Caulfield calls for more TV exposure
‘Product holds its own with England’
CORK City boss John Caulfield insists the League of Ireland has superior talents to what is on offer in England but it needs to be showcased properly.
At the lanch of the 2018 SSE Airtricity League in Aviva Stadium yesterday, the manager of the reigning Premier Division champions said standards of play here were better than in England’s League One and League Two.
He also called for a designated night for one standalone top flight League of Ireland fixture to be broadcast live on TV.
‘I have looked at the league and said “are we progressing?”,’ Caulfield began. ‘I think we are on the pitch, crowds are improving and the written press have been phenomenal.
‘But I still think that with TV we just have not grown as much as we should have. That’s my bugbear — we should have a live game per week. This is the top league in the country, we play in Europe.
‘I think that it should be going to a point that our live game is on a Thursday night so that on every Thursday night we have a live League of Ireland game. I think this would enhance the viewing figures.
‘On Friday night, League of Ireland people are out watching matches anyway. But I have been saying this for a while. I think we have to be [consulted]. I have never been asked my opinion. I have been to clubs in League One and League Two in England and thought “We have a lot more talent than this in our play and in the standard of our facilities”.
‘The FA Cup game last week between Rochdale and Millwall there were 2,800 people there with the winner playing Tottenham. A lot of our clubs attract bigger crowds than that. So we need more marketing and advertising but crucially we need more pressure on TV to give us more coverage. We have got to stand up and say “there’s more to us than that”.’
Cork City led the way at the top of the pile last term and such was their rise under Caulfield that the 72,942 supporters who visited Turner’s Cross were almost 17 per cent of the total number of 430,704 fans to attend the 310 games across both divisions.
That pain-staking research was carried out by extratime. ie and Caulfield believes it’s time for television companies to make more of a push promoting the league.
RTÉ and eir Sport will broadcast a game a week for the first month and a half of the season but with 27 live games due to be screened that will mean chunks of the season will be missed.
At yesterday’s launch, the FAI confirmed that they will provide an extra €250,000 equally among the 20 clubs to use for youth development in addition to €75,000 already made available in the form of ‘travel grants’ with a significant €825,000 allocated by UEFA as part of the solidarity fund for underage teams.
Clubs participating in the National League at Under19s, 17s and 15s level, as well as the Under-13 division due to kick off next year, will benefit from a share of this €1.15 million pot. The cumulative cost of participating in those leagues is estimated at €1.4m, so the €1.15m will fall short of covering all costs for now.
The aim, League Director Fran Gavin insisted, is to make up that difference in the coming years as the FAI, embark on this long-term project of strengthening the underage game in line with League of Ireland clubs.