Avenir Sports All-Island Cup

[EalingGreen]

(From the Northern Ireland Football League website)

"In order to aid the Ireland Women's National Team's preparations for FIFA Women's World Cup 2023, the SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division season was structured to allow for a period where no League games would take place.

This new competition will now be played during that scheduled break to ensure that women's domestic football continues to be played as excitement for the World Cup builds.

The competition, which is supported by both the Football Association of Ireland and the Irish Football Association, will involve 16 teams in total – 11 from the League of Ireland, 5 from the Northern Ireland Football League – split into four groups of four teams.

The group games will take place on the week ending June 18, June 25 and July 2. The top teams in each group will progress to the semi-finals, which will be played on the week ending July 9, before the last two compete for the silverware in the Final on July 16."
https://www.nifootballleague.com/new...land-cup-draw/

Avenir Sports All-Island Cup

Group A | Athlone Town, Galway United, Linfield, Shelbourne
Group B | Glentoran, Peamount United, Shamrock Rovers, Wexford Youths
Group C | Bohemians, Cliftonville, Sion Swifts, Sligo Rovers
Group D | Cork City, Crusaders, DLR Waves, Treaty United

Results to date:
Group A Week One - Athlone Tn 1 v 4 Shelbourne; Linfield 0 v 1 Galway Utd;
Group A Week Two - Galway Utd 0 v 0 Athlone Tn.; Shelbourne 1 v 1 Linfield;

Group B Week One - Glentoran 1 v 1 Wexford Yths; Shamrock Rvrs. 2 v 1 Peamount Utd;
Group B Week Two - Peamount Utd. 0 v 5 Glentoran; Wexford Yths. 5 v 3 Shamrock Rvrs.;

Group C Week One - Cliftonville 2 v 1 Sion Swifts; Sligo Rvrs. 1 v 3 Bohemians;
Group C Week Two - Bohemians 1 v 2 Cliftonville; Sion Swifts 4 v 1 Sligo Rvrs;

Group D Week One - Cork City 2 v 1 DLR Waves; Crusaders Strikers 3 v 2 Treaty Utd;
Group D Week Two - DLR Waves 3 v 1 Crusaders Strikers; Treaty Utd. 1 v 3 Cork City

Week Three fixtures, Sat. July 1st:
Group A - Linfield v Athlone Tn; Galway Utd. v Shelbourne;
Group B - Glentoran v Shamrock Rvrs. ( Sun. July 2nd); Peamount/Wexford (unsure of home team);
Group C - Cliftonville v Sligo Rvrs; Sion Swifts v Bohemians;
Group D - Crusaders Strikers v Cork City, Treaty Utd v DLR Waves

Some random thoughts:
1. The NI teams seem to be doing ok, but I assume that this is at least partly (largely?) because some of the ROI teams are weakened by having players away with the NT in Oz?
2. Although some games may be on LOI TV (unsure), this is nonetheless very badly publicised on the official FAI and IFA websites, while even the Avenir (sponsors) website and FB feeds are a week behind. The NIFL website gives some coverage, but really only for the NI sides, ditto BBC NI, eg:
https://www.nifootballleague.com/new...cup-victories/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66010888;
3. Derry City Women, who are members of the IFA and play in the NIWFL, were due to compete but pulled out very late, being replaced by Sion Swifts. In truth, this will have been no bad thing, since Derry's women are terrible, getting "battered everywhere they go" every week in the NIWFL:
https://www.nifootballleague.com/wom...023/standings/

[EalingGreen]

Final Group games at the w/e:

Group A
Galway United Women 2-0 Shelbourne Women
Linfield Women 1-2 Athlone Town Women

Group B
Peamount United 1-2 Wexford Youths Women
Glentoran Women 2-3 Shamrock Rovers Women [Sun]

Group C
Cliftonville Ladies 1-1 Sligo Rovers Women
Sion Swifts Ladies 1-0 Bohemians Women

Group D
Crusaders Strikers 0-1 Cork City Women
Treaty United 0-2 DLR Waves

Sadly the Glens blew their chances of progressing with a narrow (unexpected?) defeat at home to Shams on Sunday. Anyhow, Cliftonville face Group D winners Cork City in the semi-finals at Solitude on Sunday 9th July, kick-off 2pm. Wexford host Galway United in the other game on Saturday 8th, kick-off 4pm.

Interestingly (for me at least!), apart from Glentoran's 5-0 win at Peamount, when the latter were probably very weakened, there were no great mismatches or hammerings, with the last set of games all being pretty close. And Linfield were gratifyingly crap!

[EalingGreen]

Finalists now known after Galway Utd won at Wexford on penalties yesterday and Cliftonville beat Cork City 1-0 at home this afternoon.

Details of Final yet to be decided:
https://www.extratime.com/articles/3...ille-progress/

[EalingGreen]

The Avenir Sports All-Island Cup Final will be hosted at The Showgrounds in Sligo on Sunday 23 July.

The final is being contested between Cliftonville and Galway United with the Belfast team being the designated home team following a draw.
https://www.extratime.com/articles/3...and-cup-final/

[EalingGreen]

Galway beat Cliftonville 1-0 in the Final in Sligo this afternoon. Match report here:
https://www.nifootballleague.com/new...-final-defeat/

[culloty82]

Interesting article in today's Sunday Independent where the FAI state their desire to establish an all-island league, following on from the success of the recent cup competition. Would be somewhat easier to reorganise the structures than in the men's game, but unfortunately, interest isn't reciprocated by the IFA:

https://www.independent.ie/news/plan...424953536.html

[EalingGreen]

Interesting article in today's Sunday Independent
https://www.independent.ie/news/plan...424953536.html

Unfortunately cannot read (paywall).

... the FAI state their desire to establish an all-island league, following on from the success of the recent cup competition.

Could be wrong, but I thought this competition was created/facilitated by the absence of ROI players out in Oz, just the same as when NI qualified for the last Euro's, league fixtures were rearranged to allow our domestic players to go full-time for a 3 months(?) pre-tournament training camp to prepare for the Finals. That is, each was a one-off arrangement, not designed to lead to anything permanent.
And on a side note, what exactly did they mean by "success"? I took an interest (from afar), but I'm not aware of many others doing so - I mean, how many eg even looked at this thread, never mind posted?

Would be somewhat easier to reorganise the structures than in the men's game, but unfortunately, interest isn't reciprocated by the IFA

No harm, but why would we?

The IFA is putting a lot of effort into developing our own domestic womens' league, with a degree of success, so why tear that up to take a chance on something new? And why blur the lines which distinguish us from another Association/jurisdiction? On which point, cross-border leagues would never be authorised by UEFA in the men's game, so would womens' football be allowed to flout the principle?

Finally, it is pretty ironic that the Avenir Cup proceeded without (ahem) Derry City Women, a member of the IFA and playing in the NI Womens' Premiership. I can't quite remember why this was, but perhaps it was from fear of faring even worse than they do in the NIWP, where they are perennially rock bottom, regularly on the end of multi-goal thrashings:
https://www.nifootballleague.com/wom...023/standings/

(On a side note, does anyone at DCFC actually give a damn about their womens team? So far this season they've lost 12 of 12 and although their more recent defeats have been closer than previously, earlier in the season they lost 8-1, 9-0 and 11-0. Surely they deserve more support/resources etc?)