THE BIG NEWS in Irish football this week wasn’t Jack Grealish, but Declan Conroy’s consultation report into the League of Ireland.
Murmurs from clubs have been mostly positive with many happy that the conversation has started. Some reviews have suggested that the money – where it currently rests and where the investment would come from – doesn’t add up.
Rather than criticise, here are 10 changes I’d look to implement tomorrow if I ran the league — after I’d re-established the Premier Clubs’ Alliance. I could list 50 ideas, but like the Conroy report, let’s start a discussion.
Finance
1. Funds are needed so that’s step one. For the next decade, 50% of prize money for European qualification (approx €575,000 per annum) should be allocated to a PCA managed pool to be allocated for league marketing/promotion and infrastructure projects. Any money won for winning through rounds would be retained by the club. If this sounds far-fetched, I’ve discussed this with some Euro-competing clubs who aren’t opposed to the idea.
2. Tenders for a single kit supplier to win a centrally contracted deal for the entire league from 2018 should be opened – like adidas in Major League Soccer. Make them contractually accountable for vendor management of club shops — including online — across the country. All kit for senior, U19 and U17 teams would be included in the deal with a percentage of sales returned to the clubs, rewarding those clubs who sell most.
3. The LOI is already vital to the development of international players. The FAI should engage a hotel chain to provide pre-match food and a national bus company to provide transport for away games for all U19 and U17 league sides. It can be sponsored. This would allow clubs to focus purely on facilities and coaching. Senior teams should favour these companies on travel/hotel requirements. The FAI should also direct visiting national teams of all ages to those companies.
4. Trust is essential so it’s key – and overdue – that the FAI show clubs the accounts attributable to the league, reciprocating what clubs undergo during licencing. It should be independently validated that money intended for the league through sponsorship, UEFA grants etc, has been correctly allocated. If the league truly costs the FAI as the Conroy report suggests, they should get credit for it.
5. Until clubs are compensated for television rights, in line with international practice, they should not be precluded by a participation agreement from pursuing their own deals and taking financial advantage of their product in domestic or foreign markets, individually or collectively. If a club want to stream a match that’s not live on TV and earn from it, they should have that right.
Structures
6. Move to a single division, then reduce to 16 teams over five years, relegating one club per year from 2017 based on football and Premier licencing standards. In tandem the FAI should resurrect the Connaught Senior League and ensure it and other regional senior leagues retain relegated sides in senior football. Once at 16, a promotion play-off against the best equipped senior league side would meet the UEFA requirement that the National League not be ‘closed.’
Importantly, clubs seeking to challenge for promotion should be pre-approved for a licence six months before any playoff. The PCA and the FAI would be a responsible for supporting and ensuring the readiness of any potential new or returning club.
7. Every club should employ a full-time administrator and maintain a physical office open at a minimum from 10am-4pm during the working week, be that in the stadium, training ground or elsewhere. This should be funded in part by off-setting the cost of affiliation fees, which should be reduced to a nominal fee and by the central pool of European prize money.
Players
8. We only have 275 professional players in the country so 52-week contracts should be mandatory. This would allow players to represent clubs for off-season promotional activities and coaching. Selling the league through the players is common sense.
Players and the PFAI shouldn’t get excited though. Clubs must adhere to salary cost protocol, so players probably won’t be better off in the short term as I explained here. In the long term, the PFAI, FAI and clubs must realise that full-time employment for players should encompass their development off the field in areas beneficial to clubs such as coaching and community work. The have a collective responsibility to produce that plan.
9. Every club should be engaged in a formal, written contract with a third-level institution to support scholarships and continuing player education. These would be on an open policy so that any player would have the option to choose an appropriate course at any ‘LOI-affiliated third level institute’
10. The FAI and PFAI need to negotiate a centralised contract from their coffers that covers players for ‘wear and tear’ injuries picked up over the career. These currently sit outside of the club insurance deals. The English PFA model should be the target so that even players injured while out of contract have recourse to recover.
