The contract is up at the end of the season isn't it??
And the PCA rattling around the place.
What happens with solidarity money an all that if there's a breakaway??
Who's nervous??
Discuss the issues.
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The contract is up at the end of the season isn't it??
And the PCA rattling around the place.
What happens with solidarity money an all that if there's a breakaway??
Who's nervous??
Discuss the issues.
Not nervous at all.
Delaney has set Irish football up as his personal fiefdom, with him in the big gold throne watching everyone pay tribute to him. He's now gone on to try to do the same in European football - probably aspiring to be the new Sepp Blatter some day.
The only thing worse than the FAI running the league is the clubs doing it themselves. Have proven themselves time and again to be more interested in in-fighting and narrow gains than in working together to improve things. For me it should be either the FAI running the league, or an external body doing it with a view to marketing it properly etc to get a return for themselves. I wouldn't normally advocate an approach like that, but I can't see anyone else getting their finger out to do a proper promotion job on Irish football otherwise.
An external body is the only way forward. Let them secure their own sponsorship and TV deals and get people passionate about the league involved in running it
It goes towards staving off bankruptcy at Galway, Harps, Sligo, Pat's, Bray et al?
The PCA and the FAI are a perfect cocktail of self-interest and no interest, both idiotically playing off each other and thinking they're really smart doing it, while Ireland get thumped by Denmark to miss out on more millions.
At this moment in time the PCA are the only game in town.
However I would see them representing every league club not just those in the Premier division.
This may happen soon I hope.
The FAI have no interest other than having to have a national league with promotion & relegation.
The PCA started off with some clubs going on solo runs but all is quiet at the moment which may be a good sign that at last the penny has dropped.
We've had the clubs representing themselves under the League of Ireland since the beginning of time & which failed miserably.
We now have the clubs being represented under the FAI which again has failed miserably.
Its time for all the clubs to be represented by an organisation like the PCA where clubs can have their say but decisions are taken for the overall good of all the clubs & not just the chosen few.
The league is only as strong as its weakest member & the clubs have proved over time that they can not govern themselves.
There's no going back to the failed policies of the past.
With the TV deals in particular I cannot understand how BEIN or Star Sports haven't picked this up as yet. My understanding is that in order to show national team matches RTÉ have to then show a portion of LOI games, putting themselves, Eir and the Facebook streams aside, selling the LOI to a crowd like BEIN (dubious funding aside) we could at least attempt to market the LOI further afield. It wouldn't affect Irish audience figures either given for the most part it isn't available to the vast majority of Irish satellite customers. Anyone using Kodi would be ahead of that curve long ago regardless.
A quick scan of http://bein.net/en/tv-guide/ shows the absolute crap they are transmitting at any given time. Even if it is a small deal with only minor revenues at least they could supply decent cameras for proper highlights packages, sold back to RTÉ without the need to do it themselves. But this is the FAI and unless Sepp blatter is bribing our silence or Denis O'Brien gives the okay. they're happy to leave the domestic game rot away*.
*except if Dundalk or Cork City do well in Europe.
Edit: Is there cause to believe the title of the thread containts a misspelling? My understanding is there are only 2 n's in ruining ;)
I'm not the biggest fan of the FAI but if you look at the under 13's 15's 17's 19's they are at least putting in place a production line of talent for the LOI teams and having the best kids associated with the LOI is good.
In the Rovers academy the 10 11 and 12 year olds dream of playing for Rovers not Man U.
On the tv thing I think we forget the reason RTE don't want to show the games is because no one wants to watch them (in relative terms), its not like they just don't fill the airwaves with LOI out of spite.
I have to agree with sbgawa, I love to bash the FAI for being an incompetent group of self-fellating money hungry p****s with little to no interest in the LOI, but at least with the underage system they are trying (or appearing to try) to future-proof the security of the teams in the LOI.
But if spent wisely that 80-100k should have long term benefits for those clubs and the country as a whole. Forcing clubs to invest in facilities or youth is the one thing we should be praising the FAI for. An extra 80k a year into the pockets of the current players does nothing for football in this country.
Many clubs don't have 80-100k to spend in the first place.
A 3k/week budget could win the First Division for example.
Excellent point El-P, you can't really criticise the FAI for not throwing money at the clubs for nothing as past behaviour & spending has shown that most will **** it away in a couple of years, but direct investment into club infrastructure is what's required to make any sort of a lasting difference. One point I would make (that has been talked about for donkeys years) is that the prize money in the LoI is disgraceful, clubs aren't remunerated for their efforts on/off the field, they all put in a tremendous amount of work just to keep their clubs running and at the end of the season they get an amount of money that probably wouldn't sustain them for more than a couple of weeks. The FAI should raise the prize money of the league but have restrictions on how much of it must be spent on youth teams/facilities/youth coaching etc. This give the clubs a leg up without giving them the opportunity to go out and waste it all on unsustainable contracts and the like. It'll probably never happy with Delaney in charge, but it's nice to dream.
80-100k may not be much to Cork, but for clubs near the bottom of the league it is absolutely massive, potentially crippling. I agree with the changes that have been made in bringing in these teams, but yet again the question arises of how to make the first division viable for clubs to enter and survive in.
I have a vague recollection that there is either a UEFA or FIFA regulation that stipulates that the elite league of a jurisdiction has to be governed by the body that is affiliated to UEFA/FIFA, so the FAI *have* to run the league?
It is entirely possible I have misremembered that. It wouldn't be the first time, and won't be the last.
Anyone?
The underage leagues are great and should be a real game changer in years to come but I think we need to be looking beyond U19's. Currently most clubs have to release nearly all those who are not eligible for the 19s and still not ready for senior football. There is a lot of potential being lost. I know the flip side is that the introduction of another age group (21s, 23s etc.) would be an additional cost to clubs, I just think there is going to be a big build up of players getting dumped from clubs which may have a knock-on effect to the reputation of the other age groups.
13's should be scrapped for an under-23 league.
I think they're dead right to go ahead with the u13s league. We've been in desperate need of proper nationwide youth structures for decades and now we're finally getting them.
Once the underage stuff is all in place then the next step is to sort out the gap between u19s and seniors. I think an u23 league would be perfect, with the option to maybe play 2/3 overage lads, similar to the u23 league in England.
It matters in Dublin that the 13's start you need to get the best players into the LOI clubs from 12 years old before they get scooped up by the slavetraders in Kevins and Joeys
The answer probably an intermediary league for the likes of Kerry, Monaghan-Cavan and Mayo to enter after U19s. LoI clubs should be allowed enter U23's at that level. The winner, or highest placed first team club, of the intermediary league should be allowed playoff against the bottom team from the First Division.
My understanding from some reports emanating from the PCA is that a number of clubs do want a team between U19s and senior level. The answer again is something not too dissimilar to the defunct A Championship but a different approach is required.
I think the U19 league initally started out as with a national division above a second tier split north and shout. I think both tiers merged after a year or two. Ruud Dokter said they had to find what suited the country best. A model from a different country wasn't necessarily going to suit Ireland.
Not all LoI clubs will want an U23/reserve team. No club should be forced to enter at such a level, just like the U23s in England where I think only 15 of the 20 top flight clubs have an U23 team.
5 U23 teams and 3 first teams could play 21 games over 3 series.
Not at all. Once the U13 league is in place, clubs should be in a better position to gauge if they can finance an U23/reserve team. If Kerry, Mayo and Monaghan-Cavan are on board, again only about 5 U23/reserve teams from the LoI will be required to get the league up and running. It's probably about 3 or 4 years down the road at the moment from being a possibility.
Yeah, I think you are spot on there. LoI clubs possibly should be permitted 3 overage lads while first teams like Mayo or Kerry have no age limit.
... and the FAI to be fair have been clear from the off about their intent for leagues from U13, U15, U17 and U19. It's one of the rare times that the FAI has set out some sort off roadmap.
I'd like to see them set out a road map for a that gap from the U19s to senior. At the same time though clubs might panic and get into a flap about that when the U13 league has yet to be integrated.
When the U13 league is up and running for a full season, it'll be the time to gauge the merits of an intermediary league.
There's nothing to stop clubs from having players in from 12 years of age for their under-15 squad if they're that keen to keep them away from the likes of Joeys and Kevins, but it's utterly ridiculous that we have these great underage structures coming in and expecting players to step up from under-19s to senior once they get that far. Clubs may as well be burning money as spending on players that'll have to leave the club because they're not ready for the first team yet.
We should be looking at an under-23 league and then, and only then, if clubs can spare the extra cash, bring in the under-13 league.