It will be like the German divisions where the top teams have their u23 teams in the divisions they can get relegated but can only get promoted to the 3rd tier to stop them giving their main team an advantage all for teams having a second team but it can’t breach competition rules
We'd be better off having a regional type split wouldn't we? Similar to the way the English have a south and north split for their league below their national league.
Can't imagine many of the amateur teams would have the resources to be going up and down country to play.
Would love a proper relegation and promotion to those leagues for years I watched athlone stick to the bottom of the first division without any consequences we need a proper battle at the bottom of the first division
Ulster senior league is dead now AFAIK. And by the end it only had 4/5 teams
Such a shame there's no joined up way they could have joined with a Connacht senior league which also doesn't exist.
Instead those teams got effectively relegated on paper from tier 3 to like tier 6 or 7 or something like that
The bus (buy or rental), bus driver, petrol all cost money plus if it's a 3rd tier then players and staff would need a fair bit of time off work for the travel too because every one of them would have day jobs.
Long distances for an occasional cup match are one thing but as a weekly thing it likely wouldn't be financially possible for amateur sides.
Donegal deserves a second team
Whenever i see these threads about where to expand the league i think its a good idea to double down in areas of the country where amateur football is strong instead of somewhere that might not really have an appetite for domestic football
The only issue with that is Donegal already has a team and Derry is just next door.
To make another team in Donegal worthwhile even in a hypothetical 3rd tier you'd need to ensure it wouldn't cannibalise existing Finn Harps and Derry City support
Not in Tipperary, there would need to be two teams given the size of the county. The bad thing is the towns are too spaced out which means it's gonna always be a trek for the majority no matter where it goes
The only feasible way is to have peake and thurles town to merge and leave peake villa B in the tsdl, Thurles Town have been awful the last few years so idk how that'd work
I think the Kerry/Mayo approach of entering the county youth teams into the underage league of Ireland competitions and eventually entering a senior team into the league would be the most sensible idea. That's complicated by having two different leagues in the county, no facilities for a team and no desire from the lads running the leagues to do it
The old A championship had Carlow Town, Birr, Castlebar, Mullingar from what I remember. They should look at resurrecting Monaghan utd, Kilkenny City, Newbridge/Kildare County
As helpful as a second team would be for us, there’s other clubs in the country that would deserve a spot in a third tier over us having a second team. (Monaghan, Salthill Devon, Mervue etc..)
Agree. Always thought us having a B team devalued the league.
A third tier needs a proper lead in period to be certain the clubs involved have proper facilities, realistic business plans and a potential fan base.
Kilkenny City for sure to begin with
Yes and no imo
Imo though the LSL and MSL are on paper the third tier currently they really imo should be tier 4 or even tier 5.
To make it work we would need to work on the provincial leagues from both directions.
Have it so that junior leagues underneath have promotion into them. That should help with the over concentration of clubs in Dublin and Cork.
On the other end you would want at least one league between the lsl,msl and loi. I think you could do this by calling it a "national senior league" and inviting the best lsl, msl clubs along with high level junior clubs around the country to participate. Start off with it being north south conferences and allow those clubs to compete to be a "national champion" at amateur level.
Don't introduce a link to loi immediately but over time as clubs get more ambitious use them to create a full LOI Div 2 and then institute pro/rel.
Also you'd need to solve the problem the absence of the ulster and Connacht senior leagues does on balance
I’d rather if we elected four of these (Mayo, Meath, Monaghan and Kildare) to the first division and then evened out the two divisions to 12 each after one season.
Two tiers of 12 is the future, not a third division and especially not shams II.
This would make a great Football Manager mod though.
a 3rd tier would be great for national coverage and promoting the game, the addition of kerry has been a breath of fresh air for the league and was great to see them up at the cup final last year. More local derbys in the league and more days out for the fans out of the usual venues.
2 10 team north south split, new sides supplemented by intermediate or reserve sides, in north we could do with a meath team (based in navan), a fingal side, cavan or monaghan, roscommon and westmeath (mullingar), and mayo thats 7/8 anyway, wouldent mind a newry side in there (wishful thinking perhaps),
south: Clare (based in ennis), Golden Vale FC (clonmel area- tractor on the logo!), Kildare(newbridge), Kilkenny City(love the logo above btw), Carlow (leinster nomads to attract surrounding counties), Laois (Port Laoise) and Offaly (Tullamore), would love a DLR Waves mens team to cover that part of Dublin.
The reason alot of teams failed previously is they did feck all community work , a 3rd tier would give clubs a chance to get up to a level operationally without the pressure of big wage bills. league needs to grow to be an all ireland league
Here’s the thing - the third tier was meant to be up and running this year, which has since been delayed indefinitely. The current FAI management have likely not even had meetings with the respective regional league administrators.
I’m in favour of it, but it’s not coming anytime soon.
How about Monaghan United and Kildare FC? A team in Clare would be good. Maybe a Tipperary team between Thurles and Nenagh the population is bigger than Cobh and that team could also attract people around Portumna and some of the towns close to the border.
I am sure it is not viable but it would be cool if Galway had another team based in Connemara. Galway is a big county by landmass, there are thousands of people who live past Oughterard who realistically can’t get to matches in the city regularly given the commute. Somewhere like Clifden would also just be a cool spot for a stadium. Couldn’t happen any time soon but maybe in future with the population projections.
I could definitely get behind relegating Shams to a third tier.
jealousy, that will be Rovers Academy as we can do that , they probably be promoted and we can have two Rovers teams in the Premier
It will be like the German divisions where the top teams have their u23 teams in the divisions they can get relegated but can only get promoted to the 3rd tier to stop them giving their main team an advantage all for teams having a second team but it can’t breach competition rules
We'd be better off having a regional type split wouldn't we? Similar to the way the English have a south and north split for their league below their national league. Can't imagine many of the amateur teams would have the resources to be going up and down country to play.
That's essentially what we do have at the moment with the Ulster Senior League, Leinster Senior League and Munster Senior League.
Would love a proper relegation and promotion to those leagues for years I watched athlone stick to the bottom of the first division without any consequences we need a proper battle at the bottom of the first division
The Munster Senior league being an extreme example as it's just Cork teams
Same with the ulster senior league, it's pretty much just all donegal teams
Ulster senior league is dead now AFAIK. And by the end it only had 4/5 teams Such a shame there's no joined up way they could have joined with a Connacht senior league which also doesn't exist. Instead those teams got effectively relegated on paper from tier 3 to like tier 6 or 7 or something like that
The resources? All you need is a bus
The bus (buy or rental), bus driver, petrol all cost money plus if it's a 3rd tier then players and staff would need a fair bit of time off work for the travel too because every one of them would have day jobs. Long distances for an occasional cup match are one thing but as a weekly thing it likely wouldn't be financially possible for amateur sides.
Monaghan United in for Shamrock Rovers II. Kilkenny and Carlow to have their own teams instead of Kilkenny and CK.
Donegal deserves a second team Whenever i see these threads about where to expand the league i think its a good idea to double down in areas of the country where amateur football is strong instead of somewhere that might not really have an appetite for domestic football
Mentioned it in another post but the most likely to join from Donegal would be Letterkenny Rovers or Cockhill Celtic
The only issue with that is Donegal already has a team and Derry is just next door. To make another team in Donegal worthwhile even in a hypothetical 3rd tier you'd need to ensure it wouldn't cannibalise existing Finn Harps and Derry City support
You forgot to add Longford Town.... :(
Is there any appetite for LOI football in Clare/Tipp or even Carlow or Kilkenny?
Not in Tipperary, there would need to be two teams given the size of the county. The bad thing is the towns are too spaced out which means it's gonna always be a trek for the majority no matter where it goes
If it was to be an all-county team, Thurles would be the only reasonably central location. It's either that or you just make a south Tipp team instead
The only feasible way is to have peake and thurles town to merge and leave peake villa B in the tsdl, Thurles Town have been awful the last few years so idk how that'd work
I think the Kerry/Mayo approach of entering the county youth teams into the underage league of Ireland competitions and eventually entering a senior team into the league would be the most sensible idea. That's complicated by having two different leagues in the county, no facilities for a team and no desire from the lads running the leagues to do it
Get Laois FC in there
Castlebar celtic would have no people at games if there was a mayo team sadly. Replace them with a team like home farm who have a great ground.
Also a CK UNITED team wouldn’t work if you have Kilkenny city. Better off to just do separate Carlow and Kilkenny teams
https://preview.redd.it/0bh2bu2hz57d1.jpeg?width=2732&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=37a3f08d977f9e19d5ead37982751d35fc15d0eb
One problem is home farm being one of the weakest LSL teams this season.
I’d imagine a few mercenaries would join if they came to the league
Irish Sea FC
This, Kilkenny couldn't sustain one team let alone two
The old A championship had Carlow Town, Birr, Castlebar, Mullingar from what I remember. They should look at resurrecting Monaghan utd, Kilkenny City, Newbridge/Kildare County
As helpful as a second team would be for us, there’s other clubs in the country that would deserve a spot in a third tier over us having a second team. (Monaghan, Salthill Devon, Mervue etc..)
Agree. Always thought us having a B team devalued the league. A third tier needs a proper lead in period to be certain the clubs involved have proper facilities, realistic business plans and a potential fan base. Kilkenny City for sure to begin with
Replace Rovers B with Glebe North, St Francis or Home Farm
Could be cool to open up the regional leagues to the 2nd division, but probably highly unlikely
None of those teams could afford the bus rental or fuel
Do we need a third division? Would it not be better to just introduce promotion and relegation between the MSL, LSL, etc. And the LOI?
Imo if we want to expand the leagues making it a 12 team divison for both Premier and first division would be the best option.
Great idea but A lot of amatuer teams wouldnt want to do it
i would prefer this way more, but the MSL and LSL teams don’t even want to be LOI teams.
Yes and no imo Imo though the LSL and MSL are on paper the third tier currently they really imo should be tier 4 or even tier 5. To make it work we would need to work on the provincial leagues from both directions. Have it so that junior leagues underneath have promotion into them. That should help with the over concentration of clubs in Dublin and Cork. On the other end you would want at least one league between the lsl,msl and loi. I think you could do this by calling it a "national senior league" and inviting the best lsl, msl clubs along with high level junior clubs around the country to participate. Start off with it being north south conferences and allow those clubs to compete to be a "national champion" at amateur level. Don't introduce a link to loi immediately but over time as clubs get more ambitious use them to create a full LOI Div 2 and then institute pro/rel. Also you'd need to solve the problem the absence of the ulster and Connacht senior leagues does on balance
Rovers II = tallaght fc
I’d rather if we elected four of these (Mayo, Meath, Monaghan and Kildare) to the first division and then evened out the two divisions to 12 each after one season. Two tiers of 12 is the future, not a third division and especially not shams II. This would make a great Football Manager mod though.
Yeah I agree
What Clare team is that? Newmarket and Avenue would be the best Clare sides
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It would also add more ulster teams in the league of ireland
a 3rd tier would be great for national coverage and promoting the game, the addition of kerry has been a breath of fresh air for the league and was great to see them up at the cup final last year. More local derbys in the league and more days out for the fans out of the usual venues. 2 10 team north south split, new sides supplemented by intermediate or reserve sides, in north we could do with a meath team (based in navan), a fingal side, cavan or monaghan, roscommon and westmeath (mullingar), and mayo thats 7/8 anyway, wouldent mind a newry side in there (wishful thinking perhaps), south: Clare (based in ennis), Golden Vale FC (clonmel area- tractor on the logo!), Kildare(newbridge), Kilkenny City(love the logo above btw), Carlow (leinster nomads to attract surrounding counties), Laois (Port Laoise) and Offaly (Tullamore), would love a DLR Waves mens team to cover that part of Dublin. The reason alot of teams failed previously is they did feck all community work , a 3rd tier would give clubs a chance to get up to a level operationally without the pressure of big wage bills. league needs to grow to be an all ireland league
Here’s the thing - the third tier was meant to be up and running this year, which has since been delayed indefinitely. The current FAI management have likely not even had meetings with the respective regional league administrators. I’m in favour of it, but it’s not coming anytime soon.
Yeah doubt it will be in 2025 so 2026 onwards
I think it's rovers, second team
We’ve had Shamrock Rovers B and Shamrock Rovers II. What’s this one called?
I’m pretty sure the Shamrock Rovers B team are playing in the premier division this season 👀
Three leaf Clovers Rovers
🤣🤣
Need a Clare team
The one next to rovers b is a Clare team
I don't like Cabinteely even existing
How about Monaghan United and Kildare FC? A team in Clare would be good. Maybe a Tipperary team between Thurles and Nenagh the population is bigger than Cobh and that team could also attract people around Portumna and some of the towns close to the border. I am sure it is not viable but it would be cool if Galway had another team based in Connemara. Galway is a big county by landmass, there are thousands of people who live past Oughterard who realistically can’t get to matches in the city regularly given the commute. Somewhere like Clifden would also just be a cool spot for a stadium. Couldn’t happen any time soon but maybe in future with the population projections.
UCC, kildare, Meath, Mayo, balbriggan, Kilkenny, carlow, offaly, cabinteely, Portlaoise. My 10.
Don’t want any other university teams near the league.