Confirmed: Leagues can opt-out of summer soccer switch as FAI row back on key reform

The 42

3 days ago

THE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION of Ireland have confirmed in a letter to its members today that grassroots leagues across the country will be allowed to opt-out of the proposed switch to an aligned calendar – colloquially known as 'summer soccer' – which the Association had flagged as a key pillar of their football pathways plan.
The football pathways plan – which was led by former chief football officer Marc Canham but was the product of a self-proclaimed 11,000 hours of consultation and was unanimously endorsed by the present FAI board – is a blueprint for the overall structure of the sport in Ireland, and among its proposals was a change to the registration period at grassroots level, which would bring it into line with the professional game in Ireland.
As it stands, Ireland is the only one of Uefa's 55 member nations which runs a different calendar for different levels of the sport.
The football pathways plan proposed changing that, pointing to the fact that the current winter season sees games often postponed owing to inclement weather, with grassroots seasons across the country thus averaging 30 weeks per year.
While the FAI unanimously endorsed the pathways plan – and the calendar switch within it – they decided to seek a mandate for it, and thus sent it for approval by vote among the FAI's General Assembly, where it was passed by a slim, 57% majority: 74 voted in favour, with 56 against.
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FAI president Paul Cooke told delegates after the vote they had 'changed the face of Irish football.'
The calendar switch was met by fierce resistance among some grassroots leagues across the country, however, with the Carlow and District Football League, for instance, insisting they would not adopt the change and that every league across the country should have the 'right of choice.' That opposition persisted after the vote, with the emergence of a putative breakaway organisation, titled the Grassroots Amateur Football Clubs of Ireland.
Some clubs and leagues expressed fears that they would lose playing members if they switched to an aligned calendar, as it would pit them in opposition to GAA.
Meanwhile, FAI board members had been briefed that any leagues resistant to the change could be disaffiliated from the FAI, which may have brought ramifications regarding access to State funding grants and portions of transfer fees for professional players owed under Fifa rules.
Instead, the FAI board have now decided to offer leagues against the change the opportunity to opt out of the calendar switch.
The 42 revealed last month that summer soccer was effectively 'dead in the water', and in a letter to delegates today, FAI president Paul Cooke confirmed the board have decided to allow leagues be exempted from the switch.
'The Board of the Football Association of Ireland has decided to implement an exemption process by application for leagues with regard to our Aligned Football Calendar', read the letter from Mr. Cooke, seen by The 42.
'The terms of reference of the exemption process will be agreed by the Board and communicated with members of the General Assembly in due course.
'The Football Pathways Plan continues to be implemented as part of the on-going development and future of Irish football whilst also respecting the implementation challenges that leagues may encounter in relation to the Aligned Football Calendar.'
There are 22 leagues across the country currently playing under the aligned calendar, with another 47 playing the winter season. Twelve of those 47 previously indicated to the FAI a willingness to change to summer soccer.