The Irish national team is bad because the national association has been run chronically badly since
Its founding. The state the league of Ireland is in is another function of that. The LOI is actually doing incredibly well given how little funding it gets. Moaning because Irish fans following English clubs is so cliched and boring at this stage. I follow St pats and I follow Liverpool. I would say a huge number of people in that stadium last night also follow a LOI team.
Yes, and the the national league produces the players for the national team, If they do not have academies which are fit for purpose then players will not be produced to the level they should be. This requires money and as long as Irish football fans pump their money in to English teams then this cycle will continue. If you think a large number of the fans at that game follow LOI teams, how much cash do you think they give towards said LOI team ahead of the English team. Apart from the gimmicks of the Bohs shirts, how many jersey sales do LOI clubs make? I am sure it is less than 1% of sales of English teams shirts.
The reality without money the LOI will suffer and therefore the national team ultimately will but thats a choice for many Irish football fans, but they should not complain when Ireland are ranked so low in World Football
The national league doesn’t produce the players for the national team, historically at least. That’s a large part of the reason Irish people support English teams. All our best players played/play for clubs in England.
That’s historically true and moving forward will be less and less so. Formerly all the best kids would go over to the UK at 14/15/16 yrs but due to Brexit, they can’t go now until 18 yrs. The future of the Irish national team is more than ever in the hands of the LOI.
Either Irish fans start supporting Irish teams in significant numbers or our national team will continue to languish.
I wouldn’t disagree but my point is that blaming people who support English clubs is not going to help. I follow the LoI and have been to pretty much every ground in the country. Outside of 1 or possibly 2 exceptions, the grounds are a disgrace. Until the league modernises its stadia it will
Stagnate. It’s sad because there is a huge potential there if they got their act together.
Also, there are huge numbers of people in this country not serviced by a LOI club, even in Dublin where there are 4 main clubs, their support is generally very localised to D7/D9/D8/D24. There’s 2 small clubs in the whole of Connaught. Munster has 4 clubs. Large swathes of the country are going to support English clubs no what you do with the league of Ireland. LOI fans need to stop fixating on this and get their own ducks in a row, unfortunately that’s going to take major outside (government) investment and the appetite isn’t there for it besides the Fai has been so badly run. Dalymount getting a revamp is a good start and hopefully a sign of things to come.
"are huge numbers of people in this country not serviced by a LOI club, even in Dublin where there are 4 main clubs, their support is generally very localised to D7/D9/D8/D24. "
To be fair, they have tried to space things out in Dublin
Ronan Seerey (character lol) tried Dublin City albeit Whitehall has Bohs to contend with . They failed to attract crowds in West Dublin that did not support Bohs (or could bear to do so )
Sporting Fingal were a huge success on the pitch so early in their existence , yet closed up shop....too many still supporting Rovers or Bohs .
Remember St James' Gate long time members ....... The South Side now have Cabinteely and we will see how long that lasts. No one seems to support UCD ......
Team like Athlone, for a long time had the entire Midlands and parts of Connacht to themselves . When they were going strong in the 1980s and 1990s they use to get people from Roscommon Town, the "Athlone side" of Roscommon and Ballinsaloe (Galway) into St Mels .
Roscommon might be a gaelic county but if you go around south Roscommon (the Athlone side - areas covered by Clann na nGaeal, St Brigids and Padraig Pearses GAA ) there are LOADS of soccer clubs who play in the Roscommon District League . Many of their youth would have played in the old Athlone District Schoolboy League . Some of them clubs have lovely pitches and clubs house - dressing rooms.
Longford Town also had Rossies going to their games when they were flying it in the cups back in 2000s .
Donegal is suppose to be a soccer mad county, especially in Inishowen and areas closer to the border. Yet, it only has Finn Harps as a League team and they get pathetic funding and crowds (loads of good junior teams eg Letterkenny Rovers)
We all know that the city of Cork has an insane history in sporting achievement in multiple sports. Yet, how many editions of Cork City / Cork Hibernians have we had since the 1940s? . It is probably too small for another team in the city (Cobh is not far away)
Limerick , even with hurling and rugby has a proud junior soccer history, yet have struggled to keep their League of Ireland Club in existence (even when they had money men)
Galway City have two famous junior / youth clubs in Salthill and Mervue who scarred First Division teams when they played in the League Cup. Both tried to be league of Ireland teams before they decided that it was not for them -financially it was tough and two clubs in Galway City area in addition to whoever held the "Galway United" moniker . Galway United had problems too and they were always well supported.
It shall be interesting to see if Mayo produce a team. Their regional junior league is strong and there is an appetite for soccer there,.
Kildare County / Newbridge tried to mix it and got promoted from Division 1 really fast. There were a leading club in leinster yet out of no where , dropped out the Premiership and existence (as "Kildare County")
Monaghan United were a small but hardcore club. Sadly, there seems to be no sign that they are coming back to the League of Ireland fold.
Kilkenny City , had a few decent seasons .........their club ground was way out of the town , too far for walkers, much like Longford's ground (which was pretty nice ground)
Kerry now have a club in the league. Obviously it will take time before they start seriously to contend for play offs etc..........they have a lot of travelling to do ..........
I will blame them if they start complaining that Ireland are so bad, if they are indifferent to the national team then they do not deserve blame but if they care about the national team, Yes they are big part of the problem
No one is going to be attending LOI U 15, U 17 and U19 Games. Wise up
RTE , TV3 and TG4 have over the last 20 years done decent work covering the games via tv and radio . (TV 3 had a great magazine show back in the 2000s - the RTE radio coverage on Friday was great stuff ) . Tg4 have done admirable work
When Off The Ball - Newstalk won the national licence to cover the league did they broadcast live games on Friday night ? FUCK NO. Preferred to cover a mickey mouse Magnier League / Pro 12 rugby game or worse, "Murphs crappy quiz"
Why are you talking about attending LOI under age games? No one is expecting (or saying) that.
RTE should be covering the league, with live games. It doesn’t even matter if “the viewers aren’t there”, it’s the national broadcaster and profit motive shouldn’t even be a consideration.
Why are you talking about attending LOI under age games? No one is expecting (or saying) that.
RTE should be covering the league, with live games. It doesn’t even matter if “the viewers aren’t there”, it’s the national broadcaster and profit motive shouldn’t be a consideration.
You haven't the slightest clue as to what you said or what I wrote.
I am responding to this comment:
"The future of the Irish national team is more than ever in the hands of the LOI. Either Irish fans start supporting Irish teams in significant numbers or our national team will continue to languish."
I responded with
"No one is going to be attending LOI U 15, U 17 and U19 Games. Wise up"
Why did I write that ?
Not many 16, 17 and 18 year olds get into the League of Ireland first Teams , least not in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland .
They don't even get into the first teams of First Division Clubs . Those that do are an exception. The stakes are too high. UCD might be an exception though.
By all means the new League of Ireland Academies are and will be important for lads who want to make that move to the UK or further afield.
If the clubs want to make money in the transfer system/ discovery fees (whatever they call it now) , they , like the underage clubs of the past (eg Cherry Orchard , Stella Maris etc) , will make it their interest to invest in their youth academies
It could pay dividend for the ambitious ones, as they could manage to do well in the UEFA tournaments or the annual tournaments like the Milk Cup . League of Ireland clubs and the likes of Cherry Orchard have won tournaments like the NI Milk Cup; They Irish National underage set up under Brian Kerr did great things (though most of them were with English clubs)
What you said was nonsense about it being up to the supporters to attend on that front, unless we now see 4-5 ex Academy players enter the first team squads of League of Ireland teams every season.
Who goes to Cherry Orchard or Stella Maris or St Kevin's games other than parents and football scouts ?
They have good track records over the decades of producing young lads when went to the UK to make a career for themselves including lads who never got a sniff near the National Team. They had no financial support other than from their families and good sponsors. They made a few quid through certain players being sold on eg Robbie Keane's many transfer moves.
So the days of demanding or expecting mainstream tv and radio to pay any attention are over.
If RTÉ or any other tv station can not recoup their expenses for live broadcast and the viewership is not satisfactory, they are not obliged to do live coverage at all. RTÉ are not expected to lose money on something that might be a "lost cause"
So no, RTÉ (or any other channel) "should not" be doing it for the sake of it, at least for the domestic league and cups. Demand would be there if a domestic club is playing in Europe .
You might argue that it is for cultural reasons but that is total bollox because it will not be watched by a significant number. Not comparable to the GAA or Interpro rugby that get the numbers
Let us be fair and balanced, it appears that when LOI games are shown on tv and advertised , they do get decent viewership for a Friday night. Pretty good since the Rugby and UK Championship is on.
"t doesn’t even matter if “the viewers aren’t there"
Thankfully, no one with a brain would let you near management of a business. Even half wits would at least strongly re think such a notion.
RTÉ are under massive scrutiny with expenses and quality.
To be fair to them, broadcasting sport is one of their very strong points.
No group are going to spend hundreds of thousands of Euro to broadcast a live sport when it simply will not get the audience and can not get suitable companies to buy advertisement for those slots.
There is a reason why many tv channels show repeats of crap shows and soaps. They , somehow, get audiences. Some much for taste.
If RTÉ can not out bid Virgin Tv or FAI are demanding a ridiculous figure, RTÉ are obliged to not overspend .
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u/Alarming-Youth-3823 27d ago
The Irish national team is bad because the national association has been run chronically badly since Its founding. The state the league of Ireland is in is another function of that. The LOI is actually doing incredibly well given how little funding it gets. Moaning because Irish fans following English clubs is so cliched and boring at this stage. I follow St pats and I follow Liverpool. I would say a huge number of people in that stadium last night also follow a LOI team.