(Kilbarrack United supporters away to Ballyfermot United in the Leinster Senior League Metro Cup Round 2. © Alan Quinn (LSL Live Updates). Full Time: Ballyfermot United 1-2 Kilbarrack United. 8 November 2024).
Although extremely unlikely, winning the FAI Cup provides a pathway to Europe for Irish non-league
sides whereas promotion to the League of Ireland is currently non-existent. While a third-tier for
Irish football is to be implemented in 2026 (FAI National League North/South), we’re still lacking a
functional pyramid system – still, this is a start.
We are relatively unique in Ireland when it comes to this and those abroad when doing research into the League of Ireland for the most part are shocked that the team who finishes last in the First Division are there the following season to do it all again. In a way this safeguards a newcomer team like Kerry FC to get established into LOI life but doesn’t give any competition to clubs who cannot achieve the promotion play-off in the latter end of the season.
Those at the bottom end of the table when it comes to the end of the season effectively have nothing to play for which adds a lot of complacency with no urgency to pick up points. Even though an operational pyramid structure is desired in each footballing nation, it doesn’t come without challenges.
The Challenges
This wouldn’t be an article on our domestic game if it failed to mention facilities. While the majority of LOI Premier and First Division clubs desperately need investment in areas like stadia for example, as anyone would expect, this need progressively increases the further down our non-existent pyramid you go.
At the present time there is no need for Leinster Senior League and Munster Senior League sides to have seating for example, there is no requirement to provide toilets to supporters and a media box/area is not necessary. If promotion was in place to the First Division these things would be a minimum for clubs. Temporary seating is an option most clubs would probably go down but it does add additional cost.
(Whitehall Stadium, the home of LSL Senior 1 side Home Farm FC. © Irish Times).
One obvious exception to this is LSL side Home Farm with their ground Whitehall Stadium. Currently playing in Leinster Senior League Senior 1 Division (The second highest tier of the LSL structure), having being relegated from the top flight last season, this is the away day supporters look forward to, especially with the bar! Veteran LOI supporters will be very familiar with this ground from Home Farm/Home Farm Everton’s time in the LOI as well as the failed attempt of a franchise known as Dublin City FC who used Whitehall Stadium as one of its home grounds.
The LSL/MSL is intermediate football in Ireland and to give some context to Irish football terminology to readers who might not be familiar, this essentially means the league’s scope for teams is on a provincial basis – with junior generally meaning the league’s catchment is down to its respective county/district – with the exception of LSL Tier 5 and below classed as junior.
The MSL however only consists of teams from Cork despite being a provincial structure (The last non-Cork team to play here was Tralee Dynamos in the 2002/03 season). The LSL being mostly Dublin dominated still has teams from outside the M50 (Maynooth University Town in the top tier of the LSL being the most obvious example).
In the 2024 season Kerry FC came last in the LOI First Division, if they were to be relegated to a league it would need to be the MSL. Does this mean only the team finishing first in the MSL can take their place? Why should the standings of a different league affect who goes up?
The idea of a play-off between the winner of the LSL and MSL has been thrown around Irish footballing circles for a while but if the LSL club were to come out victorious in this instance, does this mean the lowest Leinster club in the First Division goes down? In 2024 terms, why should Longford Town be forced out of the LOI to LSL when Kerry FC in league terms done worse?
It would even make less sense if Longford were to finish above Treaty, Cobh and Kerry. Also, given there is no intermediate football in Connacht and now Ulster after the Ulster Senior League is now defunct, does that mean teams from these provinces can’t get relegated from the First Division?
With league requirements and our current footballing system, these are obstacles to a pyramid in our country. At the same time it doesn’t give those responsible for our beloved game a pass for remaining idle on this issue in the 21st century.
Our current Tier 3 is provincial but if investment had been there 10/15 years ago for example, clubs in now what is LSL and MSL might have had the financial resources today to travel nationally every second week, eliminating the issue of Leinster/Munster promotion and relegation and pushing the geographical separation of our leagues further down the pyramid.
The ‘A Championship’ was our Tier 3 from 2008 to 2011 but the majority of teams in this short lived experiment were reserve teams of existing LOI teams. There are arguments for LOI reserve teams for the growth of our game In Ireland but this comes at the cost of lack of geographical diversity which a lot of footballing people claim to be in support of. This poses another problem in our soon to come FAI National League.
The National League
(FAI National League logo © Football Association of Ireland).
As Irish footballing people we want nothing more than our national team to succeed, to qualify and be competitive at tournaments. Grassroots flourishment is an integral part in achieving this. Is this better done by having LOI reserve teams in our Tier 3 or other clubs around our country competing and motivating more to get into football?
Both options will be advocated by different commentators but it is now down to the FAI to narrow the 67 National League applicants down to 10 North and 10 South. With the exception of a few junior powerhouses, LOI reserve teams and teams yet to be created for their respective county, a lot would imagine that most of these applicants are established intermediate sides from the LSL and MSL. To predict the outcome of what the FAI National League North/South might look like is anyone’s guess but this author will have an allegedly non-biased go of what it could look like.
(Logos from FAI National League and Lansdowne Roar. Graphic © Daryl O’Connor).
Look, this list will not satisfy everybody and neither will the 20 teams the FAI choose to compete in our new Tier 3. This is the start to what we hope may be a functional pyramid in Ireland and after this we would like to see possible integration between this new league and intermediate football whatever way that might work.
It can be argued the inclusion of Tralee Dynamos for example will hinder support for Kerry FC and is two teams in Tipperary really necessary but this is one opinion and an early example of what this new competition may look like. There has to be at least 3 or 4 teams from this list out of the 20 that will be there next year and even if not, as long as the current leaders of the LSL at the time of writing this, Kilbarrack United are involved then does the rest of the inclusions really matter?