The All Ireland League

Sport
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I can confirm that the sea Is open again

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When will they give you back your apron?

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Pat McGuigan butchered it a few times. I’d say he was as full as Ballylanders

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So the FAI and IFA are interested in backing it now that they’ve gotten rid of lucid who was doing it for no financial gain as god forbid a man might come in without an underlying agenda. Gas cunts.
The stumbling blocks will be European places. The league will only get full buy in if it is the sole decider of whether or not a club gets a European place. In that case then outside of Dundalk and Rovers clubs in the Republic will be wondering if it fucks them over and the same in the North outside of linfield. The Irish government should throw a few bob at it for prize money.
The game needs it but really it will only benefit the big clubs the likes of finn harps, athlone, drogheda etc might be thinking whats in it for us and vote against it.
The other stumbling block for me is even more than in the Republic clubs in the North bar the couple of obvious exceptions are very small clubs in small towns with limited ability for growth.
Where here Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway all have city size populations to pull from plus the Dublin clubs. In the North you’ve the clubs in Belfast then most of the clubs are in places with smaller populations than Athlone etc can draw from. The natural expectation would be that over time in a proper league with decent prize money attracting investors, the Republic clubs inc Derry in that, plus the couple from Belfast will dominate and the ratio would be similar to the population in each area of in say a 14 team league, 10 from the Republic and 4 from the North of which Derry would be one. So really all bar three of the Northern teams would be voting for the end of themselves. Linfield and Glentoran would be two of the three you’d expect given size history etc. So they’d all be competing for one spot.
The alternative of a NI premier league and League of Ireland being played and the top say 6 of each then going on would lead to a very lopsided competition in time and would be a bucket of shite. A more realistic 4 from NIFL and 8 from LOI would be objected to by the NIFL clubs you’d imagine.

It should be done. But you’ve to get a lot of people to vote against their own interests to do it

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Definetely a game changer i think. Would lead to a lot more interest.

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It would initially anyway. After that it would have to be backed up by investment from individuals and sponsors, TV etc to raise the standard of both teams and facilities.
If not done right it could also be a massive flop, but it’s definitely worth trying

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Are there any other examples of two places with seperate national teams playing in a combined league?

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Premier League

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Not really cos there is a Welsh league too.

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MLS

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Swiss league

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Who else plays in that?

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Lichenstein

Loads of talk in uefa about regional.leagues now according to the article

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I fear the regional leagues will be part of a stepping stone towards an overall superleague which imo would be total shite

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Shite for other countries probably

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Even with the correct set up, I’d be surprised if you’d find “investors”. You’d be looking for the super rich dilettantes willing to lose money on a monthly basis, outside one or two clubs.

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Having more big clubs with more fans is the big selling point

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fd719a343a61ddfc2dcb4e23dddef94e

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Would your mate matty go in for a few quid

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He was toying with buying Macclesfield I reckon.