eircom League Licencing

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Most of the Premier League teams have confirmed that they have been approved.

I think Longford are the only team in the Premier not yet approved, but different websites are reporting different things.

Shels definitely have theirs (w00t!).

CHF were definitely denied their First Division Licence, but are expected to get it next week, it was only a paperwork problem.

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Full List

Clubs Awarded Premier Licences:
Bohemians,
Bray Wanderers,
Cork City,
Derry City,
Drogheda United,
Finn Harps,
Shamrock Rovers,
Shelbourne,
St Patrick’s Athletic,
UCD
Waterford United

No Longford

Clubs Awarded First Division Licences:
Athlone Town,
Cobh Ramblers,
Galway United,
Kilkenny City,
Limerick,
Monaghan
United
Sligo Rovers.

CHF, Dundalk and Kildare County miss out here

Big Ears

amittedly my interest in Eircom League only picked up last season (I had kept an interest in the league up till about 2000) , so why has there been a return to a 12 team premier division ? , im certainly in favour of it .

How many games will there be in a season : 22 , 33 or 38(which uses the Scottish method of the top 6 play each other for the last five games and the bottom six play each other for the last 5 games) ?

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33 Games in the Premier for each team this season.

Depending on the amount of teams in the division.

Not sure what happens if Longford fail to get a licence.

But essentially, teams play each other three times.

Big Ears

seansouth wrote:

33 Games in the Premier for each team this season.

Depending on the amount of teams in the division.

Not sure what happens if Longford fail to get a licence.

But essentially, teams play each other three times.

thanks , and to my first question , why has there been a return to the 12 team league ?

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Not too sure about that, sorry Big Ears, but I have to say, it was an absolute joke having to play each team four times over the course of the season. Maybe one of the other eL head can make some stab at answering this.

I think I heard that it has been done ahead of schedule though. I think there was supposed to be three seasons of summer football with the twelve team Premier Division.

It will mean less fixture congestion for the teams in Europe too, it affected Shels and Cork last year, with their relatively long European runs. Shels ended up playing Bohs twice in a week towards the end of last season, Longford too. It just got messy.

cournioni

Fúcking Dundalk! Get your fingers out of your holes... Ya larriers!

Slash/ED

Big Ears wrote:

thanks , and to my first question , why has there been a return to the 12 team league ?

Basically the first division teams kicked up a fuss about it and wanted more teams in the premier so they'd more chance of getting there themselves. Also people were finding the 10 team league repetitive. It's daft, imo. Ten team isn't ideal but twelve is worse, only one team has won the league in a 12 team league playing more away games than home, it's a massive advantage you're handing one team from the start. The league table in a 12 team league does lie and is not a true reflection on the standings, which makes it a farce imo.

10 team or 16 team with everyone playing each other twice, three times is a farce.

KdjaCL

Longford thing seems serrious , they may be relegated.

Jesus how did that happen , they got one of the best grounds in the country must be the admin side of it.


kdjac

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Has to be, but if it is, then they might get it in order by the 18th.

While I don't want to see teams relegated, if the rules are there, they have to abided by.

They'd lose out on Europe too, if that was the case.

Who would take their place, Waterford?

KdjaCL

Still shocked we got one :eek:

Dunno its the FAI Celtic could take their place ffs.

kdjac

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Will be prob be Waterford or Drogs.

Slash/ED

Apparently if Longford don't get into Europe because of the license we simply have one less team competing in Europe.

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In other news, Shels have just beaten Kildare County 6-1 in Kildare.

Glen Crowe scored twice on his debut.

Nice one!

Slash/ED

And he only played the first half. Not bad.

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O'Neill scored too.

Big Ears

Slash/ED wrote:

Apparently if Longford don't get into Europe because of the license we simply have one less team competing in Europe.

Wheres the source of that ?.............as this doesn't seem like something Uefa would enforce (as the country has the control over which comps grant which Euro place) , but surely it can't be an FAI one .If one team can't compete don't allow any to................wait that sounds exactly like the FAI .

Slash/ED

Big Ears wrote:

Wheres the source of that ?.............as this doesn't seem like something Uefa would enforce (as the country has the control over which comps grant which Euro place) , but surely it can't be an FAI one .If one team can't compete don't allow any to................wait that sounds exactly like the FAI .

No offical source just that's what people are posting over at foot.ie (sorry if i'm not allowed post a link). No idea if it's true or not.

gimmick

Very surprised by Longford not getting the license. That said, the ground, while looking decent, there are alot of cinder blocks lying around, and is generally just unfinished.

Re 10 Vs 12 Vs 16 team league. 12 team league is retarded, end of. It allows crap teams like Bray and UCD into the division. Also, playing 3 rounds of games? Stupid stupid stupid.

The ten team league, while repetitive, kept the quality up there, and it showed that if a team took their eye off the ball, they would be sucked into relegation trouble very quickly. I believe it was Pat Devlins constant moaning which made the change in the end.

Pigman II

Whether it be 3x per season or 4x I definetly prefer a 10 team league. 12 is just to diluted with too many makeweights.

Big Ears

Pigman II wrote:

Whether it be 3x per season or 4x I definetly prefer a 10 team league. 12 is just to diluted with too many makeweights.

we'll see , come on Bray !

SteM

I don't understand how this licensing thing works. Is it right that a few weeks ago none of the clubs were granted their licence but now they have all gotten them?

What were they doing that was stopping them getting them the first time? How have they changed things in such a short space of time?

So many questions!(?)

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SteM wrote:

Is it right that a few weeks ago none of the clubs were granted their licence but now they have all gotten them?

It is right

SteM wrote:

What were they doing that was stopping them getting them the first time? How have they changed things in such a short space of time?

Most of the clubs were denied licences on technical or paperwork issues. Such as sending in photocopied documents instead of originals etc. That's all.

They have changed by getting the original copied in.

SteM

Oh, okay thanks. So these licences aren't based on ground quality or anything like that then?

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Sorry, I seem to have misled you.

The licences are awarded on a number of points.

Off the top of my head, I can't remember them all, but yeah, I think ground quality comes into it.

I'll see if I can get some other info.

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here is a link to the full criteria. There is a MSWord document containing all the criteria.

http://www.fai.ie/staticarticle.asp?hlid=221665

It is a 111 page doc, so is quite comprehensive.

Big Ears

'The License, which every eircom League club must gain, covers all areas of the game. Clubs are gauged on sporting, infrastructure, personnel and administritive, legal and financial criteria and must meet the minimum requirements set out in accordance with UEFA.'

That explains it briefly .

KdjaCL

All teams failed on admin side , how the fook that works i dont know , Richer is a kip with only 2 exits

kdjac

DerekD Goldfish

KdjaC wrote:

All teams failed on admin side , how the fook that works i dont know , Richer is a kip with only 2 exits

kdjac

3 if you include Jetpack

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KdjaC wrote:

Richer is a kip

.........................^
Full stop should have been here

gimmick

The fact of the matter is this, and is a damining indictment of how poor the eL is - not one ground in the Premier Division would be allowed to be used in the CL qulaifying round.

Contrary to popular belief, the reason Shels played in Lansdowne, was not becasue of the extra revenue it would create, but because they Tolkip isnt up to scratch. Now, this isnt another anti Shels spin by me. Believe me, it makes me want to puke to think that if City progress in this years UEFA cup, that we play our home games in Dublin. Id prefer we play them in Wales, or Liechtenstein.

It was simply good pr on behalf of the tyrant Ollie Byrnem, saying "we;re moving it for the money" rather than saying "we're moving it because our ground is ****".

Cork City did similar in the Inter Toto, playing games with a slightly earlier KO. Publicly, it was said becasue the games are a Saturday, an earlier KO time would bring in a bigger crowd. Real reason - The lux in the floodlights arent up to scratch.

The above are all unfortunate truths, and they are they truths of Irlands two genuine BIG clubs (I will just remind some that Glasgow Celtic asre NOT Irish ).

When you look at the fact that Finn Harps/Limerick got a premier licence on the strength of definite plans for a new stadium, that Shams got a license in a ground they are not even going to use, that Dundalk, CHF, Kildare and Longford, our cup champions and a UEFA cup representative are still awaiting licences, it all makes for sorry reading.

SteM

Gimmick, my understanding was that Shels played in DLC and Lille at Lansdowne beause the lighting at Tolka wasn't up to UEFA standard - nothing to do with the actual ground itself. Otherwise why were they allowed to play KR Reykjavik & Hajduk Split there?

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I think that the requirements for lighting in grounds are less stringent in the earlier rounds of the CL Qualifiers alright SteM, so that's why Shels were able to play Reykjavik and Split at Tolka, that is right AFAIK.

The moving of the DLC game to Landsdowne probably would have happened no matter what, Shels simply couldn't turn down the chance to have 24,000 bums on seats, and any club would have done the same, including Cork. As for the Lille match, I was stunned they decided to play the game at Landsdowne, but if Tolka wasn't up to scratch then there's not much can be done about it.

I wouldn't expect the situation to change for Shels, seeing as they are moving out to Swords in the not too distant future.

applehunter

seansouth wrote:

The moving of the DLC game to Landsdowne probably would have happened no matter what, Shels simply couldn't turn down the chance to have 24,000 bums on seats, and any club would have done the same, including Cork.

Are you Roddy Collins in disguise? Cork, Host a home Euro match in Dublin..don't be so sure.
Limerick tried to do the same thing vs Real Madrid years ago and it blew up in their face.


BTW Dundalk got their license today.

Slash/ED

applehunter wrote:

seansouth wrote:

Shels simply couldn't turn down the chance to have 24,000 bums on seats, and any club would have done the same, including Cork.

Are you Roddy Collins in disguise? I dont think Cork would host a home Euro match in Dublin. Limerick tried to do the same thing vs Real Mardrid years ago and it blew up in their face.


BTW Dundalk got their license today.

Well not Dublin no, but hypotetically speaking of a Lansedown Road-esque stadium was available in Cork they'd have done the same thing.

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applehunter wrote:

Are you Roddy Collins in disguise?

Most certainly and unequivocally not.

cournioni

applehunter wrote:

BTW Dundalk got their license today.

G'wan da tooooown!

KdjaCL

All grounds need more than 2 exits not sure if Tolka has one at the back of the uncovered stand where the toilet alley is

But most only have 2 and thats not good enough for nearly all Euro games.

kdjac

gimmick

applehunter wrote:

Cork, Host a home Euro match in Dublin..don't be so sure.
Limerick tried to do the same thing vs Real Madrid years ago and it blew up in their face.

Limerick moved that game out of hope of getting more bobs in the coffers, if City are to progress in Europe this season, they will NOT be able to play the home legs at the Cross for the following reasons:

1. Floodlights not up to scratch
2. Non existant media facilities.
3. Dressing rooms not good/big enough
4. Not a proper medical facility
5. The away bus cannot park inside the ground.

Those are the facts unfortunatley.

Slash/ED

So where is the nearest available stadium, Gimmick? Would you have to bring it all the way to Dublin?

gimmick

^^

Unfortunatley, probably. Though if i were to be placing where our home tie be played, I would look to Coventry - Highfield Road.

There is a direct flight service from Cork to Coventry with Thomsonfly. Its on a 50minute flight. The Cities are twinned. The flight price is only marginally more expensive than a return bus fare, and most importantly, there isnt the ignomy of having to play a 'home' tie in Dublin .

applehunter

I'm sure Frank Murphy would have no problem with City playing down the parc.