The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Most of the problem here was the criteria for NFOOTBALL but this isn't the place for that discussion, had he met GNG the outcome may have been different J04n(talk page) 17:20, 14 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Paul Donnelly (Irish footballer)[edit]

Paul Donnelly (Irish footballer) (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log)
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Cannot find any evidence of him playing in a professional league (Irish league is not professional). Cannot find any sources or references. EchetusXe 14:17, 6 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Sportspeople-related deletion discussions. -- • Gene93k (talk) 14:05, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, NSPORT isn't silly, just parts of it. The idea of automatic inclusion of particular players makes sense, in that many of the people who qualify have been consistently recognized in encyclopedias on the sports that they play in. For the most part, the fans know the difference between big league competition and bush league. Even WP:NHOCKEY, which throws in some players from the minor AHL, has a rationale for doing it, having a 100 game threshhold, and taking into account that the NHL had only six teams for many years. The policy created by the soccer fans, on the other hand, is "in a league of its own". I think the big problem is that a list of fully professional leagues, made as a helpful guide, has been seriously misunderstood as a directive to bar players from the leagues of certain nations, and to include lesser level players of other nations. I think it's New Zealand where the national league is 93% professional, but not fully professional, buh-bye. I don't expect any single individual to know the relative level of competition of all of the leagues in the world, or the salary structure; and the soccer fans don't have the benefit of what would be a large player register, like we have for baseball and American football and such. But to me, the measure of a league or a division would be how many players it sends to its country's national team. I'm sure that the soccer policy will catch up to those of other sports, one of these days. Mandsford 21:37, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
But let's look at the other end of the extreme examples. You chose one extreme, the Faeroe Islands, which don't even have 50,000 people, to illustrate your point. Going the other way, does it make sense to apply that same reasoning to the Republic of Ireland, with more than 4,000,000? And when you throw in Northern Ireland, more than 6 million? Or to New Zealand, with 4.4 million? Clearly, the soccer policy isn't going to change, because there are too many in that particular project who think it's just fine. My suggestion wouldn't work, but I have a feeling that nobody else's suggestion would work either. Still, this isn't a discussion on changing that policy. For Mr. Donnelly, I'll simply say to people, look at the article about the League of Ireland and decide for yourselves whether it's semi-pro, or whether Donnelly's 100 games there weren't as a fully professional player. Mandsford 14:41, 9 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
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