Secretary Seeks Summer Season

By Robert Stock
November 18 2004

League Secretary John Deakin will argue his case for a switch to a summer season at today's special Welsh Premier meeting in Caersws. Four FAW representatives and three league officials will draw up a proposal to be presented to all member clubs in December.

League Secretary, John Deakin, has long been an admirer of Summer Football and believes the benefit it has done to Ireland's Eircom League could be matched in Wales. Speaking to the Western Mail, Deakin argued: "A switch to summer football, when there would be little alternative football available, would surely improve gates. They have done this in Ireland and the results of their clubs in Europe have improved dramatically. And Irish teams don't have big Premiership clubs on their doorstep, like ours do in North Wales."

Also on the agenda at today's meeting are proposals to reduce the number of teams in the league, as well as the possibility of creating a regionalised play-off system.

It seems likely that the majority of clubs would again oppose plans to reduce the number of member clubs due to a loss of income and a number of clubs losing their Premier status after spending much money on improving their facilities to meet current Welsh Premier regulations.

Whether a reduction in clubs would be beneficial is debatable and may well cause a split between the bigger and smaller clubs' supporters and officials.

On the summer football debate, my personal opinion is that it should be given a chance. Irish clubs have seen both an improvement in attendances, standard of football and in Europe - the best example being Dublin club Shelbourne pushing La Liga giants Deporitvo La Coruna all the way in their Champions League qualifier.

With the state the league is currently in, it is perhaps debatable as to whether any harm could be caused by such a move. However, please let us know your thoughts on the messageboard or send us an article for publication on this site to wpwebmaster@uk2.net