FAI proposals for future of Eircom League...

[Roo69]

UCD fans. One question. How do ye propose that attendances are increased and hence lead to a better supported league??

Attendence at all games in the eL is a massive problem for every single club, not just the so called smaller clubs like UCD, DCFC and even us.

The main reasons why clubs are not supported as well as they should are (1) Facilities, there just not up to standard and (2) the standard of football on show, it's just not good enough compared to what people are used to watching on sky sports.

[Jerry The Saint]

Sorry if this has been asked and answered before, too many pages
to trawl through, but why is Niall Quinn one of the people deciding
the criteria to shape the League of Ireland???

I'll field this one, Kent. Quinn's connection to the league is that he was a die-hard Thurles Town supporter in his teens - one of only a handful (literally about 10 people) who went to their away games. Apparently he became disillusioned after their demise. If a system like this had been around at the time Thurles would probably be in the Champions League by now, given their excellent location.

While we're at it, anyone got any information on the other wise men/lady who have been given the job of recreating Irish football in John Delaney's image?

The IAG also include former Irish Sports Council chairman Pat O'Neill, Dublin City manager John Fitzgerald, former international Niall Quinn and FAI Project Manager Helen Raftery.

The Dublin City manager (the one that's not Dermot Keeley ) for one could be said to have a conflict of interests over issues such as stadium funding/number of teams in the capital...

[Dr.Nightdub]

The Dublin City manager (the one that's not Dermot Keeley) for one could be said to have a conflict of interests over issues such as stadium funding/number of teams in the capital...

No conflict of interest Jerry...Catherine Byrne is the Lord Mayor of Dublin and she's made approving noises about what Pats For Richmond are trying to achieve. By virtue of being Lord Mayor, she is also yer man's boss. As Dodge pointed out on the Pats MB, we're also the only club to have stated a preference for staying in the Dublin City Council area - which he's the boss of. Cool.

Now, stand back and watch all the culchies, SDCCers and Fingal CCers shrieking hysterically about Pats having the political fix in.

PS: WAR, you'd want to start reading our MB a bit more assiduously mate. All the Mulvey stuff (including what's gonna happen to his % ownership) has been clarified with following the most recent PFR public meeting. One CRO document does not a summer make!

[Dr.Nightdub]

BTW, one of our club officials showed me a spreadsheet showing the rankings based on the previous seasons' sporting criteria - the 30% bit and the only one that can be determined objectively at this stage. I'm nearly sure it came out from the FAI but maybe he did it himself.

Of the total 1000 points that this whole process will use, there's only these 300 available at this stage.

Shels are top with the full 300. Longford are next, can't remember how many points, but I'd say it's driven by cup performances. We're 7th, on 240. Also ahead of us are Cork, Derry, Drogheda and Bohs, can't remember how many points or in what order. Immediately after us are Rovers on 230, then Waterford, then UCD.

After them, it's all just a blur of mediocrity.

[thejollyrodger]

I HATE THE NAME PRIEMERSHIP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why cant we have a decent name ??

[Poor Student]

This "A" Championship thingy sounds like the old League of Ireland B Division. That's where UCD competed before stepping up to senior football. It sounds intriguing. What happened to the old B Division?

Also, does anyone think this playoff for the Setanta place is a bit weird?

[pineapple stu]

Did it become the reserve division and in turn the U-21 league?

[crc]

Also, does anyone think this playoff for the Setanta place is a bit weird?

I'd forgotton about this point - absolutely ridiculous. The Setanta Cup needs the best teams, and the 4th place should stay with the LC Winners.

[CollegeTillIDie]

I'd forgotton about this point - absolutely ridiculous. The Setanta Cup needs the best teams, and the 4th place should stay with the LC Winners.

Here here. Apart from anything else it makes teams take the League Cup a bit more seriously. Now that there is no Leinster Senior Cup anymore some clubs in the Eastern Seaboard region had been using the League Cup to be their mickey mouse Cup competition.

[Bald Student]

Also, there's no particular need to reward the top finisher in the First Division with the playoff as that position already contains a big reward, promotion. If the Setanta place was going to the first division I would have prefered to see a first division shield, or similar.

[Red4Eva]

i don't think the league cup deserves such a high rating(8) compared to fai cup(10). u only have to look at the attendances for last year's finals to realise that the ratings are wrong. also i think the 1st division setanta cup place is daft, promotion is enough reward&the financial implications of starting your season 4 weeks earlier cud f*ck up a newly promoted club. plus the setanta cup needs the best teams&i don't even think the league cup winner deserves a place cos it's so sh*t as it is. apart from that i'd be willing to go ahead with the plans

[Mr A]

The Setanta Cup place is there as a carrot to entice the first division clubs to swallow the 10 team league proposal. It's just a bit of sugar-coating really. The first division champions would still have to play the league cup winners to get in anyway and if they manage that then good luck to them. It may be artificial as hell, but it would certainly spice things up and generate a bit of interest.

[Raheny Red]

Maybe the FAI are letting the Div. 1 champs into the Setanta in order to make sure it is not one sided i.e to make sure it soesn't turn into an ass whooping for some of the IL minnows. The FAI maybe want to show not it won't be all one-sided and thus going on to increase the number of entrants even further - just a thought I had during the day?!

[mypost]

the point remains that Waterford are abysmal and are pretty much guaranteed a place in the P*********p next year.

They could go the rest of the season without picking up an extra point (and I don't fancy their chances against Douglas Hall either) and yet still deny Rovers, Limerick or Galway etc a place in the shiny new Smart Telecom How's Your Father Niall Quinn's Disco Pants Elite Premier League.

It should be pointed out, that at the moment, the current promotion/relegation set-up for this season still stands. Even IF the proposals are accepted, there will still be promotion/relegation at the end of this season in some form, so teams will have to do enough on the pitch this season to give themselves more chance of making the cut to play in the top division next year.

[CollegeTillIDie]

Sorry if this has been asked and answered before, too many pages
to trawl through, but why is Niall Quinn one of the people deciding
the criteria to shape the League of Ireland???

Surely if he was that bothered he'd invest more into football here
than buying Sunderland

Post of the month in my opinion.

[CollegeTillIDie]

By the way how are the FAI going to fund this extra money?
They have not had a major injection of cash that I have heard of over and above State funding. The Republic of Ireland have not qualified for a major adult level tournament since 2002, and this last one we didn't even have the cash cow of a money spinning two leg play off to fall back on.

[thejollyrodger]

The FAI are renewing some advertisments. One is ending with FIAT but I forget the name of the other one. There is supposed to be a lot of money invovled and they are probably getting it from there.

A couple of million euro is peanuts for the FAI. I think they have revenue of €30million.

I think the FAI should have come up with a unique name for the league and not just copying the English league.

[Partizan]

By the way, does anyone not think that any system that could save this season's Waterford team is a farce?

Your hysterical shrieking on this thread too is just as farcical.

Btw, by the end of the season we will have 3000 covered seats in place (with provision for more development behind the country goal), new toilets, turnstiles and 2 all weather pitches. The Management Committee is doing a great job off the pitch and with big fundraisers in place for the summer, we should be financially sound.

Plus our league record in the last 5 years has been decent.

[Poor Student]

Your hysterical shrieking on this thread too is just as farcical.

Where?

Btw, by the end of the season we will have 3000 covered seats in place (with provision for more development behind the country goal), new toilets, turnstiles and 2 all weather pitches. The Management Committee is doing a great job off the pitch and with big fundraisers in place for the summer, we should be financially sound.

Plus our league record in the last 5 years has been decent.

You're missing my point. The fact that these things can help a team that has failed to win a single league game after the first round of fixtures is indicative of all that is wrong with this new plan. I know it's a bit early to write off your season, but should your terrible form continue this new proposal seems like it could actually save you from deserved relegation.

[Breifne]

Okay, try and bear with me, i've done up a bit of a spreadsheet (which you can get if you mail or pm me, i'll drop it back to you).

Here goes.

2001-2002 League FAI Cup Lge Cup Euro Total
Athlone Town 4 1 0 0 5
Bohemians 19 8 4 1.5 32.5
Bray Wanderers 15 3 0 0 18
Cobh Ramblers 3 2 1 0 6
Cork City 17 1 2 0.5 20.5
Derry City 18 6 6 0 30
Drogheda United 14 1 1 0 16
Dublin City 8 2 1 0 11
Dundalk 11 10 0 0 21
Finn Harps 10 3 1 0 14
Galway United 12 1 1 0 14
Kildare County 0 0 0 0 0
Kilkenny City 6 2 0 0 8
Limerick 2 2 8 0 12
Longford Town 13 1 2 0.5 16.5
Monaghan United 9 2 0 0 11
Shamrock Rovers 21 6 4 0 31
Shelbourne 22 2 1 0 25
Sligo Rovers 5 3 1 0 9
St. Patricks Athletic 20 1 2 0 23
UCD 16 3 1 0 20
Waterford United 7 1 2 0 10

2002-2003 League FAI Cup Lge Cup Euro Total
Athlone Town 2 1 0 0 3
Bohemians 22 6 0 0 28
Bray Wanderers 11 3 0 0 14
Cobh Ramblers 9 2 0 0 11
Cork City 19 6 0 0 25
Derry City 15 10 0 0 25
Drogheda United 13 1 0 0 14
Dublin City 6 1 0 0 7
Dundalk 4 1 0 0 5
Finn Harps 10 3 0 0 13
Galway United 12 1 0 0 13
Kildare County 8 1 0 0 9
Kilkenny City 1 3 0 0 4
Limerick 3 1 0 0 4
Longford Town 18 2 0 0 20
Monaghan United 5 2 0 0 7
Shamrock Rovers 20 8 0 0 28
Shelbourne 21 2 0 0.5 23.5
Sligo Rovers 7 2 0 0 9
St. Patricks Athletic 16 3 0 2 21
UCD 17 2 0 0 19
Waterford United 14 2 0 0 16

2003 League FAI Cup Lge Cup Euro Total
Athlone Town 4 1 1 0 6
Bohemians 21 6 2 1 30
Bray Wanderers 12 2 1 0 15
Cobh Ramblers 5 1 1 0 7
Cork City 20 1 4 0 25
Derry City 11 2 4 0 17
Drogheda United 15 3 1 0 19
Dublin City 10 2 1 0 13
Dundalk 3 1 1 0 5
Finn Harps 10 1 1 0 12
Galway United 6 6 1 0 13
Kildare County 8 3 1 0 12
Kilkenny City 1 1 1 0 3
Limerick 9 2 1 0 12
Longford Town 19 10 6 0 35
Monaghan United 2 1 1 0 4
Shamrock Rovers 16 1 2 2 21
Shelbourne 22 2 1 0 25
Sligo Rovers 7 3 2 0 12
St. Patricks Athletic 18 8 8 0 34
UCD 11 2 1 0 14
Waterford United 17 3 2 0 22

2004 League FAI Cup Lge Cup Euro Total
Athlone Town 4 4 1 0 9
Bohemians 20 2 6 0.5 28.5
Bray Wanderers 11 1 1 0 13
Cobh Ramblers 5 2 1 0 8
Cork City 21 1 2 4 28
Derry City 16 6 1 0 23
Drogheda United 19 6 1 0 26
Dublin City 10 1 2 0 13
Dundalk 7 1 1 0 9
Finn Harps 13 1 4 0 18
Galway United 8 1 1 0 10
Kildare County 9 4 1 0 14
Kilkenny City 2 2 1 0 5
Limerick 1 1 4 0 6
Longford Town 17 10 8 0 35
Monaghan United 3 2 1 0 6
Shamrock Rovers 14 2 1 0 17
Shelbourne 22 2 1 3 28
Sligo Rovers 6 1 2 0 9
St. Patricks Athletic 15 2 1 0 18
UCD 12 4 2 0 18
Waterford United 18 8 1 0 27

2005 League FAI Cup Lge Cup Euro Total
Athlone Town 1 1 0 0 2
Bohemians 17 3 1 1 22
Bray Wanderers 16 6 0 0 22
Cobh Ramblers 8 1 1 0 10
Cork City 22 8 2 2 34
Derry City 21 6 8 0 35
Drogheda United 19 10 2 0 31
Dublin City 11 1 0 0 12
Dundalk 5 2 0 0 7
Finn Harps 9 2 0 0 11
Galway United 6 1 1 0 8
Kildare County 3 2 1 0 6
Kilkenny City 7 1 0 0 8
Limerick 4 1 0 0 5
Longford Town 18 2 4 1 25
Monaghan United 2 1 1 0 4
Shamrock Rovers 10 3 0 0 13
Shelbourne 20 1 4 2.5 27.5
Sligo Rovers 12 3 1 0 16
St. Patricks Athletic 13 2 2 0 17
UCD 14 3 6 0 23
Waterford United 15 1 2 0 18

2001-2005 Yearly Totals Total Pts
Athlone Town 5 3 6 9 2 25 90
Bohemians 32.5 28 30 28.5 22 141 300
Bray Wanderers 18 14 15 13 22 82 200
Cobh Ramblers 6 11 7 8 10 42 140
Cork City 20.5 25 25 28 34 132.5 290
Derry City 30 25 17 23 35 130 270
Drogheda United 16 14 19 26 31 106 230
Dublin City 11 7 13 13 12 56 170
Dundalk 21 5 5 9 7 47 150
Finn Harps 14 13 12 18 11 68 190
Galway United 14 13 13 10 8 58 180
Kildare County 0 9 12 14 6 41 130
Kilkenny City 8 4 3 5 8 28 100
Limerick 12 4 12 6 5 39 120
Longford Town 16.5 20 35 35 25 131.5 280
Monaghan United 11 7 4 6 4 32 110
Shamrock Rovers 31 28 21 17 13 110 240
Shelbourne 25 23.5 25 28 27.5 129 260
Sligo Rovers 9 9 12 9 16 55 160
St. Patricks Athletic 23 21 34 18 17 113 250
UCD 20 19 14 18 23 94 220
Waterford United 10 16 22 27 18 93 210