argument for a new format though.
In fact, that's not really an argument of any sort at all really.
I vaguely remember clubs getting money to upgrade floodlights to suit Sky Sports coverage back in the 90's. The TV deal didnt happen in the end so money recieved from the FAI in advance to get lights up to TV coverage needs ended up as loans to be paid back to the FAI - is this a strange dream or is there something to this really vague recall??
Nope, it happened.
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/nat...vision-1.75760
Different times though. Not a hope in hell of this happening now -
Quote:
Under UEFA rules a country's football association when agreeing television coverage must have the permission of associations potentially affected by that coverage. With matches from the Premiership being widely seen here, the FAI are entitled to compensation for lost crowds at games here.
Another video version of the presentation
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4FrSXPA...d=eueqgfg2c914
Not the first time Dundalk havent featured in AIL chatter....
You seem to have significant contempt for this Mr Parker, or is it just being reserved until there are concrete finances in place? There has been a tendancy for LoI fans to look down on IL over the years so has this swayed peception among IL fans? It is concievable that (bar Linfield maybe) the early years of an AIL would be generally dominated by LoI clubs. Short term pain for long term gain has to be part of Lucid's selling point...
I don't have contempt for the idea, but have concerns that people are rushing to support something, that as you say, offers nothing concrete. There have been North-South initiatives/competitions for decades. Not one survives. The motivation to support the Lucid plan for some clubs must be questioned, particularly with some LOI clubs, who are desperate to grasp any straw purely based on the big numbers being flashed in front of them, rather than solid business and sporting reasons.
My contempt is reserved for some in the Southern media, who have belittled what NIFL and their clubs have achieved in developing, good facilities, and sustainable and strong league, and then play the political card by referring to NIFL clubs as Unionist, Nationalist, Catholic and Protestant.
Fair comment! I san see why some clubs would be drawn in to anything that potentially offers greater revenue - Dundalk, if not top of the heap now would certainly have been circa 2011/12. As for the media commentary, I havent paid too much attention. What IL clubs have done to develop facilities has to be lauded but how many have had significant Stormont/public money backing? Have things changed socially that clubs' general support base are no longer aligned along religious or political peruasions?
To put it in basic terms : Irish clubs are generally run on a shoestring.
An AIL league offers a chance for them to become more financially viable, through more revenue in the game.
Ask a poor person if they'd rather remain poor - or have a shot at being financially stable.
Why couldn't clubs go back to 2 leagues if it didn't work out and they needed to ? This could be expressly agreed with UEFA in advance (I see no reason why they wouldn't agree to it).
I'd disagree on that. We can't pretend that religion and politics doesn't influence and polarise every aspect of life in Northern Ireland, because it clearly does.
Football in the north is dominated by clubs from unionist areas or traditions. Just go through in your head all the clubs and you'll see it. That has influenced heavily how the north looks at things in football. The IFA (who's members are drawn up from clubs) has a largely unionist mindset - as seen by its refusal to change the flag or anthem of the NI team, and by the farce around the British anthem being sung at IFA Cup Finals regardless of who features in them. The vast majority of supporters of clubs in the IL are from a unionist background. This is clear form the demographics of the areas the clubs are from, the flags and banners at games etc. A large portion of them want nothing to do with an all-island league out of ideology and politics. That is evident on forums.
To pretend that religion and politics is irrelevant to all of this is to refuse to see the obvious. There isn't a vaguely popular part of NI life that isn't heavily influenced by religion and politics, and football is no different