the message has to be put out that going to a game trumps watching it on TV- unfortunately a lot of the LOI club have a shit product- shit ground, crappy atmospheres & trainspotting type geeks following them
ya itâs also cringe worthy seeing Irish supporters wearing British football apparel to international games.
The likes of Man Utd, Liverpool, Villa have Irish connections going back years. Almost all our international players have earned their living
there. Going back to Liam Whelan and even before that. As Sid has said there is a major league only 60 miles from Ireland. A traditional home for Irish emigrants since year dot. It is
only natural that these clubs are popular in Ireland. It is very small minded to think otherwise.
These clubs were popular before Sky too. No doubt the saturation coverage has had an effect but it isnât the root cause for no one going to LOI games.
the root cause is its easier to watch tv than to go to games- apart from leinster & munster there is no team in Ireland that gets decent support regularly
Funnily enough you get far more from a rugby game watching on TV than you do at the game ( outside of atmosphere) as so much of the action happens at close quarters. Football and both Gaelic games are far superior live due to increased appreciation of movement, space etc
I think rugby is awful to watch in person these days. Itâs following NFL more and more in becoming a tv sport with a small adult playing population - at least thatâs the way they want it to go in the Southern Hemisphere.
Plenty of good posts on this thread anyway. My biggest issue with the LOI is the lack of any club that Iâd support. There are too many Dublin clubs and none that Iâd have any affinity to. And when the gap between the LOI and junior soccer is so small then I donât see how someone who watches/plays for their local team is any less a soccer fan than the lad who goes to a Bohs game once a week and never goes to a Leinster Senior League game.
Thereâs obviously a huge problem with the product in the LOI but that wonât change without a radical restructure. You could justify Bohs, Rovers, and one other Dublin club (Pats maybe) and then if you got one in each of the other big urban areas, and a merger would the Irish League would help no end.
But the likes of Sporting Fingal, Dublin City have done the league tremendous harm and there isnât much to be said for UCD either.
I gave up following Irish club soccer when Kilkenny City bit the dust.
False affinity towards british clubs like manchester, liverpool, london and glasgow, spanish clubs like barcelona, and any other flavour of the month team that gets talked up or shown on the telly has destroyed any hope of league soccer in Ireland flourishing.
thats true GAA followers are the greatest bandwagoners of the lot.
going to games is far better though.
I donât believe myself or Pikeman had actually posted on this thread (up to the point of this post on page 1), why alienate us when we havenât even said anything? I have a thread on an australian soccer team which has huge paralells to this thread TASE. Iâll read on and I have a feeling I will be supporting some of your points here, after all, we both support soccer teams in financially challenged leagues with major competition from more popular sports.
+1
There is some excellent analysis on this thread and the reasons for the underperformance of the LOI (to put it mildly) over many many years are clear.
Tradition. Choice. Competition, Product.
Is there much of a tradition of supporting professional soccer clubs in Ireland? Apart from highly specific areas of metropolitan Ireland, well, no.
People have a choice. People have lots of choices.
Competition, fairly obvious. One thing that hasnât been mentioned here is competition for sponsors, which is a huge element.
Product, fairly obvious.
The reasons for pessimism over a domestic Irish soccer league are plain. They always have been. But I havenât seen any answers here. Its always going to be an uphill struggle with the choice people have and with the EPL being bombarded into peoples homes. I have a few questions.
Has the change to a domestic summer league made much of a difference?
There are 21 Airtricity League (both divisions) clubs. Surely its too many, to have 21 professional (or semi pro) clubs in a country of 4.5 million people? I honestly canât see how any of them are financially viable. There are 10 clubs in the Hyundai A League in Australia, in a country of 22 million people. And thats after North QLD Fury went under last year. There are no immediate plans to add more.
What involvement do the clubs have in local communities? Do you see the players in schools? Are the local press getting behind them?
The Airtricity league is exactly that isnât it? A league, so no finals series? Might be an idea to get rid of the cup and have a finals series with the top 4-6 teams who finish in league placings.
Paralells. Me, Mrs Fitzy and Fitzy Jnr are season ticket holders at the Central Coast Mariners in NSW. The central coast has a population of approx 300k. We generally get 7-8000 at home games, in a great stadium that holds 20000 (not owned by the club, its shared with other sports). If we get 10000 its a great night. This is a club that has appeared in 3 finals in recent years and we currently sit second in the league.
But weâre under serious financial stress and hoping to have a deal soon with another financial backer. We go to the games, because we canât stand rugby league and this is the only professional representative team on the coast. If the Central Coast Northern Bears rugby league get moved into the NRL in the next few years, weâll be in serious trouble.
Again, we have paralells to the LOI in that we have competition from NRL, AFL, cricket, rugby union, swimming etc etc. Thereâs a tradition of playing and supporting soccer among certain immigrant communities and more and more kids are playing soccer, but no real soccer tradition among the majority of the population. I have mates who support Chelsea, Man U etc etc here, but who wouldnât dream of going to an A League game. âIts shit, its boring etct etcâ. How the fuck do you know if youâve never been?
Thats the key, getting people to go. The A League always has a few decent signings at the start of the season, Romario a few years ago, Robbie Fowler, now Kewell and Emerton. They put bums on seats, but we need more. When was the alst time a world class player decided to end their playing career in Sligo (no offence to Sligo)?
Thereâs a growing realisation here that we need to forget about world cup bids and support the domestic league. Get the players into the community.
Soccer could learn a lot from the Dublin GAA board.
Rocko, stop being so bland, pick a club and support them. Turn up at games. Tell people.
there is a tradition of supporting LOI clubs- crowds of 40k were common up to the 70âs
Ya, the Cork Hibs-Celtic games, either Cork club - Waterford and any of the 3 against Rovers all got big crowds.
What fitzy described earlier there is pretty close to Cork City at different times. About 300K people (in general catchment area), 6-7K going to games, decent players, decent football. But never able to sustain it, due to mostly greedy or poor businessmen.
Never had a local team to support growing up, just KK City or Waterford and no way was I supporting them. Plus my oul lad never liked soccer and pretty much always tried to dissuade me from watching or playing.
Have seen the Youths a few times and if I was living down home Iâd probably go see them a few times a year.
During the draw for the Euroâs 2012, they had clips of each side when going through them. Part of the Irish one was the fans celebrating a goal in the Aviva, with two cunts plain as day wearing Man Utd shirts, grown fucking men. Stomach churning stuff. Personally believe the Celtic shirt isnât much better, but at least it blends in, but to wear a red EPL sides shirt was just baffling. Same goes for Leinster and Munster rugby cunts wearing their franchises jerseys to Irish games. What goes through these guys heads when they dress to go to a game?
TASE is making some very good points on this thread to be fair to him.
Agreed, he isnât half as thick as he pretends to be.
I find it amusing lads were still believing the pretence.
Do you think the overriding influence of the county structure that is emphasised in the GAA is detrimental so? Many people would only have an affinity with a team in their county because theyâd view towns in neighbouring counties as rivals instead of a team they might support.
I donât think anyone who has seen the troubles in the LOI in recent years would suggest attracting star players to the league as a solution. Player salaries have bankrupted clubs. Just because Shamrock Rovers donât have star names or donât fit into the mould of what a casual observer might view as an attractive team to support doesnât mean theyâre not doing the right thing. The A League has a much bigger earnings potential - they even have overseas tv rights - and they have no competition on their doorstep. I donât think the two leagues are comparable at all.
But what examples of the county structure holding back soccer support is there? Cork City have quite a few supporters from Kerry. I donât think any of the others are really close to suggest this is a barrier.
Somewhat related
[size=3]Koevermans admits FAI fears over talent drain to Gaelic football[/size]
[size=1]By Ruaidhri OâConnor[/size]
[size=1]Tuesday December 06 2011[/size]
[size=3][font=arial]THE FAI have admitted that they have been losing the battle to keep young players in the game and stop them leaving for the GAA.[/font][/size]
[size=3][font=arial]International performance director Wim Koevermans[/url] revealed that soccer players who return home from [url=âhttp://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/England_national_football_teamâ]England after failing to secure a senior contract are being lured into Gaelic football.[/font][/size]
[size=3][font=arial]The former Holland international has identified a lack of an elite pathway into professional football for players who are deemed surplus to requirements across the Irish Sea as the primary reason the sport is losing talented players.[/font][/size]
[size=3][font=arial]Those who return home are courted by clubs in the League ofIreland but with money running short in the domestic game and short-term contracts now the norm, playersâ heads are being turned by other sports.[/font][/size]
[size=3][font=arial]The association yesterday launched the Airtricity U-19s league with the dual intention of providing an elite competition for youngsters who have stayed in Ireland and an incentive to keep returning professionals in the game at home.[/font][/size]
[size=3][font=arial]âWe know that we lost a lot of players to the GAA because we did not have an elite structure when they came back from England,â said Koevermans. "We have names and we can see how many players went back to Gaelic football.[/font][/size]
[size=3][font=arial]"Now if you come back from England, there is a competition for you to play in. Now if they come back we can say, âlisten, you can play in the U-19 league, and you can still go back into the game and become a professional player in Irelandâ.[/font][/size]
[size=3][font=arial]âAnd that helps the game to grow so I think it is very important. When this is successful, we need an U-17 league.â[/font][/size]
[size=3][font=arial]Irelandâs three biggest sports are in a constant battle for thehearts and minds of young players and, in turn, the GAA are wary of losing players to rugby.[/font][/size]
[size=3][font=arial]Koevermans has been working with the FAI since 2008 and although his contract is due for renewal next September, he wants to carry on his work in Irish football.[/font][/size]
[size=3][font=arial]âYes, I would like to continue,â he said. âIt would be great. These are processes that never stop, so it would be great to be involved.â[/font][/size]
[size=1]- Ruaidhri OâConnor
[/size]