All Ireland League a possibility

Conaldinho · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:49 pm

Quote:

Clubs from the eircom League of Ireland and the Irish Premier League have engaged in discussions towards the establishment of an All-Ireland League in the coming years, according to a Tuesday morning newspaper report.

The Irish Independent claims that officials from several eircom League clubs, who originally met to formulate a plan to voice their displeasure with FAI plans for the future of the League, have taken things a step further by making contact with clubs north of the border.

The development is sure to represent a huge blow to FAI bosses, who took charge of the administration of the eircom League only last year following a high-profile merger between the respective bodies.

Relations between clubs on either side of the border are at an all-time high following the success of the annual Setanta Sports Cup, which will be staged for the fourth time in the spring.

Some observers have long seen that competition as an obvious forerunner to a newly-established All-Ireland league, claiming that the island, and its soccer community, is too small to support two professional leagues.

But it remains to be seen whether the respective governing bodies in Dublin and Belfast can be persuaded to agree to a radical change.

Im not too sure what do think of this. Obviously it would be great if it all worked out but I could see there being a lot of problems and complications in setting it up, especially with things like European places.

It would be great it if did happen though, it would rise the standard of football with every club going professional and would hopefully get a lot more of the general public interested. It would maybe lead to a joint national tam in the long term as well..

Sparkyjinx · Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:17 am

I'm not completely up to speed with Irish football, and appreciate it can be delicate when talking about anything All Ireland, so I apologise in advance if I'm talking tripe.

But in addition to the points Conadinho mentions above, I think they would be mad not to - the revenue would increase, as well as National interest.
For Irish football to progress in any way, I think both governing bodies from the North & south need to swallow some pride and take the step forward.

CFCBhoy · Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 10:31 am

Just another disaster waiting to happen. The same thing will happen as what happened where Derry were fired out of the league. Could you picture Linfield away to one of the Dublin teams or even Derry? Derry played them in a friendly two years ago I think and there was abit of trouble around the town.

Could you picture Linfield away to Finn Harps? Sheep flying everywhere! Lamb rapings! Disaster for Ballybofey

Sparkyjinx · Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:33 am

Do you think crowd trouble be the main deal breaker then?

CFCBhoy · Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 12:26 pm

Aye. I think they'll look into the Setanta cup to show how things have been going. Don't think there has been many problems but when games are mroe frequent and abit more pressure added with the league run-in, then the bother begins

Conaldinho · Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 5:41 pm

Theres no real problem with violence in the Eircom league any more bar a few small groups of fans but im not really us to speed with the Northern League so dont know how bad it is.

I could see games like Linfield v Shamrock Rovers having trouble though, Shams have a well known ultras group that cause trouble so like you say it would be a disaster waiting to happen with them playing Linfield.

If everything worked out though I think it would be great all the same. The sectarian thing is dying and it should bring the countries closer together.

Saying that, I cant really see it happen any time soon

J-Axe · Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:05 pm

Would be nice, but can't see it happening any time soon either.

Not that I really care. If they were anywhere near professional standard in the IPL, I'd take an interest. But the quality is awful and for years a lot of the following of IPL teams up here hasn't really been anything to admire or join.

CFCBhoy · Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:41 pm

The southern teams would walk it anyway. Too many poor teams in the north

Conaldinho · Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 6:12 pm

Thats the point though, in theory at least it would raise the standard of football overall.

Our league has been moving greatly forward in the past few years and most clubs have either built new stadiums or got one planned while everything else has also been getting much more professional in the past year or two.

Sparkyjinx · Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:53 pm

Conaldinho wrote:

Thats the point though, in theory at least it would raise the standard of football overall.

Our league has been moving greatly forward in the past few years and most clubs have either built new stadiums or got one planned while everything else has also been getting much more professional in the past year or two.

I agree Conaldinho, despite there being many people who would not be interested as mentioned in the posts above, a joining of the leagues can only raise the profile and ultimately the standard of the level of football.

Another possible issue may be the locations of the clubs? Again sorry if I am barking up a wrong tree, but it looks as though the majority of teams seem to be city based. Each County needs a team to spark up National interest. Maybe along the lines of the GAA, I don't know, maybe thats unrealistic. It would certainly stir up the following a little.

Conaldinho · Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:10 pm

Well most regions have at least one club but yeah there isnt really many outside the big cities. Finn Harps are based in Ballybofey which is quite a small town about 15 minutes from Derry & letterkenny. Harps basically represent all of Donegal, the whole county get behind the team which is good. Theres places like Mayo & Kerry that have no club at all though

The north has a ridiculous amount of teams considering its size, theres something like 60 teams so Id imagine the lower leagues would be no better than Sunday league football..that would need sorting out.

paul · Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:23 pm

the only team that would challenge would be lingfield.that would be only for a while because they are only part time.drogheda would win it.i like eircom league as it is

Glentoran · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:15 am

paul wrote:

the only team that would challenge would be lingfield.that would be only for a while because they are only part time.drogheda would win it.i like eircom league as it is

isn't Lingfield a Racecourse?

Personally I think an All Ireland League is a a few years away yet.

With the exception of Linfield most of the Clubs are in a poor financiel state and that would not allow us to switch to the Full Time status that would allow us to compete.

My own club Glentoran would be one of the Clubs that would be interested in taking part in the League...but there would need to be negotiations between the two associations, a garuntee of European places and an excellent sponsorship / financial package put together.

Glentoran have played at Longford, Derry , Drogheda and Shelbourne with absolutely no trouble...very enjoyable trips.

Who knows...maybe something can be sorted

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