Marc Canham's vision has focus but challenges lie ahead

Marc Canham unveiled his Football Pathways Plan at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, a comprehensive and slick document born after 11,000 hours of consultation with stakeholders across all levels of the game.

Canham is keen to flip around the idea of football being in competition with other sports, chiefly Gaelic games. Rather, he sees potential to harness that tapestry, using it to broaden the sporting development of aspiring footballers up until their teenage years. Only then would they be encouraged to fully focus on one discipline.

Thus there's a willingness to move away from the old August-May season at grassroots level and instead play across a full calendar year.

For kids aged 5 to 11, that year would be broken into four three-month blocks: January-March [futsal followed by the start of the league season]; April-June [league season]; July-September [blitzes, mini leagues and football camps]; October-December [mini leagues and futsal].

The Pathways Plan has endured criticism from within the football community, with many citing the impact family summer holidays will have on playing numbers, and others claiming there's an over-emphasis on the more talented players, who will generally be more committed to training/playing year-round.

There's also the small matter of improving pitches that are ill equipped to deal with heavy rainfall, not to mention the availability of indoor halls to accommodate futsal.

But no matter what way you shake things down, there's no silver bullet here. Anyone with a modicum of involvement in the game in this country will recognise how heart-sinking it is to see rain clouds on a weather forecast as the weekend looms. Bad weather equals no games for a large proportion of grassroots clubs, with