It is interfering in the independence of members and decision-making though. And it's also simply not something the Government should be interfering in. The Sports Minister typically barely knows a thing about sport (not necessarily a bad thing), so for the Government to be imposing strategic decisions on sporting organisations should be an obvious no-no. Not to mention that you haven't addressed why you think the problem with the FAI making the decision (it's "a representative body, with the people affected by this having votes") doesn't apply to the Government (which is also a representative body, with the people affected by this having votes)
What's my solution? Change has to come from inside. What's going to drive that change? I don't know. I don't see any reason we won't be discussing this matter in 10-15 years' time to be quite honest. I do think that a decline in people playing 11-a-side is going to force some leagues into crisis talks as numbers shrink, and that may start something. But mergers of leagues is one thing; we still have to get over the most idiotically short-sighted decision the FAI has ever made, which is summer soccer. That's a big hurdle.
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