format is good now except

[anto eile]

No, it's a load of crap. What if Shels win the league by a point over Cork, having played them twice home and once away? Is that fair? Is that a true reflection of the strenghts of both sides? No, one side gets an unfair advantage, so what's the bloody point in a league table if it isn't? The league table in this case does lie. 3 games is a joke.

it might be a valid argument if you had to play in front of an 80,000 crowd of nutcases in a big league.but in the EL i dont agree with the home advantage/away disadvantage. i mean its hardly intimidating for cork to travel to tolka and play in front 1600 people is it. thats just a pathetic ready made excuse imo

[mypost]

What if Shels win the league by a point over Cork, having played them twice home and once away? Is that fair? No, one side gets an unfair advantage, 3 games is a joke.

Where's the advantage? On paper, not on the field. Shels have to go to Dalymount 4 times this season, but the sides who play there only visit Tolka once. As it is, Shels have Cork twice at home, and have lost once already. Cork are home to Derry twice, if it's a title decider on Day 33 and Cork win, is it because they played Derry twice at home? In turn, Derry are home to Shels twice. If Derry finish above Shels, is it because of the home factor?

All games begin at 0-0. You win/lose the league by how you perform against everyone during the season, and not by how many times you have to travel away to certain teams. The 4-rounds were a total disaster, with fixtures cancelled for fun, were cancelled by FAI blazers in Switzerland at 2am on one occasion at a crucial time in the season, Longford had 6 games to play in November last season, and come the end of both seasons, teams found themselves playing the same team twice in the same week. The result was chaos, and the 4-round system was a fixture farce. Playing 3 rounds is not perfect, but the only sane option.

[Slash/ED]

You think that playing three matches means matches can't be cancled and somehow eliminates FAI incompetence?

Just wait until the European games start again, already matches have been cancled for them.

[Jaime]

You think that playing three matches means matches can't be cancled and somehow eliminates FAI incompetence?

Just wait until the European games start again, already matches have been cancled for them.

Yes, and those matches will be replayed at times and dates agreed upon by the teams involved. Problem?

[Macy]

thats just a pathetic ready made excuse imo

Fact is, only one team has won the league playing the extra away game.

[Slash/ED]

Yes, and those matches will be replayed at times and dates agreed upon by the teams involved. Problem?

That's different to before, how?

[Dodge]

Fact is, only one team has won the league playing the extra away game.

Which team Macy?

[mypost]

Just wait until the European games start again, already matches have been cancled for them.

Sorry, I forgot that Shels and Cork must be given special treatment when their league games "clash" with upcoming European ties the following week. Shels and Cork are both full-time teams, so how they can't play 2 games in a week with their resources, boggles me. Other clubs' games shouldn't be held to ransom for the sake of a couple of teams competing in Europe, who don't want to play the weekend before. If they want to be successful in Europe, then they have to adjust to playing twice a week, most weeks.

It's not fair that clubs can have 4,5,6 league games postponed to facilitate their European demands. If you play in the Intertoto Cup, then your games that are postponed at the weekend should be played the following midweek, so that no team has the advantage of games in hand for several months over their rivals. The league must continue, and those clubs in Europe should be allowed no more than one game in hand over the non-participating European clubs. That way, nobody loses out, and everyone stays more or less in line with each other in the league.

[sullanefc]

Shouldn't the teams competing in Europe be given the best possible chance to be successful and give a good account of the league in Europe?? If games have to be called off then so be it. The more games called off the better cos that will mean that Irish teams are doing well in Europe.

Back to topic tho...

What do people think of the format used in the premier division in Scotland. Halving the league after round 3, top teams play top teams and bottom teams play bottom teams. Didn't the Eircom league do this a while back? Why didn't they stick with this?

[mypost]

Shouldn't the teams competing in Europe be given the best possible chance to be successful and give a good account of the league in Europe?? If games have to be called off then so be it. The more games called off the better cos that will mean that Irish teams are doing well in Europe.

Why? They don't do it in Scotland, England, Holland, Italy, Germany, etc, etc, so why should they do it here? I would understand why if the clubs had a realistic chance of decent progress in Europe. But there will always be a Longford that lose to teams like Vaduz, and with respect to Cork and Shels, they both have the resources to be able to play two games in a week. They just can't be bothered, and expect the FAI to cancel games for them on tap, only to go out of Europe a few weeks later, with several games in hand giving them an unfair advantage over other clubs. If you want to be successful, then you have to adjust to playing twice a week when required.

What do people think of the format used in the premier division in Scotland. Halving the league after round 3, top teams play top teams and bottom teams play bottom teams. Didn't the Eircom league do this a while back? Why didn't they stick with this?

Because it was crap basically! It was an attempt to have more mouth-watering top of the table clashes, but it largely ignored the bottom half of the table. It was scrapped after 2 bad seasons because it was a mistake, like it is in Scotland now.

[NY Hoop]

12 team league is a farce and indicative of the clowns who run our league. The only thing they got right was the 10 team league and they scrapped that after 3 seasons

With 10 teams you know you are gonna play 18 home and 18 away games plus its a more competitive league. Is there another league that ends up playing an odd number of games FFS?

1 down and the Champions come up plus a playoff between the runners up and the team finishing 9th. Also NO other teams to be admitted to the league. Not enough fans and players to go around.


KOH