QuoteIts not a secret anymore ..... love this. Its the most logical thing to do to try and advance both leagues.
From the Indo
There's more detail in the full article.Advanced discussions about the introduction of an All Ireland soccer league have taken place between clubs from both sides of the border and interested stakeholders, with the intention of drafting a New Year proposal that will be too good for the FAI and IFA to refuse.
The Irish Independent has learned that top eircom League sides have been involved in secret talks with counterparts in the North and with the backing of significant third party encouragement in the hope of bringing the project to fruition.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
Its not a secret anymore ..... love this. Its the most logical thing to do to try and advance both leagues.
Last edited by A face; 11/12/2007 at 7:15 AM.
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.
Aren't people always saying how a team needs a national league under the jurisdiction of the football association of the country, or otherwise they won't be allowed a national team? (or something like that)
How would this combined league affect that rule? Or is that what "UEFA....and FIFA will give the necessary backing to the venture" is referring to?
Last edited by osarusan; 11/12/2007 at 7:37 AM.
Here it is.Secret All-Ireland league talks at 'advanced' stage
By Daniel McDonnell
Tuesday December 11 2007
Advanced discussions about the introduction of an All Ireland soccer league have taken place between clubs from both sides of the border and interested stakeholders, with the intention of drafting a New Year proposal that will be too good for the FAI and IFA to refuse.
The Irish Independent has learned that top eircom League sides have been involved in secret talks with counterparts in the North and with the backing of significant third party encouragement in the hope of bringing the project to fruition.
They have been given reason to believe that governments in the North and South would be receptive to the project and are confident that UEFA -- who have been informally sounded out -- and FIFA will give the necessary backing to the venture.
Now, they are looking to put an attractive final package together by January with the necessary levels of support and a business plan to convince the two football associations to give the green light to press forward.
Their involvement is pivotal so that any league including the island's top clubs would be capable of gaining the places to compete in European competition.
"If the FAI and the IFA want to buy into it then everyone is happy," says one club source.
"It would be difficult to proceed without their support.
"There's a bigger picture here. Certainly, there are very professional people involved in this project and there is a lot of excitement about what can be achieved.
"This could be very big for football in this country and is capable of bringing it to the next level."
The origins of the initiative came from meetings between the six leading eircom League full time clubs -- Cork City, Drogheda United, Derry City, St Patrick's Athletic, Bohemians and Galway United -- to discuss grievances regarding their participation agreement with the FAI and the wage cap thats coming into place next season.
However, those discussions have snowballed with other parties being sought out for advice and to ascertain their interest as the desire for a full time professional All-Ireland league emerged as the ultimate objective.
Tentative discussions have taken place with a television company who are willing to offer their backing to the venture.
Other league members, who were not part of the original group of six, have now asked to be kept aware of developments as the project grows wings and some have been invited to subsequent gatherings.
Regardless of the success of the plan, the 22 eircom League clubs are preparing to lobby the FAI for the re-drafting of the participation agreement amid widespread unhappiness at its implementation.
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.
The devil will be in the detail, but once it's not a closed shop and has promotion and relegation out of the remain leagues, then I'd be broadly supportive of such a move. Not sure how they'll get around the whole different calendars though, either for the all ireland league or the remain FAI/IFA leagues...
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
I'd be against any moves towards an All-Ireland league. It will concentrate development and growth similar to what is happening in rugby - ie provinces versus clubs. It will benefit the elite and discard the rest.
Also a league of six IL and six LOI teams seems unbalanced to me. Should it not be 4 IL teams and 8 LOI teams or 2 IL teams and 10 LOI teams? People have been complaining for years about the number of Dublin clubs but an United Ireland league would result in the geographical concentration of clubs even move. There'll be 7 clubs located in Northern Ireland and 4 clubs in the Dublin region. Only 1 club will represent the rest of the country - a population of 2.5 million people - nearly half the population of the total island.
The top clubs will be at the top, it might take five years but thats what will happen. Thats the beauty of football, its competition all the time and the best usually come out on top. Thats what fans, players, clubs and any stakeholder would want in theory. If clubs want to be at the top then they need to improve, simple as.Originally Posted by ifk101
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.
I'm not saying you're wrong and this won't happen, but one big difference with rugby is that there is no pyramid system in place in rugby. No matter how good Shannon or St Mary's or whoever are, they won't get promoted with a province being relegated.
Yes but are not the majority of "top clubs" on the island playing in the LOI. How many full-time teams are there in IL football? How many in LOI football?
If a 12 league is implemented, and each league is represented by 6 teams, which LOI teams should be included and which teams excluded? Pats, Shamrock Rovers, Bohs, Drogheda, Cork and Derry all have to be included. But then you have other LOI teams that are professional or much further down the professional route than the vast majority of IL clubs. What will happen to them? Do you honestly think that this clubs will be able to continue towards professionalism if they are excluded from the top league of this ALL-Ireland league? Their place in the new league will be taken by teams of a lower quality standard from the IL. If the Setanta Cup has demonstrated anything, it is that there exists a quality gap between the two league. Only Linfield and Glentoran in patches have been competitive against LOI opposition.
I think an All ireland league would be brilliant as long as all clubs get a chance to compete with promotion and relegation and not just a break away league for the top clubs in the FAI and IFA, but why not make it bigger than 12 teams 16 or so. hopefully this could increase crowds and development.
Where do you get the idea that it'd have to be a 12 team league, with 6 teams each from the FAI and the IFA?
The article makes no such claims, it says that the idea of an all-ireland league is being driven forward by 6 (named) eL sides.
It would have to be a breakaway league, with both national assoc.'s maintaining a lower league to ensure the survival of the national teams. Presumably some method of promotion/relegation would be agree with the IFA & FAI leagues, maybe the winner of each play each other for automatic promotion etc.
I'd agree about a 16 team league.
The fairest way would be through sporting merit. Say the top 6 teams in the eL and top 4 in the IL gain automatic entry to the new league. Then a mini league (like the champions league or setanta cup 1st round) could supply the remaining 6 teams. The big problem with this would be the differences in the playing seasons. Perhaps there'll be a year of 'spring soccer' (IL starts earlier, eL starts later or vv) before all teams migrate to either summer or winter football in the brand new league?If a 12 league is implemented, and each league is represented by 6 teams, which LOI teams should be included and which teams excluded?
This isn't the first newspaper article on the subject and this idea has been talked about at length before. It's anyone's guess as to what the make-up of this league would be - a 12 team league with equal representation from both leagues is my educated guess.
Well until someone comes up with a prefect solution then i think everyone can agree that its a given there would be problems and obstacles to overcome. To say there wouldn't be is just madness.
Compromise is the name of the day imo, no nimby type attitudes will help this process.
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.
How does this sound...
16 team Premier League
Drogheda
St Pats
Cork
Derry
Bohs
UCD
Sligo
Shamrock
Linfield
Glens
Cliftonville
Ports
Dungannon
Glenavon
Newry
Ballymena
Linfield Football Club - Hatchets & Hammers - You Can Only Envy Us
A Blue 52
if galway are full time and sligo arent then im pretty sure they will be featuring in that league.
Btw, im assuming it must be setanta - the broadcaster being spoken about?! It would be interesting to see how much they would pay in sponsorship, they have always seemed quite generous.
How would promotion/relegation work? For example, how would the 1st division work, would it just go revert to teams within EL and IL in a playoff at the end of every season to see who got promoted?
It wouldn't really be feasible for the likes of cobh to travel all the way up north. But then if its not implemented throughout all divisions then it would really break up the geographic playing area....
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
why not an all ireland league with three divisions top 8 or so from loi and il form new all-island prem
the rest of loi prem and il prem form new all-island first div and current loi and il first div's form second div
Straight relegation / promotion. If your going to make it an all ireland league then you should go the whole hog
I think uefa and fifa would make an exception for the international teams to remain due to the exceptional political circumstances in the north
Last edited by Block G Raptor; 11/12/2007 at 9:40 AM.
Travel and associated costs make it a no-no below the top few clubs.
All Ireland League hasn't worked in the lower divisions in rugby for exactly these reasons.
On the basis that both national associations will probably be against the whole concept (in a turkeys voting for Christmas manner), I would say thats its about anything but compromise.
My reading is that this is a breakaway League which will go ahead regardless of national association approval and with full knowledge that there may be no European representation.
ORA,
Do you expect that Northern Irish teams (other than Derry City) will be participants in this breakaway league?
The Englishmen came over in the year 2005
But little did they know that we'd planned a wee surprise
Sir David scored the winner, and Windsor Park went wild
And this is what we sang...
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks