FAI Football Pathways Program

From what I read it doesn't sound like they don't have any timelines for when they hope to move to summer soccer other than by 2026? 

Consensus seems to be it will impact on participation levels but will make those who stick around better players.

I don't see how not playing in December/January impacts on things - over recent years i've barely played a game in those two months and training with no games is a chore. For kids, they have futsal planned - that seems like a great idea. There's also a proposal to take a break in the summer at the peak of GAA season. This seems like a good idea, but you can't avoid GAA completely (it seems to be all year around these days).

Definitely worth a go in my opinion, but if a few leagues decide to stay with winter football, i wonder what happens then...

The type of lads who excel at Gaelic Football are not the type of lads who develop into technical modern-day footballers.

Long gone are the days when you had Kevin Moran playing for Dublin and United simultaneously, football has moved on, and GAA never will.

Our football pyramid needs serious re-alignment, and if that means that we lose out on a google of physical, hoofball style cloggers in favour of getting our most technical prospects playing together regularly then so be it...

My other gripe is it has seasons finishing in November traditionally 

When pitches are poor.

By moving to a calendar season the very important summer window for pitch maintenance and repair is now effectively removed.

But the thing is, and it's been mentioned on here, playing multiple sports is an advantage for kids - The likes of Benfica are trying to get their academy players to do it - and we have that advantage already. So I don't think we should dismiss it. 

As I said, I think the plan is a good thing but just am just trying to understand some of the issues people seem to be flagging.

I coach at underage level I’ll put it to you this way the GAA season is starting back now I posted the majority of our remaining fixtures back in January.

There is little to no wiggle room with our fixtures.

The GAA fixtures have arrived recently for that period there was a clash for a few weeks times and thankfully the GAA coaches were able to move their fixture.

Because I know for sure we would lose players in a clash and we are going well in the league and any points dropped would really come against the team.

It’s as simple as that the GAA carries sway and will put pressure on to not play soccer games and players will listen to them.

It’s really that simple.