Was listening to Radio 1 on the way home from Cork today and heard an honest and frank assessment of the state of the league of Ireland from contributors Owen Heary and Pat Devlin.Stephen McGuinness and Johnathan Roche aired their views as well.What struck me was the air of resignation and defeatist mentality in terms of the long term sustainability of the game.Johnathan Roche commented on the monumental task it is to put bums on seats in Tallaght stadium for Shamrock Rovers home games.It is doubtful whether Bray will be in existence and Bohemians will have a totally different squad of players to the one that finished the season.One of the panelists described the state of the game as been comparable with the level that existed during the mid 90’s.
A couple of conclusions I drew were the farce that is the licencing system in play and the criteria clubs have to meet to get a licence.
The fact that financial planning documentation needs to be filed 4 months before the start of the new season.
And the exploitation of the players that play in the league with the short term nature of contracts and uncertainties over their futures.
I think there is questions over the marketing of the product on offer as well with little or no emphasis on player recognition.
Rugby in this country on the other hand have a limited product and have maximised their potential but are at critical mass in terms of extracting anymore revenue streams and playing numbers.This has been a golden era for Rugby that has reaped many rewards for the IRFU but they face a difficult and uncertain future.The club game is all but dead with average attendances at AIL games been shockingly low. Rugby clubs the length and breath of the country are in way over there heads in terms of debt and running costs.It is difficult to see how the IRFU would operate if they didn’t have a major cash cow in terms of Sky sports Heiniken cup coverage.
So the 66 million dollar question is, is the country too small to sustain professional sport at any level.We dont have a big number of franchises or supporter bases for it to be viable.And in essence there is a proliferation of sports in competition with each other that effects the others resources.
pre licencisng the loss per season was 7 million -post licencesing its just above 500k
its not a farce- th clowns running clubs like bohs are the idiots
thr problem we have is that irish sports fans dont like the product-they prefer foreign leagues- leagues with similar populations to ireland do well so yourpopulation argumnt is shit
Good post. I don’t fully agree with your comments about rugby. Playing base is expanding hugely at underage level, there is an ongoing drop off in playing numbers at adult level but think this is a malaise in many sports and is tied to a wide variety of factors, drink, women emigration etc etc etc. I would be confident that adult playing numbers will rise again in due course with clubs reaping the rewards for huge investment in the underage infrastructure around the country. My own club puts out 40 adult players and approx 80 teenagers every weekend, as well as 100 + minis at all ages under 12, we are based in a non traditional rugby area and this growth in numbers is due to huge commitment from the local club but primarily due to the support of the Munster Branch and by extension the IRFU.
There are new clubs starting up all the time. In Junior rugby in Munster there are now strong clubs in Dungarven, Killorglin, Chorca Dhuibne (based in Ballydavid in Dingle), club has reformed for Valencia and Cahirciveen area. Loads of underage clubs started which will have adult teams in due course. I am sure the same story is true all over the country. Any national school in the country could get a YDO into the school free gratis for an hour a week if they wanted to, the Branch are actively targeting schools to go into. The game is spreading massively into rural Ireland, in MUnster at least, and this is where the real growth can be.
You are correct about the debt level for a lot of the clubs, I would suggest this is primarily a problem of the tradtional senior clubs who have been shelling out unsustainable sums to overseas players and coaches for a long number of years. The AIL is now a farce and can ONLY work on a purely amateur basis. Fergus Slatery, a Blackrock clubman, is visiting all the AIL clubs around the country seeking agreement to move to a wholly amateur set up. Bruff are now in Div 1 B of the AIL and have a proud record of never having paid a player, structure and commitment way more important than money in the running any club but the way the AIL is set up means it would break most clubs, I know my club would refuse the offer of Snr status if we managed to win it, just couldn’t afford the travelling every second weekend. A lot of country clubs are not stuck for cash though as they were funded by lotto, ongoing investment, joint loans with IRFU which limited amount of investment.
I think Ireland can support the professional structure as is, fair enough it is reliant on the HEC money, but that’s the crutch for almost every professional sport. The structure we have in this country is the envy of almost every country in the world, our players are reasonably well paid, tied to the country by the 1 year tax relief rule, IRFU have huge control over player welfare and how many games they play, they are amongst the best supported and most successful sides in Europe with 3 of the 4 provinces having won the HEC. It will hit a flat patch at some point but there are plenty decent players coming through to ensure at least one of the provinces will be to the fore for the foreseeable future.
The country also supports a successful professional horse racing industry.
The GAA is probably the greatest obstacle to Ireland supporting professional sports teams.
Scotland just about manages to support a professional soccer league. But there is pretty much zero competition other than rugby which is by and large a minority sport. There is “too much” sport in Ireland for the population to support them all with similar gusto. GAA is played to highest level it can be (obviously). Soccer is played to a very low standard so it’s easy to see why people would opt for GAA over it.
As long as young players aspire to play in England then soccer has no hope as a proper professional sport in Ireland. TASE has hit the nail on the head in terms of support and young fellas who are good enough will not stay here unfortunately. Could LOI clubs find a way of bringing Irish players back on loan from English clubs during the season to boost the profile of the game in some way?
LOI seemed to be at its most popular years ago when the likes of Johnny Giles came back to Rovers to see out his career. Obviously TV and Sky Sports have helped change that to our detriment. In my opinion I think the only way the league will get popular again is if there’s players people want to see. As someone who has no more than a passing interest in following club association football there’s nothing about the current Airtricity league that would make me feel compelled to go watch it.
Even when Rovers qualified for Europa League I hoped it would boost the profile but it’s been like a damp squib. It will go down as a massively missed opportunity. Everyone knew they wouldn’t be good enough to compete and no-one could expect them to be able to. But with only one match left before they exit, I can’t help but feel so much more could have been done. Hindsight is a great thing.
whats a decent standard- the FAI representative team rarely hit a decent standard yet you are willing to travel 1000’s of miles to be in the same city as them when they play a game
But won’t the money they’ve won to get this far be re-invested and give them a great chance to have another go next year, possibly doing better?
Anyway, with regards more could have been done…Rubin Kazan and PAOK are a hard-sell in fairness. No glamour there at all for the average joe.
On LOI in general, I’ve a mate who i don’t think ever went to a LOI game in his life but recently moved to Sligo for work and has started going to all Sligo’s home-games, because they play decent stuff and there’s a buzz in the town about the team. The potential to win new fans is there to be tapped.
irish sports fans are event junkies and you cant build a professional organisation on that basis.
in soccers case there is also the incedible laziness of fans who support a side by shouting at the tv in pubs that are regularly no more than a few miles from places that the game is being played at a very decent standard
I hope they use the money wisely to give them a chance to qualify next season. Of all the clubs in Ireland, you’d have to assume they’ll be one of the best in terms of financial management at the moment. Some of the games may have been a hard sell but at the end of the day it’s still the first time there’s ever been Europa League played in Dublin. Seeing the stadium half empty for these games doesn’t help. Even if they had to let clubs / kids in for free to have it full it would be better. Maybe they did try a bunch of different things and because I don’t normally read much about LOI outside of this site I didn’t see any of it.
in regards to the stadium being half empty- thats not true- the free seats would relate to one stand behind the goal- ticket sales were higher than the amount of people that turned up- the 18.00 kick off & spurs fans not showing up led to people buying tickets but not going- if the capacity is 8k the ticket sales were at least 7500. the two permanent stands were full
i dont even know why i bother to be honest- ive been posting here for a few years now & all i see is the same inane cliches from the likes of pikeman & fisty- what do these cunts get from posting here? pleasure from thinking their inane opinions & quips add some value to peoples lives or do they snigger to themselves that they might annoy some faceless person they dont even know-what exactly is pikemans games & what have I done to deserve his dribble - Uuuuuuuuhgh
With the standard of the SPL in decline I think the time is ripe for a Celtic League (I doubt Rangers would be happy if it was called that, so a bit more creativity might be needed).
7 Scottish, 7 Irish and 4 Welsh.
1 Belfast, 2 Dublin, 1 Cork, 1 Limerick, 1 Galway and Derry.
The top 7 Scottish Teams.
Ideally you’d get Cardiff & Swansea to switch out. The lure of CL Football might be enough for them. Otherwise leave the welsh out.
Initially you’d have no promotion/relegation but after a few years you could have the bottom teams from each country enter a playoff against the top of the home league or something.
