This is a strang strange country we live in absolutly no sign of common sense...again. How do such idiots have all the power. There HAS to be at least at 14 team premier or the league is f*cked
I still think the league should go with the 16 team Premier. By the looks of things, they were only looking to include the five A Championship clubs in regional first division below it. I think they can only promote two max to a national league at the moment.
Right I'm sick of this bull from the FAI.
there has to be some mad reason that this is a goer in there minds. Surely they can't ber all that ****ing thick.
I think the NLEC are blinded by english footabll and their hopes to emulate it and therefore this attempt to have some sort of pyramid sytem is what's going to kill us.
A 16 team premier and a lower division with CLEAR access and a path from the provinces is what we need. No more. No less.
I am kinda open to regional leagues. It does not matter if we have straightforward relegation from the lower league or not and why we think we do I don't understand. We need to be radical but we need to be radical with an idea that will work otherwise it's in vain.
The calendar needs to be standarised (not with the lower leagues just amongst the LOI) so that for example where England is good we can replicate. We all know that St Stephen's Day and New Years Day are important league days in England along with the first weekend in January which is an FA Cup weekend. We should be aiming to emulate these sorts of things which will bring bigger exposure to the league. Eg. St Stephen's Day fixtures could be a rivals weekend: Bohs v Shams, Shels v Pats, Derry v Harps, Sligo v Galway, Cork v Waterford, Longford v Athlone etc. Lack of consistency is what kills the LOI. This is not the be all and end all. But these are just things I've noticed with other sports and it is the big connections amongst them all.
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I think the big issue too is that 36 games are too much and with League Cup and FAI Cup added in it means that there are too many weeks with midweek games.
Given the economic situation we are really only looking at part time players so those that are also working full time will find it extremely difficult to get off work to play midweek games.
Keeping the figure arouond 30 games is ideal so the season is not compromised in any way and the amount of midweek games is dramatically reduced.
I think there is also the issue of the midseason break - there was never one during winter football when it was probably more justified! Why stop in the middle of summer!!!
That's selective quoting Kev. And also horrendous spelling and grammar from me.
I think the NLEC are blinded by english footabll and their hopes to emulate it and therefore this attempt to have some sort of pyramid sytem is what's going to kill us.In other words take what's good from England (and anywhere else for that matter) and leave them with stuff that won't/doesn't work (35+ games in a league season, pyramid system, League Cup). I don't see how else I could explain that?The calendar needs to be standarised...so that for example where England is good we can replicate.
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Just looking at the regionalised first division, this is how it would look at the moment, promoting Derry and Monaghan and saving Drogheda:
North
A.N. Other FC
Athlone Town
Castlebar Celtic
Finn Harps
Longford Town
Mervue United
Salthill Devon
Tullamore Town
South:
Cobh Ramblers
Cork City
FC Carlow
Limerick FC
Shelbourne
Tralee Dynamos
Waterford United
Wexford Youths
They both would look like very weak sections.
[QUOTE=BonnieShels;1428898]Right I'm sick of this bull from the FAI.
there has to be some mad reason that this is a goer in there minds. Surely they can't ber all that ****ing thick.
Maybe the FAI have some secret 3rd party agreement where they have to have a crappy league![]()
A few things can be gathered from the meeting.
- The proposed 12 team Premier still has sides playing 4 times in the league and it has not got much support.
- Division One clubs left behind do not want to be in a regional league.
- They are not looking to promote any A Championship sides to a national league.
As a result:
- They should go with a 14 or 16 team Premier.
- At most only 2 clubs will be invited to a national First Division from the A Championship.
- Division One likely to remain a national league with 8 or 10 clubs.
You're making a helluva lot of assumptions there based on 2nd and third hand reports
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It's what I can see happening anyway. I can't see there being more than 24 national league clubs. I can't see 20 of the current 22 national league clubs looking to play in a regional set-up. If the Premier becomes a 14 or 16 club division, the remainder would have to fill Division One unless they do agree to the regional format.
I found my mental LOI reorganisation that I did a year ago. It was not feasible but looking at it again there are some ideas I think are radical and feasible and in fact would solve some of the problems that we come up with every so often. whilst it's not a conclusive solution to the problems I think that some of the ideas could be embraced. I also am aware that we are not the NLEc or the FAI but it's better that the ideas are out in the domain of foot.ie rather than stuck on my hdd.
I have to sort it out into notepad so bear with me and I will get it up ASAP.
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Premier Division: 14 teams Home and Away
Bohs
Bray
Cork
Derry
Monaghan United
Dundalk
Galway
Shams
Shels
Sligo
Fingal
Pats
Waterford
First Division: 14 teams Home and Away
Limerick
Drogheda
Wexford Youths
Finn Harps
Longford
Athlone
Salthill
Mervue
Connacht/Ulster Winner
Connacht/Ulster Runner-up
Leinster Winner
Leinster Runner-up
Munster Winner
Munster Runner-up
Regional Divisions:
Connacht/Ulster 8 teams
Leinster 8 teams
Munster 8 teams
Cups:
FAI Cup: All clubs in Ireland. (Preliminary rounds required, open-draw). Round 1 of 32.
League Cup: All PD and FD clubs from that season (Preliminary rounds required, open-draw). Round 1 of 16.
European places:
PD 1st: Champions League
PD 2nd: Europa League
PD 3rd v 4th v 5th v League Cup Winner: Europa League
FAI Cup Winner: Europa League
In the plan there would be a regional round robin in December/January with each team in each regional division playing each other once. The winner and runner-up will be deemed promoted to the FD for the forthcoming season. At the end of the season there would be 6 relegations back to the appropriate regions for the following season's round robin. The teams in each region would be nominated by the appropriate provincial FA based on certain criteria such as performance etc.
If for example Cherry Orchard were promoted from the Leinster region and finished in 8th at the end of the FD season and Salthill finished in 9th then Salthill would be deemed relegated back to their region, ie. Connacht. Some rejigging a la Blue Square North and South would be required.
Relegation from PD: 13th and 14th
Promotion from FD: 1st and 2nd
The calendar would need to be developed in a nice neat fashion and in a way where we can expect certain things to happen as a given on certain days, eg. 2nd Saturday in February big-kick off game in Lansdowne between x and y a la the FAI Cup final this season to encourage a launch feeling and then the next day have the rest of the clubs play their first round games then revert to Friday night schedule as normal with a televised game on Saturday evening, have a rivalry round scenario on the May bank holiday weekend, October Bank Holiday Sunday can be League Cup Final day etc.
Anyway that was the gist.
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I'm not for BonnieShels plan anyway.
6 relegations from the First Division is a bit much. If anything, the bottom two sides in Division One should be feeding to a league with two regional groups below it.
From these two regional leagues then, the bottom 2 or 3 in each group of the leagues, 4 or 6 in total, would be relegated to the provincial league or whatever is below them.
On the subject of the 12 team division.
1. Shamrock Rovers ... Champions League
2. Bohemians ... Europa League
3. Sligo Rovers ... Europa League Play-off
4. St Patricks Athletic ... Europa League Play-off
5. Sporting Fingal FC ... Europa League Play-off
6. Dundalk ... Europa League Play-off
-----------------------------------------
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7. UCD ... Europa League Play-off
8. Galway United ... Europa League Play-off
9. Bray Wanderers
10. Drogheda United
11. Derry City ... Relegation/Promotion Play-off
12. Waterford United ... Relegation
I'm not for this format but if they decide to press on with this format of a split, there'll have to be some carrot for finishing high up in the second section. This can be provided by way of a Europa League play-off. It's what they're doing in Wales. The Netherland have Europa League play-offs as well.
Wales have a messy format where 5 are involved. What the LoI could do is, have 5th play 8th and 6th play 7th in a one off game. If the FAI Cup winner is in the top 8, 9th place would qualify for the play-offs.
In the next round then 3rd play lowest ranked side and 4th play second lowest ranked side in a one off game. The play-off final then should be played over two-legs.
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