CORK CITY COULDN’T quite manage to emulate Dundalk’s achievements last night, but that didn’t deter manager John Caulfield from outlining the importance of using the recent success of Irish clubs on the European stage as a catalyst to improve the state of the SSE Airtricity League.
Dundalk defeated BATE Borisov on Tuesday night to secure a place in the play-off round of the Champions League, while Cork City came unstuck against KRC Genk in the Europa League third qualifying round following wins against Linfield and BK Hacken in the earlier stages of the competition.
Those results have led many with an interest in Irish football to wonder how much could potentially be achieved by SSE Airtricity League clubs if the domestic game were to benefit from substantial investment from the FAI, which isn’t the case at present.
Last week, for example, Irish football’s governing body announced that it was allocating funding to clubs to assist in the completion of their five-year strategic plans — to the paltry tune of €5,000 each. Derry City chief executive Sean Barrett branded the grant as “disgraceful” and says the club will subsequently refuse to accept the money.
In his post-match press conference following last night’s defeat to Genk at Turner’s Cross. John Caulfield was asked about the future for the League of Ireland. It’s a topic the City boss is clearly passionate about, as he spoke — uninterrupted — for over four minutes about how he believes finding solutions isn’t as complicated as people might think.
Caulfield’s core point was that individuals with a strong historical connection to the league — such as certain former players and managers — should be brought on board to put plans in place based on their views and ideas, before tackling problems and building for the future. Here’s what Caulfield had to say:
The league is a fantastic league. The problem, as I keep saying, is that we have too many teams in Ireland and we have no standard in terms of facilities and grounds. That’s where we have to get to. I think that there has been a lot of good talk, obviously with us doing so well, St Pat’s getting through a round in Europe and how great Dundalk are going.
“I think it’s important that League of Ireland people are brought into the mix. I hear a lot of the time that they have meetings in Dublin and all the clubs are represented. It needs to go back to basics, it needs to go back to the soccer people, the real League of Ireland people — the Pat Dolans, the Brian Kerrs, Declan Dalys, Johnny Glynns. They’re the people you bring into your committees, along with the managers who are in this league and know the league, and say ‘Right, how can we bring the game forward?’
“The solutions are there, I can see them. But it does need investment, it does need marketing, it does need a bit of promotion. Now is the time for us to drive on. We need to set our standards. It couldn’t happen next year but in the next two or three years, we set a standard and say that’s the standard from the top. If you’re in the Premier Division, you have to have this. If you don’t have it, you can’t be in it.
“That’s the way it’s done. No different than when Cork City, Derry City and Shelbourne were demoted a number of years ago because they were in administration — rightly so. We have to set our standard and come with good League of Ireland people around the table, past and present, who can come up with a plan to say ‘These are the requirements we want by 2018, 2020, whenever…’
“After that then we move forward. Clubs that aren’t doing anything for themselves and they’re living from week to week, you’re not going to progress if you’re doing that. We need a bigger picture but I’m very optimistic. People see lots of problems but I see lots of solutions. I see very simply how it could be sorted.
You have to bring back the League of Ireland people, the people who know that. I see people out there who I’d love to bring around a table and set up a plan of how to go forward and how we could do this. But it’s very simple solutions.
“Yes, you need a small bit of money, but not massive. Every club has to run themselves, [with] a little bit of money from the outside to promote, advertise and get proper TV. No European match this year, from what I understand, from any of the [League of Ireland] clubs has been on the national broadcaster. Is that right? Personally I would think not.
“So maybe bring the other people in and let them have their say as well. I think the solutions are out there. And it’s maybe for yourselves in the press to drive it home and say it’s time we started talking. The Conroy Report, the man did fantastic work; doesn’t matter. That’s the same as what’s been going on for 40 years — with all due respect, because he did a lot of hard work.
“There are too many teams in our country at the moment. Back to basics, narrow it down. Premier Division, that’s your standard. You have to have these facilities — this, this and this. You can still have your First Division there, but if you want to come up, and whether you start your Premier Division with eight teams, six teams, nine teams, ten teams… that’s your standard. And if we do that, the standard of players will come up.
“You have a scenario where [Dundalk defender] Paddy Barrett is on TV the other night and he’s clapping his hands, saying ‘I’m going to be paid at Christmas’. In no other job would you be told you’re paid for 40 weeks, good luck.
“I’m as convinced as ever that the solution is out there, but it’s not the chairmen of clubs that need to make the decision because clubs think about themselves. We need to bring in the outside people who know and the people I mentioned who follow the league, have been involved in it and can see the bigger picture on how to bring the league forward.”
Promotion now is key. Moving to summer soccer was a good call I think and has helped teams in Europe particularly. English football isn’t all its cracked up to be and yet you’ll have Sky promoting it to the hilt as if stoke v swansea is unmissable
It is time for all Irish football fans to support their local club. The English league is dross, over paid individuals hyped up to the last by Sky.
I think quite a few ppl are gradually realising it, Fergus. I know a guy who recently became a Wexford season ticket holder, after he just became disillusioned with the PL circus. He recently admitted that he’d wasted yrs of his life supporting a foreign team and that the only way to experience real football fandom was to support your local club. He can even bring his kids along for just 5 euros. Not bad!
It’d be nice to have some sort of big weekend of matches during the season. Look at Judgement Day in Pro12 rugby, a double header of Welsh derbies. It’s their biggest club weekend of the year and it draws in familes and casual fans that aren’t normally bothered. We need some events like that to get people in the door, and if they enjoy it they’ll stay.
Does John realise that in order to meet Uefa criteria we need to have 2 divisions with at least 10 teams in the top division.
Well then get people up to scratch quickly then. All the more reason to have proper standards in place.
Where do you propose each club gets the money thats needed to improve their stadia/ training grounds/underage structures/marketing and promotion etc?? The clubs are run by volunteers and they barely scrape by each year with the current funding. Is the government going to pump public funds into it like they’ve done for the GAA for the last hundred yrs… no chance! Admittedly the FAI should be giving more than it does currently, but they’re also in debt trying to pay off the Aviva. Shels/Waterford have been trying to attract outside investors for the last couple of yrs. Nobody wants to know.
Mick’s comment above doesn’t seem to make sense. Caulfield mentions reducing the number of clubs in the top division, but it is quite rightly pointed out here that you need minimum 10 clubs in the top division to meet basic UEFA requirements
Its sad alright. Perhaps theres more money in investing in Sunderland, Doncaster and Peterborough. I dont know. Niall Quinn had a lot to say about LOI recently but was a key driver in pushing the Drumville consortium. A lot of talk from people but no action. Private investment will be a major factor and I don’t see why there isn’t. BATE owner years ago invested 15million to bring the club up to European standards. They now have a turn over of 40 million with regular European football. There is huge money to be made. The FAI could get involved by giving our youth players centralised professional contracts and an education, enough money and life experience before they step over to england if the chance arises. Daragh Sheridan had a great plan years ago about doing the same thing only for players coming back from England. His project was a great success but what happened, vested interest from the FAI tried to take it all over and eventually blocked his enterprise. A real shame for a guy who had great professional experience with Aston Villa and LOI experience with Galway. We could go on but individuals like these should be listened to and supported and not blocked the incessant and constant politicking of the FAI.
To be fair I’d have to agree that centralised contracts may not work. I much prefer the new national underage leagues that will encourage younger players to stay in ireland for longer, rather than being chewed up and spat out of the British academy system. Also, these national leagues are an excellent way of introducing youth back into the system after they’ve been let go from English clubs.
Fair enough. Was only an idea. But you’d have to agree that the culture in our association soccer is toxic. It comes from the top down and it permeates down to the schoolboy clubs and how LOI are run. All change is loss, but change has to happen and its gonna get worse (im being a constant pessimist here) before it gets better and culture within organisations in Irish soccer are doing it for the development of our game, here on our shores.
Are you talking about the FAI initiated underage development leagues? Lol.
FAIs treatment of LoI is abject
I think that the standards are there from uefa. League of Ireland needs to ensure that clubs meet them. Minimum of uefa category 3 stadium for premier league and minimum category 2 for first division. Set date of 2019 for these standards to be met. Public, sponsors, TV etc will be far more likely to be attracted to facilities of this quality. FAI and Government/EU need to assist with grants to achieve this.
So his solution is to bring in other lads to come up with a solution.
Don’t worry Larry, I don’t think he meant you.