The I League

[stevieontour]

Hi ... my name is Devils Advocate and here is what I have to say.

Again today Bohs are in the paper with a worsening financial situtaion.
This the club that should be in an extremely stong postion with the Sale of their stadium etc etc.

Where do we go from here ... Next is Drogs .. then who ... same old story.

In my opinion a united Irish league will not fix these issues. Our clubs still have a shocking public image, due to facilities & lack of professionalism in running their business.
Ireland today is full of extremely well run organisations ... Football just hasn't kept up. The country is full of rich people who love their football, but know business well enough to stay the hell away from a league of Ireland club with their money.

My proposal is and I know you will all hate me for this, but scrap the current league. It's simply not working at the moment, and shows nothing to anyone with a brain that it will improve.

I say .. do what the Japanese, Koreans, Americans & Aussies did. Start a fresh. New clubs awarded Franchises, who can prove a business model.
Franchises would be based in properly chosen higher population areas, both north & south.

Anyone can blow all their money and create a good team for a yr or 2 .. but this league has proven again & again that success on the pitch hasn't resulted in new fans in the stands. The only way to get them in is a brand new product.

I'm living in Sydney now, and you wouldn't believe how much of a success the A-League has been. The standard of football, although below the LOI, is improving so quickly. Fans are flocking ... a previously extremely sceptical media have joined the band wagon. The 1st TV contract for the A-League was ripped up at the end of the first season & fox multiplied their payment to the clubs by 6 for season 2.

You put something similar to that in place in Ireland .. and I bet within 2-3 we have a team playing in the Group stages of the Champions League.

Go ahead .. and call me all the names under the sun .. but am I not just saying what all us football fans know deep down??

Yours in Football,
Devil's Advocate

[Sheridan]

Hi ... my name is Devils Advocate and here is what I have to say.

Again today Bohs are in the paper with a worsening financial situtaion.
This the club that should be in an extremely stong postion with the Sale of their stadium etc etc.

I'll stop you there, my boy. The stadium has not been sold and there is no etc.

In my opinion a united Irish league will not fix this issues.

I totally agree, and I'm always baffled to see it presented as a panacea. Why would adding a bunch of crap teams no-one cares about from some far-flung, godforsaken corner of the island make the league more appealing? Its only value is as a platform for a relaunch.

The country is full of rich people who love their football

I've seen no evidence of this.

but know business well enough to stay the hell away from a league of Ireland club with their money.

Football is a loss-making venture for an investor at any level. The difference is that by investing in an eL club you'll only lose millions rather than tens of millions.

My proposal is and I know you will all hate me for this, but scrap the current league. It's simply not working at the moment, and shows nothing to anyone with a brain that it will improve.

They already did this.

I say .. do what the Japanese, Koreans, Americans & Aussies did. Start a fresh. New clubs awarded Franchises, who can prove a business model. Franchises would be based in properly chosen higher population areas

Did that too.

The only way to get them in is a brand new product.

What, rugby?

I'm living in Sydney now, and you wouldn't believe how much of a success the A-League has been. The standard of football, although below the LOI, is improving so quickly. Fans are flocking ... a previously extremely sceptical media have joined the band wagon. The 1st TV contract for the A-League was ripped up at the end of the first season & fox multiplied their payment to the clubs by 6 for season 2.

Totally different scenario, you had a league which was basically restricted to local ethnic communities in a country weaned on interprovincial and international sport. As soon as this anomaly was corrected, it flourished. All it proves is that proper funding and marketing works. No surprise there.

You put something similar to that in place in Ireland .. and I bet within 2-3 we have a team playing in the Group stages of the Champions League.

You put €10m into an eL club now and you'll get the same result.

Go ahead .. and call me all the names under the sun ..

I don't see why anyone would do that.

but am I not just saying what all us football fans know deep down??

Nope.

[stevieontour]

Totally different scenario, you had a league which was basically restricted to local ethnic communities in a country weaned on interprovincial and international sport. As soon as this anomaly was corrected, it flourished.

That's a rubbish and nieve view of what has happened in Australia.
Yes they did have an issue with ethnic clubs ... but in real terms all they had was a league that didn't work ... they scraped it, now it does.

There was many many other things put in place to create the new league.

[skitz3]

Quite simply stevieontour, f*ck off!

What have we got that none of the "Japanese, Koreans, Americans & Aussies" have? The answer is history.

[bennocelt]

Ireland today is full of extremely well run organisations ... Football just hasn't kept up. The country is full of rich people who love their football, but know business well enough to stay the hell away from a league of Ireland club with their money.

i stopped reading after that

[stevieontour]

i stopped reading after that

How did we become such a rich country without have some decent businesses?

Can we not have an adult discussion about this???

[jinxy lilywhite]

I'm going to sound like a politican here but the fact of the matter stevie is that this country has really too small a population for domestic football to be up there with the best of europe.
1) our population is roughly 5m. Considering the north it may be 7. Take into account then the attendences it's shockingly poor the amount of people who attend our games. The countries you mentioned that have franchise league have massive populations with massive homebred multi nationals that can finance this thing.
2) Domestic clubs shot themselves in foot in relation to investment and upgrading their facilities a long time ago. The GAA (for example) are always able to negotiate funding and investment and they actively seek this while football waited around for something to happen and nothing did. Soccer and the FAI in general always seem like beggars to the goverment and investors.
3) Our league is run by muppets who seem to be involved in the game for personal glory and not the love of the game.
4) Long Term planning- nobody seems to have a clue about investing in youth or no invester wants to wait for a return on their investment
5) Cross Channel- Everything that is wrong with our league is always blamed on the Premier League and English Football along with Sky Sports. No one has looked at ourselves and our product offered to the general public
6) Finances- There isn't enough money floating around the league or being taking in at gates to make this become a viable investment for anybody.

In essence our league is crap. But its our league. I don't want to see Dundalk play a Dublin franchise club at the expense of Pat's, Bohs, Rovers or Shels or even worse a franchise amalgamation between Dundalk & Drogheda playing under a louth franchise. People just wouldn't go for it. Rivalry and History is what supporting your team is all about.

[Dodge]

How did we become such a rich country without have some decent businesses?

Most of them aren't irish

Can we not have an adult discussion about this???

We've had 100s of them recently. Add to them rather starting another thread about scrapping the league. Use the search function if you're having trouble finding them

[A face]

In essence our league is crap. But its our league. I don't want to see Dundalk play a Dublin franchise club at the expense of Pat's, Bohs, Rovers or Shels or even worse a franchise amalgamation between Dundalk & Drogheda playing under a louth franchise. People just wouldn't go for it. Rivalry and History is what supporting your team is all about.

Thats actually a very good idea you have there. You could pool the resources of both clubs and merge the fan base of both clubs and become the only club in the county to completely represent you all nationally. You should suggest that to people in both clubs, it might just work. You might see more or better results like last night by Louth United FC