Barstool facepalm

[BonnieShels]

I have to say there are merits in both what Nigel and the article says.

The biggest issue with Irish football as Stutts states is the lack of joined up thinking and the feckless attitude of the national association.

Until that changes we'll be going no where.

[NeverFeltBetter]

The whole first section of the article was completely needless really.

Was linked this yesterday, stopped reading after the first line. Ridiculous opening. Gave it another shot today. It's alright, doesn't talk about the LOI enough for my liking.

[Charlie Darwin]

This is golden. The guy doing it is taking the **** out of them. "How much did you pay for your ticket?"

http://balls.ie/football/audio-club-football-international-football-people-prefer/

[harry crumb]

This is golden. The guy doing it is taking the **** out of them. "How much did you pay for your ticket?"

http://balls.ie/football/audio-club-football-international-football-people-prefer/

"I wouldn't bring the kids because of the prices"

Cheap *******.

[gufcfan]

This is golden. The guy doing it is taking the **** out of them. "How much did you pay for your ticket?"

http://balls.ie/football/audio-club-football-international-football-people-prefer/

"Couldn't get tickets"

Do me a favour.

[ger121]

Half of them didn't have a clue. Some guy when asked about when Ireland was last good, started going on about some Euros 7 years ago. I reckon "I was at the 4-1 Danish game" guy was talking through his hoop

[Stuttgart88]

Tony Ward bemoaning the fact that fans who go to big time rugby in Ireland have probably never set foot inside an AIL ground and that IRFU's concern with the club game is only limited.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/other-rugby/devalue-the-clubs-and-pro-game-is-on-a-slippery-slope-30583669.html

It's not difficult to equate professional provincial rugby to the place that English football occupies in Irish football fans' affections. I've always thought it's pretty much the same.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Ah now that's totally different. People going to provincial rugby are contributing to the game in the country. People going to watch matches in England are not.

Using us as an example plenty of people travel from outside of Sligo town to watch us. Should they be given out to for not going and watching their local junior club play?

[nigel-harps1954]

Ah now that's totally different. People going to provincial rugby are contributing to the game in the country. People going to watch matches in England are not.

Using us as an example plenty of people travel from outside of Sligo town to watch us. Should they be given out to for not going and watching their local junior club play?

I get that all the time. "If you're so supportive of local football why don't you go watch Donegal League or Letterkenny Rovers play?". It's nice to kindly remind them I play junior football. It's just another excuse really.

[Stuttgart88]

Ah now that's totally different. People going to provincial rugby are contributing to the game in the country. People going to watch matches in England are not.

Using us as an example plenty of people travel from outside of Sligo town to watch us. Should they be given out to for not going and watching their local junior club play?I don't fully agree. I think it shows that people are drawn to the biggest attraction. It just so happens that Ireland can stage a big rugby attraction, we can't stage a big football attraction, but the pub can.

Whether they contribute to the domestic game is a byproduct.

The latter part of your response is just silly. Of course they shouldn't. People can watch whatever they want, or contribute to football however they want.

[DannyInvincible]

Dietmar Hamann embraces the crowds who appear to have flocked to the opening of Liverpool's merchandise store on Henry Street last night:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/227447_869958289683029_3543909991559080209_n.jpg?o h=dc2cec2efdd1fed62137dea07b064811&oe=54BC3432&__gda__=1420758960_50a23cad583a114e359d6fb3e180b2b 6

Besides Liverpool and Dublin, in what other cities, if any, do Liverpool have merchandise stores?

[Charlie Darwin]

Well I suppose at least it requires them to go further than the pub.

[DannyInvincible]

I see they also have a store in Belfast: http://store.liverpoolfc.com/stores/finder/uk/

[adamd164]

God that's horrendous.

[DannyInvincible]

It was a live first for many in support at the Ilac Centre fixture. What was the official attendance, I wonder?

[DannyInvincible]

'Judge In Cork Takes The Mick Out Of Liverpool Fans During A Trial': http://balls.ie/football/judge-cork-takes-mick-liverpool-fans-trial/


The following is a genuine exchange that took place in Cork Circuit Criminal Court during the trial of a man who was accused of stealing €2,495 from unwitting Liverpool fans.


Judge: People actually pay to see Liverpool?

Garda: Apparently so.

Judge: There are innocents in every department of the world.

Honestly, it might sound like some kind of poorly constructed sporting theatre but it’s not. Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin was presiding over a case in which Ian O’Sullivan was accused of defrauding 15 separate individuals by offering to sell them Liverpool match tickets without any intention of actually supplying the tickets.

O’Sullivan pleaded guilty to the charge and will back for sentencing on February 9. It is not certain if the judge will indulge in further mick taking on that date.

[Fivesilver]

"(Roddy Doyle) is a lifelong Chelsea supporter who goes to watch them four or five times a season."

http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/29646873

[Charlie Darwin]

Diehard.

[ger121]

"(Roddy Doyle) is a lifelong Chelsea supporter who goes to watch them four or five times a season."

http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/29646873

Least he goes over I suppose. Probably more often than most [insert successful English club] 'supporters' here.

[DannyInvincible]

Irish people supporting the true blues (http://i4.bebo.com/016/13/large/2007/05/17/01/3934823959a4401958495b966011094l.jpg) of Chelsea, with their infamous loyalist/neo-Nazi Headhunters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Headhunters)?... Supporting a team with whom one has no tangible or communal link whatsoever is peculiar at the best of times, but this "connection" I really never got; it boggles the mind.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S2L1OXdZ0I

[bennocelt]

Had the misfortune to be in a bar full of Chelski supporters when they came to Basel. Lots of anti Irish/Celtic songs to be heard. Admitting you follow Chelsea is like admitting you havent a clue about football imho

[Charlie Darwin]

Admitting you follow Chelsea is like admitting you havent a clue about football imho
Unless you hate Irish people, in which case it's probably grand :)

A lot of Irish people don't really care about the history of the English club they support, which is confusing as others use the "Irish" history as a reason why they support other teams. To be fair, they're all just corporations now anyway, an Irish person choosing to support Chelsea now just sees them as a franchise.

[legendz]

A lot of Irish people don't really care about the history of the English club they support, which is confusing as others use the "Irish" history as a reason why they support other teams. To be fair, they're all just corporations now anyway, an Irish person choosing to support Chelsea now just sees them as a franchise.
The league lacks a connect with a sizeable section of the football interested public. Hard to know what clubs can do. There couldn't really be excuses in Limerick when they were in Thomond Park. On a work night out you might get a group to head to the dogs on a Friday night or a rugby game. The league unfortunately doesn't have the same draw. The league needs a prominent place in the sporting fabric.

[DannyInvincible]

The league lacks a connect with a sizeable section of the football interested public. Hard to know what clubs can do.

If clubs want to be serious about bridging a connect between themselves and the proud Irish public, they need to start adopting Union flags and St. George's Crosses.

[legendz]

If clubs want to be serious about bridging a connect between themselves and the proud Irish public, they need to start adopting Union flags and St. George's Crosses.
Constructive idea alright! The 4 main urban areas have teams yet those cities are not getting support behind the clubs in great numbers.

[legendz]

I was on a work night out. The bar in question did not have BT Sports. A few looking to watch Munster had to head to a bar up the street. The bar without BT had RTE 2 on. Got to watch the match. Great! I was probably the only one watching really but sure how bad. The lads with Cork connections had no interest. Said they didn't know of any of the players and would only be fooling themselves by taking an interest.
The league. It's players. Their profile. Therein lies one problem - the raising of their profile.

[Nesta99]

Had the misfortune to be in a bar full of Chelski supporters when they came to Basel. Lots of anti Irish/Celtic songs to be heard. Admitting you follow Chelsea is like admitting you havent a clue about football imho

Played with my old Uni 4ths in England back in the day which at that level was an excuse for beers after the game and cans on the bus during the trip home. As the drinks went in the auld English football chants started, the usual No Surrender type stuff. 4 of us on the team including captain were Irish. The English lads hadnt a clue what they were singing or that it was anti-irish, it was just the stuff they had heard over the years. If ye asked them what was IRA they would have shrugged and probably guessed at Inland Revenue Ar*eholes or some other random guess. Those that did know were 'we dont mean you lads!?! We just rolled the eyes and smirked at their being oblivious to their not very bright loutish stereotype. Us Irish of course indulged in the drinking but without the cringe renditions of the fields of athenry or coybig.

[wonder88]

Tg4 news friday night, just before LoI title decider
3 sports covered; rugby - munster game, Gaa allstars, and soccer
The two soccer items were that Rio Ferdinand is retiring at end of season and Balotelli and his shirt.
I might drop the sports editor an email, but Rio retiring next may probably have been the big soccer story of the day in tg4 land
At least Radio na Gaeltachta had an interview with the chairman of Galway on the saturday sports programme

ps saw on twitter that Rio forgot to mention QPR during a 9 minute interview on a popular English chat show

[gufcfan]

TG4 is niche enough as it is and LOI is a small niche in the minds of the sporting public in Ireland.

The sports editor knows exactly what's going on in the LOI and he has an interest in the what's going on in the jokeshop that is Galway soccer, but they report on what people want to hear about. I couldn't give a flying fudge about Rio or Balotelli, but I'm not most people.

You'd be surprised how disinterested people in the Gaeltachts are in Irish sport at times. The local watering hole showed some soccer or rugby match instead of the All Ireland club finals the last time I was there.

Since this is the barstoolers thread... I remember grown men effing kids out of it for playing soccer and one lad who is related to an inter-county player being told at 12 years of age that if he was seen playing soccer, he would never play gaa again. Shower of *******.

The same *****s shouting for United and Liverpool down the pub on Saturday then.

[legendz]

Ah lads, have ye any sympathy at all for Irish people who have had their long weekend ruined by an English team from the city of Manchester losing to a team from London managed by a former Limerick FC manager and then a team from Liverpool managed by a County Antrim man played out a scoreless draw?! ;)

[BonnieShels]

I asked the girl behind the bar in Pifko to throw in the match on Friday. And she did. The darn Slovaks are more interested in the LOI!

[PartySaint]

I asked the girl behind the bar in Pifko to throw in the match on Friday. And she did. The darn Slovaks are more interested in the LOI!

I was in Slovenia before and a bar man there had more knowledge of the league than most Irish people.

[Fivesilver]

On a positive note, I was in Helsinki last week. Out for drinks with a couple of young local journos. One asked where I was from. "Small place - you probably wouldn't know anything about it - Sligo." Straight away he goes: "Sligo Rovers." Needless to say, my round.

Bizarrely, had the same thing in provincial Germany a few weeks ago. Asked the middle-aged bloke: "How on earth do you know Rovers?" "Everyone knows Sligo Rovers," he replied. I'd dearly love to believe him but I can't help thinking he's probably in the Illuminati or something.

[TonyD]

If clubs want to be serious about bridging a connect between themselves and the proud Irish public, they need to start adopting Union flags and St. George's Crosses.

Nah, all our clubs have to do is start winning the Champions League. So simple I'm surprised none of them has thought of it yet. We love a winner in this country.

(Sing when you're winning.....)

[DannyInvincible]

On a positive note, I was in Helsinki last week. Out for drinks with a couple of young local journos. One asked where I was from. "Small place - you probably wouldn't know anything about it - Sligo." Straight away he goes: "Sligo Rovers." Needless to say, my round.

Bizarrely, had the same thing in provincial Germany a few weeks ago. Asked the middle-aged bloke: "How on earth do you know Rovers?" "Everyone knows Sligo Rovers," he replied. I'd dearly love to believe him but I can't help thinking he's probably in the Illuminati or something.

I'm sure the victory over Rosenborg in Trondheim can't have done the club's name any harm. It's bound to have caught the attention of many football supporters across Europe.

[BonnieShels]

Well their victory made me notice them and I was in Canada.

[sligoman]

I'm sure the victory over Rosenborg in Trondheim can't have done the club's name any harm. It's bound to have caught the attention of many football supporters across Europe.The amount of money we sold Seamus Coleman for has raised our profile around Europe too, sadly.

[Charlie Darwin]

The amount of money we sold Seamus Coleman for has raised our profile around Europe too, sadly.
What was the story with that? He was under 23 so presumably Sligo were entitled to a tribunal fee, but English clubs refuse to pay that and training compensation to Irish clubs so I'm guessing Sligo knew they were bent over a barrel and just got as much money as they could (ie much less than he was worth)? A sad state of affairs for our clubs, and another example of the lack of help provided to us by our supposed national association.

[legendz]

Kerry County final today in front of 8500 supporters and RTE start the sport news with soccer from across the water. Disgrace.

[harry crumb]

Kerry County final today in front of 8500 supporters and RTE start the sport news with soccer from across the water. Disgrace.

I made a similar comment when I saw them showing Man. Utd vs Chelsea as their 1st headline.

No relevance to Ireland.

Leinster were playing in European Cup, as you said, County finals all over the country.

[DannyInvincible]

An archived RTÉ video news report from 1994 entitled 'Love Hate for Manchester United': http://www.rte.ie/archives/2014/1121/661532-love-hate-for-manchester-united/


Love them or hate them Manchester United have a strong following in Ireland.

20 years ago Gareth O'Connor found out more about the conflicting passions which Manchester United arouse on this side of the Irish sea.

John Giles talks about some of the Irish players connected with United. Gareth also talks to Darren Brereton, from the Manchester United shop in Arnotts department store, and Dermot Ryan from Classic Sports Travel in Stephen's Green.

West Ham fan David Smyth and owner of Smyth's pub provides a haven for soccer fans who don't like the Red Devils, turning his dislike for the pub into a successful business. Another customer in Smyth's pub describes United as a "glorified t-shirt factory".

An RTÉ News report broadcast on 23 November, 1994.

[luiz]

On a positive note, I was in Helsinki last week. Out for drinks with a couple of young local journos. One asked where I was from. "Small place - you probably wouldn't know anything about it - Sligo." Straight away he goes: "Sligo Rovers." Needless to say, my round.

Bizarrely, had the same thing in provincial Germany a few weeks ago. Asked the middle-aged bloke: "How on earth do you know Rovers?" "Everyone knows Sligo Rovers," he replied. I'd dearly love to believe him but I can't help thinking he's probably in the Illuminati or something.

I was once in 2013 in a Bray Wanderers match when taking the train back to Dublin I noticed some guys speaking an Scandinavian language to each other. They had the full gear, shirt, scarves, pins, were dressed like diehard Bray fans. I asked them where they were from and how come they ended up there. They were norwegian and said that when playing FIFA at the XBOX somebody started picking up Bray as it's one of the ****tiest teams available in the game, turned into a machine beating everything and everybody and such inner joke spiraled out of control and they finished actually following the team in real life, culminating with the idea of travelling to Ireland to see them play. I kind of understand them because I had a similar relationship with Forfar Athletic because of Football Manager

[PartySaint]

I was once in 2013 in a Bray Wanderers match when taking the train back to Dublin I noticed some guys speaking an Scandinavian language to each other. They had the full gear, shirt, scarves, pins, were dressed like diehard Bray fans. I asked them where they were from and how come they ended up there. They were norwegian and said that when playing FIFA at the XBOX somebody started picking up Bray as it's one of the ****tiest teams available in the game, turned into a machine beating everything and everybody and such inner joke spiraled out of control and they finished actually following the team in real life, culminating with the idea of travelling to Ireland to see them play. I kind of understand them because I had a similar relationship with Forfar Athletic because of Football Manager

Pats have a Norwegian supports club. They were on a trip to Dublin when we played IBV in Europe a few years back and they decided to go to the game and got hooked. They come over to loads of games. They were even in Warsaw for our Champions League game this season and came to the home game as well

[Dodge]

The Norwegian lads 1st game was 5-1 v rovers on good Friday. Came to dublin for weekend and didn't realise pubs closed that day. Very sound lads and 2 made it over for the Cup final this year too

[Captain2007]

I was once in 2013 in a Bray Wanderers match when taking the train back to Dublin I noticed some guys speaking an Scandinavian language to each other. They had the full gear, shirt, scarves, pins, were dressed like diehard Bray fans. I asked them where they were from and how come they ended up there. They were norwegian and said that when playing FIFA at the XBOX somebody started picking up Bray as it's one of the ****tiest teams available in the game, turned into a machine beating everything and everybody and such inner joke spiraled out of control and they finished actually following the team in real life, culminating with the idea of travelling to Ireland to see them play. I kind of understand them because I had a similar relationship with Forfar Athletic because of Football Manager

Must have been late eighties team :o:o

[BonnieShels]

I have an irrational grá for Lincoln City because of Premier Manager 98.

[Spudulika]

In Europe our league is well known, thanks to bookies and stat junkies (or both). Strangest request I had was in a pub/bar in Kursk being asked for an opinion on Wexford Youths vs Shels! And the folks asking were not gamers or hipsters!

[gspain01]

In Europe our league is well known, thanks to bookies and stat junkies (or both). Strangest request I had was in a pub/bar in Kursk being asked for an opinion on Wexford Youths vs Shels! And the folks asking were not gamers or hipsters!

Taxi driver in Bucharest in July 2011 had a decent discussion on a forthcoming Sligo v St. Pats game. Much of the interest is down to betting. Our league is considered to be fair.

[Charlie Darwin]

Taxi driver in Bucharest in July 2011 had a decent discussion on a forthcoming Sligo v St. Pats game. Much of the interest is down to betting. Our league is considered to be fair.
Fair to middling is about right.

[peadar1987]

I'm sure this will surprise exactly nobody. Three separate foreign football clubs more popular than any Irish domestic club, or the national team.

http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy142/peadar1987/Trends.png

Edit: Although I was surprised to see Leeds still up there instead of say, Manchester City or Chelsea. Maybe barstoolers are more loyal than I thought, in a perverse sort of a way