Can we just get a consensus of "Waaaaaaaaaaa" from the fans of teams not involved and then get back to having fans of those teams involved discussing the merits?
Your Chairperson,
Gavin
Membership Advisory Board
"Ex Bardus , Vicis"
Its the people who say that they are dead against Drury's proposals, but conceptually in favour of an AIL, yet can't seem to put their finger on what shape it would need to take for them to support it, that I can't get my head around.
When word of Drury's and Jim Roddy's putative plan surfaced ages ago people got outraged and said they couldn't support something that didn't have any promotion and relegation or wouldn't be supported by both national jurisdictions. The plans attempt to address both these issues and now the very same people have moved onto a new list of issues to be outraged about.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
Thats more like it - their opinions matter. As long as their concerns are addressed, OneRedArmy, we move closer to a viable professional league on this island. Not sure if you guys are familiar with the concept of "user feedback" in product development but the way to perfect a 'product' is by finding out whats wrong with it, via the people who will be using it. Far better to find a fault at the beginning than half way through the first quarter.
There are already caveats - premier licenses and such.
Your Chairperson,
Gavin
Membership Advisory Board
"Ex Bardus , Vicis"
I would have issues about the selection basis, the 10 team concept , lack of promotion/relegation for the first few seasons, 100k upfront , 10% of gate receipts, ridulous attandance increase estimates , if these were addressed I would be happier about the prospoal, the only i like about the proposal at the moment is the return to winter football.
It would also be good if they would back up some of their ridiculous claims like "80% of clubs are technically insolvent." The document does its best to paint a black picture of the Irish League in order to make them look like the Knight on the white horse.
I have asked before, but why are P1 involved in all this? Is it their love of the game?![]()
I like the concept and the idea of the ail but this plan stinks. P1 have no interest in the state of irish football and what are they going to do that everybody else has failed. I don't think professional football on the island is the way forward yet but clubs should concentrate on youth development and invest in infrastructure instead of blowing their gate receipts on players wages.
I thinks clubs should concentrate more on self sustainability because at the moment it seems that one or two bad gates will really f*ck teams up.
Long Live King Kenny
Why is it still going a year after being first announced?
Why have the major clubs signed up?
Why is someone with a track record like Drury involved?
Why have the national footballing bodies moved their position from a flat no to not ruling it out to investigating the concept of an AIL?
1. + 2. Because the top clubs are as a rule overspending massively and are looking for a silver bullet solution to their unsustainable wagebills. Blaming the 65% rule or the FAI is really just an excuse.
3. Dunno much about his track record- what has he done?
4. They don't want to see a breakaway I guess, but they don't seem anywhere close to endorsing it.
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
Mea culpa; I mis-read your post as saying that football in Ireland was untenable, which opinion has been bandied about carelessly on this forum before.
However, although professional football here is obviously untenable for the moment, Bald Student's post -
...sums up my view on things as well. There's certainly nothing in the proposals which give the merest hint that they're realistic, or that they will do what 40 live games a season, summer soccer, European progress, MNS, CPOs, eL Weakly, professional football (such as we have) and relatively big named players have failed to do.
And for those who are using the A League in Australia as an example of what could happen, I'd like to counter with the New Zealand Football Championships, a new franchise league set up in 2004/05 in a country roughly Ireland's size where football isn't the number one sport. The league still hasn't taken off (the grand final last year got 3,800) and the game is roughly where it was beforehand.
I get the feeling that Derry fans are expecting to see Drury on the new series of Dragon's Den probably looking to get James Caan out with some help from John Hume
The Dragons will also be asked to play a 5 a-side friendly later in the year in the city.
Fintan Drury details from the Indo:
Age: 46
Job: Football agent. Chairman of Paddy Power Bookmakers. Chairman of Platinum One and director of Anglo Irish bank.
Full details here: http://www.independent.ie/business/i...cv-463060.htmlCareer: A former RTE journalist who switched sides and moved into the PR game. Drury sold his PR company to concentrate on sports management. The expanding business's clients range from Manchester United's Liam Miller to rugby international Gordon D'Arcy. He is also chairman of Paddy Power Bookmakers and a non-executive director of Anglo Irish Bank.
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
Rather than using the A league as a strict template I think there are a lot of lessons to learn from it, very similar set of circumstances with regard to league perception, genereal interest in the game and rival sports.
The New Zealand leauge is not one that I know a whole lot about but I do know the first ALeague franchise over there flopped big time, the replacement in Wellington is faring a whole lot better with average crowds in 5 figures.
I would think that the (relative) success of one club in a bigger league would have a detrimental effect on the domestic league. It supports the reasons why there was (quite rightly) such strong opposition to the various ideas of Dublin based teams for the EPL & SPL over the years.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
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