‘If you want progress, you need much better facilities...’
AFTER a decade of service in the trenches, almost all of them at the Premier Division altitude, Conor McCormack is well qualified to pass on a few pointers to improve the SSE Airtricity League of Ireland.
The first is a hardy annual for every FAI strategic plan, whether it’s 1982, 2002 or 2022: an urgent upgrade for the stadiums.
‘Since I came, in 2011 I’ve not seen stadiums that have changed much, maybe Derry but most of them are the same, with little improvements here and there,’ he said.
‘If you want to progress the league, and you want people to come and watch games then you need to improve facilities.’
The second observation from the Galway United midfielder is heard less often, perhaps, but has merit.
‘There should be more teams relegated from the Premier Division and more going up from the First Division,’ he said.
‘If two or three clubs were going down, all games would be more competitive than they are right now with only one going down.
‘In the First Division, with only one automatic place for promotion, it’s very difficult for eight of this year’s nine teams.’
One of those nine is Galway United, who are expected to sustain a promotion challenge under John Caulfield after falling short in the play-offs last season.
Midfielder McCormack, 31, played under Caulfield at Cork City and scooped the League/FAI Cup double in 2017, along with the President’s Cup.
‘We’ve got the core of last year’s squad and added a couple of acquisitions. If we can land running, we’ll be right up there.
‘The First Division trophy is the only one I haven’t won and I’d like to add it to the cabinet before I retire.’
Working under such successful managers as Caulfield, Michael O’Neill, Stephen Kenny, Liam Buckley, Peter Hutton and Kenny Shiels has given McCormack a feel for a postfootball role.
‘I’ve done my A licence and coaching is definitely a role I’d go into.’
McCormack is also familiar with the demands of being a professional footballer from a two and a half year stint at Trieste in
Italy from 2008 to 2011.
‘I learnt a lot more about football, about a different culture, about different football tactics. I was outside my comfort zone and it was brilliant,’ he recalled.
At the time McCormack was the first Irish player to sign for an Italian club since Robbie Keane in 2000 although he didn’t play a first team game.
The Carlingford native is wholly supportive of recent moves to Italy by Irish teenagers Kevin Zefi (Inter Milan), James Abankwah (Udinese) and Cathal Heffernan (AC Milan). ‘If you get the chance, go for it,’ he urged.