QuoteIt must be nearly time to dust of the All Ireland League thread as well
Originally Posted by GUFCghost
It must be nearly time to dust of the All Ireland League thread as well
No way. Did they try get some Dublin team to play in England before? Awful idea.
Ya it has worked in rugby but too many people only care about what they can get out of it in soccer and watch their own backs.
Is there any rule where lets say anybody under the age of 18 that is being signed to an English or forgiven club must have an FAI official in the presence? Cause I think there should be. There should be somebody within in the FAI who's sole job is to make sure young fellas and their parents are protected and are not having their heads filled with notions and promises the clubs will most likely never full fill. Somebody that has been involved in grassroots football, and or has experience playing both here and abroad if possible.
Last edited by Jofspring; 16/02/2012 at 8:36 PM.
I'd presume the OP is joking alright. All around the world there are clubs for towns, cities, parts of cities and regions. There could be a place for provincial teams of sorts outside of current areas and cities. If there was a plan for regions without a club though, there could be a place for a Connaught team for the areas outside of Sligo and Galway, possibly a South Leinster team for that area without an LoI representative. I wouldn't be for any of this I have to stress though.There are four pro rugby franchises as you call them Munster, Leinster, Ulster, Connacht, not two. All have fully professional players playing in fully professional leagues. It has had a huge affect on the grassroots too. In a positive way it has got way more kids wanting to play rugby and be professional at it and in a negative way it has destroyed in my opinion the Ulster Bank League. The standard of it is poor compared to even 5 or 6 years ago with most top players taken away to the 4 provincial teams as soon as they show any kind of promise with more academies, A teams, development teams etc.. now being formed within the provinces. The attendances have steadily dropped barr a few games a year.
On what the OP is saying, I presume its a joke.
The league in terms of clubs is grand as it is, could just do with a few more clubs really is all.
If someone want to discuss franchises, I'd break it down that if for some reason that road was to be taken, every city would have a team, current established LoI clubs would have a place. What'd be looked at then is areas with no team. You'd be looking at the Tipperary side of Munster, Kerry along with west Limerick and Cork, 3 counties in Connaught, and two areas, one for north and south Leinster. It would never take off. Waste of a discussion but pointing it out none the less.
https://foot.ie/forums/117-Kerry-FC
A Championship: 4 years - 8 first teams - 0 financially ruined. First Division '14: 7 first teams.
Opportunity lost for new clubs/regions to join the LoI family.
Jofspring, I don't know about having an FAI official present (I've never heard of this happening) but there would probably be something about freedom of movement thrown into it. Right now players are not allowed to move outside their area under the age of 16, let alone country, but we all know what happens with big clubs - the parents "find" work near the club and move, how else are 12 and 13 year old Spanish kids signing for Chelsea.
There needs to be something done about this player drain and it has to be (jesus I'm saying this again) top down - bottom up. The clubs and FAI need to get together and figure what is best for the whole football family, as mad as that sounds. Right now our company is working on a project for a pro club here and the problem is this - the club, which is the top level of football in the city and region, set up a few years ago football "schools" along the GAA parish model. They took control of old factory/industry based football clubs which were struggling to survive and have developed 7 schools to feed up to the pro side and it's reserves. However none of the schools co-operate, they sell players at the age of 15 and 16 to bigger clubs and actively discourage the young players from signing pro terms with the top side (there are reasons for this but even without such excuses they do it anyway). Now this is in a city of 700,000, with one big pro club. It's almost unimaginable to think of how anything can be done for Ireland.
Now is the best time for the FAI to promote that. We have qualified for a major championship and ex-LoI players are involved in that success. There should be a promotion campaign using these players to highlight the talent that is in the league.At the moment more and more LOI players seem to be coming through the right way and making a name for themselves here before moving over. The FAI need to be pushing this more I think. Most barstoolers hadn't even heard of James McClean a few months ago but now they are up in arms over how he should be in the national team. Not long ago they could have gone to the likes of the Brandywell, Jackman, Turners Cross etc… to see this same player. The FAI need to push that the future of Irish football, the future premier league stars, the future International stars are being developed right here in Ireland. If the top talent is kept here for as long as possible I have no doubt the standard in the league will keep rising and the teams may even start getting the right money for their talent that they deserve. If a club can get decent money for even one or two of its players that can set them up for a whole season or go towards ground development. It would be a snow ball affect. The FAI though seem to be happy enough to keep allowing players head over to the UK and be used and tossed aside when not needed.
Thats my little rant for the evening over
I don't see a problem with players looking to go abroad as long as clubs are getting a good deal. There's never going to be big money is this league but there will be enough for a pro set-up.
https://foot.ie/forums/117-Kerry-FC
A Championship: 4 years - 8 first teams - 0 financially ruined. First Division '14: 7 first teams.
Opportunity lost for new clubs/regions to join the LoI family.
Don't forget Road Bowling. I came across this last weekend and there were more people watching it than at many LOI matches.
Well the "grassroots" in schoolboy football are a major part of the problem. I'd agree with some kind of FAI rep, but I can't see the schoolboy affiliates representing the "nursery" clubs (who actually have more power than the LoI in the FAI) voting for christmas.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
its quite popular in North and East Cork alright!
Galwegians won't support anything,they'll go to see galway v mayo and connacht v munster,but thats about it.Sligo is the capital of connacht in football.They have had a League of Ireland team for ages and its well supported.
oh boy I'm not good at football forums
Sure if you're all on for franchises you'll have no problem supporting SD Galway then (although I'm pretty sure you're pulling the **** - at least I hope you are)
Yet you want to base the Connacht rugby team in Sligo? Thanks for that. Great idea.
The provincial system will never work for domestic football. As I've said before, to tear barstoolers away from slavish devotion to the English leagues, there would have to be instant success in Europe, we're talking Champions' League group stages at the very minimum. You'd need a squad of at least 20 top class players to do that, which would cost upwards of £300 million just on transfer fees, and perhaps another £150 million on wages each year. That's per province, so you'd have spent perhaps £1.8 billion just getting barstoolers through the turnstiles.
Instant international success in rugby in an era when the sport had only just become professional only cost a tiny fraction of what it would in football.
Far better not to compete with the EPL on their own terms, trying to be "the greatest league in the world", we'd be better off spending a few million a season on advertising the LOI as a unique product, which belongs to the fans and people of the local area. It works to get people on terraces for the GAA, no reason it shouldn't work to some degree in the LOI. And it would cost a lot less than £1.8 billion.
Edit: As for the all-Ireland league (and I know ger121's comment was tongue-in-cheek), it's not a panacaea, and would have the exact same problems as two separate leagues. The only situation in which I could see myself getting fully behind the idea would be if there was a firm plan and committment from the FAI and the clubs towards a massive promotion and "relaunch" of the league. In that situation, the creation of an all-Ireland league could be a great hook and promotional tool, but not much more.
Last edited by peadar1987; 18/02/2012 at 10:40 AM.
Peadar, you're right about the instant success, but it costs a heck of a lot less than that. Europa League group stages are within reach, CL can be done with a solid full time team. But it'll take a very good coach and a team consisting of only 4-5 Irish/British players, the rest need to be from around the world. Irish clubs are reluctant to bring in higher quality players for a couple of reasons - 1. would they be tough enough for a wet Friday night in Tolka, 2. it costs the same to get in an inferior local player - but you know what he's capable of. Most importantly, there is very little in the way of youth systems in any club to have the requisite back up and catchment to take advantage of the exposure and financial windfall.
And on top of those telephone numbers, don't forget the 500,000 million or so needed to build four stadia (land, construction, consultants, nice padded chairs facing the big screens in the corporate boxes....)
Like Spud says, Peadar, you don't need that much money to break into Europe (not that that's ever stopped LoI clubs from living the impossible dream...) But, if you have that kind of money to throw around, you'd get a much better return by spending €10-15m on each club's ground. You'd get a few tidy all-seated grounds for that, and you'd still have change to invest in training facilities and revenue generating projects. Now, where did I put Ajai Chopra's phone number...?
If you've only got a couple of million in the slush fund, then promoting the league on its own merits is, as you say, the best thing to do. Heck, you can get very good coverage using creativity and a good public relations campaign, which would cost a fraction of a marketing and advertising campaign. At the moment, there's too little promotion at the top level, and the clubs can't do anything other than promote themselves within the obvious limitation of their expertise and resources.
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
Obviously this is just an opinion, but I don't think the Europa League group stages would cut it for the committed barstooler. It would have to be Champions League, and it would have to be a solid showing in the group stages, and it would have to be regular. Until the side got established, it would have to rely on getting people through the gates for big games in the CL, and gradually trying to convince them to come back for games against Kilmarnock, or Barry Town. A season without CL would be a disaster for such a model of club.
I think concentrating on the barstooler is wrong. The target area is families, young females and males. The EL will bring enough glamour for them, they're not expecting miracles from their day out, only a good time, the barstooler will always moan and find somewhere else to go. Lowest hanging fruit is what's needed - fans of other sports, young unattached family groups. Get them in and keep them in.
Good point. They shouldn't be ignored, because there are, unfortunately, a lot of them out there, but it would be daft putting all the LOI's eggs on the one barstool. The clubs should be focusing on attracting the groups you mentioned, any barstooler who wouldn't be attracted by the same sorts of things as them might eventually be attracted by the success increased crowds and advertising revenue would bring.
Barstoolers are a lost cause. You need to build a future fanbase around the kids. Get them into LOI football good and early. You can convince the parents to bring them if the match day atmosphere is suitable, if grounds are family friendly. Get the kids in and they'll soon be glued to whats happening. It's the live football atmosphere that gets them.
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