Airtiricity League XI v Manchester United confirmed for Aviva Stadium on August 4

[pineapple stu]

Except I was talking about the 12-team division where you have 16 or 17 home games and 16 or 17 away games, adding up to 33 in total...

Also, the rest of ye don't pay grants; students get grants.

Anything else you want to get wrong today?

[bennocelt]

The FAI subsidises the league to the tune of millions every year - the money IS re-directed into the league.

Doh..................thats what they should be doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[WoodquayBoy]

Except I was talking about the 12-team division where you have 16 or 17 home games and 16 or 17 away games, adding up to 33 in total...

Also, the rest of ye don't pay grants; students get grants.

Anything else you want to get wrong today?

And whwere does the grant money come from, thin air?!?! Taxes my man, taxes. Fair enough, take your clarificaiton on the 12 team division thing

[peadar1987]

Here's a bit of a crazy idea: an LOI XI play Rangers during the SPL's winter break. It doesn't clash with any league fixtures, the LOI side have plenty of time to train together and put in a decent performance, the barstoolers will actually rally behind the LOI side as opposed to firmly against them, Rangers get a cut of the gate receipts to help pay off their massive debts, and keep the team in match practice for the second half of the SPL season. Everybody happy!

[Lim till i die]

Question: Does Uefa have any set guidelines for how your league should be structured??

[marinobohs]

Here's a bit of a crazy idea: an LOI XI play Rangers during the SPL's winter break. It doesn't clash with any league fixtures, the LOI side have plenty of time to train together and put in a decent performance, the barstoolers will actually rally behind the LOI side as opposed to firmly against them, Rangers get a cut of the gate receipts to help pay off their massive debts, and keep the team in match practice for the second half of the SPL season. Everybody happy!

Emmmmmm as someone who attended the Bohs/Rangers match in dalymount all those years ago I would happily wait as long again before "welcoming" them back (think Manchester may share similar view)

[dcfcsteve]

Here's a bit of a crazy idea: an LOI XI play Rangers during the SPL's winter break. It doesn't clash with any league fixtures, the LOI side have plenty of time to train together and put in a decent performance, the barstoolers will actually rally behind the LOI side as opposed to firmly against them, Rangers get a cut of the gate receipts to help pay off their massive debts, and keep the team in match practice for the second half of the SPL season. Everybody happy!

So we're now stooping to arranging fixtures against opposition primarily on the basis of how much the Irish people dislike them...?

We may as well play a Fianna Fail or Paedophiles XI.......

[Réiteoir]

So we're now stooping to arranging fixtures against opposition primarily on the basis of how much the Irish people dislike them...?

We may as well play a Fianna Fail or Paedophiles XI.......

The away side can have Hooperman as their mascot if that game ever came about

[pixiehead]

Here's a bit of a crazy idea: an LOI XI play Rangers during the SPL's winter break. It doesn't clash with any league fixtures, the LOI side have plenty of time to train together and put in a decent performance, the barstoolers will actually rally behind the LOI side as opposed to firmly against them, Rangers get a cut of the gate receipts to help pay off their massive debts, and keep the team in match practice for the second half of the SPL season. Everybody happy!

I actually think you have a good idea there

[sligo23]

We may as well play a Fianna Fail or Paedophiles XI.......

Get the Vantican City football team over so?

[Charlie Darwin]

So we're now stooping to arranging fixtures against opposition primarily on the basis of how much the Irish people dislike them...?

We may as well play a Fianna Fail or Paedophiles XI.......

Gary Glitter could perform at half time!

[dcfcsteve]

A paedophile Vatican Select XI should take on Young Boys (of Berne).....

[Lim till i die]

The away side can have Hooperman as their mascot if that game ever came about

Paedo The Limerick Lion would have a thing or two to say about that.

[peadar1987]

So we're now stooping to arranging fixtures against opposition primarily on the basis of how much the Irish people dislike them...?

We may as well play a Fianna Fail or Paedophiles XI.......

Well the fact is that the money the friendlies generate is needed by the FAI, and I'd prefer it if they also gave exposure to the domestic game. Obviously I'd love it if Europe's biggest clubs were lining up to play our domestic sides and league select, but the fact is they're not, so if we're going to have to find teams to play us, they might as well be teams the Irish public are still going to pay to see, but who wouldn't generate the kind of sick spectacle we saw last week.

[Dodge]

Obviously I'd love it if Europe's biggest clubs were lining up to play our domestic sides and league select, but the fact is they're not,

Eveyr one of them would play if they got the srt of money Man Utd did. Do you think they did for the love of Irish football?

[peadar1987]

Eveyr one of them would play if they got the srt of money Man Utd did. Do you think they did for the love of Irish football?

Ah Dodge, you're putting words into my mouth now. We have to fill Lansdowne Road for friendlies, we have to pay teams to do it, and if we're going to do that, I'd prefer the crowd were cheering the Irish side instead of the foreign one.

[dcfcsteve]

Obviously I'd love it if Europe's biggest clubs were lining up to play our domestic sides and league select, but the fact is they're not,

So Real Madrid didn't play Shamrock Rovers last season, and that whole Limerick-Barcelona furore recently was just a bad dream.....?

[peadar1987]

So Real Madrid didn't play Shamrock Rovers last season, and that whole Limerick-Barcelona furore recently was just a bad dream.....?

Touché. But the point still stands that the FAI need to make the money back for Lansdowne, and that the cheapest team that will fill the ground for a friendly is going to make the most money. Also, the less likely that team is to leech support away from the domestic league the better. I think Rangers tick all those boxes.

[Lim till i die]

I think Rangers tick all those boxes.

Security issues alone mean this is nonsense.

Also you could give away tickets for free and you wouldn't fill the Aviva for Rangers v Rico XI.

You'll see some big big clubs in the Aviva over the next few years. Rangers wont be one of them and the LoI wont benefit a jot from it.

[DannyInvincible]

I think Rangers tick all those boxes.

I can't believe you're repeating this in seriousness. Are you aware of the negative publicity such a fixture would generate for the FAI; inviting a team over on sectarian undertones with the expectation that the Irish public would come out in their droves to support the Irish side merely as a convenient by-product of offloading their much stronger hatred of Rangers? I mean, seriously? That's assuming that the Irish public would even care enough about the exploits of Glasgow Rangers to come out in numbers and unleash this supposed "hate".

I read the Northern Ireland fan forum, OWC, now and again, generally to follow what the latest is in the line of ignorance and bile being spouted from that side of the fence regarding the whole international eligibility saga that went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport recently, and the FAI are lambasted as a sectarian organisation day in and day out there for simply calling up northern-born Irish nationals. Whilst I don't see such a practice as sectarian in the slightest, for the FAI to organise a fixture like what you're suggesting would have these types creaming themselves as they'd actually have a serious point to make; that being the shameful sectarianisation of a "friendly" fixture. Not that I'm even suggesting the FAI would entertain your idea anyway; it's an outrageous proposal all round.

Besides, as 'dcfcsteve' says above, stooping to arrange a game against opposition based on how much Irish people are perceived to dislike them would be altogether more farcical than the sorry Manchester United affair we witnessed last week.