Shaping Things to Come

[The Real PapaBear 0]

Eh? I didn't suggest we should look to the LOI for anything other than what not to do. That the quality in Scotland has fallen to LOI levels is no endorsement of the League of Ireland.

 

ok, got you now. But it still doesn't change the fact that the LoI is such a minor league with such low levels of interest and such small teams that you can't really use it as a barometer for what would happen in Scotland. In terms of interest and attendance, it's a minor sport even in Ireland, so just because there was no upsurge in interest when they switched to summer football doesn't really prove anything

[The Real PapaBear 0]

Well what is it we're trying to achieve here? If you figure out what question you are actually asking it's easier to find an answer.

If we're trying to improve the quality of player and style of play then the answer is a larger league with clubs playing twice a season only. That removes the negativity, the constant threat of relegation for a core of clubs and allows for younger players to be introduced instead of sticking with journeymen.

 

I would agree entirely with that. However, a big league would also removes any remaining interest.

If your focus is on a spectacle for TV then have a league six sides, each playing each other 8 times a season, with a Rangers v Celtic, Hearts v Hibs and Aberdeen v Dundee Utd super sunday/friday evening/monday evening playoff at the end. Make all the other Scottish sides feeders for the 'big six'. It'll be hideous but the TV companies will love it and it'll draw big audiences.

Now, you're being silly.

 

Rugby Union in Scotland, Ireland and Wales did away with their clubs and created 'district' sides. Two from Scotland, four from Ireland and Wales and they've added a couple of Italian sides now too. The existing 'clubs' now act as feeders for the district sides. This has proved fairly successful if success is measured by attendances and results on a European tournament basis.

 

That's a good point but I don't know if it's a good analogy. Rugby is much less tribal than football and I don't know if we would become interested in a mini euro league. But who knows - it may be worth considering.

 

Whether we like it or not sport is going that way. The 'franchising' of clubs is already underway in football and we'd be foolish to think it couldn't happen here. It will, eventually. Eventually a club south of the border is going to look at Scotland, see 5 million football daft people and fancy some of that. If we don't become competitive again, and soon, we'll be left behind. This is already happening in other smaller European countries with bigger neighbours. Austrian club football is in a terrible state, Belgium are producing some of the best players in the world just now but their club sides are basket cases, Swiss club sides are also in a very bad way.

What is unarguable is that the status quo can't remain. Fans are disinterested, media are disinterested and something will eventually fill that vacuum.

 

That may turn out to be no bad thing. Imagine the OF + 3 or 4 franchised teams "Manchester Hearts" or "Tottenham Dons" - we may eventually end up with a product worth watching.

[amms 0]

ok, got you now. But it still doesn't change the fact that the LoI is such a minor league with such low levels of interest and such small teams that you can't really use it as a barometer for what would happen in Scotland. In terms of interest and attendance, it's a minor sport even in Ireland, so just because there was no upsurge in interest when they switched to summer football doesn't really prove anything

 

That's a fallacy. Football (soccer) is the biggest sport in Ireland, bigger than Gaelic, both in terms of participation but also in terms of watching on TV. Gaelic attracts bigger attendances but only to the county matches and again only to the important games.

There is tremendous interest in football in Ireland, just not in the local club sides now. The teams weren't always 'small' Shamrock Rovers regularly had attendances of 20,000 as late as the 1970s.

[andy steel 0]

There does not seem to me to be any real internal answers, although I do think summer football would be a shot in the arm - a bit like Dustin Haufman's Ratso moving to Florida for his health had he made it in time, and perhaps we'll mirror that in leaving it too late to save the game from demise.

 

RLS, surely.

[The Real PapaBear 0]

That's a fallacy. Football (soccer) is the biggest sport in Ireland, bigger than Gaelic, both in terms of participation but also in terms of watching on TV. Gaelic attracts bigger attendances but only to the county matches and again only to the important games.

There is tremendous interest in football in Ireland, just not in the local club sides now. The teams weren't always 'small' Shamrock Rovers regularly had attendances of 20,000 as late as the 1970s.

 

Yes, but the soccer the Irish are interested in and watch is English, not Irish. Nobody cares, nobody watches, nobody goes to LoI games; so the point remains - we can't base what we do in theis country because of what didn't happen in a country with a completely different football culture.

[calscot 0]

RLS, surely.

 

Sorry, I admit to not knowing what RLS stands for - Robert Louise Stephenson?

[amms 0]

Yes, but the soccer the Irish are interested in and watch is English, not Irish. Nobody cares, nobody watches, nobody goes to LoI games; so the point remains - we can't base what we do in theis country because of what didn't happen in a country with a completely different football culture.

 

No, the point is they did care once. That they've moved their affections to Manchester, Liverpool and London is the point. Our cultures really weren't that different once upon a time. Many of our provincial clubs are in League of Ireland territory when it comes to crowds and local interest now. Switching to summer football won't make a blind bit of difference to them.

[amms 0]

Sorry, I admit to not knowing what RLS stands for - Robert Louise Stephenson?

 

I didn't realise he was a transvestite. :-)

[calscot 0]

I didn't realise he was a transvestite. :-)

 

Boom boom! Maybe his father just wanted him to grow up tough... it worked for John Wayne...

[The Real PapaBear 0]

No, the point is they did care once. That they've moved their affections to Manchester, Liverpool and London is the point. Our cultures really weren't that different once upon a time. Many of our provincial clubs are in League of Ireland territory when it comes to crowds and local interest now. Switching to summer football won't make a blind bit of difference to them.

 

OK, I understand the point you're making about Ireland - and agree with it to a certain extent. I don't agree that moving to summer football wouldn't help, though.

To me summer football is an absolute no brainer. I can rattle off half a dozen reasons for switching to summer football but can't think of a single good reason for playing in winter.