Dublin City in the Sunday Times

[JW.]

The Sunday Times today has a story about Dublin City's departure. It begins along the lines of "Just after Cork City's European win, came the devastating blow of Dublin City's demise, making the league a laughing stock again in the process.
The first thing to point out is that the Sunday Times has no coverage whatsoever of the Eircom League, so it has no basis whatever for criticising the league, given that it does no effort itself to cover it.
Dublin City's demise was anything but devastating: the project was quixotic from its inception and - with no home ground - they never had a prayer of surviving at this level.
And their departure made the league a laughing stock, the same week that Drogheda, Derry and Cork did so well in Europe? How many clubs all over Europe are in a financial mess that makes our clubs' plight look positively tame.
GUFC chairman Nial O'Reilly was interviewed during the article, in which he refers to recent attendances at a United home game and a Monaghan away game. Monaghan have never had any support, even when doing well. We had a very poor crowd for the Cobh game because our form prior to it was rubbish and it was played during the week. He blames summer football, but this has nothing to do with it. During the time of the summer football experiment, we have been floundering in midtable in Division 1. If we were doing well, the crowds would be good.
In my view, the league is at its highest level in years - yet you still get cynicism from journalists who basically have earned no right at all to discuss matters they don't promote.

[Dodge]

IMO he's right about the laughing stock bit.

[GavinZac]

IMO he's right about the laughing stock bit.
i agree. in 10 years of defending the league i've put up with dodgy refereeing, registration problems, mergers, rebrandings and longford town but theres no way i can defend this rubbish to the usual nay-sayers. dublin city ****ed up, ronan seery ****ed up, the league ****ed up by letting them into the league and in how they've handled it since.

[JW.]

As far as I'm concerned, if they don't report on the league's many positive developments, they have no right to report on the Dublin City matter either.

[James]

thats a very idealistic view though isnt it JW. tbh im not 1 bit suprised by the nature or content of the article.

[JW.]

How can you report on a situation with a prevailing theme and moral about something you haven't reported on all year?

[James]

JW you're written for tabloids before, of which have reported some outragious and outlandish stories that were based little on fact or reality. bottom line for them isnt it all about what sell papers at the end of the day.
bad news sells!

eg. print lies on page 1, big banner bold headline
then bury the retraction / apology the next day in a box on page 27

[JW.]

Tabloids are poisonous without a doubt, but I'm not sure that there is an obvious nexus between that and the Sunday Times basically reporting on the eircom League only when it's bad news James.

[MariborKev]

JW

Whilst I agree broadly with the point, did the ST not have a decent piece about Derry's achievements last week?

[JW.]

Maribor,
If it did, fair enough - though their general coverage is non-existant. I didn't read the paper last Sunday I must say.

[Dodge]

BTW JW I agree with you general point on the Sunday Times but that doesn't mean the article in this case is wrong

[James]

with specific regard to the Sunday Times while their coverage of the EL is not regular i do think they report only on the very very good an d the very very bad. I did read in the past articles about George O'Callaghan a few months ago and a few other EL type stories.. one on Shels and their developments..and their Euro sucess last season.

fair from regular but i think most of the articles they have written have been on the mark more or less

[MervilleUnited]

Fair enough lads, but the Nick Leeson Piece on P2 of the times is the sobering thoughts from a man, if nothing else, knows a little about money and is GM of Galway Utd! Big debate here in Sligo about switching the Playing nights, but the reality is that outside revenue streams is the only way forward for the EL, not bums on seats. The poulation is not out there going to soccer in this country, and the new irish are more interested in spending SSIA Cash on HDTV on SKY than going to the EL:rolleyes:

[MariborKev]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2093-2272220,00.html

JW, see piece from last week

[green-blood]

hey johny why isn't "quixotic" in bold too....

[Passive]

I believe the Tribune have also done their usual job of reporting only bad EL stories :rolleyes:

[JW.]

lol green-blood

[pete]

I think the ST articles were a bit one sided this week as they said Cork Citys progress to the CL 2nd round was a "rare CL win for the eL" when thats not true in recent years.

If are to see progress from the FAI in running the league then they should be talking up the chances of eL sides this week & helping to spin positive stories for the media.

[pete]

Forgot to say - 2 negative ST articles today & no euorpean match reviews or previews....

:rolleyes:

[Plastic Paddy]

I'm surprised no-one has stated the obvious here as to why the ST does not promote the causes of Irish clubs at home and in Europe but would rather use the space to talk all matters (English) Premiership.

ST - prop. R Murdoch
Sky - prop. R Murdoch

Enough said.

:ball: PP

[harry crumb]

Ive critisised the ST in the past but since Paul Rowen took over from John O'Brien in covering soccer, the Eircom League content has gone up out of all recongnition.

There is also more positive articles.

What about the Tribune and The S. Independent, these are REAL Irish papers allegendly and yet they have even less coverage than the SI.

[pete]

What about the Tribune and The S. Independent, these are REAL Irish papers allegendly and yet they have even less coverage than the SI.

The Tribune is useless. I never buy it anymore.

[thejollyrodger]

typical scummy foreign papers

[Mr A]

In fairness most of the negative comment on Irish Football in the Sunday Times today came from an Irish source- Galway United.

[BohDiddley]

I'm surprised no-one has stated the obvious here as to why the ST does not promote the causes of Irish clubs at home and in Europe but would rather use the space to talk all matters (English) Premiership.

ST - prop. R Murdoch
Sky - prop. R Murdoch

Enough said.

:ball: PP
Not enough said.
Last time I checked, Murdoch didn't own RTEngerland, nor did he own TG4, which is about to use public money to bring us yet more British football.

[Plastic Paddy]

typical scummy foreign papers

Don't like them? Don't buy them. And tell your friends not to buy them either.


Not enough said.
Last time I checked, Murdoch didn't own RTEngerland, nor did he own TG4, which is about to use public money to bring us yet more British football.

And what have either got to do with Murdoch? My point is about the cross-promotion, subtle or otherwise, that occurs between the Sun, the Sunset Times and Sky, not about any other media.

On the RTE and TG4 issue, I suggest you write to the head of commissioning at both stations and register your point as whingeing about it on a football message board will get you precisely nowhere.

:ball: PP

[Dodge]

Last time I checked, Murdoch didn't own RTEngerland, nor did he own TG4, which is about to use public money to bring us yet more British football.

because that makes them money (advertising etc), same way they buy UK soaps, American comedies and movies from Hollywood. Watch TV in Spain or Italy or anywhere else and they show the Premiership. Them showing the premiership isn't the problem. Them not paying any attention to Irish football is. HOwever thats not the point being discussed...

[Macy]

The Tribune is useless. I never buy it anymore.
Off topic I know, but..... I've never been a fan of Matt Cooper, but fook me, there's been some decline in that paper since he left.

[BohDiddley]

Watch TV in Spain or Italy or anywhere else and they show the Premiership. Them showing the premiership isn't the problem. Them not paying any attention to Irish football is. HOwever thats not the point being discussed...
This is the first time I have seen Italian television cited as a standard by anyone, anywhere. If you live long enough you'll experience everything, I suppose.
The point being discussed is that the Sunday Times somehow has it in for Irish football because it only ever reports the negatives, this because eL doesn't fit with its Sky/tabloid programme of promoting saturation coverage of British football. Or so the theory goes. My point is that it doesn't take that kind of commercial cross-interest for media to succumb to saturation English Premiership, even when the organization is funded with tax money, as is the case with RTE. The very purpose of its public funding is it doesn't have to chase the obvious audience, yet when it comes to sport what we get still is quick-buck scheduling.

[rebs23]

Off topic I know, but..... I've never been a fan of Matt Cooper, but fook me, there's been some decline in that paper since he left.
Way off topic but the Tribune has really gone downhill. As for the STimes article hard to disagree with any of it.

[Jaime]

On TG4 and RTE, does anyone really think there should be more live eL football on TV? I don't think I'd even bother watching a live eL game every week. The way they pick and choose the high-interest league and cup games is probably the best way to do it, so people don't have to look at empty seats and terrible football every Friday night. Maybe they could spread the games out a bit more, but the amount of live eL football on TV, added to eL Weekly, is about right

If eL Weekly was 60 minutes long, had better quality analysis, and went out at a better time, you would have to say that the league isn't important enough to warrant any more than 60 minutes a week of highlights (seperate from any live coverage). A 30 minute preview in the style of the Hub, on, say, a Thursday night would be a welcome development, but you're talking ideal world stuff there.

[JW.]

northside hoop
It's not the same thing. Sport is sport, world news is entirely different. Did they have a feature on the teams' progress in Europe yesterday?

[wws]

is the title of this thread intentional?
I remember.....
Dublin City in the Sunday Times

[Dodge]

On TG4 and RTE, does anyone really think there should be more live eL football on TV? I don't think I'd even bother watching a live eL game every week.
yeah but its not about hardcore fans watching, its baout tapping into the "I'll watch any football" brigade and if they knew that every Friday (or Saturday) evening there'd be a game on TV there's a chance they'd keep watching. They way it is now, there's no thought behind the games shown, there's no plan behind when the games are shown and there's no marketing of them.

I agree entirely that a quality highlights package is more important to us fans, but to TV land and, probably more importantly, live TV is where its at

[bigmac]

I agree entirely that a quality highlights package is more important to us fans, but to TV land and, probably more importantly, live TV is where its at

Dunno really, I'd have thought that a highlights package might be better at getting people hooked - any time I show people at work clips of good goals off the web (fair play to the sites that have them) they're always a bit surprised at the quality - A good highlights programme could help dispel the notion that the quality is rubbish in the EL.