Brian Kerr on an All-Island League, the new third tier, and the Irish Under-17s

Brian Kerr was the Special Guest at the 2025 Donegal Sports Star Awards on Friday night in the Mount Errigal Hotel, and the former Republic of Ireland manager gave his two cents on many of the interesting topics arising in Irish football.

Kerr, who has always been a big supporter and advocate of the League of Ireland, spoke to DonegalLive ahead of the new season approaching.

The big talking point in recent times in the League of Ireland has been the introduction of the new third tier.

The National League has currently accepted 15 teams into what will be split into North and South divisions.

Letterkenny Rovers, Bonagee United, and Cockhill Celtic have been accepted into the league, and Kerr believes there needs to be higher standards for allowing teams into the league in order to improve the facilities in general in the country.

“The (three Donegal teams) are all teams that played in the Ulster Senior League, and they all have a good tradition with decent structures and good, competitive teams. But it’s another level altogether to get to League of Ireland level.

“It’s an ambitious structure to have a pyramid system, and it’s an ambitious idea to implement because you already see the difficulties teams have in the First Division of getting into the Premier Division and then to actually stay in it.

“Finn Harps have been an up-and-down team and have found it hard to stay in it. They did it very well for a few years under Ollie Horgan remarkably, but I think it will be difficult for teams coming from that lower level into the second tier.

“Somewhere along the line, you’ll have to pay players, and then when you start down that professional route, it becomes more difficult with the fundraising aspect of it and balancing the books.

“I’m pleased to see it happening, but I’m hoping there won’t be any concessions about the basic facilities for these clubs. There have been too many concessions made in relation to the League of Ireland.

“One big one is the all-weather pitches, which I am a huge critic of, and I don’t think any team, especially in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland, should be playing on them.

“But also, the size of stands and dressing rooms, the standards that are in the rulebook should be implemented, and teams shouldn’t be allowed in unless they reach those standards.

“Now, with the third division, there are certain minimum standards, but they need to help make the teams reach those standards. It will be expensive for those teams travelling around the country, but I admire the ambition of the clubs going there and the League of Ireland for setting it up, and I hope it goes well, but I fear it will be difficult.

“They’ve been striving for so long to make it happen, and I’d love to see it happen, obviously Finn Park has not been up to the standard required for so many years. It’s a difficult place for people to come and play, but the pitch, the dressing room, and the spectator facilities haven’t been good enough to be playing in the Premier Division in Ireland.

“But I admire those who have worked so hard to keep Finn Harps going and competing. I hope they’re competitive and are in with a shout of getting back up to the Premier because it’s always better for the league when there are fewer teams from the Pale playing in it, and you have your Finn Harps, Derry, Sligo, and Galway.”

Kerr has also been involved in lobbying for an All-Ireland league, which would combine the League of Ireland and the Irish League (NIFL), and he feels there has been interest from both sides of the border on the possibility of it.

“To be honest, I’d love to see an All-Island League, which I’ve been working on for several years with a group, and we have made an awful lot of progress on, and it would be a great league, and the second division of that would be a very competitive league.

“Out of the 22 Premier clubs in the two leagues, 20 of the clubs signed up to a letter requesting both associations to investigate the possibility of it in detail.

“So 20 clubs were very supportive of it, which is remarkable. There was massive work done in showing the clubs the benefits and the idea that the clubs in this league would be playing in a more competitive league with bigger media and television interest, better finances coming in, and then you’re more likely to get better European results.

“UEFA were also very supportive of the idea, and they’d like to see some of the smaller countries joining up and having unified leagues to make them stronger.

“I don’t know whether it will happen, but there is certainly a lot of support for it at club level, supporter level, and even at association level. Maybe some have been less supportive, and you have the usual political angles that have kept the two associations apart for so many years now.”

Kerr spoke about the impressive range of sports in Donegal as he was there to present awards for over 20 unique sports.

“The range of sports that Donegal people have done so well in is remarkable and I know it isn’t easy because of the size of the county and the spread of people and clubs and sports, so I’m always delighted to see the emergence of players, boxers, and people in different sports.

“It’s no surprise in Athletics because it is so strong here and there is great work being done by Patsy McGonagle.

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“Then you have the young Finn Harps players on the Irish Under-17 World Cup team, which was great, so there is a brilliant love of sport in all sports here.

“It was great what they did there, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to lead to anything long term, you have to be doing that on a consistent basis with all the international teams.

“It’s gotten easier to qualify for the finals, but when they got there, they played very well, and there are some talented players on it, but they have got to do it at Under-19 and Under-21, and the key thing is that those players break through at their clubs, and they are playing at a high level.

“Often, there is a big fall off, it’s much easier to break through at Under-17 than those others, and you need to be doing that for progress. We’ve never qualified ever for the Under-21s, and we haven’t been regular at the other levels, so I’m not sure the standards are as good as people think they are, and as good as the publicity the FAI puts out is. We like to think we’re doing very well, but I’m not sure that’s really the case.

“When you look at the number of players playing in the Premier League in England at the moment, we’re at the lowest the numbers have been because the competition is so high with players all around the world.

“We need to get more players playing at the higher level, and to do that, we need better levels of coaching, more investment in the game, and better quality at all levels, players and coaches at all the International teams, and then we might see players breaking through for the International team on a more consistent basis.”