FAI director of competitions Fran Gavin has insisted that the association will be throwing its full support behind a soon-to-be-appointed marketing executive's efforts to promote League of Ireland football.
With attendances falling in 2016 despite the incredible publicity garnered by the European exploits of Dundalk and Cork City, the FAI has been criticised for its promotional efforts when it comes to domestic football, but Gavin emphasised that the new appointment was "a commitment" to League of Ireland clubs.
"This appointment is a commitment from the board of the FAI to the SSE Airtricity League. This is going to happen," Gavin told 2fm's Game On.
"They'll have the resources. We've set up an SSE Airtricity League marketing group, clubs will be represented on that. That is there to support this person.
"They will work with the clubs, they work around their marketing plans, so yes, there is full support behind it.
Gavin also defended existing marketing efforts and highlighted a forthcoming report on the league from a branding expert.
"There's a huge amount being done and it's done on a daily basis," Gavin said.
"We work with SSE Airtricity on their marketing campaigns and they are very good.
"They have done a lot of imaginative stuff, they were on the back of the (former League of Ireland) players in the Euros and they have particular campaigns for the beginning, middle and the end of the season.
"That needs to be sustained right through the season and we realise that. We have Martin and Roy coming to the games, we have our president, who is a huge fan and that's stuff we need to build on, and this (newly appointed) person's job will be to push that forward.
"Also, in the last few months we had an international branding expert in looking at the league's brand itself.
"He's gone to all the clubs and watched matches in Europe, in the cup and in the league. He'll be giving a report to the FAI board with some recommendations and that's going to happen next week."
The fall in attendance in 2016 was partially down to the continental success of Dundalk and Cork, Gavin claimed, as league fixtures were moved to accommodate those clubs to less appealing times for the supporters.
However, changes to next year's fixture calendar would help ease such congestion.
"Nobody could have predicted the success of Dundalk, and Cork as well," he said. "We were assisting the clubs in Europe and having fixtures moved and postponed, but they have to played at some stage.
"That led to a lot of big games being played midweek and the facts show us that midweek games don't get as big an attendance. But we had to do it, we had no option.
"But the extra week in the season, the shorter break and the fact that cup replays will only happen from the quarter-finals onwards, that's what we had to do to adjust it."
"There's good management there and they are working within their means. They are being prudent about their budgets."
Gavin also praised clubs for "being prudent" as the they strive for ever-improving financial security, and tipped other clubs to respond to Dundalk's dominance by raising standards on and off the field.
"We're in a good place at the moment," he added. "There's still work to be done, but there's a lot of good young players coming through.
"The clubs at the moment are not thinking now about where the next week's wages are coming from, because of the financial issues have been settled down by clubs.
"There's good management there and they are working within their means. They are being prudent about their budgets.
"The outcome of Dundalk's success has focused the attention on clubs and got people saying maybe we should invest in clubs in the Airtricity League. There's a lot of good things happening, but there still is work to be done."
