Joining up the game and allowing a properly accountable FAI to take full ownership of it, kicking vested interests into touch, is the most important step.
Let's put aside the emotional or moral debate about a cross-border league.
If a cross-border league was to be created the rationale would have to be financial improvement. Financial improvement = better wages and facilities = retention of better players / less reliance on the lower tiers of English football. As said earlier in another thread, League One players in England earn upwards of GBP 60k a year, so EUR 75k or thereabouts. We'd need to see some improvement to be able to pay Irish-based players anything like this across the board.
Where would the money come frome?
* TV: it'd have to be a very attractive TV product with a big potential audience. I don't see any kind of Celtic League solution here.
* Corporate: the Irish market isn't big enough. I doubt other peripheral countries' markets are either
* Gates: regular crowds of upwards of 10k would be required to contribute financially to a self-sustaining professional league. Again, the "product improvement" would have to be quite substantial.
I've often thought UEFA could do more to include smaller laegues. Perhaps a third-tier European competition, lower than the Europa League and funded by distributions from the other UEFA competitions.
Better still, configuring the Europa League on a regional basis and geared to include a couple of teams from leagues of our standard. In fact, exactly our standard. Anyone lower can eff off
The problem here is that if a LOI club cracked it just once they'd become a monopoly domestically so redistribution rules would need to be set.
Another alternative, if the FAI could afford it, would be to offer central contracts to a number of domestic players - potential future internationals most at risk of leaving to League One equivalent clubs.
Originally Posted by kennedmc
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