Originally Posted by
pineapple stu
They are though.
Look at the FA Cup in England - anyone can enter. Ditto Scotland and France and so on. You start off in the qualifying rounds of course, and have to earn a shot at a top team. You could argue that the FAI Junior/Intermediate Cup are effectively a qualifying tournament for the FAI Cup, but I think that format just emphasises the divide. You can of course keep the Junior/Intermediate Cups in the same way that England has the FA Vase and FA Trophy - but any club should be allowed start off in Round 1 of the FAI Cup.
Let the FAI Cup start off in round 1 with however many clubs you can get. LoI clubs come in in the round of 32 (or maybe even the round of 64). If Derry win 12-2 - so what? Shows the LoI to be a decent league compared to the MSL, etc.