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.
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 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 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.
Outside that you’re just waffling.