FAI to look at return to winter football

[BohDiddley]

Crowds in Norway have doubled.

How? Solely on the basis of restructuring?

[ShnaeGuevara715]

Well, i think its that the average went up because theyre not playing the smaller clubs, like how average of the LoI will go up without ucd etc. The standard was a bit higher without the weaker teams (despite the repetitive fixture list), quality got better, bit more dosh. Rosenborg cracked champions league, more investment, better players, squad, exposure, interest, bigger turn out blah blah blah.

Upward spiral i guess? Obviously it'll be what the FAI is hoping for here in the long run... but is their analysis too simplistic, will it work as well here?

[John83]

Well, i think its that the average went up because theyre not playing the smaller clubs, like how average of the LoI will go up without ucd etc. ...

Every now and then, I feel a twinge of guilt about dancing on the graves of Dublin City, Shels, Drogheda, Cork, Bohs, Galway and all of the other ****-ant clubs who have a fundamental misunderstanding of budgeting which has or will eventually cost them their fixed assets and finally their very existence. There are decent people who follow all of these clubs, except maybe for Drogheda (the only nice people I've ever met from Drogheda have turned out to be natives of Meath), and I take no pleasure in their pain when their clubs suddenly announce that actually, running a huge loss while in debt may not actually be the finest business plan ever determined. And then I get a reminder. And so, this reminds me of an old Simpsons quote, because pretty much everything does.

"Oh gosh. You know, I'm not much on speeches, but it's so gratifying to... leave you wallowing in the mess you've made. You're screwed, thank you, bye."

Enjoy playing in a field somewhere in the wilds of north Dublin, dreaming of being Rosenborg.

[jebus]

Maybe it's cause I support a First Division club (although that doesn't seem to be stopping others) but am I the only one who doesn't give a crap when it comes to European results?

I may be more inclined to think about them if we had a fully functioning league that was beginning to capture the minds of the fickle Irish sports fan, but we don't, so I'm more concerned with that, and to that extent I don't think we're ready for winter football, although I would love to see us change back once the stadia are up to scratch, regardless of what our European brothers are doing, because I do think it is engrained in the minds of the public that the football season runs alongside the school year, but until the stadia are capable of providing even basic shelter it's a non runner for me

[osarusan]

"Oh gosh. You know, I'm not much on speeches, but it's so gratifying to... leave you wallowing in the mess you've made. You're screwed, thank you, bye."

Do-do-dee-do-do-de-do.

[Scrufil]

In reality we don't have Summer soccer in Ireland. Last I checked the season starts in Spring, goes through Summer and Autumn and ends in Winter! Alls we need to do is move the season kick-off back one month (or is it forward one month? I always get confused when the clocks change!) and then the winter football period will be longer and we still have 'Summer soccer'.

If you really like change the Cup final could be played on New Year's day or Midsummer's Night but that is a whole new debate.

[John83]

If you really like change the Cup final could be played on New Year's day or Midsummer's Night but that is a whole new debate.

How about the winter solstace? We could time kickoff to coincide with the light reaching the chamber in Newgrange. It'd be early enough to keep the gardaí happy too.

[Scrufil]

How about the winter solstace? We could time kickoff to coincide with the light reaching the chamber in Newgrange. It'd be early enough to keep the gardaí happy too.

Yeah that might work but to give it extra vibes the football would have to pass through a special fire on the Hill of Tara first!

[John83]

Yeah that might work but to give it extra vibes the football would have to pass through a special fire on the Hill of Tara first!

It'd be worth it, just to see the reaction when we apply for planning permission for a stadium on Tara.

[Scrufil]

We can base the planning permission on the fact that the great hall of Tara was actually a entertainment venue and we are reviving the ancient tradition.

[dcfcsteve]

In reality we don't have Summer soccer in Ireland. Last I checked the season starts in Spring, goes through Summer and Autumn and ends in Winter! Alls we need to do is move the season kick-off back one month (or is it forward one month? I always get confused when the clocks change!) and then the winter football period will be longer and we still have 'Summer soccer'.

I feel this should make sense, but somehow it doesn't.

You do realise that any normal football league will last longer than 3 months, and therefore stretch across more than one season....?

If you want to be pedantic, November is in Autumn, not Winter - whereas moving season's start back to February WOULD include Winter in the scheule, which we don't have currently...

[noby]

If you want to be pedantic, November is in Autumn, not Winter - whereas moving season's start back to February WOULD include Winter in the scheule, which we don't have currently...

When I were a lad we were thought that November was in winter, and February in spring. When did this change?

[pineapple stu]

Random fact - Ireland is the only country in the world with the seasons correct. November is in winter here, and 1 February is the first day of spring. Every other country in the northern hemisphere has winter starting in December (it starts getting wierd once you go down south). The difference is that in Ireland, going back to Celtic times, we've timed the seasons so that the solstices and equinoces are mid-season, which makes sense; elsewhere, those dates mark the change of the season, which doesn't really make sense.

In short, Steve is, in fact, wrong. How he reacts to this event is anyone's guess. Stringent denial including numerous embarrassed or mocking smileys is my guess.

[BulmersKid]

November is in winter here,

northern hemisphere has winter starting in November

Isn't this jsut the same or am I missing something

[Réiteoir]

Wales are definitely looking at summer football aswell, so theres plenty of arguments on either side being made by them folk too.

I can see the smaller north european leagues all moving towards this actually. First Scandinavia, Russia, then ourselves, maybe northern ireland eventually in some all Ireland thing and now Wales. Though the Old Firm would probably never let it happen, its always debated in Scotland http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/scotland/7777792.stm

Surely if these are the teams in our draw that we'd come across in Europe, the northern region, then we shouldnt disadvantage ourselves on sporting grounds.

Also especially seeing as though the main outside investment coming into the league is with the view to using our door to the champions league, realistic or not, nothing should be done to diminish that flank of investment.

Stick with it i say, making the commute on public transport to stadia is a lot more pleasant in months that arent december, january lol

(just quickly researching it, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia play with 10 team summer(8 for lithuania) football prem divisions which is also the model that wales is looking at, same model the danish prem started with. The scandinavian leagues (and scotland) started with 10 then expanded as they grew in quality. This is obviously the longterm model the fai is looking at, and in general, it actually seems to work in long term. Crowds in Norway have doubled. Even copied the setanta cup thing. Belarus does summer footie too. Funny enough the Ukraine prem has a 3month winter break but only 1 month between seasons lol)

Summer football has always been in place in Norway due to the weather (iirc it was -10 and heavy snow in parts of Oslo last week, which is normal for this time of year) - the leap in crowds was due to the League being rebranded in 1990 as the Tippeligaen (it's first ever sponsor) along with a TV deal signed by Canal+ and TV2 to show a minimum of two live games a weekend from the Premier.

I quite like the Norwegian Premier - you get good crowds in fairly decent sized stadia (smallest is 7,500 up in Bodo, all the way up to 25,500 at the National Stadium) - and hopefully I'll be getting a season card for Valerenga in April!

[Réiteoir]

How? Solely on the basis of restructuring?

They've only done any wholesale restructuring for the 2009 season with the expansion of the Premier from 14 clubs to 16 clubs.

Attenadnces since the renaming to the Tippeligaen in 1990:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tippeligaen#Attendance

[pineapple stu]

Isn't this jsut the same or am I missing something

Doh!

Meant December. Post edited to make sense.

[Candystripe]

Well in Derry our summer is normally 4 days in the middle of May,Autumm is mid May to mid August and the rest is winter.

We don't have a springtime up here.

[passerrby]

Well in Derry our summer is normally 4 days in the middle of May,Autumm is mid May to mid August and the rest is winter.

We don't have a springtime up here.

hate to dispute your figure candy but four days of summer up there is a bit of an exageration

[osarusan]

Clearly we need a 10 team league,36 games,playing big clubs week in week out.Attracting good crowds.Simple as.

Good God man, you're at it again.

If attracting good crowds was "simple as", we'd be doing it now.

How would you choose those ten clubs? Based on population? Would Limerick (who surely have the worst attendances per population ratio in the league) be one of those teams?

Please explain how you plan to increase the crowds. When, for example, Pats play Bohs (I'm assuming they will be 2 of your 'big clubs'), how are you going to raise the attendances from what they are now?