New league format

[thejollyrodger]

Explain that one. We have our tax clearance cert for next year but the FAI have said the 2005 one will do

KOH

You wereNT deducted 8 points for nothing

Just off the top of my head the following clubs have very decent almost concrete plans and its a half decent regional balance. If we had another 6 clubs with equal ambition and resources we would be flying.

Finn Harps have a new plan for the stadium so I reckon they would qualify
Drogs the same
Shelbourne the same ( but to be brutally honest i dont know when its going ahead)
Shamrock Rovers stadium out in tallaght (if fully built) would be the business
Corks stadium when the shed and St Annes end when finished will be excellent
Galways United seems well run but i dont know what they are doing stadium wise

[Dodge]

I'm warming to this 3 an in league that you're all talking about.

[Conor H]

According to the Indo the proposal was unaminiously rejected last night.

[Jerry The Saint]

The eircom League is dying and there is only one hope left to save it...

Three words:

Extra. Time. Multiball!

[Schumi]

According to the Indo the proposal was unaminiously rejected last night.

Thank **** for that. At least there's some level of sanity.

[soccerc]

According to the Indo the proposal was unaminiously rejected last night.

As I posted last night http://foot.ie/showpost.php?p=399509&postcount=3


Wait until you see what's really planned.............and no club can be assured of their "franchise"

[Mr A]

The crazy thing about this is we're talking about an interim season when the number of teams in the proposed superleague hasn't been agreed. We're talking about how to get to a destination without knowing where the hell we're going! A 22 team league could be good (might want to balance it a bit more though), it might help fudge licensing a while longer (although I don't think the license is that different from last year having talked to someone about it in the meantime) but the debate should be about what structure we're going to end up with, not what to do in the meantime!

The Genusis recommendation (and that's all it is, cause it sure as f*** won't be ratified) for a ten team league that'd be virtually impossible to get promoted to and everyone else basically demoted to intermediate football would be the death of Irish senior football. Certain clubs would have a closed shop 6 team league is they could get away with it but obviously for the league overall that's not the way to go.

Honestly, what the hell have these people been paid for? What have they told us that we didn't know or couldn't be handled via proper licensing?

[pineapple stu]

Wait until you see what's really planned.............and no club can be assured of their "franchise"

Don't say things like that...

How'z about scissors-paper-rock?

[Battery Rover]

Our 2000 all seater stand will be ready by the end of June.

You don't need to run an open year to decide the order of the clubs the existing structure has already done that. Cork City are the best team in the league and Athlone Town are the worst. If they are hoping that down and out clubs with great heritages, like Shamrock Rovers or Dundalk, will get their act together for the new format then they might as well just hand pick the teams they want in the top division and spare us the monkey-tennis 22 team league.

Big news expected here regarding a new manager and some possible serious investment within the next week.


Clubs are dying with the present structure of only 1 up and 1 play off. Too risky invest cause if you dont get up you are in deep financial trouble. Can only spend what you get in.

Something has to be done.

[MariborKev]

For the 2007 season the top 10 ten clubs on the pitch with a licence will be in the Super League. So if Shels (for instance ) finish top but don't get a licence (for tax reasons maybe? ) they won't be in it.

But if Galway, Harps or Rovers (again for instance ) finish outside the top 10 but satisfy the licence requirements then they will be in it.

KOH

I'm getting a flashback here, yes its all coming back.

Clubs without a licence won't be let in the league.

Hold on, the name is coming back to me..............

UEFA Licence fiasco of 2004

[pete]

Clubs are dying with the present structure of only 1 up and 1 play off. Too risky invest cause if you dont get up you are in deep financial trouble. Can only spend what you get in.

Something has to be done.

It is easier to get out of the 1st division. DC/CHF Got promoted this season & they are hopeless.

Premier division clubs are investing a lot of money for success in Europe & fulltime pros so stupid to penalise them to help teams at bottom of the 1st division.

[Mr A]

Yes but clubs make money from Europe as well.

Time and time again we see the George Bush mentality on this message board- the rich deserve the most help, those that are struggling in the lower reaches of the league are there due to their own incompetence and deserve to be further cut off from any hope of advancement. Give them no coverage, no hope of promotion, no respect, give them last priority for any grant for their grounds and then attack them for not making progress. Sure it's only the top few clubs that Irish football is here for, they're the only ones that matter.

[Battery Rover]

Yes but clubs make money from Europe as well.

Time and time again we see the George Bush mentality on this message board- the rich deserve the most help, those that are struggling in the lower reaches of the league are there due to their own incompetence and deserve to be further cut off from any hope of advancement. Give them no coverage, no hope of promotion, no respect, give them last priority for any grant for their grounds and then attack them for not making progress. Sure it's only the top few clubs that Irish football is here for, they're the only ones that matter.

Well said.

[pete]

The poor small clubs deserve help but not at the same time as penalising the people supporting irish football which are the investors of the biggest clubs.

[Bald Student]

The poor small clubs deserve help but not at the same time as penalising the people supporting irish football which are the investors of the biggest clubs.

The investors in the smallest clubs are supporting irish football as well.

Whatever new league format comes in, a key aim should be for there to be a better chance of a first division team getting promoted to end the graveyard image of that division.

[NY Hoop]

The investors in the smallest clubs are supporting irish football as well.

Whatever new league format comes in, a key aim should be for there to be a better chance of a first division team getting promoted to end the graveyard image of that division.

Agree.

Think Damien hit the nail on the head sunday when he said the Cup Final should have been earlier. Whatever format they come up with the season should not be dragged out til now. Finish the league fixtures second last weekend of October and have the Cup Final on the last sunday.

KOH

[A face]

The eircom League is dying and there is only one hope left to save it...

Three words:

Extra. Time. Multiball!

Brilliant !!

Post of the Month !!!

[TonyD]

As my contribution to this debate I would recommend that everyone read an excellent book by an English journalist, Ed Horton. (He writes for When Saturday Comes) The book is called "Moving the Goalposts" and has some great words of wisdom, which though based on English football, are just as relevant in this Country. Of particular significance to this debate is a chapter called "Significance" in which he rails against the whole notion of franchise football, which seems to me to be what we are talking about here. I'll qoute some pieces from it
"The fans can tell the difference between football that we can take seriously and football that we can't. We know that friendlies do not matter. We know that relegation does..........Significance is everything. The only way to make the game significant, to make small town football matter, is to go in exactly the opposite from the way in which the prevailing trends would have us go. It is to maintain National Divisions, not split them up. It is to increase relegation and Promotion, not abandon them. It works. The real success of English football over the last decade is not the premiership. It is not the festival of greed, but the revitalisation of the grassroots. The real success has been the conference" He goes on to quote the increase in attendance at non league games since the conference was formed. I'll just quote one more sentance. "Football, at any level, thrives when, and only when, it begins to matter. That is what makes the game compelling."
For me that sums the whole thing up in a nutshell. That's why Cup games and league deciders get bigger crowds, that's why we should be striving to make this league as inclusive, not exclusive, as possible. That's how you attract supporters. By making it matter. By all means let's strive for better facilities, but we've got to bring everyone along. Otherwise lets just have Cork and Shels play each other 20 times a season to decide the title.

[Mr A]

Excellent post TonyD.

[sligoman]

This elite league that the genesis suggests is crap. Proposing that Galway go through on the basis that they have a good development plan is bull. It should be whoever is playing the best at the moment, the top teams like(weather you have a great history in the league shouldn't matter either), and if you improve then you will get promoted into the elite league. Theirs no point in having a great set-up off the pitch if you cant produce it on it.

btw Galway fans, I'm not setting on ye purposely, it's just ye are the only club(that I know of anyway) mentioned in their report.