Neil
12/05/2002, 10:27 PM
The growing speculation that the Old Firm will be invited to join the English First Division next season has huge ramifications for the eircom League and indeed, the FAI.
Nobody will forget the attempt by Wimbledon to parachute into Dublin and bring Premiership football here – resisted all the way by the FAI and most elements of the National League.
But at the time, there were several clubs and influential individuals who were convinced that the Dublin Dons model was the way forward.
Should Celtic and Rangers receive an invitation from the Football League in England to team up, the basis for the resistance which saw off the Wimbledon project, will disappear.
Nationwide League chairman, like any other men who run football clubs in England, realise that radical change is required or they will go out of business and if that means inviting clubs from Scotland, Ireland or even Holland and Scandinavia to join, that’s just what they will do.
The big question from an Irish point of view is whether the landscape of the game has changed enough since the mid-90’s when the Dublin Dons bandwagon was rolling for the possibility of a another such project to be launched successfully.
Certainly, if the line of obstacles erected by the FAI via UEFA and FIFA are knocked over by English clubs happy to bring the Old Firm on board, can it be long before something similar happens here!
[soccercentral.ie] (http://www.soccercentral.ie/viewstory.asp?id=7108&mainheading=Eircom&viewstory=yes)
Nobody will forget the attempt by Wimbledon to parachute into Dublin and bring Premiership football here – resisted all the way by the FAI and most elements of the National League.
But at the time, there were several clubs and influential individuals who were convinced that the Dublin Dons model was the way forward.
Should Celtic and Rangers receive an invitation from the Football League in England to team up, the basis for the resistance which saw off the Wimbledon project, will disappear.
Nationwide League chairman, like any other men who run football clubs in England, realise that radical change is required or they will go out of business and if that means inviting clubs from Scotland, Ireland or even Holland and Scandinavia to join, that’s just what they will do.
The big question from an Irish point of view is whether the landscape of the game has changed enough since the mid-90’s when the Dublin Dons bandwagon was rolling for the possibility of a another such project to be launched successfully.
Certainly, if the line of obstacles erected by the FAI via UEFA and FIFA are knocked over by English clubs happy to bring the Old Firm on board, can it be long before something similar happens here!
[soccercentral.ie] (http://www.soccercentral.ie/viewstory.asp?id=7108&mainheading=Eircom&viewstory=yes)