EL Support in Ireland

[Blue Man]

Well for as long as i can remember, ive been a Leeds fan due to my dad. Hes always been pretty much a gaelic man but was very passionate about his soccer. Im not sure if many people remember Sports Stadium on rte on saturday lunctimes. They had a section showing the League of Ireland (as it was) highlights a la Eircom League Weekly. i would have been 5 or 6 at the time and had no knowledge of the league but I remember been fascinated at names like Stephen Geoghegan and Paul Osam to name a few. i remember i would then be out on the road pretending to be these players. Soon after I went to my first LoI game , Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers and was hooked. I still support Leeds and am a huge GAA fan but the eircom league is still no.1 for me. having played in the league myself ,i know the supporters to be the most dedicated ive ever known. maybe highlights of games could be shown at more appropriate times during the week. Thats how i got involved anyway

[bellavistaman]

maybe highlights of games could be shown at more appropriate times during the week. Thats how i got involved anyway

agree monday 11.30 (first day of work and your wrecked) is a bad time. Was it the "the soccer show" or something like that on rte on wednesdays i think, good show we need one of them, magazine sort of thing a look at the club and players. not boring paul osam:D

[Erstwhile Bóz]

Sure you have Northsiders supporting Rovers these days. That's worse than any amount of fortnightly trips to Old Trafford in Roy Keane boxer shorts in my book.

[Réiteoir]

agree monday 11.30 (first day of work and your wrecked) is a bad time. Was it the "the soccer show" or something like that on rte on wednesdays i think, good show we need one of them, magazine sort of thing a look at the club and players. not boring paul osam:D

Doubtful

[Blue Man]

i know its probably doutful but the only real exposure kids get of the league is when they play the mini games at half time. during the actual match they havent a clue who is even playing never mind the players. all im saying is that a programme on the at a more accessible time could attract the younger generation to our league like it did to me

[passerrby]

Having just been home to Ireland on hols, I was as always struck by the English premiership jerseys. To be fair though there were an equal number of Barcelona ones on kids (is this the acceptable foreign team to support). However the numbers were dwarfed by GAA jersies.

It struck me that one thing GAA has over soccer is that everyone has one and only one team to support. You'd be surprised to see a kid in one county wearing the jersey of another even if they live in a county with a sh*t team, let's take Cavan as an example!

The difference with soccer is that even if you leave in an area with a soccer team, it doesnt represent an area. I don't know this but I'm sure there are many people in Galway county who dont identify with Galway Utd.

Is one option to have county teams in soccer too. Admittedly there would be a great discrepancy in skill but that doesnt stop Fermanagh people supporting their GAA team. I'm not excusing Clare people supporting Man U but they are not likely to support Limerick and who else are they going to support?

there are a lot of reasons why the local kids dont support there EL team but the bottom line is we had a crap product which was not marketable and was vastly ignored by those who were supposed to run the League (in fact we were a joke to most people)this i believe is changing and we are starting to move in the right direction but it will take maybe 10 to 15 years to make it cool to support your local team also we are reliying on people who im not sure will see this through, but as i said the key is marketing and you cant sell **** (except if you support the shams)

[pixiehead]

Im from Mayo and starterted to follow Galway just because they where the closest team to me 14 years ago. Its only an hour down the road costing no more than a tener for petrol. How stupid i was keeping up an annual trip to white hart lane costing a fortune. Now 26 i cant even name who manages who in the premiership ive lost all touch with it. On the down side i now have to get therapy as im extremely addicted to Galway United :D. If neighbouring counties who had no team supported the nearest attendances would improve and i think the clubs should do alot more PR work there too

[harry crumb]

My Grandad and uncles used to go to Sligo matches. They were from Leitrim.

[niallsparky]

The way that the Eircom league captured me I believe was playing underage football for Bohs. We used to meet the players, go to matches etc. After I stopped playing the underage football, I went off the EL a bit. I was always interested in what was going on i.e. checking aertel, listening to news updates but never went to games. But now in the past few years, I' ve started going to games again. Why? I don't know but I reckon I just have a deep down sense of loyalty for Bohs.

Summing up, I believe that if we had a more structured youth program, that it may help attract younger fans. That is, expand the youth setups of Eircom League teams by incorperating teams in different areas of the county so that the players have some affinity with the team. At present there are too many teams that stop at under 15/16 level and there is no where to go from there.

[RonnieB]

I'm from Roscommon but support Longford as they are the closest team to me (around a 40minute drive) A fair few from around these parts support Longford as their EL team.

[thejollyrodger]

supporting english club teams is a joke. They should have season tickets to their local EL team at the very least.

[FarmHoop]

The way that the Eircom league captured me I believe was playing underage football for Bohs. We used to meet the players, go to matches etc. After I stopped playing the underage football, I went off the EL a bit. I was always interested in what was going on i.e. checking aertel, listening to news updates but never went to games. But now in the past few years, I' ve started going to games again. Why? I don't know but I reckon I just have a deep down sense of loyalty for Bohs.

Summing up, I believe that if we had a more structured youth program, that it may help attract younger fans. That is, expand the youth setups of Eircom League teams by incorperating teams in different areas of the county so that the players have some affinity with the team. At present there are too many teams that stop at under 15/16 level and there is no where to go from there.

True, i went off playing after that age as my team had no further teams, thats why im gettin my younger brothers to join rovers youth teams. its the best way to go