John Caulfield: Why bigger would be better in the League of Ireland

The new SSE Airtricity League structure was announced on Thursday and, with 12 set to become 10 in the Premier Division in 2018, it means that, quite late in the day, clubs now know that three teams will be relegated and one promoted from the First Division at the end of the coming season.

I have to say that, in principle, I’m against the reduction in size of the Premier Division. It’s not that I’m against change in the structure of the League of Ireland, but rather that I would have preferred if they had gone the other way and expanded the top flight to 16 teams.

As things stand, the 12 clubs who will make up the Premier Division for the coming season represent a good geographical spread and I’d be concerned that if it was the country clubs who were to lose out by virtue of three of them going down, then that healthy variety would be diluted under the new format. Overall attendances could be affected too, since it’s some of the provincial clubs who command the biggest support in the league.

To cite an obvious example close to my heart: If this had been introduced a few years ago, Cork City would have been one of those clubs close to the bottom three.

The argument in favour of a 10-team Premier Division appears to be that it would make for more competitive games and bigger gates, but I’m not convinced. If you look at the Premier Division over the last few seasons, it’s not like there’s always a whipping boy propping up the table. There’s no vast gulf in quality between top and bottom.

Also, what about the implications for the second tier of our club football? In my opinion, the First Division simply isn’t working and nor will its fortunes be improved under the new format. Instead, I have long held that it should be regionalised, comprising north and south divisions and a top-four play-off scenario with the winning team going up.

In the meantime, for the coming season, they are doing away with the play-offs, which have been such an attractive and exciting element in the league programme for the last few years. Instead, with just one team being promoted, there’s an increased danger of a greater number of First Division clubs having little or nothing to play for well before the season’s end.

Meanwhile, one of the other headline stories of the League of Ireland close season has been the departure from Dundalk of Daryl Horgan and Andy Boyle on free transfers to Championship side Preston.

Which begs the question: Why would players give up the guaranteed opportunity of playing European football to join a club where this is unlikely to happen, at least in the short-term?

Obviously a significant financial package has a major impact, as does the guarantee of a 52-week paid job. At present, most League of Ireland players are free agents at the end of the season, with some clubs paying 35 weeks and others 42.

The biggest problem is that clubs are run and budgeted on a yearly basis and do not have the kind of strategic plan, covering three to five years, which is crucial in any business. Commercial sponsorship, attendances and player wages are determined by results and performances. Most clubs are too optimistic about their prospects, and gambling on success is asking for trouble.

Players have to get the best deal, of course, but clubs also have to be able to walk away if their players’ demands risk putting a club’s future at risk. Encouragingly, I have noticed over the last three years that more and more clubs are trying to get their houses in order with prudent budgeting and better planning. This is vital, because of what is at stake. It costs somewhere between €1m and €1.5m to run most top clubs here, which underlines the reality that this is not a hobby, it’s a business and needs to be treated as such.

The two areas where income can be dramatically boosted are by qualifying for European football and transferring a player abroad.

The top four teams in the league play in Europe, with the league champions receiving €350k and the rest obtaining over €200k. Progressing in Europe will amount to a further €200k-plus per round. As an example, CCFC received €670k this year for reaching the third round of the Europa league, though it’s important for those looking in from the outside to understand that, when you subtract hefty costs, that figure is effectively halved.

The other major source of income is when a player under contract is transferred abroad. The average transfer fee is €150,000, but it’s the additional clauses which can make all the difference. This is where the selling club needs to be shrewd and insert extra payment opportunities, such as receiving more money when the player plays a certain number of games, gets his first senior Irish cap, or is sold on later in his career, with the Irish club receiving a percentage payment of that transfer fee.

Against the backdrop of the structural changes announced yesterday, there will be renewed debate about what can to be done to maximise the success of our league. For me, one of the main objectives over the next five years should be for all professional players in the Premier Division to be on 52-week contracts.

It’s something which would provide greater stability for clubs and increased security for players — and it might also just make some of them think twice about the merits of running out the door on free transfers.