I've compared the standard of the national league in England before to the LOI as the national league has part time players. I don't think comparing the LOI to the EFL is a fair playing field. Its afaik totally full time, they get solidarity payments through the English football pyramid system. I was looking at figures this morning that L1 clubs receive £700 k , L2 £470 that's a nice chunk on day one of a new season. Then after that you have population sizes to consider for example our old friend Roddy's stomping ground Carlisle United. The town of Carlisle has a population of 108K while Sligo has 20K and they are languishing at the bottom of L2 and have an average attendance of 4000 per game. Then on top of that you have cultural attitudes o football , other Sports to compete with in a small market. The two just aren't comparable in my book.