It will be interesting to hear if the prize money remains unaltered.
The uncertainty over the future of the Setanta Sports Cup appears to have be cleared up today with the news that the draw for this year's tournament will take place on 28 July in Abbotstown.
More here.
Life without Rovers, it makes no sense...it's a heartache...nothing but a fools game. S.R.F.C.
It will be interesting to hear if the prize money remains unaltered.
Despite reduced money for the top end, the incentive will still be there as there was the chance of no money at all from it before now. Great that it's going ahead.
I'm a 23yr old right-handed heterosexual who drinks milk and likes democracy. - dcfcsteve knows me well
With respect, Linfield and Glentoran were opening hostile to the tournament last season and played reserve teams in a number of matches with big money for the winners and runners-up. I don't think the Northern clubs will give the competition the time of day if the level of funding is reduced in any significant way.
Neale Fenn on retiring: 'I think once you finish you might as well finish rather than making all sorts of comebacks.'
Great news for the clubs involved.
Great to see that the Setanta Cup will be going ahead. Hopefully now we'll still be around to take part in the competition.
With respect - bar a single exception every year, the Irish League clubs are sh!t in the Setanta and don't get very far anyway.
They don't take Europe very seriously either, despite the significant income available there even if you only progress one round (e.g. 90k sterling in Europa League).
Let's just be honest here - the Irish League clubs don't take anything seriously outside of their own Belfast and District League. They've whinged non-stop about the Setanta since it began, so I don't expect anything would change that for them.
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
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New blog if anyone's interested - http://loihistory.wordpress.com/
LOI section on balls.ie - http://balls.ie/league-of-ireland/
There's a bit of a contradiction here, surely?
When you accuse IL clubs of "not taking Setanta [or Europe] seriously", that implies that they could be competitive, but choose not to.
Yet the received wisdom generally is that bar one or two teams, IL clubs are simply not good enough to compete with their LOI [European] counterparts.
Which is it?
For if IL simply aren't good enough, then it arguably makes sense to concentrate on what they do well, rather than on games where the difference between "serious" and "not bothered" is a 2-0 defeat or a 4-0 defeat.
After all, whilst the standard in domestic games may be low, that does not prevent those games being tolerably attractive, on the grounds that they are at least competitive and hard-fought etc.
That 90k figure is significantly increased from even a couple of years ago btw, nonetheless, how come so many (most?) of those LOI clubs who have won decent European prize money in recent years are now so strapped for cash?
As Stamullendrog alludes, perhaps the pursuit of prize money will actually prove to have cost some LOI clubs, insofar as they have overreached themselves?
I sense that you are keen to do the IL down in a manner that makes your opening "With respect" anything but!
Anyhow, imo it is misleading/unhelpful to deal in the sorts of generalisation as you do i.e. your implication that all IL clubs take the same attitude as each other, to both Europe and Setanta, for the same reasons, and from the same circumstances.
Taking Europe this season, for example, imo the worst IL performances were by Distillery. My explanation for this is that Distillery were actually "punching above their weight" in even qualifying for Europe, this being the culmination of a very able manager's 15 year(?) reign at Ballyskeagh (Paul Kirk).
Then when Kirk was pushed out in the close season following a Boardroom coup, this caused a number of top players to clear off, leaving the club in absolute disarray.
Different again were Glentoran and Crusaders, with the former clearly not taking Europe seriously and up against a top team, whereas Crues are on a bit of a roll, and clearly fancied their chances against more modest opposition.
Yet if you look at Setanta, the Glens went on a very good run last time out, falling only at the final hurdle in very difficult circumstances.
On which point I'd say the fact that IL clubs have "whinged" about Setanta, but not about Europe, is actually a reflection that they do care to see the former run fairly and properly, even if they don't expect much in the latter.
After all, if an IL club were eg to receive home advantage in the Final and actually win the Setanta this season, the winner's prize money might make the difference between, say, Examinership and survival...
Lads, there are tons and tons of Derry v the Irish league threads around. Don't let this one turn into anopther one. If you want to reply dcfcsteve, PM EalingGreen, or post in the dozens of threads in the Irish league section
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
---
New blog if anyone's interested - http://loihistory.wordpress.com/
LOI section on balls.ie - http://balls.ie/league-of-ireland/
In all fairness Glentoran had no chance against Maccabi Haifa. Crusaders certainly tried against Rabotnicki. They got a goal in the 90th minute to keep the tie at 1-1. They stand the same chance as St Pats for qualifying.
It's more teams like Lisburn who get thrashed to a Georgian team 11-1 that gives the idea they couldn't be arsed.
I'm a 23yr old right-handed heterosexual who drinks milk and likes democracy. - dcfcsteve knows me well
Indeed there was more to it than that, for Crues had to play the last 25 minutes with 10 men, having had their Captain, Colin Coates, sent off. They then got a Penalty in the 89th minute but only hit the bar with it, but still kept going to get the equaliser in injury time.
Getting back to the Setanta, I'm sure they'd have put up a better show than eg either of Coleraine or Cliftonville, yet they don't qualify, despite having won the Irish Cup and finished 3rd in the League for 2008-09...
Still, perhaps I'd better not complain too much, otherwise DCFC Steve will cite it as more evidence of IL-types "whinging non-stop about the Setanta since it began"
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