Red&White
24/11/2006, 11:35 AM
Lads, I've written an article for our university newspaper on the Eircom League. Firstly, it's putting a positive spin on the league, and secondly it's only meant as an introduction to the league to people who've most likely never heard of it. I'm well aware there are complex other issues involved that I either don't touch upon, or ignore completely- so please don't accuse me of living in a fantasy world! :p I have limited space with which to convince people that a LOI exists.
(Also, there may be a couple of facts or figures incorrect so if anyone notices anything, if you let me know so I can change it before submitting it.)
Anyway, just thought I'd post it here as well, since I doubt any of you will be reading a students newspaper :rolleyes:
Thanks for reading it.
===============
Eircom I’ve Never Heard Of It?
You may not have been aware of it, but Friday 17th November saw the end of the domestic soccer season in the League of Ireland (LOI), with all bar the FAI Cup Final on 3rd December left to play. Not to be confused with the Irish league in the North, the LOI has, after years of decline, taken to advancing two steps forward and one backward in recently, with another mixed season for the clubs. Yet most people reading this newspaper will doubtlessly skim over this column as a minority interest one, and in a way, they’d be right to think that. But why, in a country universally acknowledged to be football mad, a country where the game is the number one participation sport, is the national league such a non-entity? Why have you probably never heard of the biggest clubs in the league? Why will you never ever have countenanced going to see a game? Is the Eircom League (it’s official name, don’t ya know?) really that rubbish?
We’ll start with the bad news. No LOI clubs have ever made it to the Champions League (CL) nor the UEFA Cup group stages. No current full Irish internationals play for any club in the country. Most clubs live on the edge of a financial precipice; if not in the red, then enjoying a good view from their position directly above it. Dublin City went out of business half way through this season, playing havoc with the fixture list and table. Shelbourne, this years champions, have financial difficulties. Only half the teams in the Premier Division are full time. The FAI, preferring to lavish its money on the international squad and trips to Old Trafford, Anfield and Celtic Park for its members, could scarcely treat the league with more contempt or less publicity.
Attendances are low, grounds are stuck in an 80s time warp (the ‘toilets’ are in the worse cases, a wall), and the referees are diabolically bad. What Irish newspapers do report on the league, you find after wading through 30 pages on the English Premiership, the Championship, Leagues 1 and 2, the Conference, Scottish Premier League, First Division, and possibly the Cillit Bang Pro-Am Over 75’s Bowling Tournament at Brighton last Wednesday. That’s the bad, and boy is it bad.
Jose Mourinho may get annoyed when he feels that a 50-50 tackle that results in one of his players getting injured is a grave injustice; we had a goal in September that bounced off the advertising hoardings behind the net, came out again and went unnoticed by one referee. FA Cup match called off due to rain? The referee forgot to turn up to a game in April. Empty seats at Villa Park causing a bit of worry? 86 hardy souls turned out for a Dublin derby match at 12,000 capacity Dalymount Park in July.
By now you should have fully made up your mind that the LOI is a joke. There’s no way you’d go to a match if you had a gun pointed at your head, you’d far rather watch Barnsley-Crewe than Bohemians-Cork. Having come this far though, in a ‘minority sport’ column, you owe it to yourself to read on and find out some of the positives, though. Go on, the next page isn’t that interesting anyway. Granted the apocalyptic vision I’ve painted doesn’t seem to leave much scope for sunlight, but I’ll try to explain why I, and many others, are more positive about the LOI’s future than ever before.
For a start, you may have noticed none of the criticisms I levelled above were footballing ones. Irish teams for the most part, you see, no longer favour the ‘hoof-the-long-ball-in-the-air-lads-and-see-what-happens,’ approach of the Republic of Ireland c. 1990 (or Bolton c. anytime). It’s not exactly Brazil despite what the fans might sing, but it does mean that the standard of play has improved and advanced far further than it was 5 or 10 years ago. It is possible to enjoy a good game of football, there are plenty of great goals, and playmakers abound. Remember the 6 full-time clubs I mentioned above? Well, they only become of interest when I tell you that the total of full-time teams in the league 4 years ago was…zero. Full time training regimes, healthier eating, a more tactical game; all have contributed to make the league a far more watchable and competitive one than it used to be.
Did someone say competition? How many of the top leagues in Europe were decided on the last day of the season last year? The second last day? Third last? Not many would be the answer. The LOI, if nothing else, is one of the most competitive in Europe. This season, Derry City and Shelbourne, level on games won, drawn and lost, were divided only by goal difference; on the last day of the season three teams could have finished level, and the top four teams only lost four games each all season (out of 33). The previous season, the top two sides, Derry City and Cork City, ended up playing each other on the final day of the season for the title. The season before that, Cork and Shelbourne fought a running battle for most of the season. Boring it isn’t.
Heard of Kevin Doyle? Second highest goal scorer in the Championship last year, scoring freely for in the Prermiership this year? Irish international regular? League winner with Cork City the season before last. Expect more to follow, with, in the last week alone, Cork’s Roy O’ Donovan and Derry’s Mark Farren being linked with Wigan and Aston Villa respectively. Roy Keane, Paul Mc Grath, and Brian Kerr, to name but a few, all began their careers in LOI football over the years. Jason Byrne has played for the full international squad, while Joseph Ndo played all 3 games for Cameroon in France 98 and was in the squad for the following World Cup.
It is in European results where Irish clubs have really proved their progress however. Throughout the 1990’s, LOI had suffered humiliating defeats all over Europe. You name the minor Latvian opposition, we’ve had a club lose by a ten goal aggregate to nil. Again and again. Three years ago, a decision was made by the clubs to play a season from March to November, ensuring better pitches, and therefore football, and meaning that the teams involved in European competition would be half way through their season, and more match fit when the preliminary games of the continental tournaments got under way. The result?
In 2004, Shelbourne beat RK Reyjavick and Hadjuk Split to play Deportivo La Coruna for a place in the CL group stages. Remember just how good Deportivo were then. Shelbourne drew with them in Dublin and held them until half time in the second leg before capitulating. It may seem like little compared to the big English teams, but it’s now become standard for Irish teams to progress at least to the second round of their competitions year in, year out. It’s slow, but steady progress considering it was only a few years ago that clubs had to field their second string teams, as half their first team would be on holiday during the matches, such was the amateur mindset in the game.
This season, Cork City lost to Red Star Belgrade, and the chance to play AC Milan for a place in the CL group stages, while Drogheda just, just missed out on playing a place in the UEFA Cup first round proper when they lost on penalties 12-11 (the same player missed both penalties, a UEFA Cup first) to an FK Start that went on to play Ajax.
The real story was happening in Derry though. They dispatched twice UEFA Cup winners Gothenburg with victories home and away. To give you some extent of the scale of the result, Gothenburg had 6 players back fresh from playing in the World Cup, including one Nicolas Alexandersson, and had budgeted on reaching the group stages this season. Next up, Gretna FC, they of the Scottish Cup Final in June. Billed as a battle of the underdogs by the press, Derry proved there was only one underdog by hammering Gretna 5-1 in Scotland, going through 7-3 on aggregate. In the UEFA Cup first round proper, with a place in the group stages at stake, Paris St-Germain brought their expensively assembled squad including top international goalscorer in Europe, Pauletta. Held to a 0-0 draw in Derry, two set pieces finally saw the French giants through in Paris.
CONTINUED BELOW.
(Also, there may be a couple of facts or figures incorrect so if anyone notices anything, if you let me know so I can change it before submitting it.)
Anyway, just thought I'd post it here as well, since I doubt any of you will be reading a students newspaper :rolleyes:
Thanks for reading it.
===============
Eircom I’ve Never Heard Of It?
You may not have been aware of it, but Friday 17th November saw the end of the domestic soccer season in the League of Ireland (LOI), with all bar the FAI Cup Final on 3rd December left to play. Not to be confused with the Irish league in the North, the LOI has, after years of decline, taken to advancing two steps forward and one backward in recently, with another mixed season for the clubs. Yet most people reading this newspaper will doubtlessly skim over this column as a minority interest one, and in a way, they’d be right to think that. But why, in a country universally acknowledged to be football mad, a country where the game is the number one participation sport, is the national league such a non-entity? Why have you probably never heard of the biggest clubs in the league? Why will you never ever have countenanced going to see a game? Is the Eircom League (it’s official name, don’t ya know?) really that rubbish?
We’ll start with the bad news. No LOI clubs have ever made it to the Champions League (CL) nor the UEFA Cup group stages. No current full Irish internationals play for any club in the country. Most clubs live on the edge of a financial precipice; if not in the red, then enjoying a good view from their position directly above it. Dublin City went out of business half way through this season, playing havoc with the fixture list and table. Shelbourne, this years champions, have financial difficulties. Only half the teams in the Premier Division are full time. The FAI, preferring to lavish its money on the international squad and trips to Old Trafford, Anfield and Celtic Park for its members, could scarcely treat the league with more contempt or less publicity.
Attendances are low, grounds are stuck in an 80s time warp (the ‘toilets’ are in the worse cases, a wall), and the referees are diabolically bad. What Irish newspapers do report on the league, you find after wading through 30 pages on the English Premiership, the Championship, Leagues 1 and 2, the Conference, Scottish Premier League, First Division, and possibly the Cillit Bang Pro-Am Over 75’s Bowling Tournament at Brighton last Wednesday. That’s the bad, and boy is it bad.
Jose Mourinho may get annoyed when he feels that a 50-50 tackle that results in one of his players getting injured is a grave injustice; we had a goal in September that bounced off the advertising hoardings behind the net, came out again and went unnoticed by one referee. FA Cup match called off due to rain? The referee forgot to turn up to a game in April. Empty seats at Villa Park causing a bit of worry? 86 hardy souls turned out for a Dublin derby match at 12,000 capacity Dalymount Park in July.
By now you should have fully made up your mind that the LOI is a joke. There’s no way you’d go to a match if you had a gun pointed at your head, you’d far rather watch Barnsley-Crewe than Bohemians-Cork. Having come this far though, in a ‘minority sport’ column, you owe it to yourself to read on and find out some of the positives, though. Go on, the next page isn’t that interesting anyway. Granted the apocalyptic vision I’ve painted doesn’t seem to leave much scope for sunlight, but I’ll try to explain why I, and many others, are more positive about the LOI’s future than ever before.
For a start, you may have noticed none of the criticisms I levelled above were footballing ones. Irish teams for the most part, you see, no longer favour the ‘hoof-the-long-ball-in-the-air-lads-and-see-what-happens,’ approach of the Republic of Ireland c. 1990 (or Bolton c. anytime). It’s not exactly Brazil despite what the fans might sing, but it does mean that the standard of play has improved and advanced far further than it was 5 or 10 years ago. It is possible to enjoy a good game of football, there are plenty of great goals, and playmakers abound. Remember the 6 full-time clubs I mentioned above? Well, they only become of interest when I tell you that the total of full-time teams in the league 4 years ago was…zero. Full time training regimes, healthier eating, a more tactical game; all have contributed to make the league a far more watchable and competitive one than it used to be.
Did someone say competition? How many of the top leagues in Europe were decided on the last day of the season last year? The second last day? Third last? Not many would be the answer. The LOI, if nothing else, is one of the most competitive in Europe. This season, Derry City and Shelbourne, level on games won, drawn and lost, were divided only by goal difference; on the last day of the season three teams could have finished level, and the top four teams only lost four games each all season (out of 33). The previous season, the top two sides, Derry City and Cork City, ended up playing each other on the final day of the season for the title. The season before that, Cork and Shelbourne fought a running battle for most of the season. Boring it isn’t.
Heard of Kevin Doyle? Second highest goal scorer in the Championship last year, scoring freely for in the Prermiership this year? Irish international regular? League winner with Cork City the season before last. Expect more to follow, with, in the last week alone, Cork’s Roy O’ Donovan and Derry’s Mark Farren being linked with Wigan and Aston Villa respectively. Roy Keane, Paul Mc Grath, and Brian Kerr, to name but a few, all began their careers in LOI football over the years. Jason Byrne has played for the full international squad, while Joseph Ndo played all 3 games for Cameroon in France 98 and was in the squad for the following World Cup.
It is in European results where Irish clubs have really proved their progress however. Throughout the 1990’s, LOI had suffered humiliating defeats all over Europe. You name the minor Latvian opposition, we’ve had a club lose by a ten goal aggregate to nil. Again and again. Three years ago, a decision was made by the clubs to play a season from March to November, ensuring better pitches, and therefore football, and meaning that the teams involved in European competition would be half way through their season, and more match fit when the preliminary games of the continental tournaments got under way. The result?
In 2004, Shelbourne beat RK Reyjavick and Hadjuk Split to play Deportivo La Coruna for a place in the CL group stages. Remember just how good Deportivo were then. Shelbourne drew with them in Dublin and held them until half time in the second leg before capitulating. It may seem like little compared to the big English teams, but it’s now become standard for Irish teams to progress at least to the second round of their competitions year in, year out. It’s slow, but steady progress considering it was only a few years ago that clubs had to field their second string teams, as half their first team would be on holiday during the matches, such was the amateur mindset in the game.
This season, Cork City lost to Red Star Belgrade, and the chance to play AC Milan for a place in the CL group stages, while Drogheda just, just missed out on playing a place in the UEFA Cup first round proper when they lost on penalties 12-11 (the same player missed both penalties, a UEFA Cup first) to an FK Start that went on to play Ajax.
The real story was happening in Derry though. They dispatched twice UEFA Cup winners Gothenburg with victories home and away. To give you some extent of the scale of the result, Gothenburg had 6 players back fresh from playing in the World Cup, including one Nicolas Alexandersson, and had budgeted on reaching the group stages this season. Next up, Gretna FC, they of the Scottish Cup Final in June. Billed as a battle of the underdogs by the press, Derry proved there was only one underdog by hammering Gretna 5-1 in Scotland, going through 7-3 on aggregate. In the UEFA Cup first round proper, with a place in the group stages at stake, Paris St-Germain brought their expensively assembled squad including top international goalscorer in Europe, Pauletta. Held to a 0-0 draw in Derry, two set pieces finally saw the French giants through in Paris.
CONTINUED BELOW.