Is professional soccer dead in Ireland

[Dinny Breen]

Cork City the best supported club in Ireland have gone into examinership!!! Cobh Ramblers have asked their players for a loan of €2K each to stop the debt flow! Kildare County players going on strike because they're not getting paid! Sligo Rovers need to raise approx €150K or they will go out of business!!!

How did this happen? Is it the clubs or the FAI's fault! Complete disaster none the less.

[Bogball XV]

tough to say who is to blame tbh, the clubs are, the fai are too - i suppose the buck has to stop with the fai really?  Clubs do what clubs everywhere do and try and 'invest' in players in order to access the 'big time', in the case of fai clubs that's to make it to a champions league or uefa group stage, they've got very little realistic chance of achieving this of course, but that doesn't stop them taking the gamble.
Wages are absolutely ridiculous in comparison to the income they generate, recently a pat's player (who pat's reckoned wasn't up to it) had to be compensated to the tune of €2500 per week after pat's terminated his contract), money around that level is standard for players who could otherwise play in the bottom few divisions in england and there are quite a few of them (which has led to a perceived increase in standard).  I know of one player who wouldn't be a household name by any means, but a fairly regular starter for a top 8 side who gets circa €800 a week (and is provided with a job through club contacts).
I think the FAI have to take the situation in hand and demand business plans in advance of a season, with penalties for non-adherence, they have to enforce wage caps (although admittedly there may be some eu legislation forbidding this) and clubs themselves have to be realistic.  Maybe if the govt were to reduce grants awarded to soccer by the amounts defaulted in terms of income tax and vat by the clubs, this might concentrate fai minds on this issue. 

[Sligoper]

Hopefully

[Hardy]

Behold the result of having to pay people to play a game.

[ludermor]

Where is our resident domestic soccer expert Dublinfella? Im sure he has all the answers

[IolarCoisCuain]

Was it ever alive in the first place?

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

Surely this highlights the urgent need for a competitive All-Ireland league, were teams (you would expect) would benefit from bigger gates, more money from advertising, more money from TV deals, larger prize pots etc...
Surely even or friends in the OWC would have to agree with this!

[Onlooker]

The idea of full time professional teams playing in the League of Ireland was a crazy one from the start.  It can not possibly survive on the income that any of the clubs can generate.  The League is facing a bleak future and if it is to have any hope of surviving it will be with a mix of part-time professional and amateur players.  Then, how many people really care whether League of Ireland football continues or not.  What is the story with the Irish League.  Are there any full time clubs and do the players get the crazy wages that they get (if they get paid) in the LOI.

[Hereiam]

How are soccer club's in the north surviving, is the government giving them money, surly there isn't enough supporters at these games to generate money to pay wages and run grounds.

[behind the wire]

ireland is too small to support profession sport (apart from horse racing). not enough people to support it.

[Tankie]

ireland is too small to support profession sport (apart from horse racing). not enough people to support it.

A profession league in Ireland cannot exist in Ireland with so many clubs, over paid players and not enough fans to go round. Professionalism in the GAA wouldnt last either unless were scrapped county teams and set up merged counties and this is what the LOI need to do. Rugby is the perfect example of how professional sport survives in a small country, you must limit the teams as was done in Ireland and has since been done in wales and saved the game their too and for international sports they must keep their international players in the country.

Argentina is the rugby example of ireland soccer where they have a great international team at the mo but not pro league at home, this will soon lead to their international team team becoming quite avaerage again as anyone with any talent is just taken abroad and has a 50/50 chance of making it. - very much like the irish soccer team, every so often a good team will come along but more often than not they will just be avaerage!

[corn02]

I was told recently that some LOI player were on 4000 euro a week - surely bullshit?

[rosnarun]

its the same as it even was a parasite on the irish sporting commercial and taxpaying public. Cork 'City' may well go bankrupt owing a the odd million  to butchers bakers players but will re-emerge next week as cork Albion or Cork united  same a s they have done before with 'Athlethic' and 'Hibernains'.
the same scam has been pulled allover the country Galway did it (rovers) limerick (city .united)  shamrock rovers were brazen enough not to even change their name and still got the councill to build them a free stadium.
i think these chicken league  people are a lot smarter than people give them credit for

I was told recently that some LOI player were on 4000 euro a week - surely bullshit?

not at all tMicheal keane  who PAts tried to off load for being crapover weight was being paid €3,500 doubt if he was the best paid player in the league

[brokencrossbar1]

This is an issue which has been waiting to happen.  The best way forward in my view is that they pare back the number of teams in all of Ireland.  Focus the professional/semi professional clubs in the main urban areas and try to have it proportional to the population of the area.  For instance the likes of Cork cannot justify 2 teams.  By doing this and building a solid base then these teams could be entered into a Celtic league type set up with teams from Wales and Scotland minus the Old Firm teams and Cardiff probably.  What you could potentially have is 2 divisions with teams from Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Sligo/Finn Harps, 2 from Dublin, 2 from Belfast, Portadown, Lisburn, Swansea, Wrexham, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh x 2.  As the CL becomes the premier competition for clubs in Europe, these regional Leagues will become more important for smaller countries.  You could see a similar format in say the Benelux countries with Belgium and Holland having an improved overall standard in club football.

Until people get their heads out of the sand, small clubs will continuing hemorrhaging money.  Larger clubs will buy them out and use them as feeder clubs and the whole autonomy in the game will be gone.

[Evil Genius]

Surely this highlights the urgent need for a competitive All-Ireland league, were teams (you would expect) would benefit from bigger gates, more money from advertising, more money from TV deals, larger prize pots etc...
Surely even or friends in the OWC would have to agree with this!

The basic problem which many Eircom clubs appear to be experiencing is that in the pursuit of success on the playing field, they are spending more money on players' wages than they can afford.

An A-I League might well produce increased revenues, as you suggest, but I suspect that unless strict financial accountability is imposed, the erring clubs would just increase wages accordingly, so that at the damage will be even greater when/if it all goes pear-shaped.

After all, if a gambler in a Casino is losing on the $20 tables, the solution is not to move to the $50 Tables...

Besides, most proposals for a new A-I League only anticipate there being two or three NI clubs to start with (plus Derry City), so I fail to see how these will make a significant difference to what may be structural defects amongst several senior clubs in the Republic.