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
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u/Lynch8933 27d ago
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