Ok, that's better in fairness
Might make promotion/relegation awkward, but let them get it in place and tweak then if needs be
Yes, think the idea with the fourth level is that in practice, most of the regional champions will decline promotion to the third tier, but it would give them a greater level of competition than the district leagues, and the more ambitious clubs will work towards meeting the licence requirements for the higher divisions.
Certainly sounds a reasonable compromise. Any clubs willing to take the step up should be more than adequately rewarded you'd hope. A system that discourages promotion would defeat the purpose
i'm not being facetious, but "rewarded "with what? Not with money, is for damn sure
I think money would have to be one thing though - better prize money. We're commenting on the increase in LoI prize money and saying it should be higher; we can't really turn around to ambitious regional sides and say we'll promote them from one of eight regional fourth tiers into one of two regional third tiers (maybe with extra requirements around licensing or youth teams), but there's nothing in it for you. No-one will accept - we can guess at that because no-one's accepting now - and that defeats the point.Originally Posted by Burnsie
Love this, though will be interesting to see how the FAI get it passed the various vested interests.
Anyone taking bets on the first LOI club to fall down to the regional leagues (Level 4) and the first club to rise from that level to the 2 LOI tiers?
We cant wait for the 3rd tier to happen as we are currently losing some of our best acadamy kids to other teams as they want to play first team football Cole Omorehionwan springs to mind, left to play for Bray but at times lst year we could have done with him at CB. There are plenty of others.
Was also good for players coming back from injury and fringe players like Darragh Nugent who came on a ton and is now a fixture in the first team
It was definitly seen as a positive and not a waste of resources.
With a Rovers B in place they can stay and play first team football and also be available to step up if needed to the first team.
Its not explicitly stated but im assuming when the 3rd tier comes in the under 20's will dissappear for clubs entering second teams??
Also i hope B teams can be promoted to the second tier but obviously not above.
Last edited by sbgawa; 08/02/2024 at 1:45 PM.
The mention (almost thrown in as an aside) of "partnership clubs" as an alternative to a reserve team is also intriguing - could imagine Leinster Senior League teams working with Shelbourne, to give an example, or one of the Munster Senior League clubs co-operating with Cobh.
It was good. The other clubs were absolute *****s for blocking it. We'd be miles ahead by now.....
But seriously it was very useful in terms of giving senior minutes to players who weren't ready for our first team. A lot of the players who would have been in that B team to develop had to leave Rovers to get first team football. Some would have made it to our first team if they'd had that bridge e.g. Dylan Duffy who went to UCD and then on to Lincoln. He developed over the course of a season really. Others would have just benefitted from an integrated system where they stayed with the same team all the way through.
We suffer without it now as our 19s have nowhere to go but leave. It's a bit of a broken link from the academy to the first team that would be great to see fixed.
21 leagues and 25 cups.
I'm not a Rovers fans but I was quite interested in the seconds. My take is that it certainly worked for player development, but ultimately probably not much for Rovers themselves.
I reckon the uptake from teams wanting to enter a reserve team will be quite high. It's hard to know if this will actually be good for the growth of the game here or not.
Personally think the more players we have playing at a higher level the better so think a third tier filled with reserve teams is probably good for the player pathway even if it's awful for the club pathway.
Wouldn't like to see any reserve sides in the first division.
There's no chance of B team players being allowed move up and down to the first team outside of the transfer windows
If district leagues feed into 8 regional leagues which feed into two third tier leagues, where will a Mayo FC or a Meath FC fit into that structure?
Is there also a possibility of a repeat of the Galway United, Mercury and Salthill situation? 3 clubs where only one is realistically sustainable for a professional club?
The youth leagues which have built up and become established in recent years have predominantly allowed clubs join from regions without LoI representation. I'm not convinced that the third tier should move away from that approach. The third tier should be open for elite licences for second teams from the LoI and non LoI clubs that have joined the youth leagues.
This is a good point and my short answer is that we'll probably see Mayo FC join the LOI in 2026 before we see the 8 seperate regions. I haven't seen any firm dates for Meath FC but happy to be corrected there.
I don't believe you'll see the same problems with Mervue/Salthill/GUFC if you link the pyramid properly as they'll only end up in the same level if Mervue & Salthill get there on merit. And there would be space for one of the 3 to fall back into if performances suffer. Proper licensing also helps.
I'd be more worried about Mervue & Salthill repeatedly declining promotion because they prefer being the big fish in a small pond!
I agree with you in theory but in practice I think there might be a struggle to get enough LOI teams willing to fund a B team in the 3rd tier. It's just the four non-Loi teams currently (Mayo, Kildare, CK United & Cavan/Monaghan) or am I missing a few?
I'd say a few of the Dublin based teams would be open to having a b team in the 3rd tier depending on costs. Rovers have obviously had one previously so they would be prime candidates. Pat's seem to have a good pathway set up and having another step up from the 20's to the first team would likely make sense for them. Bohs have had a few players out on loan to first division teams the last few seasons and I'd assume the preference would be to keep them in house and get competitive minutes in a men's league than letting them out on loan and potentially losing them. If those 3 clubs opt for a b team you're already at 7 participants and I'm sure that there are more I'm not thinking of.
Promotion to the second tier should be allowed for B sides. If you finish bottom of the first division you should be relegated.
You could limit it to 2 teams if people are worried about there being to many B teams in first division.
if Dundalk and Bohs were Div 1 and Rovers won the third tier they play off for a place, .
I disagree. The third tier should be the highest level for second teams. First Division clubs have been clear about not wanting second teams.
Mayo, Kildare and CK seem the only non LoI clubs that will be ready for a third tier. It would take the inclusion of at least 5 second teams for a third national tier of 8 to get off the ground. That should be the starting point for the third tier. Getting district leagues to link in with 8 regional leagues will be the more difficult part.
I think there would be big potential for a team in Swords. There's a population of 40k people in one of the fastest growing areas in the country, and a good distance from Bohs/Shels. The Sporting Fingal experiment obviously failed but being based in Santry with a long term aim to move to Rush/Lusk wasn't a great plan.
If Shelbourne had moved to Swords instead of staying in Tolka, for example, I could have seen a similar level and interest and growth to Rovers in Tallaght. I appreciate that's not what the Shels fans wanted and I'm grateful Tolka is staying, but I think there's space for an indigenous Swords team. Not sure if there's any interest locally but I see Swords Celtic have a lot of space and pitches on the northern edge of the town.
"If you don't work harder I'll pull you off at halftime,"
“Crikey, at Manchester City all we get is an orange and a cup of tea,"
Didnt realise Swords is that big. Im sure if they had a team in loi Im sure Dublin Airport or one of the airlines could be a shirt sponsor. A trick has being missed here. Balbriggan is close to also
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
If there was interest in Swords in plotting a course for the LoI, they would be better off joining the youth league first and build up the connection within their community. Kerry competed in the youth leagues from 2016 to 2022 before joining the First Division. 7 seasons of building connections within the community.
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