Stephen Elliott, Ger O'Brien and Phillip Quinn joined Richie McCormack for the Saturday Panel on Off the Ball to discuss the current state of League of Ireland football.
O'Brien felt the responsibility lay with both the Football Association of Ireland and with the clubs. "As an organisation, the FAI need to be doing a hell of a lot more," he said, adding: "but so the clubs - they need to take more responsibility as well.
"We need to put more investment into it. I think there needs to be a little bit more. I know from flipping to the other side this season seeing the other side of things - not the playing side - there needs to be a lot more transparency obviously with the money coming in from the leagues.
"Can we attract a bigger sponsor if the money isn't coming in? I know the 12 Premier League teams have been together and working towards making things better.
The Airtricity League launch. Image: ©INPHO/Donall Farmer
"Ultimately if we're not driving it forward as clubs, and I mean all 20 clubs, you are going to get this divide because the ones that are going to continue to get into Europe are the ones that are going to set the pace and get ahead and if they spend it wisely, well then, there's going to be no catching them.
"But Stephen's (Elliott) right, I remember in 2010 maybe, Rovers got to the Europa League group stages. I think I was playing with Derry at the time and I remember thinking 'with that money there's no one that's going to catch them but it happened so quickly: the mismanagement of budgets or bringing in the wrong players or the blend doesn't happen for whatever - whether you're after signing the best 20 players it can change.
"If you look at what Stephen (Kenny) did in Dundalk, even in 2012, he would have brought in players who people would have regarded as some ok first division players - players that aren't getting games for the so-called top teams and he made a group there and he's after creating a serious legacy," he added.
The full Saturday Panel podcast can be heard here:
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