THE 10 CLUBS in the League of Ireland Premier Division have written to the FAI to express a desire to engage with Uefa over the prospect of an All-Island League in Ireland. 

The letter cites the shadow cast by the Premier League and the “devastating consequences” of the Covid-19 shutdown as posing serious risks to the wellbeing of the League of Ireland, and called on the FAI to work with Uefa and the IFA to further explore the prospect of a cross-border competition. 

Their letter follows a similar request made to the IFA by 10 of the 12 top-tier clubs in Northern Ireland, although their Association last year refused to explore the idea. 

The FAI, by contrast, have taken a more open-minded approach to the prospect when asked publicly about the idea. 

Tech entrepreneur Kieran Lucid led work on a potential cross-border league that began three years ago, but the format has since been adapted following the IFA’s public opposition to the idea last year.

Lucid’s group hired Dutch consultants Hypercube to engage with all stakeholders to devise an agreeable format, and they settled on a split-season arrangement that protected both leagues’ present number of European places. 

Under the proposal, the domestic leagues are played separately and then come together in a league-and-knockout format to crown an overall winner, currently beneath the working title of “King of the Island.”

The format would see a 12-team League of Ireland Premier Division stage 22 rounds of games, at the end of which the top eight teams join the top six teams from Northern Ireland in a 14-team, “Golden Round” cross-border competition.

Under the proposals, teams would play one round of games, with points also added to the domestic season table in order to keep existing places in European competition.

Meanwhile, the bottom six in the Northern Irish League, the bottom four in the League of Ireland and the top two in the League of Ireland First Division would enter a ‘Silver Round’, which would settle relegation issues.

The top four teams in the ‘King of the Island’ standings would go straight into the quarter-finals of all the overall competition, where they would be joined by four teams to emerge from clashes between the next six clubs down and the top two ‘Silver Round’ performers.

The final is foreseen as a one-off tie to be staged at either the Aviva Stadium or Windsor Park. 

Lucid and his group have stated plainly that the competition will only happen with the full co-operation of the FAI, the IFA, and Uefa.