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Havent thought this through so don't shot me. If it was 4 x 12s.

What about 11 games v the other teams in the league and 6 more on a seeded basis. If you are seeded 1 to 6 you face all the teams in the btm half. If you are seeded 7 to 12 you face all the teams in top half.

It means 17 games per Club. The seeded teams have 9H and 8A.

It'll put an end to dead rubbers too. Getting into that top half would be crucial.

Splitting the league might work as I think 11 games are too few but 22 too many. Don't think your way would work though Norf as it would be very one sided at the end of the season results wise. Didn't the Scottish premier league split a few years ago? How did that work?

[4 divisions of 12 would help teams find their level and compete in a realistic division]

Confirmed -

2018 Junior County Champions - Rock

3 relegations to Junior in 5 season's now. There's no deterrent for the Rock to avoid relegation as they will go on another run in Ulster and could possibly win an All-Ireland. The sad thing is I actually believe that if the Rock stayed up they would have had a good year in Intermediate next season.

You're writing there clarshak as if they made the choice to throw the match today when you know full well that wasn't the case. Clubs like the rock and derrytresk and whoever else yo yo up and down and get a bad press because people assume they nearly aim for relegation. It's total crap to suggest that.

Gutted to be going down again but Derrytresk deserved the win yesterday. We were very poor in the second half and panicked when we conceded the second goal. We had enough possession in the last 10 mins to get something from the game but we had lost composure on the ball and our attacks were a bit aimless. To be honest our problem this season was picking up just 3 points in the first 11 league games, thats the reason we were relegated, not yesterday.

To suggest any team would be happy to be relegated is ridiculous. I can tell you there is no one from our club happy be be going down again.

Would the likes of ourselves and derrytresk going up and down, and Cookstown a few years ago provide an argument that 4 divisions of 12 would help teams find their level and compete in a realistic division? It would also help in division 1 where there is effectively 2 leagues, top 8/10 and the rest.

100% Agree

This was done a few years ago (maybe around 2004?) on a home and away basis. It had the advantages that you refer to and also kept the leagues interesting right to the end as it was more competitive and a smaller gap from the promotion spots to potentially being in a relegation playoff. I think the big issue however was number of games. A 12 team division means 22 games plus championship. From memory there were a lot of weekends with teams playing on both Fri and Sunday but I think the county players"restrictions" were less onerous so difficult to see how that could work now. Even more so from a Reserve perspective, hard enough to gather up a team on a Sunday for a lot of clubs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42052743
Can someone explain  what the problem is here? You pay more you get a better product??

Boarding by assigned group number has been the norm in the US for years.

I know. I really cannot grasp WTF these "protestors" are complaining about. Is this not basically Priority/Speedy Boarding?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42052743
Can someone explain  what the problem is here? You pay more you get a better product??

Lads, is this some sort of clever wind up, or are we actually discussing vacuum cleaners?

Holy Good Jaysus.

Dont worry, give it an hour or so and someone will be claiming the bible has outlawed vacuum cleaners or Trump sold the technology to the Russians etc etc etc and it will go down the normal route

Remember watching Novotna's tears as a youngster when wimbledon was must see watching in the Summer. Was great to see her win it a few years later. RIP

Young lads get to live in the Sun for 2 years
They get paid to train for and play a type of football
Some make it some don't, that's the way it goes.
How many soccery kids go to England and end up as "failures"

A lot of these young lads have many friends and relations already living in Australia which makes the decision to give AFL a go all the more easier.

Why would anyone want to deprive young lads of an opportunity to play professional sport if that's what they want to do? Good luck to anyone who is good enough to get the chance.

I can't believe how shoddy the Eurosceptics are. Brexit is a dogs dinner.

No one expected middle England to shoot itself in the foot, even the brexiteers were in shock when they no hence no coherent plan and leadership to carry it through.

You wonder what a referendum held today would say? I personally think there would be about a 10% swing to remain. The good old British Middle class arrogance of "We're British, they need us more than we need them etc etc" has been firmly put in its place by the EU negotiators and the Xenophobic Sun Readers worried about their benefits going to immigrants are moaning because their package holiday to  Magaluf has got more expensive because of the sterling devaluation.

[The chiefs scored with an absolutely brilliant disguised play against the cowboys]

Another crazy and in the Seattle game. Great stones from Cousins.

The chiefs scored with an absolutely brilliant disguised play against the cowboys

That KC play was excellent, really enjoyed watching it.

Great to see something different. Is it just me or are there much fewer trick plays this year like fake punts, direct snaps etc.  I have not seen as many live games this year as normal so it may be the highlights shows only show the successful ones but it does seem that coaches are being more cautious.

There was a headline earlier in the year saying that Martin Sorrell's FY16-17 salary had "plunged" from £70 million to £48 million  I'll take it if he doesn't want it!

I know. Poor Martin. 

I don't agree, Hound. Apple use tax avoidance to pay huge dividends to the people who own most Apple shares, the richest 1%.
They pay minimal tax. This is a system issue. It is one of the reasons Eurozone and US growth are abysmal. And it is not sustainable.

That's not correct Seafoid.

Any dividends paid by Apple have to go through the US. Apple pay US 35% tax on all US earnings and on all worldwide earnings that are repatriated to the US.

Apple use their offshore earnings to fund non-US acquisitions.

Anyone can buy Apple shares, you don't have to be rich. The share price has been on an upward curve for most of the time. But it does go down from time to time too.

The majority of shares in the US are held by the richest 1% , Hound. Apple is a Monopoly play.
I see the argument that Apple refuse to pay tax in the US because it it too high in the FT all the time. Why do they use tax scams? Because the company is a mechanism to get cash out to.the 1%.
All the MNCs are doing it. A 5% dividend yield keeps the share price up even if revenues are flat. Zurich Insurance made $ 2 bn  or so in profit last year and paid $3bn in dividends. This is the latest fashion in corporate finance .

Profit and dividends aren't necessarily correlated in individual years. Don't know the details about Zurich but they may have refinanced or generated cash that isn't reflected in profits. Nothing wrong with distributing that to shareholders as long as the longterm business plan stacks up.

Companies are being systematically stripped of cash. Around $6bn per year in the top 500 US companies. Revenues have been flat going back 5 years for most MNCs.

A big drop in marketing spending from some of the world's largest consumer products companies forced leading ad agency WPP to issue its second sales warning of the year in august

The top 50 global consumer goods companies have falling revenues. Nestlé is under pressure to pay a higher dividend. It is happening everywhere.

Not disputing that companies are under pressure to generate cash.  But if the long term plan stacks up this is a good thing.  If they cant demonstrate to investors that they can provide a return they can't raise money for investment when needed. 

There is more focus on cost savings than revenue growth in recent years which does cause issues at a macro economic level. As for WPP they could take a look at Martin Sorrel''s remuneration package to save a few quid!

I don't agree, Hound. Apple use tax avoidance to pay huge dividends to the people who own most Apple shares, the richest 1%.
They pay minimal tax. This is a system issue. It is one of the reasons Eurozone and US growth are abysmal. And it is not sustainable.

That's not correct Seafoid.

Any dividends paid by Apple have to go through the US. Apple pay US 35% tax on all US earnings and on all worldwide earnings that are repatriated to the US.

Apple use their offshore earnings to fund non-US acquisitions.

Anyone can buy Apple shares, you don't have to be rich. The share price has been on an upward curve for most of the time. But it does go down from time to time too.

The majority of shares in the US are held by the richest 1% , Hound. Apple is a Monopoly play.
I see the argument that Apple refuse to pay tax in the US because it it too high in the FT all the time. Why do they use tax scams? Because the company is a mechanism to get cash out to.the 1%.
All the MNCs are doing it. A 5% dividend yield keeps the share price up even if revenues are flat. Zurich Insurance made $ 2 bn  or so in profit last year and paid $3bn in dividends. This is the latest fashion in corporate finance .

Profit and dividends aren't necessarily correlated in individual years. Don't know the details about Zurich but they may have refinanced or generated cash that isn't reflected in profits. Nothing wrong with distributing that to shareholders as long as the longterm business plan stacks up.

[I think the point is that the ordinary PAYE worker cannot avoid tax but the powerful and rich people/companies seem to be able to.]

Govt try to bleed you dry with taxes, road tax, house purchase tax, income tax, inheritance tax, f**kers have a tax for everything

That's how they pay for roads, schools, hospitals and whatnot. How should they do it?

I think the point is that the ordinary PAYE worker cannot avoid tax but the powerful and rich people/companies seem to be able to. I'd say most people have no issue paying their share but like a lot of things in life there's no balance to the debate. Avondhu Stars reply to my post above underlines that, a simply ridiculous comment.

This is the crux of the issue and it should not be like that. I understand that governments (and the Irish government is more culpable than most) see a "light touch" tax regime as a major factor in attracting investment that generates jobs  but it cant be at the expense of fair regulation. There are too many loopholes that the  legislators know about that they do nothing to close.

As an example in the Paradise papers, apparently the Isle of Man has hundreds of private planes registered there. Lewis Hamilton stopped off for 2 hours in his private jet, got an Isle of Man official to stamp his import documentation (all perfectly legal in theory) and claimed a multi million VAT refund. I have read how the structure he used works and its so complex that a) it should be open to challenge and b) even if it is deemed to be legal, the loophole (if thats what its deemed to be) could be closed relatively easily. Hamilton and his advisors have declared everything properly so its up to the Revenue to take a case against them under a) to get a decision that removes any ambiguity around this and recover the lost tax. Given almost €1bn has been refunded to various plane owners under similar schemes in the last decade, surely that is worth the effort if they believe the legislation is not working as they intended.

Next time you hear some idiot giving out about benefits remind them that if tax avoidance were ended we could pay those benefits multiple times over and still have plenty of extra money.

That's the answer. Give the wasters on benefits even more

It seems to me that no laws are neing broken here, Bono is guilty of being a complete hypocrote but a corporate thief he is not, nor are the vast majority of the rest of them it seems, I dont agree with it but at this time many of these people have not broken the law.

These people may not have broken the letter of the law but they've certainly torn aprt the spirit of tax laws. They're also completely guilty of hiding away millions which they'll never spend and which will sit hidden in accounts offshore and which would have gone a long way to providing us with improved social services, education and health care. The tories aren't interested in tightening regulations here either as they love to suck up to the super wealthy and most likely a large percentage of them are already taking advantage of these loopholes themselves.

Are you for real? The "spirit" of tax law? It's not somebody coughing  on the downswing in golf ffs. It shouldn't be subjective and It shouldn't be up to companies to interpret what the law was "supposed" to do.  If the tax authorities or governments wanted to they could make legislation much more unambiguous, for whatever reason they don't.

Ah sure you're probably right. We'll all take that attitude and f**k the health service and education. The spirit of the law is why we don't you p***k. I'm glad to pay taxes and contribute to society and the majority of people I'm pretty sure feel the same.

I don't even know where to start with that.  People pay taxes because it is the law. No spirit involved.  These companies as far as I can see have mainly operated within the law. If the taxes raised aren't enough to cover the public services a government needs they raise more taxes by increasing rates or closing loopholes. I.e something the people drafting the legislation can control.  You certainly don't depend on the goodwill of every company to interpret legislation you drafted.

Next time you hear some idiot giving out about benefits remind them that if tax avoidance were ended we could pay those benefits multiple times over and still have plenty of extra money.

That's the answer. Give the wasters on benefits even more

It seems to me that no laws are neing broken here, Bono is guilty of being a complete hypocrote but a corporate thief he is not, nor are the vast majority of the rest of them it seems, I dont agree with it but at this time many of these people have not broken the law.

These people may not have broken the letter of the law but they've certainly torn aprt the spirit of tax laws. They're also completely guilty of hiding away millions which they'll never spend and which will sit hidden in accounts offshore and which would have gone a long way to providing us with improved social services, education and health care. The tories aren't interested in tightening regulations here either as they love to suck up to the super wealthy and most likely a large percentage of them are already taking advantage of these loopholes themselves.

Are you for real? The "spirit" of tax law? It's not somebody coughing  on the downswing in golf ffs. It shouldn't be subjective and It shouldn't be up to companies to interpret what the law was "supposed" to do.  If the tax authorities or governments wanted to they could make legislation much more unambiguous, for whatever reason they don't.