Eire soccer fans; Martin O'Neills Green Army

HBV · June 26, 2016, 10:20am

HBV · June 26, 2016, 10:22am

HBV · June 26, 2016, 10:27am

HBV · June 26, 2016, 10:30am

HBV · June 26, 2016, 10:31am

HBV · June 26, 2016, 10:32am

HBV · June 26, 2016, 10:34am

backinatracksuit · June 26, 2016, 10:35am

Unbelievable, with a few bob and supposedly stylish oul dolls you’d think those lads would be able to dress themselves, the fuckin state of them.

GeoffreyBoycott · June 26, 2016, 10:59am

Tim_Riggins:

There certainly are differences between the Irish games, not that they both don’t have strong bandwagon elements. I think the Irish rugby team bandwagon is more noticeable at home during big games when you have thousands of new experts on the sport who couldn’t execute a spin pass if they were asked.

At games, Irish rugby fans are nowhere near as boisterous outside the ground as the association ones. It’s a non stop party at a major finals.

Conversly, the association football fans have taken recording every element of their trip to new levels to try and prove how great they are. This is a newer development because of social media and Lad culture. There was as many rugby supporters over at the RWC and not the same level of viral stuff as this.

Without question there are more women and an older average age at the rugby. More couples. More auld fellas.

I’ve been at a couple of away Irish soccer games before and the atmosphere is far tamer than what appears to go on at the major finals. There’s more uniformity in a Rugby World Cup game to a standard Six nations away game for Ireland imo.

There’s a far greater bandwagon element to Eire soccer. I’ve never been to an Eire soccer game, or any kind of soccer game in Eire, but what is noticeable at just about any Eire home game you watch on tv are the large swathes of empty seats at Lansdowne Road. There doesn’t seem to be any interest in Eire to sustain a vibrant domestic soccer league and attendance at League of Ireland games are pitiful. Eire soccer types are largely mouthpieces who mouth off about England all the time but slavishly follow English teams mostly from the grotty shitholes in the north of England.

Contrast that with the vibrant domestic rugby set up and the support the four provincial sides attract with 5 figure crowds week in week for Pro 12 league games.

Nembo_Kid · June 26, 2016, 11:02am

Great to see the French warming to the Irish fans so warmly this tournament.

Every year their country is swarmed with the rugby wankers but it takes the football fans to go over there and show them what right good people the Oirish are.

GeoffreyBoycott · June 26, 2016, 11:23am

You’ve evidently never been to an Ireland international rugby match in Paris, a European Cup rugby fixture in the South of France or the 2007 Rugby World Cup. The Irish rugby community always receive the warmest of welcomes in France.

ciarancareyshurlingarmy · June 26, 2016, 11:31am

‘Cunts spend soft money on showing off’ would be a more appropriate headline

Raylan · June 26, 2016, 12:57pm

Neither true nor remotely accurate

GeoffreyBoycott · June 26, 2016, 1:04pm

Connacht constrained by capacity at the Sportsgrounds but have attracted capacity crowds in Galway for most of the season gone by.

In the 2015/16 season, in the Pro 12, Leinster average home attendance 15,118, Munster 12,598, Ulster 15,310.

Throw up some League of Ireland attendances there for comparative purposes.

Raylan · June 26, 2016, 3:16pm

Not sure why I’d bother doing that but if you really want I could just state something that’s blatantly incorrect while I do it. Will I do that for you Geoff?

HBV · June 26, 2016, 3:20pm

HBV · June 26, 2016, 4:08pm

anon61956325 · June 26, 2016, 4:34pm

'When you see the crowds of Irish in France it would make you wonder why there isn’t a domestic league in the country for all these fans to watch live ball on a weekly basis. It’s crazy. I’m sure the games would attract massive crowds from the self proclaimed “greatest fans in the world”

carryharry · June 26, 2016, 4:38pm

Boom.

gilgamboa · June 26, 2016, 7:15pm

If there was, and they only got 12-15 K average attendances, then it wouldn’t be worthwhile and would just be ridiculed by fans of other sports I assume