Donegal soccer leagues unite against FAI's calendar season proposal

The soccer leagues across Donegal have come together to reiterate their opposition to the FAI's plan to introduce a calendar season, and to enlist political support as part of a nationwide grassroots campaign to overturn a proposed switch to what's colloquially known as 'summer soccer'.   

Representatives from the Donegal Junior League, the Inishowen League, the Inishowen Youth and Schoolboys League, the Donegal Underage League, the Donegal Women’s League, and the Inishowen Ladies League have already met in the Mount Errigal Hotel with TDs Pearse Doherty, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Charles Ward, as well as Donegal County Councillors Martin McDermott, Donal 'Mandy' Kelly, Tomas Devine, and John Shéamais Ó Fearraigh to push for political support in the county.  

A representative from the Ulster FA was also present at the meeting, as were representatives from the Cavan and Monaghan leagues.  

The politicians were briefed by the local leagues on the negative consequences such an itch would have on football in the county were the FAI to press ahead with it at adult men's level from 2028.  

As it stands, ladies' and underage boys' competitions in Inishowen and Donegal already operate under the calendar season, but the leagues warn that moving adult men's competition from its current August-April window would prove unworkable.  

“It’s unusual to get all our leagues coming together and singing off the one hymn sheet, and we’re all foreseeing the same issues,” Diarmuid O'Brien, secretary of the Inishowen Junior Football League said.   

“Facilities availability would be a big one, as would forcing dual sports players into making a choice. In most sports and clubs, senior teams get priority access to facilities.   

“There’ll be a price to paid somewhere along the line and it’s generally the lower age groups that will suffer in the allocation of facilities,” he warned.  

O'Brien also highlighted the limited availability of referees.  

“We don’t have enough referees to play everything from underage to ladies to men at the same time,” he stated. “We have some referees who only do adult games and take the summer off, and the youth and ladies leagues face constant pressure (over referee availability) to get their games played.”  

Inishowen youth boys' soccer has mushroomed and provides north of 800 games from April to August. The girls have a record entry of 54 teams across the age groups this year and introduced a seven-a-side ladies' league last winter to cater to demand.

“Our structures have worked well for the last 50 years,” O'Brien insisted. “The Junior (adult men) leagues run from August until the end of May. There’s a short overlap with the underage and women’s league, which is manageable. But if you were to lump them all in and try to play them together at the one time, something would have to give.”  

O'Brien also pointed out that the councillors have committed to discussing the issue at a forthcoming meeting of Donegal County Council to seek the wider council's support for their campaign against the change, while the TDs have promised to raise the issue at the Oireachtas sports committee.  

Secretary of the Donegal League, Nigel Ferry supported O’Brien’s comments pointing to the fact that this all stems back in giving the leagues in Donegal a right to choose rather than an opposition to calendar football.  

“Leagues want to have the right to choose when they can play, that’s really what it’s all about. They always had the ability to choose down through the years,” Ferry told Donegal Live.  

“When we met with the local politicians, it was really all about raising awareness because a lot of them wouldn’t have realised the issue this can be for sport in Donegal.   

“Pearse Doherty got up and spoke about the fact that there is a Memorandum of Understanding drafted up between the FAI and the Government which the FAI have to adhere to if they’re going to draw down funding from the Government.  

“One of the obligations from the FAI is to see growing participation levels in the sport, whereas the opposite is going to happen here in the county and there could very much be a decline in the number of people playing the sport.”  

Opposition to the switch isn't limited to Donegal.   

Leagues in Leinster, Galway, and Limerick have also held similar meetings in recent weeks, with letters submitted to the FAI's board of directors asking them to use their influence to revisit the proposed switch.   

“While opposition is widespread, none of us are against any league that wants to switch to a calendar season,” O'Brien said.  

“However, we feel we should have the right to choose for ourselves on what best suits the leagues in our area.  

“We’re just working on a document now to send to the FAI and its board members, reflecting what the leagues in Ulster have agreed, and asking them to reconsider this calendar season proposal.  

“We’ll be asking them to give clubs around the country the right to choose when they play their football.”  

Ferry also noted that the leagues throughout Donegal don't have an issue with the football pathway drawn up by the FAI but take issue with the small part preventing them from choosing when their league season starts and concludes. 

“That's just one element of the plan which we want to be reversed but the rest of the plan, we don't have any issue with, it's quite good, again, it's just that one point which we have concerns about, and it's not just us, it's most of the leagues in the country and it all goes back to the right to choose,” said Ferry.