€3m for league of Ireland football academies.

Football is also a large employer, Heaven help us but the FAI has a staff of 251.
Waterford F C have a squad of 32 players the majority of whom are professionals , then there is the management team , the commercial manger , coaches and match day staff.
All this replicated across the 10 Premiet clubs and to a lesser extent in the First Division.
The Betting Tax generated &141 million last year , €79.3 million and €20 million was returned to horse racing and greyhound racing respectively.
Betting on football generated 30% of that tax and it’s past time an appropriate amount was returned to the football family.
More men , women and children participate in football and futsal than GAA hurling , football and camogie combined and have done for years , there’s even a league of Ireland
team in Kerry now !
Historically Irish Governments have always preferred GAA to the Garrison game and that has been reflected in funding levels
 
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That’s generally down to fact that a huge amount of junior clubs play on Corporation , County Council or local authority pitches .
There is far more such pitches , particularly in our major Cities than there are Gaelic pitches .
 
JoeRoberts said:
Signed up club members ?
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My son plays for a reasonably competitive club in an urban area and there are 400-odd schoolboy/schoolgirl players, up to three squads in some age groups. In terms of raw participation it’s been the most popular sport at his primary and secondary school.

Volunteers in the game do incredible work but (and I mean this kindly) the working-class nature of the sport means that most clubs simply lack capacity. Most of the committee of my son’s club have a Leaving Cert (if even) and while they know their football backwards there just isn’t the expertise around for things like grant applications, canvassing local politicians, planning for clubhouses, etc, that you have with other sports. For this reason I think the paternalistic arm of central government is needed in a way that it isn’t for something like tennis.
 
Ok, google tells me 221k soccer and 367k gaa registered players. I would have thought gaa was a higher ratio.
But I accept the well made point that soccer clubs may not have access to same level of expertise in running clubs.
 
My experience of kids football is that there is much less community spirit than you see in the GAA.

I don't know how you build that sense of community spirit, but focusing on developing a set of players that are selected at age 6 or 7 for the first team, while signaling to all the other kids/teams that the club couldn't give a toss about them probably isn't the way to go about it. It leads to a 'dog eat dog' environment which is quite toxic. Once the club's focus is clear then people are desperate not to end up in a lower team because they will be left behind in every aspect. I think that drives a lot of the competitive nastiness you see in the players, parents and coaches at games. It's all just toxic. If the clubs were genuinely interested in developing players and showed that, then that would be a big improvement, but a lot of the coaches are in it just to push their own kids ahead.
 
Peanuts20 said:
So what happens the other 199.?
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They pursue other careers, like anyone else.

That statistic could easily be applied to any athletic sport.
In general, if someone is good enough to be offered a professional sporting contract, even its just for a few years, its speaks volumes of character, attitude and aptitude, imo.

Most of them will be fine and make careers for themselves either within the sport they are affiliated with or elsewhere.
 
The figures for players registered by JoeRoberts above are somewhat skewed.
The GAA figure of 367,000 players covers the entire Island of Ireland whereas the FAI figure of 221,500 relates only to the Republic , There is apparently approximately 70,000 registered football players in NI.
Because of the huge proliferation of 5 a side and floodlight Astro pitches there is a huge number of football players participating in 5 a side , 7 a side and Floodlights Leagues and indeed pickup games , in order to participate in such Leagues and games one does not have to be registered.
 
Deiseblue said:
Because of the huge proliferation of 5 a side and floodlight Astro pitches there is a huge number of football players participating in 5 a side , 7 a side and Floodlights Leagues and indeed pickup games , in order to participate in such Leagues and games one does not have to be registered.
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Thats a great hobby for them to organise and pay for themselves. Nothing really to do with a need for govt funding. Some people play golf or snooker instead.
 
Indeed it is and as you say no need for state funding just the appetite for a game and some exercise and importantly enjoying time with friends.
Easy to organise, no wonder it’s so popular and participation levels are so high .
 
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A report done by Indecon for the GPA in 2023 reported the following number for the island of Ireland
  • Estimated Participation in Gaelic Football by Adults 158,142
  • Estimated Participation in Gaelic Football by children 408,894
  • Estimated Participation in Hurling/Camogie by children 204,447
  • Estimated Active Numbers Volunteering in Gaelic Football/Hurling/Camogie 210,000
  • Estimated Membership of GAA Clubs 579,85
The FAI themselves in their 2022-25 strategy document reported 221500 and just over 10% of those being female.

Regardless of the stats, and the fact the there are probably thousands of players registered in both orgs, I just personally believe the academy proposal is wrong.
Sister Sara said:
They pursue other careers, like anyone else
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Sadly this is not always the case. There are well documented cases of young players in the UK completing suicide after being released. It is now compulsory for Premier League clubs to have staff members responsible for player care and provide a three-year transition strategy, supporting players who leave between under-17 and under-21 level. £3m won't pay for that.
 
Sport Ireland in their analysis of Children’s participation level in Sport for 2022 reported that the most popular sport was football for boys at both primary and post primary levels at 56% and 41% respectively with swimming the most popular sport for girls .
The stats for Northern Ireland were roughly similar although swimming was the most popular sport for both .
There is absolutely no doubt that thousands of men , women and children are playing team games without having to be registered and it appears to me that the majority of them are playing association football.
There can be little doubt that gyms , sport halls & Astro pitches in terms of team games are pretty much dominated by football.
 
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Dr Strangelove said:
There are literally tens of millions of adult men in the world today who are not professional footballers but who were dreamed of being professional footballers at age 10.
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I'm so disappointed to see a comment like this on here. These were not kids who were dreaming of footballers, these were kids who had been in an academy from the age of 9 or 10, built their entire world and dreams on being a professional footballer and then had that dream dashed. Below is the exact wording from a coroner in one of the cases in the UK
I find that it was … that pivotal point that crushed a young boy, a young man’s life and all the dreams that go with it,” the coroner said. “It is the one, I find, the single most important factor that led to the events which ended [in his suicide].”
She continued: “I think it’s very difficult to build up hopes of a young man and for them to be dashed at a critical age, when a boy becomes a man. To be found wanting in every way, it’s very cruel …
“I am not here to pronounce on football clubs that make the arrangements about … young footballers and giving them hopes, because they are not here to explain it. But it feels to be let go, and from all the evidence that I have heard today there’s not much [support]; to have no support for that letting go seems to be adding cruelty upon cruelty. And that lack of support, I find in absentia of the football clubs … to be a certain and compelling factor in what happened ultimately … and I find [the young man] was a statistic of that.”

Sadly this thread has gone way off where it was intended to be and should be closed. However before that is done, I think some of the people who think suicide is worthy of inserting a "roll about on the floor laughing" emoji should take a long hard look in the mirror at the kind of person they are.

I won't be posting on AAM anymore, life is too short to be engaging with some people on here. I wish you all well
 
Peanuts20 said:
Sadly this thread has gone way off where it was intended to be and should be closed.
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But you took it way off topic.

There are thousands of school leavers every year who want to become artists or musicians. They may even study it in college full-time. But they won't make a living from it as it's a very difficult pyramid with very few at the top. So should we close down the art and music colleges and tell them all to study commerce or law instead? They won't be disappointed as they will get jobs as accountants or lawyers.

One person who didn't make it to become a professional footballer committed suicide. That is tragic and no-one is rolling their eyes specifically at it. But based on a coroner's report, you want to close down all the football academies? That does justify eye-rolling.
 
If more money is invested in paid coaching, there will be more coaching jobs and more of those academy players can become coaches, if playing doesn't work out for them, many might want to pursue careers in sports science, become personal trainers etc. Having career guidance and support for a fall back career makes a lot of sense. Also, if there are more paid jobs/roles at the end of it, the younger players are more likely to get their coaching qualifications and volunteer coach youth teams etc. for experience. Everything that can be done should be done for these kids to save them from being accountants :)
 
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