Battle against Calendar Football ends with a win

The 8th of August 2025 will forever go down in Irish sporting history. After a year-long battle against Calendar Football, the FAI’s plan to have all leagues adhere to their plan for summer soccer appears to finally be over. In an email to the General Assembly on Friday afternoon, the FAI President Paul Cooke confirmed that they had decided to implement an exemption process that will see leagues have to apply for an exemption to calendar football. This represents a huge win for the Irish soccer community who have fought so hard in opposition to it and for their right to choose how they run their seasons.

18 months ago, the FAI’s Chief Football Officer Marc Canham proposed his Football Pathway Plan with the first step being to align the Irish soccer calendar and bring everyone onto the same schedule, claiming that 65% of people that had been surveyed wanted the change. This was met by severe opposition from clubs across Carlow, who unanimously voted that they did not want this, but across the country too. Despite that, the motion passed at the FAI’s General Assembly meeting by a 57% majority, with the Grassroots Amateur Football Clubs of Ireland being founded as a result to counter it due to many branding the vote unfair with League of Ireland clubs and other bodies not affected by the motion being allowed to vote. However, things slowly started to unravel under the pressure as Canham resigned and Cooke and other FAI executives met with the LFA and the SFAI who voiced their opposition.

Carlow League Secretary, Brian O’Reilly has been one of the biggest advocates against calendar football, pushing back against the proposal, pushing the mandate given to the league by the clubs, and says the FAI’s decision represents a huge win for all those who have fought so hard to push back against it. 

“Our long battle is finally won. It’s great news, we always thought it would have to come to this but at the same time that doesn’t mean it was ever going to be a guaranteed outcome. The people of Carlow have fought really hard for this from the very start, I know Noel Jordan put so much work into it during his two year presidency in the LFA and almost overshadowed his reign. He put in so much time, effort and dedication into it, as did a lot of other people in Carlow. We in Carlow were very vocal on this. It’s a huge reward for all the people who fought this so hard over the last few months.” Whilst it is a huge win, it seems that it’s not going to be so easy. The email stated that “The FAI board has decided to implement an exemption process by application for leagues with regard to our Aligned Football Calendar.” 

It’s not a straightforward win. Rather than a “we’re going to let you choose what way you run your league”, it’s a “you have to apply for an exemption from calendar football.” 

O’Reilly is aware of this but says that it’s important to still celebrate the win.

“I think it had to be like that because it passed at the General Assembly. We know the controversy around that, so they had to come up with some way around it because they don’t want to have to call an EGM and go back to the General Assembly and have another vote. I’m sure it’ll be something as simple as sending in a letter or an email saying we want an exemption. The finer details of that haven’t been sent out yet. It doesn’t matter how difficult it is to get the exemption, we in Carlow will be one of the first to apply for it. We will continue to play soccer when we want to play soccer, and that’s what it was all about, the right to choice because we have to respect the leagues who already play calendar football. We wanted our right to choice and now we have the right to choice that we wanted.” 

It’s not all positive though as it’s been rumoured that all FAI competitions will adhere to the calendar football season. This includes the FAI Junior Cup and the FAI Youths Cup that Carlow clubs compete in. O’Reilly notes that it will cause issues but that it could prove to be beneficial to teams who have ambitions of doing well in the competition.

“That’s just their way of getting revenge at us. That’s fine, they’ll try that, but I don’t think it will be a success. There’s no official confirmation yet but I believe it's going to come out next week. The application forms for the LFA Junior Cup came out last week and the FAI ones usually come with them but they didn’t. I think after a year or two when the entries are on the floor that they’ll probably have to revert that back. I could be wrong, it could be a huge success. I’ve always said that the FAI Junior Cup doesn’t suit Carlow teams because they don’t get their GAA players back until October. The first two rounds were in September and some clubs only had half a team. With not starting til February, if you go deep in it, you’re in trouble because you’re playing through the summer. It might actually help our clubs though. Some might not enter because their season is just ending, which is the argument that summer leagues have right now. It’ll also cause massive issues with registration, because every player is deregistered on the 31st of June when there will still be 3/4 rounds of the FAI Junior Cup left.”