Quotehttp://www.fai.ie/article.asp?hlid=3...avlid=&sublid=
here is the main report
well then , what does everyone think ?? A sell out or what ? I think its pretty realistic.
I would go for either the 4. The Elite League, 6. All Ireland League or 7. Celtic/Islands League in that order of preference.
Appendix 4: Options for League Structure
A range of options for the league structure were developed, debated and evaluated. Within each of the options developed were any number of variants based on minor changes to the numbers and structures. The core options considered included:
1. The Status Quo
• 2 divisions of 22 clubs
• Promotion and relegation the two divisions
• No link to other leagues
2. Status Quo Plus
• 2 divisions of 22 clubs
• Promotion and relegation between the two divisions
• Promotion and relegation mechanism between other leagues and the 2nd division
• Smaller number of clubs in the top division versus the second division (e.g. 10 and 12)
3. The Franchise
• Closed franchised league of 14, 12 or 10 teams
• No promotion and relegation
• Franchises awarded based on specific criteria
• Spread of clubs across the country and major population centres
4. The Elite League
• A single National League of 10 teams
• Two Regional leagues below the National League with 10 teams in each Regional League
• Promotion and relegation between the top league and the Regional leagues via an end-of-season play-off system
• Promotion and relegation mechanism between the Regional leagues and the Amateur leagues
• Minimum criteria would be set for participation in the National League.
5. Single League
• A single National League of 16 teams
• No regional league structure
• Promotion and relegation mechanism between the League and the Amateur leagues
6. All Ireland League
• All Ireland League with teams from the South and North (say 8 and 4)
• Three Regional leagues below the All Ireland League with 10 or 12 teams in each league
• Promotion and Relegation between the All Ireland and Regional leagues via end-of-season play-offs
• Minimum criteria for participation in the league
• Promotion and Relegation mechanism between the Regional leagues and Amateur leagues
7. Celtic/Islands League
• A cross border league involving teams from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and possibly Scotland of up to 20 teams
• National league involving the remaining clubs not participating ion the Celtic League
• Promotion and Relegation between the Celtic League and the national leagues
• Promotion and Relegation between the National League and the Amateur leagues
Last edited by thejollyrodger; 26/09/2005 at 2:04 PM.
http://www.fai.ie/article.asp?hlid=3...avlid=&sublid=
here is the main report
All Ireland would be my preferred choice although I'd prefer more teams. Status Quo Plus would be an improvement over now but again I'd prefer a larger premier division. Of the rest the status quo is the best. Franchise and Islands leagues are ridiculous.
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
On first read I think it's pretty sensible. I've long felt the eL is too fragmented to prosper, capture the imagination and - crucially - provide a platform to keep our best young players at home (it cites Norway as a good example) & to provide players for the national team.
It correctly identifies that there's no natural relationship between junior & eL football.
I've ignored the administrative / manegerial aspects as this stuff bores me, though of course it's important.
Interesting quotes, in my opinion:
when compared with other sports, the eircom League attendances (under 400,000 in total last year) trail, by some distance, the attendances at other events - the GAA Championship (2.2m), Celtic League (424k), Heineken Cup (815k), Greyhound Racing (1.39m) and Horse Racing (1.3m) attendances.
So we're not really a nation of armchairs / barstools then?
The league as it currently stands is not the pinnacle of the domestic footballing pyramid and few young players aspire to ‘make it’ with a league club. The FAI’s Technical Plan needs the league to be the top of an integrated structure for the domestic game, rather than an island operating in isolation of the other strands of the game in Ireland.
With the exception of Norway, all of the [second tier European leagues] leagues have higher populations per National League team than Ireland.
In our view, the League can only sustain a maximum of ten clubs at the top level to ensure that there is sufficient competition between teams, playing talent is concentrated in fewer clubs, a more focused facilities investment programme can be pursued and clubs can attract sufficient levels of support. Ideally, the ten clubs in the National League will be spread across the major population centres throughout the country.
The Regional League structure offers those clubs outside the National League a lower cost base from which to operate and a greater level of ‘local’ rivalries and interest in their games.
I'd like to have heard the debate on why the chosen approach was selected ahead of the other options in jollyrodger's extract.
The list of what's achievable in 5 years is interesting. So too is the list of successes enjoyed by the league in Norway. And leagues like Cyprus are in the UEFA top 20.
I dont know if I should be posting this but here is the recommendations, it and 8.Next steps probably have the most relevent. Mostly everyone here knows the history and problems with the league.
7. Recommendations
The eircom League is currently trapped in a vicious downward spiral. A poor product with unattractive facilities leads to a lack of support, minimal sponsorship and low levels of income. The challenge for the league is to shift from the downward spiral to a virtuous, growing spiral where a strong, superior product with attractive facilities leads to increased support, higher levels of sponsorship and an improvement in performance and income for the league and its clubs.
The opportunity exists to be radical. Football is the world’s leading sport and has the highest participation of any sport in Ireland. Ireland is still succeeding internationally and punching above its weight. There is unquestionably a latent support for a high quality league as evidenced by the high levels of interest in recent European club games. The Irish economy is forecast to continue to grow strongly, ensuring an environment in which ongoing investment in Ireland’s leading participation sport should be forthcoming.
There is an increasing realisation by all stakeholders in the game that something needs to be done. As outlined above, this will require fundamental changes to how the league is structured and managed. We have listened carefully to all of the stakeholders within the game and reviewed experience in other leagues. As a result we strongly recommend the following:
League Merger
The proposed integration of the league within the FAI appears to have widespread support from the various stakeholders within the game. Many believe that the league will have a better chance of success if it is formally managed as part of the FAI. We agree with this viewpoint and believe there are a number of other reasons for supporting the proposed merger:
• The role of the FAI is to manage the game for the benefit of football in the country. The eircom League is a key component to that and it should be managed from the perspective of and for the greater good of the game in Ireland. The FAI is best placed to ensure that this happens.
• The FAI has shown they have the potential of attracting increased revenue through sponsorship and marketing for the league. Increases in prize money for the league, the Setanta Cup, recent sponsorship deals, and the TV deal are all examples of this.
• Government funding will only be allocated through the FAI. The ability of the league to attract public investment will be enhanced if the FAI is formally running the league.
• The eircom League is a central cog in the FAI Technical Plan. It is critical that a strong domestic league acts as the pinnacle of the football pyramid and pathway to create an integrated development structure. The league is of key strategic importance to football in Ireland.
• There are undoubtedly economies of scale in various areas of operation including Finance, Marketing, Human Resources and Club Licensing.
• UEFA are strongly advocating National Associations to have full control of domestic leagues.
• The League staff are effectively employees of the FAI already. The merger would formalise this and provide an improved organizational environment for the staff.
Given the level of support expressed through the consultation process we believe the FAI should proceed with confidence with the proposed merger.
Management Structure
The current management structures of the league should be revised. The existing Management Committee and Board of Control should be replaced by an Executive Board of no more than 8 individuals. The Board should be objective and independent. The make up of the board may include the following:
• League Chairman
• FAI Director (with executive responsibility for the League)
• Club representatives (3)
• Sponsor representative
• Independent Director (preferably with extensive marketing experience).
The Board will be responsible for the strategic direction of the League and will be the primary decision-making body.
An annual League Congress will be held with all participating clubs having representatives at the Congress. This will be a discussion and information sharing forum on league matters and will provide the opportunity to put ideas forward for consideration by the Board, but will not have any formal decision-making powers. The club representatives on the Board will be elected each year at the annual League Congress.
Also, a players, managers and referees panel should be established to act as a mechanism for getting the views of both players, managers and referees on a regular basis.
League Structure
A number of alternative options were considered for the league structure, ranging from maintaining the status quo to more radical restructuring of the league. Appendix 4 contains a brief overview of the options identified and considered. The key issues in developing the various options for the design of the league structures were:
• What is the optimum number of teams in the league?
• Should the league be open or closed?
• How many tiers should there be to the league?
We developed a list of ten criteria for evaluating the various options:
1. What is best for football in Ireland
2. Optimise the commercial potential of the league
3. Improve the competitiveness of clubs in Europe
4. Provide high quality football (“the best of Irish”)
5. Represent a new beginning for the league
6. More attractive for public and private investment
7. Provide a pinnacle for the development pathway for the game locally
8. Support the strengthening of the international team
9. Minimise costs of participation for clubs
10. Provide an adequate geographic spread of league clubs.
Our preferred option has the following features:
• A single National League of 10 teams
• Two Regional leagues below the National League with 10 teams in each Regional League
• There would be promotion and relegation between the top league and the Regional leagues via an end-of-season play-off system
• Both the National and Regional leagues would be played in the Summer
• There would be a promotion and relegation mechanism between the Regional leagues and the Amateur leagues
• Minimum criteria would be set for participation in the National League
• The National League will be made up of full-time and part-time professional clubs
• The Regional leagues will be made up of part-time professionals, amateur and representative sides
• All amateur/schoolboy leagues and clubs will be associated with/attached to a National or Regional league club/team.
• Dual registration of players will facilitate the success of U21, U18 and amateur and representative sides.
In our view, the League can only sustain a maximum of ten clubs at the top level to ensure that there is sufficient competition between teams, playing talent is concentrated in fewer clubs, a more focused facilities investment programme can be pursued and clubs can attract sufficient levels of support. Ideally, the ten clubs in the National League will be spread across the major population centres throughout the country.
The Regional League structure offers those clubs outside the National League a lower cost base from which to operate and a greater level of ‘local’ rivalries and interest in their games.
Of the current 22 clubs, 10 will play in the National League and 12 will play in the Regional Leagues. That means a minimum of 8 additional teams would be required to participate in the Regional Leagues. Priority should be given to representative sides from across the country. For example, the Kerry or Mayo County League could nominate a representative side from within its playing members to participate in the Regional League. This will strengthen the regional link to the teams and also create a closer link between the amateur league and the National league. The Under 21 league has shown that this can work. Any expansion of teams outside the current league clubs should be done through this representative model.
We recommend that the feasibility of an All Ireland league should be explored with the various stakeholders in the game, including external bodies such as UEFA and the IFA. Whilst in the short-term there are many barriers to be overcome for an All Ireland league to be established, we believe that the option outlined above would be consistent with, and facilitate a move towards, an All Ireland league should this become a real possibility.
cont.....
Participation Agreement
A detailed participation agreement should be drawn up for all league clubs. The participation agreement will be based on the principle of a contract and will contain clear obligations for participating clubs. The clubs will be invited to apply for membership of the league and must sign the participation agreement and be bound by its contents. The agreement will be strongly linked to the club licensing scheme and consistent with club obligations within that scheme.
The agreement should cover aspects like:
• The League, Membership rules, Promotion/Relegation, Play-Offs, Becoming a member, Ceasing to be a member, Expulsion, Resignation, Relationship between Clubs and the League
• Finance including obligation of the League and the clubs, wage control, accounting practice, operating and other expenses, distribution of league revenues, power to deduct, submission of club accounts, power to inspect, UEFA club licence obligations
• Fixtures including arranging, rearranging, postponement, failure to play, replaying, other competitions, match delegate, full strength teams, team sheet, substitutes, use of official ball, technical area, penalties, etc.
• Player identification and strip including home and away and advertising
• Match officials
• Medical personnel
• Ground criteria, including safety certificates, ownership of ground and training facilities, ground regulations, facilities (dressing rooms, media, the pitch, technical areas, floodlights, sanitary facilities etc.)
• Managers including code of conduct, coaching qualifications, contracts, registration, pre-season meeting, dispute resolution etc.
• Players including approaches to/from players, public statements, inducements, contracts, fines, dispute resolution, registration, etc.
• Youth development
• Disciplinary procedures and arbitration.
Facilities
There is a need for considerable investment in facilities in all league clubs. However, investment should be prioritized on the clubs with clear strategic plans and planned outcomes. Investment in facilities should be prioritised in top National league clubs and/or clubs serving large population centres. The facilities investment should include provision to ensure high standards of:
• Floodlights
• Playing surface
• Training
• TV and media provision
• Family friendly facilities
• Seating
• Toilet and other facilities
• Catering/hospitality
Ultimately, the planned programme of investment in facilities should deliver a range of high quality, family friendly stadia and clubs across the main population centres and strongholds of football throughout the country. The facilities should be equipped to support the clubs in providing revenues outside match days.
It is inevitable that Dublin clubs will be encouraged to consider ground-sharing if they are to attract significant public funds for investment.
Marketing
The league should be re-branded and re-launched as part of a revised marketing strategy. In re-branding the league, we believe the key attributes that should be emphasised are ‘Irish’, ‘Professional’, ‘New’, ‘Different’, ‘Quality’, ‘Premium’, ‘The Best of Ireland’.
Some Possible Names for the new League:
• eircom Professional Super league
• eircom Elite Irish League
• eircom Ireland Super League
• eircom Irish Premiership
• eircom FAI Premiership.
A significant marketing budget should be set aside to support, promote and market the league strongly. Efforts must be made to ensure there is a partnership with TV and the media in general to deliver the re-branded league and to present the league in a consistent manner. Consistent branding should be implemented in all grounds to ensure a common presentation, and look and feel at all grounds. The league will need to work closely with sponsors and partners to deliver on the marketing strategy. The merger of the league with the FAI will facilitate a more integrated league from a sponsor’s point of view. Clubs must work closely with the league to ensure there is a consistent brand identity established, obligations to sponsors are delivered efficiently and an integrated marketing campaign is executed throughout the league. A strong partnership relationship with sponsors is critical to maximise the benefit to the League. Rugby’s Heineken Cup and the Guinness sponsorship of the GAA Hurling Championships are excellent examples of how sponsors, working very closely with the rights holder, can help transform the product to the benefit of all involved.
Club Administration
For the league to work, the clubs must be managed to high levels of professionalism to raise the overall standards. Clubs should operate against long-term plans with a clear focus on planned outcomes.
The clubs must possess strong skills in:
• Leadership
• Strategic planning
• Finance and Administration
• Marketing and PR.
Where appropriate, assistance should be provided to clubs to help build and develop their capabilities in these areas.
Wage Control
A mandatory wage control mechanism should be put in place for all clubs within the National League. Clubs should be limited to spending 65% of turnover on players’ wages and costs. This should be monitored and enforced rigorously.
Development
All National League clubs must have a clear development structure in place that incorporates:
• Qualified coaches (with UEFA accreditation)
• Coaching structures (clearly defined and working)
• Training facilities (high quality)
• Under age teams (at all levels)
• Links with amateur clubs.
In particular it is important to continue with an Under Age National League. The current Under 21 league is a key step on the player pathway, although there are some operational issues associated with the league that need to be resolved. Most importantly, the issue of dual registration should be addressed. All schoolboy leagues and clubs should be attached to a league club and players should be allowed participate in the Under 21 league and still play for their club sides.
In addition to the Under 21 league, an Under 18 or elite Youth League should be established along similar lines to ensure a clear pathway exists from schoolboy to Senior football for talented players. Again dual registration is an imperative for this to work.
The role of the clubs must be to develop and nurture talent within their catchment area and to work in partnership with non-league clubs and leagues in a positive partnership model.
Community Links
The clubs must focus on building strong links and associations with their local communities, both from a playing and non-playing perspective. On the playing side, the league club should act as the pinnacle of football in the area in a pyramid structure. The clubs should have the capability to recruit, coach and retain local talent from under age through to the Senior team. Ideally, the club should work in partnership with all clubs in its area to support the development of players and create a genuine partnership between the local amateur clubs and the league club. As outlined above, each amateur club/league should be attached to a league club. For this to work efficiently the issue of compensation to amateur/schoolboy clubs/leagues should be addressed and a clear protocol agreed.
Off the field, the clubs should invest in building closer relationships with the local schools, clubs, and the community in general. There are numerous examples of innovative community-based schemes in sports throughout the world. For example, most UK clubs operate a ‘Football in the Community’ scheme. Bolton Wanderers’ scheme included over 20,000 adults and children last year in a diverse range of activities. By developing community-based schemes, clubs can attract new fans to the club and strengthen the loyalties of longer established supporters.
It is possible that public funding may be available for Football in the Community officers to be appointed at league clubs. This should be pursued aggressively.
Funding of the Plan
The recommendations outlined above will require significant investment. We have not developed a detailed assessment of the scale of investment required. The investment will come from four key areas.
FAI – the FAI itself will have responsibility for raising and allocating funds through grant schemes, the attraction of sponsorship income, broadcasting income and other means of income generation on behalf of the League. Funds should be allocated, strategically, against planned outcomes to ensure that the maximum return on any investment is delivered.
Public funds – both the Government and local authorities (city and county councils) should be targeted to support specific programmes as part of the overall strategy. For example, the Government has already committed significant funds for facilities investment and this is to be welcomed. Of further benefit would be a commitment to multi annual planned funding for facilities improvement. An ongoing planned programme of facilities upgrades should be developed to ensure clear strategic priority is set for such a programme of investment in facilities. Local authorities should be engaged in a partnership model to facilitate, for example, the community linkage for the clubs as part of the overall strategy.
cont...
Clubs – all of the clubs should develop long-term plans that incorporate both how they will raise additional revenues themselves and more particularly how they will allocate their revenue to ensure long-term stability and strength. As part of this their commitments to both the participation agreement (and any clause in this regarding percentage of revenue spent on players/squad) and the club licensing scheme will need to be rigorously met.
Private Investment – ideally, a revamped league will create an environment that is more conducive to the raising of private investment, whether at a pan-League or at an individual club level.
True.There is unquestionably a latent support for a high quality league as evidenced by the high levels of interest in recent European club games. The Irish economy is forecast to continue to grow strongly, ensuring an environment in which ongoing investment in Ireland’s leading participation sport should be forthcoming.
Not bad report. Its clear league needs a new beginning with completely new branding. NO more LOI. I don't know if eircoms sponsorship is market value rates but i don't see eircom bring any extra value to the league. We badly need a proper sponsor who wants to be associated with the league & will promote alongsdie its product.
It's a very good report overall. Two points I would make are;
1. It sounds very expensive. There's talk of 10 stadiums around the country with a 5-10,000 capacity within 5 years. Is there funding available to achieve this?
2. The talk is of promotion from the regional leage being only avainable through a play off and that the mechanism would be such that a premier club could plan for the future. Is this secret code for very little promotion and relegation? Same 10 teams in the premier every year.
From what I see on this thread this report is alot of
ILL thought out mickey mouse bull**** that is a waste of money.
Full of Fancy Ideas that are page filling garbage
But I will reserve judgement until I see the whole thing
Is it possible to get the whole report on this site I know its probably
alot but would appreciate if it could be done
Originally the plan was that we would ground share. That having an eL club in the Pike Field would encourage the FAI to provide grants to upgrade facilities etc Limerick would get a state of the art small stadium - Pike owuld play there and Limerick would have long term lease. This turned out not to be possible.Originally Posted by Macy
If there were two eL clubs in Limerick it would be lunacy to have two grounds. And if there was an opportunity to develop a stadium with a junior club then I for one would be all for it.
Its important to make best use of scarce resources. This makes ground sharing essential where possible. What is surprising is that this is in the interests of the clubs themselves and they still won't go for it because of 'tradition'. Ask Drumcondra, St James Gate, St Francis and Transport about tradition.
"It's impossible to make a man understand something when his livelihood depends on him not understanding" Upton Sinclair
Lets give him a trial before we hang him.
"It's impossible to make a man understand something when his livelihood depends on him not understanding" Upton Sinclair
It's on the FAI site here (right click and 'Save Target As'). It's 47 pages long so can't really post it here.
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
Having read it (well most of it, skipped some of the appendices) I don't see why they're so insistant on a 10-team premier division. Their rationale seems to be that other countries have a similar number of teams per population and that this will improve crowds somehow (despite evidence from the past that it didn't).
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
The only logic behind a 10 team premier is to have enough teams for regionalised first divisions. The suggestion is to find 8 new teams which would be hard enough. Finding 10 or more would be even harder.
As of today's league table 7 of the 10 premier clubs would be in the Dublin area. Would a regionalised first division help the rural clubs? Would grant money be available to the regionalised divisions from the word go or would it be prioritised into the premier division? Basically would the regionalised divisions become a trap even harder to escape than the current first division?
How can anyone take a report seriously which proposes the name...
...as a replacement name for the league, and which advocates merging leagues with Scotland, Wales and NI? The former is just utterly daft, and it would take two seconds' thinking to realise the latter would never get by UEFA.eircom Professional Super league
There is no practical basis for groundsharing - Shamrock Rovers will tell you that. Someone mentioned Dublin City and UCD groundsharing - WTF?! the support bases - such as there are any - are from completely different areas of town. Ditto the likes of Pat's and Shels.
The report mentions how we're 40th in the UEFA standings and how a league like Cyprus is far higher in the rankings. There appears to be no mention of the last two seasons, and that if we continue to perform as well, we will be up to 30th or so in three years' time.
The report mentions prize money for the Premier of E18k - this is not true; it's E100k (or thereabouts) from this season. It's a small point, but it seems the report was written in pre-season and is now out of date.
Will read through the report when I get a chance, but my first impression is that it's a mix of poorly though-out, completely impractical suggestions and a revamping of UEFA Licencing. I do, however, stand (and hope) to be corrected.
I agree with the ten team league, or a sixteen team league. There can be no inbetween for me, playing each other three times and so people having an advantage from the start is complete and utter nonsense.
Expanding the amount of teams in the league and maybe regionalised first divisions is another good suggestion. As has been said, ideally speaking a 16 team All Ireland league with regionalised first divisions would be the best situation I think.
That is definitely the best way to ensure quality teams !!
The top four in the Irish league would be a great addition to the premier, it would be unreal then !!!
The SFAI are the governing body for grassroots football in Ireland, not the FAI. Its success or the lack of is all down to them.
Agree - but getting the top teams from Wales in the league would be a good call also.
Not only would you be getting the likes of TNS, Rhyl, Bangor, Carmarthen - but decent teams from the pyramid would be looking to join too eg AFC Newport, Merthyr, Colwyn Bay.
You really think Colwyn Bay would be up for it?? Where do we sign??
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