That was brave!!
No way would there be '100%' trouble or no more than there would when Shamrock Rovers/Cork were visiting!!. That said even a minor incident between a Northern and Southern club would be escalated to beyond BS in the media so hence the need to be overly cautious. A single Dundalk (insert any club here) muppet could derail the possibility of an AIL which would be ironic as said muppet would likely be a raging republican shouting about unification. There were no issues at any of the Setanta Cup games that Dundalk were involved in bar the big love in between some Dundalk and Cliftonville fans in the Lilywhite Lounge which was nauseating stuff!
It must have changed from my days at UU then so. Good thing obviously but we never dared venture far out of Portstewert of Portrush!!
Dont think my liver was unscathed. They were not towns mid 90s lol. Portstewert was a little less hassle due to not having to run the Dhu Varren gauntlet!!
IFA say NO AIL. Debate over for now.
IFA are not having it: https://twitter.com/StevenBeacom5/st...23200060268551
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
The Irish Football Association has confirmed that it will not sanction any of its member clubs to take part in an all-island (All-Ireland) Football*League*as proposed by*Irish*businessman Kieran Lucid.
Having listened to the proposals from Mr Lucid and his team,*we believe the best interests of our member clubs and football in Northern Ireland are better served by remaining with the club-led model established in 2013 via the Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL)*
NIFL has gone from strength to strength since its inception in 2013 and continues to attract increased sponsorship and funding.*
The present distribution model, unanimously agreed by all clubs, ensures*all 12 teams in the Danske Bank Premiership*benefit from*the*prize fund.
This has created a*balanced league which has seen*a*substantial increase in attendances, awareness and television coverage. The potential income figures quoted in Mr Lucid’s proposals are highly speculative and lack specificity or guarantees.
UEFA competition places, prize monies and youth solidarity funding are important to our clubs and we do not wish to put these in question.
We*greatly*value our association and*club links with the Football Association of Ireland and are happy to both take part in, and enhance, cross-border*cup competitions at all levels.*
We already have the*new Unite the Union*Champions’ Cup,*played*for*between the champions of the Irish League*and*League of Ireland,*the Presidents’ Cup*for Junior sides*in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland*and a*proposed*new intermediate level competition.
I wonder is this an attempt to kick Lucid into gear with further, more immediate, details?
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
In fairness getting buy in from the IFA or FAI to let their clubs bugger off from their leagues was always gonna be a long shot. The plan always seemed to be to get the clubs onside first and worry about the logistics later.
Always going to be a long shot, and to be honest there is a massive amount of work needs to be done before anyone could buy into a AIL. All we can hope is that now the debate has begun that the work needed can be started.
It s vital to the success of the project that an AIL is a well thought out and properly structured league before it commences.Starting with some half baked, warmed up Setanta cup with a 'fix it as we go' mentality is likely to put a proper AIL back decades.
The key line in the statement.
"The potential income figures quoted in Mr Lucid’s proposals are highly speculative and lack specificity or guarantees."
If you can't get past that point, you are going nowhere and that's what happened.
Not entirely surprising to be fair.
Would the same sponsors not be interested in getting involved in the LoI, even at a reduced rate? Put foundations in place and then build on it.
What will happen with the 2 associations when eventually the country reunites, this will happen at some stage, hopefully before i check out.
https://twitter.com/ballymenaunited/...289531392?s=21
Any hope of the northern clubs defying the IFA extinguished.
Plan dead and buried before it got going. Shame to see. Hard to see how either league will become anything more than they currently are.
But how would the Lucid plan have made the league anything more than it is?
The actuality of it, not the marketing-speak of it. The sentence quoted above is very significant -
"The potential income figures quoted in Mr Lucid’s proposals are highly speculative and lack specificity or guarantees."
It's not an encouraging statement at all. And one that's all too familiar in the LoI.
I suppose it allowed fantasists and dreamers have a degree of optimism about the future. Looking at it from a romantic perspective.
Now we can go back to wallowing in the mediocrity of going from one format to another.
Even the perceived optimism around the underage restricting is now turned on its head with 75% of players born in 2006 being released from LOI clubs to drop back in to schoolboy football.
A shiny and fresh new idea breathed some life into hopes for the league for some, back to the miserable reality now instead!
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