eircom League / domestic football
The eircom League is set to undergo fundamental changes over the next 3 years with a near doubling of the prize fund and widespread structural, competition and governance changes.
The proposals to radically overhaul the League arose following the work of an implementation committee charged with evaluating the September 2005 Genesis “White Paper” on the eircom League.
The paper recommended radical changes to ensure the long-term survival and financial stability of the League.
Subject to ratification by an EGM of the FAI later this year, the key changes are:
• Prize fund investment pot to rise to €803,000 (€450,000 in 2006; €98,000 in 2004)
• Grants of €120,000 for community related Club Promotions Officers for Premiership clubs
• Premiership winners to net €225,000 (€100,000 in 2006; €18,000 in 2004) - represents a 12 fold increase in three years
• 1st division winners to net €50,000 (€25,000 in 2006; €10,000 in 2004)
- a five fold increase in three years
• Four-tier League structure with Premiership, 1st Division, new “A” Championship and under 20 league from 2008
• Premiership to be reduced from 12 to 10 teams from 2009
• Responsibilities of Management committee and Board of Control of eircom League to be assumed by a six person committee including two outside specialists
• Mandatory participation agreements to be introduced
• Focus on greater support for facility improvements
An Independent Assessment Group has been appointed to use set criteria to rank clubs for the 2007 season to determine which clubs populate the former Premiership/1st divisions. This committee is chaired by Des Casey, UEFA Life Member and includes former Dublin City Manager John Fitzgerald, former Irish International Niall Quinn and former Chairman of the Irish Sports Council Pat O’Neill.
The proposals being put forward will bring the League to a whole new level with the most appropriate structures and governance to ensure the League becomes more competitive, sustainable and financially viable. Few people outside the game are aware that the eircom League is not run by the FAI. Bringing the senior National leagues under the FAI banner provides more support and more focus to the running of the Leagues while allowing clubs to concentrate on running their affairs.
On the pitch, the eircom League had a very memorable year in 2005 with a fantastic climax to the season seeing Cork City beat Derry City in front of a capacity crowd at Turner’s Cross to clinch the Premier division title. Derry City had cup success by winning the League Cup, defeating UCD in a well contested final at Belfield. Sligo Rovers had a very impressive year in winning the first division while our clubs once again enjoyed a competitive season in European competition with Cork City finally losing out to Djurgardens IF in the 2nd Qualifying round of the European Champions League.
The multi-broadcaster agreement negotiated by the FAI in 2005 resulted in widely enhanced coverage of the senior domestic game. In total, 44 games were broadcast live on RTÉ, Setanta Sports and TG4 with Chorus covering a further 60 games. TV3 continued to give the domestic game extensive coverage on its eircom League weekly programme.
FAI Carlsberg Senior Cup
The FAI Carlsberg Senior Challenge Cup provided some tremendous clashes.
Forty two clubs, 49 games including seven replays made for an exciting 2005 competition. This year saw Wayside Celtic blaze the trail for the non-league teams by making it to the third round, beating Bangor Celtic and Cobh Ramblers along the way, before going down to Bohemian FC 2-1 after a replay.
For drama, the third round fixture between Cork City and Finn Harps was the match that caught the eye. Following a 0-0 draw at Finn Park, the replay went in Cork City’s favour after extra time by a scoreline of 3-2.
The final, which took place on 4th December at Lansdowne Road, had the biggest attendance in 15 years with 25,000 spectators enjoying a great match which saw Cork City already crowned League Champions go down 2-0 to Drogheda United who secured their first FAI Carlsberg Senior Cup success in their 42 year history.
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Setanta Sports Cup
In the second season of the competition, the Setanta Sports Cup expanded to 8 teams in a very successful development which saw almost 60,000 supporters attend the games. The final was won by Drogheda United in a really competitive game against Cork City at Tolka Park.
A feature of this year’s tournament was the Community Exchange Programme which saw young supporters from clubs, North and South, involved in establishing links between the fans and supporters of the teams involved in this cross community competition. Children from Dungannon Swifts came to Drogheda for the first game of the competition while the return leg of this game saw the children of Drogheda travel to Dungannon where they supported their team alongside the Dungannon children. A group of Linfield Junior Blues travelled to Tolka Park to watch Linfield play Shelbourne and for the semi final Linfield hosted the Drogheda United contingent in Windsor Park.
The Cross Community Exchange project was a huge success and all clubs who participated were supportive and cooperative and deserve great credit for helping to make it happen.
Club Licensing
The FAI Club Licensing System is designed to be a progressive and continuous quality improvement scheme. Introduced in 2004, this is an on-going process of building on experience gained, continuously consulting with all stakeholders and striving to improve the quality of the eircom League and its member clubs.
In 2006 the FAI Club Licensing Manual was reviewed with stricter submission deadlines being introduced along with a range of sanctions for non-compliance of criteria. As a result, the last year has seen clear evidence of behavioural change at eircom League clubs in their efforts to achieve licensing compliance resulting in a substantial improvement at the First Instance Committee stage where twenty one clubs were awarded their licence and the remaining club succeeding on appeal.
Over the past year clubs have drawn down Sports Capital Grants from the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism with evidence of tangible upgrading of grounds throughout the eircom League. Managers and coaches are participating on our Technical Department’s Coach Education programme and clubs have been granted funding from the UEFA Champions League Solidarity Payments fund for the development of their youth development programmes which are now subject to audit. Progress is also being made in the area of financial management with clubs now providing, in addition to annual audited accounts, monthly management accounts as part of the move to better governance of their clubs and the transparency the game needs.
Facility Development Unit
In tandem with the FAI’s Coach Education and Emerging Talent Programmes, another aspect of our long term planning that is crucial to the game is that of facilities development. Great strides were made again during the past year with clubs and community associations benefitting greatly from the Department of Sport Capital Grants allocations together with support from the FAI’s Facility Development Unit, led by Bob Breen.
There are a number of eircom League clubs at varying stages of stadium development. The new stadium at Athlone is due to open this year, while Shamrock Rovers are eagerly awaiting the go ahead to finally move to Tallaght. Bohemians, Drogheda United and Finn Harps have all announced plans to move to new stadia while many other clubs are working hard to redevelop their existing grounds.
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FAI Annual Report, Financial Statements and Accounts 2005
Originally Posted by Buller
Extensive coverage?! A 25 minute show on at 11.30 on a monday night is not what i'd call, "extensive coverage".
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