Neal Horgan: Net gains from U17 League

Credit where it’s due. Might Irish football be finally set to plug the gap that has dogged our game for so long?

The new national U17 League was officially launched on Monday by Ireland assistant manager Roy Keane and FAI High Performance director Ruud Dokter. While it comes on the back of the success of the national U19 league that was introduced in 2011, this new league promises to have a more profound impact than its predecessor.

The reason? It finally involves the FAI engaging with one of the most counterproductive features of Irish football since at least the 1960s; the ‘gap’ or divide between Irish schoolboy teams and the League of Ireland.