League of Ireland season launch sees issue of facilities crop up again

The most sought-after opinion proved the most elusive at the League of Ireland season launch on Wednesday, with Shelbourne's new manager Damien Duff making a hasty retreat after speaking to RTÉ.

“I guess no coaching badges or anything you learn with the FAI will ever teach or prepare you [for management],” Duff told Tony O’Donoghue. “It’s 24/7, literally non-stop. I guess that side of it is the one that’s blown me away.

“I enjoy it. So, no problem.”

The real shame about Duff's show and go is in relation to the 42-year-old's inability to mince words. Nonetheless, one of Irish soccer's greatest exports returning to domestic dugouts in 2022 brings a cachet that has not existed since John Giles's stint as Shamrock Rovers player-manager ended in 1983.

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Shels' campaign begins with a Dublin derby against St Patrick's Athletic at Tolka Park on Friday, February 18th.

Duff has already shone a floodlight on the league’s darkest places when, last November, he branded facilities as “horrific” in comparison with those for GAA clubs. Nobody contested this assertion.

"In general, all of us would like to see an improvement across the board, in the facilities that we have," said Mark Scanlon, the league's director. "It's a key aspect, you could see in the strategy that we launched the other day, the infrastructure is a core pillar . . . it's one we want to address and a number of clubs have done a lot of good work over the last number of years, improving some of their own facilities, their training facilities as well, not just match stadia, and there are some really exciting plans for the clubs that they are working through."

“We want to work with the clubs, local government and central government to improve the standard of facilities over time but it will take time, it’s not a quick fix,” Scanlon added. “It’s an area we want to address over the lifespan of the strategy and beyond.”

Live matches

Scanlon did confirm 19 live matches on RTÉ and nine women's games on TG4 this season as prize money across the three leagues totals €650,000, with funding of a soccer industry in Ireland continually returning to Government assistance.

Scanlon is right. Improving the state of League of Ireland grounds, with a detailed plan to ensure the match-day experience encourages women and children to make return visits, is a key part of the FAI’s stated ambition. How this can be achieved will not be revealed until a “nationwide facilities audit” is completed to develop an “infrastructure plan” to be implemented from 2023.

The promise of basic European club standards has cast a shadow over the upcoming season, which begins with the FAI Cup holders St Pat's facing league champions Shamrock Rovers in the President's Cup at the excellent Tallaght Stadium on Friday night.

Clubs are hopeful that their dire need for funding is not hindered by the FAI’s parallel trips to Leinster House in search of financial support to land the European Championships in 2028.

"I was hoping that the reason for the bid [to co-host the Euro 2028 tournament] is that it makes the government get involved and help domestically in terms of facilities," said Rovers manager Stephen Bradley. "I think there is a lot of conversations with a lot of people – FAI, League, Government – but we all need to be in the same room and really put a plan in place to improve what really needs to be improved.

“I know it’s difficult financially for clubs to improve facilities but if we had joined-up thinking and there is proper funding from the FAI and the Government, well, then we can improve them over time.

“It’s not about pointing fingers, it’s about everyone having a grown-up conversation, saying ‘How can we really do this?’ and make every club in the league, within the next 10 years, have a real training facility and stadium they are proud of. It doesn’t have to be 15-20,000 [capacity], just a nice facility where families and women and children want to go to.”