[size=3][font=arial]âsoccer players who return home from England after failing to secure a senior contract are being lured into Gaelic football.â[/font][/size]
Jaysus, no need to make it sound so sinister. I wouldnt say being lured though, I would imagine its a situation where if they felt they could make a living from soccer and get a comfortable life, they would. But the opportunities donât seem to be there, so they go off, take up serious employment or college studies and the door to GAA is an easier route to step through at Club level with less demands being placed on them as there would be in the Eircom League.
Plus they are a bigger fish in alot of cases. Alot more profile if they happen to be good enough to play county. In fact club games get as much support as alot of the LOI.
Often they came from GAA areas, and their friends still played with local club. I seriously doubt fellas who never played the game are coming back and playing GAAâs sports.
Having seen Shane Suppleâs performance for St Brigidâs against Horeswood, I donât think every returning association footballer switching to gaelic football has been a loss to the beautiful game.
Youâre joking me arenât you? Any overseas TV rights the A League have are worth a pittance. Very soon the domestic TV rights for the A League will also be worth a pittance if they canât bundle it in with a deal for the Socceroos. Foxtel, Channel 7 and Telstra paid $1.3 billion earlier this year for a 5 year deal for the AFL. Channel 9 will pay close to $1 billion for a similar deal for the NRL soon. Leaves very little money for the A League.
The competition you have on your doorstep is the same we have here, the EPL is beamed into millions of households. You look at kids training here and theyâre wearing Man U, Chelsea, Barca jerseys.
The two leagues are comparable in so many ways.
As for the star players, its working here, why wouldnât it work at home?
Money, and lack of it to pay wages. If star names came to play here itâs still not enough to get people off their arse to the games.
Although, like I said in an earlier post, Iâd love to see some clubs doing it by taking a few decent players on loan so their wages could be subsidised by their parent club. But I can see a host of reasons why it still wouldnât work all the same.
i went to a few games as a young lad with my father who brought us just so we could see it live. I actually saw the black pearl of inchcore play in limerick. unfortunately he also chose a rovers game which was our final game ever .
i then attended a few shelbourne and bohemians games in the early nineties when i lived in phisborough, griffith avenue and finglas (without attachments at that time).
i found the standard ok and i have watched a bit on the tv recently and there is fuck all wrong with it. the amount of pure dross in the champions league group stages to my mind removes the argument that league of ireland is crap
The CL is shite because of the structure and financial dominance of the big teams.
The LOI every now and then throws up a couple of teams who are good to watch and entertaining. Its rare though, and having watched LOI for a long time there was one good game to every 5-6 complete shite. I have not been attending with regularity in over 5 years, but around then was the peak when Cork, Derry, Shels, Bohs all had excellent teams. No surprise though it was based on inflated budgets and every one of those teams struggled really badly since.
I must say a Celtic League suggestion made earlier seems the best solution for Irish professional soccer. In its present guise all it can ever hope for is another 25 years of up and down like the last 25.
There is some startling hypocrisy from TASE here suggesting Supple has a job due to who he plays football with considering his outrage at guys making presumptions on the Kate Fitzgerald case.
I think youâre missing the point. The fact they get anything in overseas tv rights means itâs on a different plane to the LOI in terms of income.
I think their tv revenue is $22m per annum. Itâs a million miles away from the LOI in terms of sustaining player salaries. And while there is EPL on tv in Australia the time of games here, the proximity for travelling etc mean that it has a bigger effect on domestic attendances.
Too many clubs is right. Reduce it to one national division. Much as the historians of the game will hate it you have to get rid of some of the smaller clubs that donât bring in enough attendances no matter how old they are. That needs lots of rebranding etc but no reason you need Dundalk and Drogheda (and Newry Town) for example. Have proper links between the LOI clubs and junior clubs in their catchment areas - at the moment theyâd see eachother as rivals (unlike the rugby relationships etc).
how are there far too many clubs? look at how many clubs glasgow can support- although id cull teams like salthill ,mervue ucd-
the ideal league would contain the big clubs
SRFC
Shels
Pats
Bray
Cork
Derry
Limerick
Galway
Finn Harps
Dundalk
Drogheda
facilities would be the big one- decent facilities make a difference- the SRFC matchday experience is a proper experience but even going to the likes of tolka is a shit hole
Ambitious Rovers increase their recruitment budget
By LEO GRAY Sports Editor
Wednesday November 30 2011
TWO OF Sligo Rovers key players, Gavin Peers and Alan Keane, have agreed terms for new contracts at the Showgrounds.
The two defenders, both of whom were prominent in the clubâs haul of major trophies over the last two seasons, have accepted new one-year deals with the clubs. âWeâre delighted to have concluded deals with Gavin and Alan. They are outstanding players and their decision to sign new contracts is a huge vote of confidence in what we are trying to achieveâ, said Chairman, Michael Toolan
With manager, Paul Cook, back in Sligo to begin serious negotiations with members of this yearâs FAI Cup winning squad, club Chairman, Michael Toolan, confirmed to the Sligo Champion that the club had decided to increase their recruitment budget for the forthcoming campaign.
âWeâve made a lot of progress in the last few years and we went very close to winning the League last season. We are determined to maintain that rate of progress and to mount a serious bid for the League title next year. In order to do that, weâve taken what is a courageous decision to increase our budget because we want to give the manager the opportunity to build the strongest squad possible in the economic climate in which weâre operating,â said the Chairman.
Rovers have lost their 2011 captain, Richie Ryan, to Dundee United but theyâre hopeful they can persuade most of last seasonâs panel to re-sign for the club.
Cook had a short break in England last week but returned to Sligo yesterday and immediately began the process of opening negotiations with players.
âThe players know they will be treated very well by the club. Theyâve enjoyed the last few years here in Sligo and my understanding is that most of them would be open to coming back. We would be hopeful that most of last yearâs squad will be with us again in 2012 and we might even be in a position to conclude negotiations within the next weekâ said Mr. Toolan.
Rovers won the FAI Cup for the second year in a row earlier this month and have also qualified for the 2012 Europa League.
Now the challenge is to match their ambition by assembing a strong squad for the forthcoming campaign.
Matthew Blinkhorn, who has been linked with a move to Cork City, is unlikely to return to Rovers while Derek Foran is also understood to be interested in pursuing his career elsewhere.
Eamon Zayed, the Derry City striker, and Christy Fagan, Bohemians highly rated midfielder, are among a number of players reported to be on Rovers radar.
Meanwhile, Richie Ryan, who will begin his new career at Dundee United after Christmas, has said his spell at Rovers got his career back on track.
'I had three great years at Rovers and my time there definitely helped me to develop as a player. he told The Sligo Champion.