Phillip Quinn, Ger O'Brien and Stephen Elliott joined Richie McCormack for Off the Ball's Saturday Panel.
The League of Ireland has struggled to increase crowd attendances and has been beset with off-field difficulties in recent months but Quinn believes it's not all doom and gloom for our domestic league.
"I think League of Ireland at the moment is is actually quite strong, I really do," he said, adding: "I think there's a bit of a gap with the 'haves' and the ''have nots' and with the European money - it's quite colossal.
"Ger will be aware of that and when he mentioned Pats and the European football - it's a huge incentive to get into Europe, particularly to be in the Champions League. It's something like over half a million Euro now for a club.
"Irrespective of the prize money you get from the sponsors or the FAI or whatever it is or the League of Ireland money - it's the UEFA carrot is huge.
"It's distorted (from what they get domestically) and if you get there as Dundalk have done when they won the league for the last three years.
"Cork look like they're going to do it know, they're almost there and they've been in Europe so Cork are going to get half a million plus next year and they'll be able to reinvest and get the best players to come along and you'll see Dundalk and Cork beginning to push away.
Rovers' Ryan Connolly celebrates scoring their third goal of the game with teammates. Image: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne
"I was at Rovers last night and they've gotten to the cup semi-final. I think for Irish club football it will be good if Rovers got to the final and actually won the cup final. They're not a million miles off the top two.
"But, it's interesting because in Dublin at the moment and Ger would have been there for the good days winning leagues and the FAI cup - Dublin club football at the moment isn't as strong as it has been and that's just one thing that has taken a little step back a bit.
"They miss Shelbourne badly in the top division. Pats are in a valley period at the moment, Bohs haven't challenged for a while and Dundalk and Cork could pull away," he added.
The full Saturday panel can be heard here:
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
