Sporting Fingal to be offered First Division place

[Philly]

Am I missing something - the Director of the League just said he hopes more teams drop out of the league?

Jesus yeah that is an insane thing to say really. The sad fact is more First Division clubs will go bust because we have being given no help whatsoever when it comes to PR, Marketing, etc and the league has received no promotion. This has made the struggle to survive harder and the FAI seem to be happy enough to see the stragglers disappear. Football in this country is such a joke at times.

[Sheridan]

The joke is that the clubs voted for it...

[Tis-smeee]

Which leads me to another point.....

How the hell did Galway Utd ever get in to the Premier Division!!!

They rented a great dvd i think it was a clint eastwood one and they bought all the sweets

[ndrog]

Dublin is defined as anywhere you can get to on Dublin Bus or by Dart. That's why the Drogs are moving to Meath, to maintain their country status after the Northern Line is electrified.

Drogs new stadium is being built in Drogheda which has always taken in parts of meath county on the northern part of town . And you cant get a dart or Dublin bus to Drogheda .

[Olander]

How the hell did Galway Utd ever get in to the Premier Division!!!

You're only about a year behind with that question.

[passerrby]

www.eircomloi.ie[/url]

I wonder why with fran and john delaney at the helm

[Flawless]

Out of curiosty (or Naiivity), were will Sporting Fingal play their home games??

[Jerry The Saint]

All clubs have their day in the First Division.

Not ALL clubs

[passerrby]

morton stadium .is that in fingal, are they the first club to be issued with a licence for the forthcoming season while the rest have to go through the process

[Sniffer]

It's in Santry, close to the Fingal border - Shamrock Rovers played there a few years back, and Shels were reported to be considering a move there a couple of seasons ago. there are plans in the pipeline for a new venue in Fingal as reported on the FAI website

[Block G Raptor]

there are plans in the pipeline for a new venue in Fingal as reported on the FAI website

Abbottstown is in Fingal so perhaps we'll see a stadium at the Bertie Bowl Site after all, if not quite on the scale we'd hoped for back then

[passerrby]

slightly of topic but is there plans to locate a LOI team at abbotstown, is that possible

[Block G Raptor]

slightly of topic but is there plans to locate a LOI team at abbotstown, is that possible

As far as I know theres a fair bit of land out there which has been zoned for sport and recreation to prepare for the whole sports campus Ireland Thingy
the NAC is there presently and the FAI have recently moved in too, as far as I can recall the FAI academy/center of excellence is supposed to be going in there at some stage too

[amjl]

I think scrapping the First Division should be given considerable thought to be honest, Whether it means reforming both divisions into one 16-20 team Premier with two A Championship type leagues to ensure there at leats is a relegation situation

I think scrappingthe First Division would be a good idea & making a Premier Division into 16-20 teams league would make much more sense. It would give all the smaller clubs a better chance of survival as they would get bigger crowds from playing the bigger clubs and it should attract more interest locally. (any 1st Division club would benefit from the cwrods when playing against Cork, Drogs, Derry, Pats, Bohs, Rovers, etc.)

Clubs who finish rock bottom or if clubs fail to keep the pace(financially, etc.), then they should be relagted down to the A championship, which could be used as a buffer with the winners being promoted should they have their affairs/liscence criteria up to standard.

That way, you have just 1 league to promote to the bigger audience and you still have your promotion/relegation with only 1 team going up & one going down to keep it intersesting at that end of the table.

financially the First Division just doesn't work

Understatemnet of the year!

[kingdomkerry]

Too many Dublin clubs as it is. 2 for any city the size of dublin is enough

[pineapple stu]

The clubs didn't know they might get a league place when they did this surely, so logically they should have been able to bid again- I'd way prefer Tullamore to get the slot if they're anyway ready.

Didn't Letterkenny apply and were turned down?

If so, that'd imply all applicant clubs had to make an IAG type application just to join the A league, so there was one ready available for them to pick a First Division team. Still not the best of ways of doing it though.

You have to have a First Division to avoid stagnation. Promotion and relegation are an essential part of any league.

[The Rebel Ram]

Sad day for Kilkenny
Disgusted that it is yet another Dublin club to replace them!!!!

[Dodge]

Am I missing something - the Director of the League just said he hopes more teams drop out of the league?

That was my reading of it too. They obviously want an "elite" league.

Too many Dublin clubs as it is. 2 for any city the size of dublin is enough

Last year Dublin had between 1/3 and 1/4 of the population and roughly those percentages in league clubs.

If no other club wants to oin the LOI there's not many options...

[pineapple stu]

Yeah, 'twas either Fingal or one of two Galway teams (which would have been funny!) or Tullamore, and we don't know how well prepared they are. So from here anyways, it looks like the obvious choice to bring Fingal in.

[John83]

Too many Dublin clubs as it is. 2 for any city the size of dublin is enough

Absolutely. We should have a team a county. Perhaps some kind of all-Ireland final.