Almost Impossible Fixture Congestion - FAI Idiots!

**pete** · 10/10/2003, 1:17 PM

eL Premier fixtures left after this weekend.

Fri 17th Scheduled games
Mon 20th Scheduled games
Fri 24th Scheduled games
Mon 27th Available date
Fri 31st Scheduled games/Cup Final weekend
November
Mon/Tues 3rd/4th Scheduled games
Fri 7th Scheduled games
Mon 10 th Scheduled games
Fri 14th Scheduled games
Mon 17th Available date
Fri 21st Scheduled games
Mon 24th Available date
Fri 28th Scheduled games (last weekend!!!)

Heres the science...

Based on the assumption that teams should have 25 game played by tonight means that after this weekend:
- shels have 2 extra games to play
- Bohs will have 4 extra to play (1 cos of cup weekend)
- Pats will have 3 (1 cos of cup weekend)
- Longford will have 2 extra games to play (1 cos of cup weekend).
- Rovers will have 2 extra games to play (1 cos of Cup weekend)

I have even assumed that the Cup Final teams play on the tuesday after their Cup Final & no Cup Replay is needed. Any team in the Cup will have to play sunday, tuesday, friday as it stands.

Anyone want to suggest where Bohs find the extra date to play their last game??? Biscuit for the winner..

**Dodge** · 10/10/2003, 1:26 PM

Did this on our board. A cup replay would see see us play 4 games in a week somewhere...

tba H v Drogheda United
tba H v Longford Town
tba A v Shamrock Rovers

13.10 Mon A v UCD
17.10 Fri H v Bohemians
20.10 Mon H v Cork City
27.10 Sun N v Longford Town (Cup Final)
31.10 Fri H v Waterford United
04.11 Tue A v Derry City
07.11 Fri H v Shelbourne
11.11 Tue A v Drogheda United
15.11 Sat A v Longford Town
21.11 Fri H v UCD
28.11 Fri A v Bohemians

**Macy** · 10/10/2003, 1:35 PM

Bohs and Rovers can play Cup final weekend.....

We were due to play Bohs, Rovers were due to play Pats....

**liamon** · 10/10/2003, 3:41 PM

Originally posted by Dodge
Did this on our board. A cup replay would see see us play 4 games in a week somewhere...

tba H v Drogheda United
tba H v Longford Town
tba A v Shamrock Rovers

....
17.10 Fri H v Bohemians
20.10 Mon H v Cork City
...

Might I suggest the following
16.10 A v Rovers
18.10 H v Drogs
19.10 H v Longford

**pete** · 10/10/2003, 4:42 PM

Originally posted by Macy
Bohs and Rovers can play Cup final weekend.....

We were due to play Bohs, Rovers were due to play Pats....

Well done. Didn't spot that myself.

Still an unprecedented list of fixtures in last 7-8 weeks of the league.

I know there were european games & things but seems ludicrous for the FAI to schedule so many midweek (the monday ones) games at the end of the season. Surely must have been possible to slot some more into September.

My personal favourite is scheduling a round of midweek fixtures on the monday & tuesday after a sunday Cup Final.

A Cup Final replay or some bad weather (its November afterall) leading to postponements will probably mean league have to be extended.

**Dr.Nightdub** · 10/10/2003, 9:00 PM

From a purely selfish fan's point of view, a season extension would NOT be a problem - less time for football withdrawal to set in.

**Enda M** · 11/10/2003, 5:28 PM

why does the el not get a season out of the way without givin the league some type of a bad image.evry team'll have to play 2 a week at least

**ShelsTim** · 11/10/2003, 8:15 PM

How many midweek games were there between April and September? I can't seem to remember a huge amount of them, surely a load of them at the start or middle would be better, would help with the 'summer soccer' thing, more time to repair pitches, more time to allow for Cup/Euro postponments plus less chance of games being delayed through bad weather. Sometimes I wonder. When was the last time something like this happend to the FA in England?

**niamh** · 12/10/2003, 6:52 PM

Anybody looking at the fixtures before the season started could see there would be problems with congestion. There was no allowances for replays, European games or even at the start initially for the League Cup.

**Macy** · 13/10/2003, 8:35 AM

Originally posted by niamh
Anybody looking at the fixtures before the season started could see there would be problems with congestion. There was no allowances for replays, European games or even at the start initially for the League Cup.

Maybe they didn't allow for teams to postpone all their matches around European games, particularly fully professional "Big" clubs.... Also shels hardly helped by scheduling their Shligo replay for a Thursday, forcing the cancellation of their weekend fixture....

Obviously the league should've had more cop on, but don't remember anyone giving out when the fixture list was published, and whatever about the part time teams the fully pro teams should be able to play at the weekend during european football...

**Dodge** · 13/10/2003, 8:50 AM

Pats actually did complain at the start of the league. How hard was it to load the games at the tart of the season? At least next year will be the full league dates. Anyone got them?

**Macy** · 13/10/2003, 9:17 AM

Yeah, we should get a 3 year un-interupted run at summer football now..... Typical Kerr, always putting the eL first.....

No idea on dates, other than it's due to finish up with the Cup final on the bank holiday weekend....

**Dodge** · 13/10/2003, 10:02 AM

Which is a month earlier than this year. Which means even with a March star, we're still looking at the same time frame.

**pete** · 13/10/2003, 12:34 PM

Thought it particularily interesting to see the FAI basically saying they'd sort the Bohs/Pats games out after they returned from Basel. There was me thinking the eL was run by separate people from the international team...