Episode 3335: Fixing Irish Football, The Academy System, FAI Job Losses, Celtic Knocked Out

Will Clarke is the League of Ireland Academy Development Manager, overseeing the academy system in Irish football. Today at the Aviva Stadium, he presented the results of an audit conducted into the Irish academy system by the Belgian football consultancy DoppelPass. It’s the first time we’ve had a properly researched and evidenced account of how the academy system in Ireland compares to what is happening in peer countries around the world.

The report comes on the same day as the FAI announced a fresh round of voluntary redundancies in a general meeting of staff at Abbottstown.

As expected & feared, the FAI launch voluntary redundancy programme and confirm compulsory ones to follow

Sobering but also drives home message that the way forward for football in ?? involves empowering progressive clubs & reducing reliance on HQ. Centralisation is the past pic.twitter.com/U5hkJYCrKY

— Daniel McDonnell (@McDonnellDan) August 27, 2025

Will joins us in studio to talk through the state of play, and what needs to be done.

Less than half (46%) of League of Ireland clubs employ a full-time academy director, compared to 60% of clubs in countries ranked 51-100 #rtesporthttps://t.co/GchaxydtDg

— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 27, 2025

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KENCALL – Unleash the mayhem!https://t.co/7hU2OhBxQE pic.twitter.com/nbrkLmpBnG

— Second Captains (@SecondCaptains) August 22, 2025