If you were to handpick the teams that would start in the Premier Division it would basically be that as well with maybe only Glentoran replacing Ballymena or GlenavonOriginally Posted by nigel-harps1954
Here on a technicality.
Yeah. Potentially with Portadown involved too, as I think they've got more potential re fanbase than Glenavon do ?
That would actually be a really good Premier Division for my money, with decent clubs and crowds all round.
Portadown are a mess though a shadow of what they were should be nowhere near it on current merits,Larne will be up there you'd imagine if the owner continues to invest like he is,very little history but if its investment we're looking for that'll will beat historical relevance every time.
You'd imagine the investors would be keen to have Glentoran involved,currently have big investment rumored or confirmed im not sure,could see Shelbourne there instead of Waterford aswell,if the investors could hand pick it I think they'd have Glentoran instead of Glenavon and Shelbourne instead of Waterford but obviously that's not how it will work.
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Think it was mentioned up-thread but you do have to wonder what Irish League clubs are going to bring to the party when they don't even bother keeping their home grounds free for a European tie
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/n...-38239242.html
I based it off league finishing positions for IL in the season past.
You could hand pick teams very differently to what I put out there all round the board really. Note the lack of Galway, Wexford and Athlone from it.
They're presumably have to go into some other regional division two.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Being on the negative end of a 'hand picked' league it should be heavily based meritocratic selection on the field of play!! Of course its a lot easier to say that when champions 4 from five years, top of the league but with one of the poorer spectator facilities in a top tier.
Surely the only way to decide it would be on DVDs?
A good Snapchat story will do it for you these days
If only we still had Dylan Connolly, we'd get in on the cross border cigarette smuggling alone!
There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of detail in this. In some ways there is a bit more thinking/planning gone into it than some other proposals, but the financing and the huge issue of European qualification is not really addressed. There's no way UEFA are going to give Ireland / an all-Ireland league / FAI + IFA eight Euro spots. Losing four of those spots puts an immediate hole of 2m+ in the finances. Very hard to see the attraction for Irish League clubs in particular. And impossible to see how the IFA way get on board.
It will be 7 spots between the two leagues next year Sean, as the IL is down to 3. I would say 5 max will be awadred if this goes ahead. Winners =CL, 2nd and 3rd EL, and winners of FAI and IFA cup also EL.
On current standards, no IL club would finish in the top 4, maybe even top 5, so I think I`d agree, I cant't them going for it. Maybe the promise of 250k for the lowest placed team, thats fine for them, but the IL current top 2 in the league if they dont win the cup might be very challenged to finish in the euro spots and would potentially face the no chance of earning anything from Europe v almost guaranteed now.
Last edited by oriel; 26/06/2019 at 1:38 PM.
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), first Irish club to win points in a group stage in Europe (2016).
The best hope for an All Ireland league is political unification frankly. It's probably more likely too.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
I think so. I'm not sure I share EYG's view of merging the leagues as straightforward. I don't think this is comparable to one NZ team playing in Australia (or one NI team playing in the RoI). And would UEFA have anything to say about allowing a precedent for a combined Czechoslovak league or Yugoslav league, which have been vaguely mooted before?
The issues are probably surmountable, but I can't see how it's possible in the timeframe mooted.
And when you get to people saying Glentoran over Ballymena would make for a better league, you know some people have learned pretty much nothing from the past 15 years or so.
Glentoran's historical standing and potential far outweighs Ballymena. They would make it a better league. But I get your point, it should be done on the pitch. Not through a DVD presentation or a clever hashtag.
Glentoran are a financial basketcase whereas Ballymena were challenging for the league this year.
Galway were promoted on potential in 2006 and look how well that's worked out.
If the combined premier league had two champions league spots (Why not it would not be any extra spots) and were awarded to the top finishing team from north and south that would probably take away the fear for the northern clubs....maybe a guarantee of 1 Europa spot as well.
Cant imagine two Champions league spots but maybe if it were for a strictly limited time (say 3 years) it might be acceptable, especially if 'sold' on the whole Brexit / Peace Process thing. it would also set a timeframe for IL clubs to get their house in order (RE Full time etc) after that its all 'safe guards' off and all clubs for themselves.
No way in the world would Uefa allow 2 CL positions
maybe with the base based in belfast they will be more attracted to this initiative!
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
Interestingly, that's exactly what they did allow when the Dutch and Belgian women's leagues merged for three years. By chance, there was one Dutch and one Belgian team in the top two each year, but the spot went to the best Dutch and the best Belgian team in the league, not the top two.
I think the more established men's game would find it trickier to have such rules though.
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