Koevermans: U19 league can stop players defecting to GAA
League of Ireland sponsors Airtricity were yesterday unveiled as sponsors for a league which, 10 games into its inaugural season, sees Cork City top the Elite Division, two points clear of Waterford United.
Koevermans welcomed Airtricity’s sponsorship, saying the introduction of an U19 league was an important development for elite players from the FAI’s Emerging Talent programme, giving them the opportunity to develop further with the benefit of coaching, facilities and competition at top clubs.
Describing the league as “the best playing against the best”, the Dutchman sees benefits not only for home-based playing and coaching talent but also for that specific group of players who don’t cut it at the first attempt in England and sometimes change sports when they come home.
“Now, if you come back from England, there is a competition for you to play in,” he said.
“You still might go into the Airtricity League and that is huge. But we know that we lost a lot of players to the GAA because we did not have an elite structure when they came back from England. We can see how many players went back to Gaelic football. Now if they come back we can say ‘you can play in the Airtricity U19 League and you can still go back into the game and become a professional player in Ireland’.”
Ireland U19 international head coach Paul Doolin said: “For the players, the U19 league gives them an insight into what professional football is like: travelling to stadiums, midweek games under lights, playing against tough opposition on a regular basis. From my point of view, it allows me to go to games where there are 22 players to look at, where before there might have been only two or three eligible players on the pitch. Already, we’ve had a couple of players from the league involved with the international team.”
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