Soccer Post - Junior Football

Clubs in scramble for PIL places
Junior Football News - Author: Administrator (Posted 1 year, 3 months, 1 week, 3 days, 5 minutes ago)

STRANDED: Mark Snodden's Dundela will once again play their football in the bottom tier of the Irish League this season
By Maxie Swain

THE scramble for places in the Premier Intermediate League is in full swing with facilities yet again the frontline of the battle.
This time last year, teams wishing to join the newly-formed second tier of the Irish League faced a similar race against time, with fairly mixed results.
Dundela, who finished second to champions Loughgall two springs ago, were deemed unsuitable for entry into the new league due to inadequate facilities at their Wilgar Park home while little known Cookstown side Killymoon Rangers climbed out of the Mid-Ulster League and into the new division courtesy of their state-of-the-art ground at the Mid-Ulster Sports Arena.
As a result, the inaugural Ladbrokes.com Championship comprised an unruly number of teams – 17 in all – with the remaining clubs who failed to make the grade dumped into a makeshift Interim League.
This season, the Championship will be divided into two leagues – Championship One and Championship Two – ideally with between 12 and 16 teams each, but this has yet to be finalised.
The bottom three clubs in this season’s Championship, Dergview, Killymoon Rangers and Tobermore United, have been relegated into Championship Two and will take their place alongside whichever clubs succeed in bringing their home grounds up to standard.
Aspiring clubs have until June 30 before the IFA carry out inspections for the final cut.
Brantwood have already pulled the plug on their Irish League membership, and have instead applied to join the Ballymena Premier Intermediate League.
Other clubs struggling to make the deadline have sounded out the possibility of ground-sharing for a season, with Lurgan Celtic understood to have agreed a deal to play at Donegal Celtic’s Suffolk Road and Wakehurst playing their home matches at Tobermore United.
A number of Amateur League clubs, including Crumlin United and Sport and Leisure, have applied for the new PIL as well but only WKD Intermediate Cup champions Knockbreda are likely to succeed.
East Belfast duo Dundela and the Welders still have work to do to gain entry but Welders chairman Fred Magee is confident both will make it in time.
“Championship Two will be made with as many teams make the ground criteria but we don’t know how many that is, that is the problem at the minute,” he said.
“I think there will be about seven teams that make the grade alongside the three teams that came down to make it a league of 10 teams but that’s just my guess – it’s impossible to tell because there are a lot of teams trying to make it and they’re struggling to meet the deadline.
“Our ground is not ready yet but it will be ready in time. I was talking to Dundela’s chairman on Friday night and they’re the same but he’s very confident they’ll make it in time too.”
The main criteria for entry into the PIL is a grandstand which seats 100 people, a covered area for a further 100 spectators, toilets within the club’s changing rooms and toilet facilities for men, women and disabled within the ground.