applehunter
12/03/2004, 10:02 PM
Joe Kinnear talked last week of his anger over Wimbledon’s ill fated proposed move to Dublin. Interest in Irland in soccer would have risen to an unprecedented level with the Dons playing Premiership, FA Cup and possibly even Champions League games on a regular basis.
This project was completely funded, there was planning permission for a stadium in Neilstown, there was even a plan for a special rail link to the airport to assuage fears over hooliganism --- and all that was needed was the consent of the League of Ireland clubs but that wasn’t forthcoming. They chose to stick to the status quo and the result is that the League is on its deathbed. You have clubs spending over a million euro to win a fraction of that in prize money.
Clubs are more interested in PR moves ---- like Waterford United bringing Paul McGrath on board---- than real progress. Lets not forget that Waterford Utd. have had 17 managers since 1985, that’s two more than Man Utd. have had in their entire history. Last season, the FAI had to give clubs loans to pay their day-to-day expenses which just proves that the league isn’t viable. Only one club, Derry City managed to get their EUFA A license, despite the clubs getting a couple of years’ notice. If you look at the requirements of the licensing scheme---things like hot water in toilets---they aren’t that difficult to meet but the clubs weren’t capable of delivering. The League of Ireland should really be called the Dublin and District League anyway. 5 of the 10 Premier Division clubs are in Dublin and Drogheda is just up the road. It’s hardly a national league. The bottom line is that the public aren’t going to go out and watch poor football when they can see the best in the world on television. I’ve seen League of Ireland matches scheduled against Champions League games and FA Cup replays--that’s madness.
Bringing Wimbledon to Dublin was the greatest opportunity ever to promote soccer in Ireland and it was squandered. A national stadium would have been handed to the country on a plate but self-interest shot the project down.
If the Wimbledon move had gone ahead, you would have had a national stadium with an anchor tenant that provided a regular revenue stream. The other big attraction from my point of view was that excellence in terms of coaching expertise would have been coming to Ireland.
Irish kids would have had the option of staying at home if they wanted to be top class footballers. If you look at the Irish players who have made a big impact in the last decade, Roy Keane went to Notts. Forest, Robbie Keane to Wolves and Damien Duff to Blackburn. There’s a valid argument for getting Irish kide not to go to the Man U’s or Arsenals but to learn their trade at a smaller club. Wimbledon in Dublin would have provided that opportunity.
I was directly involved in the project as I knew Owen O’Callaghan and Paul McGuinness on this side and Joe Kinnear and Sam Hamman on the other and liased between the two. Our plan was to get the best young Irish players and play them in a Premiership team in their own country.
There was absolutely no downside to the project. It would have given huge employment to the Neilstown area and regenerated an area needing regeneration. I think if we had been dealing with the current FAI that things might have been different. Fran Rooney has a great background in business and knows the way the laws of gravity in business operate.
The League of Ireland clubs would actually have benefited because there would have been an upsurge of interest in soccer. Look at the impact that Tiger has had on the black kids in America taking up golf.
There were people in the League who supported us like Damien Richardson but others like Brian Kerr and Pat Dolan were very much against the project. I have great admiration for both Pat and Brian but they were talking about their fantasies --- but now their fantasies are lying in the dust. Pat did as much as any man could at St. Pats but he was brought down by the mediocrity around him in the League of Ireland. It is very hard to rise above that mediocrity.
There were existing precedents of clubs from one country playing in another, like Cardiff in England, Berwick in Scotland and Monaco in France. Now Sepp Blatter is making noises about Celtic moving to England so that wouldn’t have been insurmountable problem.
This week, there had been talk about Celtic and Rangers being invited to join the powerful G14 group of clubs and the ultimate goal of that grouping seems to be a European Superleague.
If Wimbledon had made the move to Dublin, there would have been a very strong chance of the club competing with that elite because of the finances, support base and the people behind it.
It was the greatest opportunity ever for Irish soccer to make a great leap forward but self-interest ultimately shot it down.
(THE STAR 8th March 2004)
This project was completely funded, there was planning permission for a stadium in Neilstown, there was even a plan for a special rail link to the airport to assuage fears over hooliganism --- and all that was needed was the consent of the League of Ireland clubs but that wasn’t forthcoming. They chose to stick to the status quo and the result is that the League is on its deathbed. You have clubs spending over a million euro to win a fraction of that in prize money.
Clubs are more interested in PR moves ---- like Waterford United bringing Paul McGrath on board---- than real progress. Lets not forget that Waterford Utd. have had 17 managers since 1985, that’s two more than Man Utd. have had in their entire history. Last season, the FAI had to give clubs loans to pay their day-to-day expenses which just proves that the league isn’t viable. Only one club, Derry City managed to get their EUFA A license, despite the clubs getting a couple of years’ notice. If you look at the requirements of the licensing scheme---things like hot water in toilets---they aren’t that difficult to meet but the clubs weren’t capable of delivering. The League of Ireland should really be called the Dublin and District League anyway. 5 of the 10 Premier Division clubs are in Dublin and Drogheda is just up the road. It’s hardly a national league. The bottom line is that the public aren’t going to go out and watch poor football when they can see the best in the world on television. I’ve seen League of Ireland matches scheduled against Champions League games and FA Cup replays--that’s madness.
Bringing Wimbledon to Dublin was the greatest opportunity ever to promote soccer in Ireland and it was squandered. A national stadium would have been handed to the country on a plate but self-interest shot the project down.
If the Wimbledon move had gone ahead, you would have had a national stadium with an anchor tenant that provided a regular revenue stream. The other big attraction from my point of view was that excellence in terms of coaching expertise would have been coming to Ireland.
Irish kids would have had the option of staying at home if they wanted to be top class footballers. If you look at the Irish players who have made a big impact in the last decade, Roy Keane went to Notts. Forest, Robbie Keane to Wolves and Damien Duff to Blackburn. There’s a valid argument for getting Irish kide not to go to the Man U’s or Arsenals but to learn their trade at a smaller club. Wimbledon in Dublin would have provided that opportunity.
I was directly involved in the project as I knew Owen O’Callaghan and Paul McGuinness on this side and Joe Kinnear and Sam Hamman on the other and liased between the two. Our plan was to get the best young Irish players and play them in a Premiership team in their own country.
There was absolutely no downside to the project. It would have given huge employment to the Neilstown area and regenerated an area needing regeneration. I think if we had been dealing with the current FAI that things might have been different. Fran Rooney has a great background in business and knows the way the laws of gravity in business operate.
The League of Ireland clubs would actually have benefited because there would have been an upsurge of interest in soccer. Look at the impact that Tiger has had on the black kids in America taking up golf.
There were people in the League who supported us like Damien Richardson but others like Brian Kerr and Pat Dolan were very much against the project. I have great admiration for both Pat and Brian but they were talking about their fantasies --- but now their fantasies are lying in the dust. Pat did as much as any man could at St. Pats but he was brought down by the mediocrity around him in the League of Ireland. It is very hard to rise above that mediocrity.
There were existing precedents of clubs from one country playing in another, like Cardiff in England, Berwick in Scotland and Monaco in France. Now Sepp Blatter is making noises about Celtic moving to England so that wouldn’t have been insurmountable problem.
This week, there had been talk about Celtic and Rangers being invited to join the powerful G14 group of clubs and the ultimate goal of that grouping seems to be a European Superleague.
If Wimbledon had made the move to Dublin, there would have been a very strong chance of the club competing with that elite because of the finances, support base and the people behind it.
It was the greatest opportunity ever for Irish soccer to make a great leap forward but self-interest ultimately shot it down.
(THE STAR 8th March 2004)