€3m for league of Ireland football academies.

Excellent news .
Rovers , Pats & Waterford have already benefited from selling on Academy graduates for relatively large transfer fees to English clubs.
These funds should benefit academies greatly.
 
Deiseblue said:
benefited from selling on Academy graduates for relatively large transfer fees to English clubs.
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Both the League of Ireland and the national team can't rely on England to develop our talent any more. They're able to bring on top talent from all over the world rather than developing Irish youngsters. Hopefully this is the start of LoI clubs being able to develop players, either to the benefits of the league itself, or by raising them to a standard that can once again compete with young players from all over the world that are currently filling the English teams' youth setups. Either way, the national team should benefit.
 
In John Delaney’s own words the FAI considered the League of Ireland a problem child .
It’s not because but rather despite the FAI that the LOI is gradually but perceptibly improving but on and off the field with quite a few grounds now presentable & other being improved.
On the field both Rovers ( spit ! ) & Shels playing group European football.
Crowds are increasing exponentially, indeed Bohs & Shels could have bigger crowds but are held back by current capacity limits .
Plenty reasons for optimism.
 
Really unsure about this TBH. Firstly, it works out at about €115k per club, that will barely pay 2 coaches full time. Secondly, the vast majority of kids who make it to an academy in the UK, never play with the first team. There has been a study done that showed 1 in 200 kids who join a professional clubs academy from the age of 9, never play with the first team. So what happens the other 199.?

LoI won't be anywhere near that scale, likelihood is that it will be from u16 upwards, but kids who mature late are likely to be forgotten. And even allowing for the lower standard in the LoI, a lot of kids still wont make it so unless it is linked with their education and ensuring they get a decent Leaving Cert/apprentiship, it could have a negative impact on the majority of kids involved. Real winners will be the clubs if they get a big pay day but the state gets nothing back.

Can't help feeling the money would be better spent on hiring full time game developement officers like the GAA have done. I doubt also if any of the money will go to the womens game.

No LoI club near me but I do get to a few games every year (Waterford, Wexford and the Shams this year so far) and always enjoy it but not convinced throwing a few million to ape what happens elsewhere is the best.
 
And in reality the LOI clubs do very little for local football development in the local towns. Only a small pool of exceptional players benefit. Unlike GAA where there is a wider spread among the community.
 
Waterford F C employ a community development officer , there is an onsite stand alone boot room that provides boots and gear for those who cannot afford same.
There is a football program for those on the autism spectrum and a quiet area is provided in the ground for those kids who need it during and after home games .
The Club also organises collections for food banks and partner with various other community groups in the county and players visit school and junior football clubs
Academies run to under 14 , 15 , 17 & 20 , actually 4 academy players featured in Friday’s win against Drogheda.
I accept that Waterford is somewhat of an outlier in that the City has always been a football City and far more kids play football than any other sport and as such the club is far more embedded in the community than other games but I’m quite sure the same applies to towns like Sligo , Dundalk and Sligo for example .
 
And above covers a small % of the kids who play football with the various local leagues. This is my point.
 
The kids who play football in Ireland benefit equally from the efforts of volunteers and the junior clubs to which they are affiliated.
It is down to their efforts that football is the biggest team participation game in the Country despite funding being far less than that allocated to the GAA
 
There are PDP courses for youth football coaches from the FAI and the course and guide book are very good, but I think there are only 2 FAI coaches who travel around teaching the courses. Having more coaching support and stricter qualification requirements on dad coaches (i.e. that they do some courses) is probably where I would spend the money. Some very basic curriculum where you can measure basic skills with some targets set by age and league level would help the less experienced coaches and kids to see what they need to improve, with recommended drills. Hitting a ball against a wall 15 minutes a day would improve most kids that play, but they need feedback to motivate them to do it so that they can see the benefits. I would see the biggest issues in the youth football setup as coaching and the model of having dad coaches that are largely free from oversight by the clubs or the FAI in terms of their training, how they coach or act.
 
No , the larger junior clubs should be funded by the Government to the same extent as GAA clubs in order to provide for better facilities to enable participation for all players irrespective of their abilities to play in a league suited to their abilities.
The academies are for better players to enjoy the best coaching and facilities and to play against similar academy teams and perhaps with a lot of luck to progress to a professional career and to improve the game deserve all the funding they can get .
 
Deiseblue said:
the larger junior clubs should be funded by the Government to the same extent as GAA clubs in order to provide for better facilities to enable participation for all players irrespective of their abilities to play in a league suited to their abilities.
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Agree and also funding to small clubs

Deiseblue said:
The academies are for better players to enjoy the best coaching and facilities and to play against similar academy teams and perhaps with a lot of luck to progress to a professional career and to improve the game deserve all the funding they can get .
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It's not for the govt to fund the professional game.
 
The Government funded Horse racing to the tune of €79.3 million last year and hilariously the dying sport of greyhound racing to the tune of of €20 million.
Should funding be halted for the IRFU and the GAA on the basis of the huge amounts generated by ticket sales .
Surely it’s time for football to get a fair crack of the whip ?
After all it is by some margin the most played game in the Country and thanks to saturation coverage on channels such as Sky the most viewed.
 
In an ideal world, money probably shouldn't be passed from Government to individual clubs but given the history of the FAI and the precarious financial position they are in it's probably seen as a safer bet to provide the money directly to the clubs. The FAI still gets government money to fund grassroots football but this is a separate fund to try and support the elite players who are now staying in Ireland because of Brexit. Before they would have just headed over to English clubs who would have looked after their development or discarded them. The make up of the international team from 2025-2030 in theory should be from these academies who look after these players from 14 to 18 years old. Leagie of Ireland clubs have been funding these academies to different levels for years and only now are the transfer fees rising to provide a decent return. This should have been done many years ago but the FAI had little interest in the domestic league.
 
Deiseblue said:
The Government funded Horse racing to the tune of €79.3 million last year and hilariously the dying sport of greyhound racing to the tune of of €20 million.
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Horse racing is a big business and employer across much of the country, Willie Mullins for example, employs about 100 staff in his stables. Not many sports clubs do that. Greyhound racing funding is a joke though. It's a dying sport that exists only to support betting these days.
Deiseblue said:
Should funding be halted for the IRFU and the GAA on the basis of the huge amounts generated by ticket sales .
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IRFU have to pay players and that is where most of the money goes. GAA does a great job in grant aiding its clubs (unlike the FAI) and it puts the money it raises back into clubs and coaching.
Deiseblue said:
Surely it’s time for football to get a fair crack of the whip ?
After all it is by some margin the most played game in the Country and thanks to saturation coverage on channels such as Sky the most viewed
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In all honesty, given the incompetence of the FAI over the last 30-40 years, its a miracle they get anything. However, for the large infrastucture grants given in 2024, soccer got €42m out of the 172m paid out, GAA got around €60m and there are a number of multisports grants that include both GAA and Soccer on top of that. Rugby got less then €1m. I'm a firm believer in the multi-sports hubs, there is a great one in Naas for example.
You also have to remember that your average GAA club has to cater for 4 sports, not 1. (Camogie, Hurling, LGF and Gaelic). So Soccer may be the most played sport, but GAA(when you put the 4 together) dwarfs it. There was a reason most rural Soccer clubs opposed the madness of summer soccer, they knew they'd get wiped out. The East Cork Junior Hurling final will probably have a bigger crowd then Cork City and Cobh Ramblers manage, combined.

Maybe I'm biased in that I detest the academy system but I also detest the GAA underage Developement squads in that so many kids get left disillusioned and left behind.
 
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