The FAI are to launch a centralised coaching scheme to rectify disparity.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/...summer%20block.
The FAI will next month begin a centralised in-house national development training programme by assembling 250 of the best aged 14-17 at Abbotstown. The intention is to bridge the contact time deficit between Ireland and similar-sized European competitors.
https://foot.ie/forums/117-Kerry-FC
A Championship: 4 years - 8 first teams - 0 financially ruined.
First Division 2014: 7 first teams and a B team.
Opportunity lost for new clubs to join GLITW.
Will be interesting to see how they'll keep tabs on players at clubs like Wexford and Longford - will the criteria be purely based on results, or will coaches at each team be encouraged to nominate who they consider to be their most promising talents?
Good point and an interesting announcement from the FAI. On one hand I'm glad they're not just completely outsourcing development to the clubs. On the other hand, given how tight budgets are, I think I'd prefer to see them trying to grow the game to more places rather than focusing on the top, top talent. But it's not a bad thing I suppose.
To answer your question Culloty, and considering how players are not guaranteed their spot for a full season/year, I'd say this would be very much results based.
Thanks for sharing the Irish Examiner link legendz. I saw your post in the National League thread and thought I'd respond here in case we get rebuked for derailing the topic with our interest in the academies!Originally Posted by legendz
I like how Canham has described the 3 models but I'd think we should be considered a small nation due to the historical underdevelopment of talent at a national level. The only drawback is I wouldn't want to hand over the running of it solely to the FAI!
Personally, I think you'd want to get to a place where the current nursery clubs have a more healthy relationship with the senior clubs so they can develop local talent but are adequately compensated when the best players leave for the underage setup in the senior clubs. This might mean permanent sell-on clauses if the player goes abroad (so nurseries don't lose out if a 16 year old switches clubs within Ireland before going abroad) as I'm struggling to see what else senior clubs can provide them.
As for the FAI, I like their plan for the 250 players to increase contact hours but I think they'll need to do more to get the €10m from the government that is needed for the rest of the country's youth.
Athlone U14's beat Sligo 13-0 today. That's a bizarre result to see in an elite league.
https://x.com/i/status/2041094801081208961
Plans for a new League of Ireland team in Meath are to be revealed this week. Their aim is to start in the LOI underage leagues from 2027.
Would have thought a club playing out of Navan could be achieved on a quicker timeline. Underage LoI teams should really have a link up with a senior LoI side to complete the player development pathway and indeed play them if they are good enough when still eligible for underage grades. Plenty of examples at Dundalk recently Leonard, Spaight today playing while still able to play at 17s and looks quite comfortable (taken off at HT today but was playing well so maybe injury or tactical). Not having that access to senior levels could hold the really good players and early physical developers back a bit.
Ive a nephew playing with St Kevins, well thought of although still only 13, lives in Navan but is a big Dundalk fan, it would suit him perfectly to have schoolboys, access to LoI level and a pathway to senior. He has a chance and Im obviously biased on where Id want to see him end up.
https://x.com/i/status/2041277677143769096
Going over old ground - Kerry and Mayo have a good history of representation football going as far back as the Eircom U21 League and the League Cup.
Meath don't have that history. Thought it would have been a district league club emerging to represent their region. If they think establishing a new club is required, the youth leagues are the place to start.
It'll be a positive step for the youth leagues anyway to have a more geographical spread.
There was some political talk in Clare of getting the right people talking. Meath might turn out to be something of a blueprint for Clare to follow. Haven't heard anything from Tipperary. The FAI should have the aspiration of getting more regions involved in the youth leagues, more in an advisory capacity than anything. Regions have to drive it on themselves.
Kerry aren't exactly proving that that's the right way to do it and there's a civil war in Mayo
Whats the civil war about Buckett? is it cos of Mayo FC?
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
Not sure on the exact details but clubs, Mayo FA and Mayo FC seem to be in an argument. The use of Milebush and players leaving clubs to play for Mayo seems to be bones of contention
https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2025/11...ft-to-mayo-fc/
https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2026/01...ague-collapse/
https://www.westernpeople.ie/sport/u...rid-84357.html
No idea/opinion about how this might work out, but surely to goodness they could have shown more imagination with the name than "Meath FC"? Hardly going to inspire chants or songs, is it: "Meath, Meath, Meath, Meath, er... Meath".
Maybe "Meath County FC", what with the "County" suffix already having a hold in the game elsewhere. Or if that might antagonise GAA folk, "Meath Royals FC"? "Meath Ravens FC" even?
(Same with Kerry FC or Mayo FC, for that matter, but at least they've each got two syllables to rub together.)
Kerry have taken the approach for Kerry. It doesn't need the validation of outperforming an impressive Longford Town who have finished the last two seasons impressively or the validation of having to finish in the playoffs.
Whats the view about Killarney being in the 3rd Tier?
Has anything changed?
I'm trying to read this wondering what on earth it actually means. If indeed it actually means anything.
Ill have a go, as people know I love the county model and the attempts to appease all in a country where social cohesion is built on parochialism.
So its possibly a barbed comment, passive aggressive in nature, sprinkled with sugar in that Longford are no great example but havent been too bad in terms of form during the 2025 run in. That Kerry are doing things their own unique way and don't need the validation of other especially by comparison to the previously mentioned Longford by doing batter than them with their recently impressive 2025 form. Nor is the benchmark for success or validation to finish in the playoffs.
So in response, you cant argue against the general point that a club may not have the same targets by which most set. The Wexford example is that it was about youth development, sustainability, and anything else, like senior success on the pitch is a bonus. I havent gotten the impression that this is similar to Kerry's remit and that they want to develop as a senior club and to be competitive. Slowly but surely is fine with year on year improvement. Things have gone backwards in football terms so its seem the ambition of the club has been subtly changed in Legendz assessment of things.
The issues with Mayo are more typical of the issues faced by this this sort of model in Ireland. The bigger picture is less important than individual egos and the quick fix of success. More localised clubs are, of course, not immune to the similar characters wrecking things, but the less broadly a club tries to be the less the risk is. It would be better if Castlebar built a club that others in the county would follow if successful. Fuinn Harps is a good example (bar the successful bit) where the county generally follows Harps even if not from Ballybofey. Plenty could cite Derry or Sligo as their club, possibly closer to them geographically but its not a given that people from Inishowen flock to support Derry over Harps.
There was a time that Dundalk Schoolboy League wouldnt cooperate with Dundalk FC, they have their own representative side. There were many excuses and spurious stories on the reasons why, but ultimately it boiled down to not wanting to lose the better players to a LoI club. I still dont get why tbh, the purpose of SBL is firstly participation and recreation and then player development to hopefully to then move to higher levels - as long as that higher level is not locally based cause of disagreement 100 years ago. Kids were going to Shels eg rather than Dundalk simply because of the clash between a couple of people in 1952. So it happens, it will always happen eventually, but it is the identifying with your local club that generally, eventually, saves the day. I dont think people in Ballina will stick their necks out for a Mayo club based in Castlebar when things get tough, same with Navan and Trim for example, it has yet to be tested in Tralee/Killarney. Can you imagine a Louth FC if the county hadnt a football heritage, and all of this is before you throw in the like of GAA mischief ala Thomas Davis.
If the plan at the end of the day will see Kerry District League and other district leagues linked all the way to the National League, there will be other clubs moving up and down the pyramid structure.
The Kerry sporting landscape is familiar with a club representing a region and familiar with a club or clubs within that region going off on their own. Any emerging talent from Killarney will be picked up by the Kerry youth structures. Time will tell how relations will be between the two clubs. A spikey Munster Senior Cup clash could create tension. I mentioned before that Kerry will have to be something of an understanding parent if a child is throwing a tantrum.
Such a paternalistic approach as you envisage may be very suited to GAA, since it has always been county-based.
But surely logic, history, experience and the facts on the ground mitigate against this for Football? That is, just as eg Drogs vs Dundalk does far more for football in that part of the country than a single "Louth FC", then wouldn't eg Killarney FC vs Tralee Dynamos FC do far more for the game in Kerry, seeing as local (town) rivalries are the very lifeblood of Football, rather than contrived county rivalries?
Of course you're landed with Kerry FC now, so that can't be dismantled. However, its existence should never be a barrier eg to a team from Tralee also aiming for Senior status some day alongside them, rather than just being seen as a part of some vague feeder/youth system. Ditto Navan vs Ashbourne (Trim even?) in Co.Meath.
And if any of those places cannot/will not support a Senior club some day, then go to other places which may do so, regardless of whether they're next door to an existing club, or in the same county as one, or miles away from the nearest one.
I didn't feel the comment I was responding to was deserving of much more of a response tbh.
Kerry had a disappointing finish to 2024 but hat's off to Longford who surged ahead. While Harps finished above Kerry last year, it was the late surge by Longford again as Kerry faltered that stood out.
I wouldn't see either poor finishes to the last two seasons or the current struggles to get results on the field as something that invalidates what Kerry are doing clubwise in what they represent.
I was surprised from the journey to Tallaght Stadium last year that the high flying Shamrock Rovers had a respect and understanding for Kerry's journey. I suppose game respects game. Some get it and some don't.
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