€10m FAI bonanza

[gwhite]

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/836410m-fai-bonanza-1138262.html

So the FAI will get €10million from the visit of Germany. Perhaps they could use some of it pay off the retard that is running the team and get us a decent manager.
3 games to go and we're already out of the running and they tell us prigress is being made. I'm tired of having my intelligence insulted by these muppets.

[shakermaker1982]

we could get a bloody good manager for 20% of that sum.

[gwhite]

True enough, at least someone with a modicum of experience. The more I think about the more ticked off I am about this whole appointment. In other words, how dare the FAI use a qualifying campaign to train in a manager who will be out of the job in November 2009 anyway when we finish 3rd/4th in our WC group. It'll take us years to recover from this unless something is done soon. No progress is being made. Say what you want about McCarthy and Kerr but at least we were in the running right down to the last game with those managers and McCarthy got us 2nd place in the group every time which would be enough to get us to the championships next year.

[mrtndvn]

its a pity we couldn't use the cash to buy some players, cause the ones we have aint good enough!

Alex Ferguson wouldnt do any better

[gwhite]

I disagree, Alex Ferguson wouldn't have brought Douglas, Gibson and Murphy on against Slovakia and he wouldn't be playing Finnan at left back and he'd drop Kilbane and he wouldn't blame someone else for making him pick O'Brien against Cyprus and....shall I go on?

[Dodge]

I'd prefer if they invested it in schoolyboy facilities

[citizenerased]

thats such b*ll*x, look at scotland and Northern Ireland ffs, and look at greece who are running away with their group and are current European Champions...we have better players than all these

[gwhite]

citizenerased is right, we do have a decent squad and the players were good enough to get 2nd in this group. We have missed a great oppurtunity here. A better manager would've seen us get 6 points off cyprus, wales & slovakia, perhaps 4 off the czechs and 1 or 2 off germany would've been enough for 2nd place. I mean seriously, 2-5 against Cyprus? I spent the guts of a grand on that trip and I, and every other Irish supporter, deserves better than this. It's a shambles, a monkeys tea party and then they have the cheek to tell us progress is being made!? Do they think we're that stupid?

[smellyfeet]

citizenerased is right, we do have a decent squad and the players were good enough to get 2nd in this group. We have missed a great oppurtunity here. A better manager would've seen us get 6 points off cyprus, wales & slovakia, perhaps 4 off the czechs and 1 or 2 off germany would've been enough for 2nd place. I mean seriously, 2-5 against Cyprus? I spent the guts of a grand on that trip and I, and every other Irish supporter, deserves better than this. It's a shambles, a monkeys tea party and then they have the cheek to tell us progress is being made!? Do they think we're that stupid?

Yes they do

[John83]

citizenerased is right, we do have a decent squad and the players were good enough to get 2nd in this group. We have missed a great oppurtunity here. A better manager would've seen us get 6 points off cyprus, wales & slovakia, perhaps 4 off the czechs and 1 or 2 off germany would've been enough for 2nd place. I mean seriously, 2-5 against Cyprus? I spent the guts of a grand on that trip and I, and every other Irish supporter, deserves better than this. It's a shambles, a monkeys tea party and then they have the cheek to tell us progress is being made!? Do they think we're that stupid?
Don't forget that the Czechs would be extremely ****ed off with their team & manager for a situation like that. Frankly, we should be competing for second, not guaranteed it.

[shanman2]

thats such b*ll*x, look at scotland and Northern Ireland ffs, and look at greece who are running away with their group and are current European Champions...we have better players than all these

Stop and think about what your saying. Think open minded and without the need for much research you will find that Scotland have 2 teams in the Champions League and one in the Uefa Cup group stages along with a half decent standard of league that players can go on to bigger and better things.
Greece also have a very competetive league where players are actually attracted to play and the main contingent of the squad is Greece based. As for Nothern Ireland this qualifying has been a flash in the pan and they have recently suffered defeats to the mighty Latvia and the world super power of Iceland. If we have seen or learned anything over the last three or four years I would have thought it would be that to be competetive in international football it's essential to have a Domestic League worth talking about and the ability to develope their own talent.

[gspain]

its a pity we couldn't use the cash to buy some players, cause the ones we have aint good enough!

Alex Ferguson wouldnt do any better


I presume you mean Darren Ferguson who anyway is a far far better manager than the guy we took away from laying out the training cones for Walsall's reserve team.

Would Darren Ferguson play left footed players at right back and right footed players at leftback?

Would Darren Ferguson play league 1 players ahead of premiership players?

Would Darren Ferguson bring cover for 2 centre halves?

It is bloody obvious we do have the players. Maybe not to win a major tournament but certainly to qualify.

Darren Ferguson's mother would probably make a better job of our team. as for his father....well come on. Any comparisons would be deeply insulting to the whiner.

[Dr. Ogba]

its a pity we couldn't use the cash to buy some players, cause the ones we have aint good enough!

Alex Ferguson wouldnt do any better

I think you've been watching a bit too much tv3 lately....I don't buy in to that, Staunton has a far better squad available to him than McCarthy and especially Kerr...

[WembleyGreen]

So far the Staunton era has produced two thumping friendly results which of course mean F***all the in real world, of course we were trounced by the Dutch and we should have seen warning lights there and then?, a drubbing at the hands of CYPRUS, yes CYPRUS I have to repeat that because I still can't believe that it actually happened! San Marino 5-0? as it should be but even that is overshadowed by the German 13-0 result away. I was in San Marino and witnessed that pathetic shambles for myself and if ever a team was robbed of a result, then it was SM that night. We lost to Germany in our first game and we were lucky to get away with that scoreline because they missed some sitters. We managed to beat a dismal Welsh side at Croker in a match that was absolutely abysmal to say the least and then we managed to scrape a result against an poor Slovakia side who are almost as rubbish as we are. Slovakia away? Stauntons idiotic selection & substitutions cost us that game. The Czech game? We didn't deserve to win it and a draw was all we were ever going to be capable of getting, they had us fiqured out 5mins into the game and then Hunt fell for the sucker punch aided by a referee who simply appeased the baying crowd. All of these competitive games have a common theme running through them, no game plan, lack of imagination and creativity, players either not picked when they should have been, players played out of position when there was no need to, total lack of passion in most games and no coherent system or instruction when things start to go wrong. Who's fault is this? Well I'll let you go fiqure. Answers on a postcard to Delaney.J CEO FAI and cheif culprit for the death of our National football team. Some progress eh!

[citizenerased]

excellent points..very well articulated

[citizenerased]

Stop and think about what your saying. Think open minded and without the need for much research you will find that Scotland have 2 teams in the Champions League and one in the Uefa Cup group stages along with a half decent standard of league that players can go on to bigger and better things.
Greece also have a very competetive league where players are actually attracted to play and the main contingent of the squad is Greece based. As for Nothern Ireland this qualifying has been a flash in the pan and they have recently suffered defeats to the mighty Latvia and the world super power of Iceland. If we have seen or learned anything over the last three or four years I would have thought it would be that to be competetive in international football it's essential to have a Domestic League worth talking about and the ability to develope their own talent.

Greece: Nikopolidis, Seitaridis, Kapsis, Dellas, Fissas, Zagorakis, Katsouranis, Basinas, Giannakopoulos (Venetidis 76), Vryzas (Papadopoulos 81), Charisteas.

Oh iam sorry you were right this team is littered with superb players..

Who said the key to international success is a strong domestic league? That isnt a law, its a theory.... is that why england havnt won anything since 66? If you look at eh czech team how many of the starting lineup are playing in the domestic league?


We ahve the players, just not the organisation or the tactical nouse to guide the players...in fairness lads Stan is a laughing stock!!!

[smellyfeet]

WembleyGreen, Couldn't have put it better myself:).But the thing is, Delaney and Stan won't be going anywhere for a while so we are stuck with them. Stan covered his ass from the very start when he said he was building a team for the next World Cup. With him in charge we won't be going to any World Cup only Friendly Tournaments in the States:mad:

[Ireland4ever]

Stop and think about what your saying. Think open minded and without the need for much research you will find that Scotland have 2 teams in the Champions League and one in the Uefa Cup group stages along with a half decent standard of league that players can go on to bigger and better things.
Greece also have a very competetive league where players are actually attracted to play and the main contingent of the squad is Greece based. As for Nothern Ireland this qualifying has been a flash in the pan and they have recently suffered defeats to the mighty Latvia and the world super power of Iceland. If we have seen or learned anything over the last three or four years I would have thought it would be that to be competetive in international football it's essential to have a Domestic League worth talking about and the ability to develope their own talent.

It didnt seem to harm us when we qualified for Euro 88, World Cup 90/94/02...

To say Ireland dont have the players is a cop-out. We have a team full off premiership players, and if you actually went through our first team its well capable of allowing us to compete at this level. Given/Finnan/Dunne/Hunt/Duff/Carsley/Doyle/Keane are all performing well for their clubs and if there were organised/managed correctly would be performing for the national side too.

[eirebhoy]

The FAI will shortly market the sale of 10,000 10-year tickets at the new stadium, at an estimated cost of €10,000 each.
They'd have a lot more success selling them if they replaced the manager. 1,000 of those could pay the wages of an excellent manager for a decade. The other 9,000 can go towards the stadium.

[shanman2]

It didnt seem to harm us when we qualified for Euro 88, World Cup 90/94/02...

To say Ireland dont have the players is a cop-out. We have a team full off premiership players, and if you actually went through our first team its well capable of allowing us to compete at this level. Given/Finnan/Dunne/Hunt/Duff/Carsley/Doyle/Keane are all performing well for their clubs and if there were organised/managed correctly would be performing for the national side too.

My point is that the countries afformentioned produce their own players. The players are bought from Olympiakos, panathinaikos etc. But three teams in the UEFA cup and 1 in the Champions league seems to point to some sort of trend. Yes it does have a bearing on the national team we have one of the worst leagues in Europe.
Euro 2004
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Greece
Italy
Latvia
Netherlands
Portugal (host)
Russia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland

I would argue that all these countries bar latvia would have a better domestic league than us. So essentially you need to have a good domestic league and be a able to develope your own players in order to qualify for big tournaments. My reason being that at least most of their players are gauranteed European football and lets face it thats where it is at!! Not rely on the "Granny" rule or English-Scottish clubs to develope them.

[Ireland4ever]

My point is that the countries afformentioned produce their own players. The players are bought from Olympiakos, panathinaikos etc. But three teams in the UEFA cup and 1 in the Champions league seems to point to some sort of trend. Yes it does have a bearing on the national team we have one of the worst leagues in Europe.
Euro 2004
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Greece
Italy
Latvia
Netherlands
Portugal (host)
Russia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland

I would argue that all these countries bar latvia would have a better domestic league than us. So essentially you need to have a good domestic league and be a able to develope your own players in order to qualify for big tournaments. My reason being that at least most of their players are gauranteed European football and lets face it thats where it is at!! Not rely on the "Granny" rule or English-Scottish clubs to develope them.

Thats your opinion, which i dont agree with. All of our players are currently playing in the so called 'greatest league in the world' and are playing at the top level. So, how can you say playing in a crappy Danish league and getting a pasting every-time you compete in Europe is better? And to continue, if a player is good enough to play international football he will be snapped up by one of the top four leagues anyways.

[mrtndvn]

I presume you mean Darren Ferguson who anyway is a far far better manager than the guy we took away from laying out the training cones for Walsall's reserve team.

Would Darren Ferguson play left footed players at right back and right footed players at leftback?

Would Darren Ferguson play league 1 players ahead of premiership players?

Would Darren Ferguson bring cover for 2 centre halves?

It is bloody obvious we do have the players. Maybe not to win a major tournament but certainly to qualify.

Darren Ferguson's mother would probably make a better job of our team. as for his father....well come on. Any comparisons would be deeply insulting to the whiner.

Aye we have the players ;)

Because we're just full of tallent. how many of them have won medals in the last five years? At any level?

Wise up lads, we dont have the team

[mypost]

So far the Staunton era has produced...a drubbing at the hands of CYPRUS, yes CYPRUS I have to repeat that because I still can't believe that it actually happened! San Marino 5-0? as it should be but even that is overshadowed by the German 13-0 result away.

Sure, Germany "only" beat SM 6-0 at home, so we can't be that bad, surely?? :rolleyes:

They also only got a draw in Cyprus too, which was the major f-up in their campaign. Stan bizarrely, held this result up as an example of how hard to beat Cyprus are at home. :D Despite the fact that Germany got a better result in Cyprus than we did.

We are stuck with this time-waster for another 2 years of course, so we can drop to 70-80-90 in the world in the meantime, but what will happen if Delaney does the unthinkable and offers his lackey another contract!!! :eek:

[shanman2]

Thats your opinion, which i dont agree with. All of our players are currently playing in the so called 'greatest league in the world' and are playing at the top level. So, how can you say playing in a crappy Danish league and getting a pasting every-time you compete in Europe is better? And to continue, if a player is good enough to play international football he will be snapped up by one of the top four leagues anyways.

They still compete in european competition and produce better quality players than us. On the big leagues snapping up players no less than 20 of their squad is playing football in Greece. No less than 15 of the squad that won euro 2004 played at home. As for Denmark I think they won the competition aswell in 1992 with a mainly danish league based team. So your points are not really valid.

[Poor Student]

Did anyone else think this thread was about the total collected fines for the season?

[Ireland4ever]

They still compete in european competition and produce better quality players than us. On the big leagues snapping up players no less than 20 of their squad is playing football in Greece. No less than 15 of the squad that won euro 2004 played at home. As for Denmark I think they won the competition aswell in 1992 with a mainly danish league based team. So your points are not really valid.

I think it proves my point more than anything. Denmark did'nt even qualify for Euro '92, they only gained entry because of yugoslavia (Or whatever they call themselves now) were at war. But when they got to the finals they showed what is possible when you have a well organised team with an astute manager. Greece are even more of an example, there was no European Stars in that team. Sure it was ugly to watch at times, but it was effective.
And to put this win down to them playing & getting whipped at european level for their clubs is farcical.

[shanman2]

I think it proves my point more than anything. Denmark did'nt even qualify for Euro '92, they only gained entry because of yugoslavia (Or whatever they call themselves now) were at war. But when they got to the finals they showed what is possible when you have a well organised team with an astute manager. Greece are even more of an example, there was no European Stars in that team. Sure it was ugly to watch at times, but it was effective.
And to put this win down to them playing & getting whipped at european level for their clubs is farcical.

Can you remember the denmark squad that won in 92 most of them players were top notch. Back to the arguement at hand.
The FAI need to put money into the Eircom League, improve the standard and use the cash to help with the developement of our own players which they are starting to do now (10 years too late) with the development squads.
We need to have some sort of system where by clubs (for example Limerick 37) have a complete underage setup and have teams competing against other Eircom league sides. Until then Ireland will never compete properly at international level.
Give the young lads a reason to stay in Ireland to play for Eircom league clubs instead of going to england and being sent home heart broken never to play again.

[Dodge]

Greece are even more of an example, there was no European Stars in that team
Greece had some excellent players playing for the likes of Roma, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid.

Players not from the giant countries will never get the credit they deserve...

[citizenerased]

Greece had some excellent players playing for the likes of Roma, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid.

Players not from the giant countries will never get the credit they deserve...


I think you will find the players got their moves to the big clubs after 2004 i.e dellas to roma(flop) and christeas to athletico(flop) and georgatis(inter reserve)

[citizenerased]

Aye we have the players ;)

Because we're just full of tallent. how many of them have won medals in the last five years? At any level?

Wise up lads, we dont have the team

Whats that got to do with anything..but if your asking

What you mean Duff 2 premierships,
o'shea premiership ,
finnan champions league FA cup, league Cup..
McGeady 3 Spl titles

[Dodge]

I think you will find the players got their moves to the big clubs after 2004 i.e dellas to roma(flop) and christeas to athletico(flop) and georgatis(inter reserve)

I think you'll find you're talking through your arse. Dellas went to Roma in 2002 and when fit was first choice, Karagounis signed for Inter in 2003 (and was by no means a flop). Charisteas was with Werder Bremen at the time (and joined them in 2002), since moved on to Ajax and then back to Germany. Nikolaidis was with Atletico madrid (having joined them in 2003)

And thats just the ones correcting your errors... ;)

[Macy]

All of our players are currently playing in the so called 'greatest league in the world' and are playing at the top level.
And look how good the English system is at producing players for the England team... The English system is failing for their own, yet it's what we rely on with far less inputs.

[Stuttgart88]

Exactly, England can't even produce for themselves so how can we expect them to ook after our own. That said, I think they themselves underestimate their talent coming through. Their U21 team was seconds away from probably winning the UEFA Championship this summer.

A better domestic set up here should complement, not replace, the traditional exporting of our young players. For every Robbie Keane that went to England as a teenager there could just as easily be a Kevin Doyle. At least the ratio could come down anyway. At the moment it's way too high.

[Ireland4ever]

And look how good the English system is at producing players for the England team... The English system is failing for their own, yet it's what we rely on with far less inputs.

What? Are you for real. England have qualified for every major tournament since the 94 world cup, have reached the quarters of the last three tournaments, went out in the lotto that is penos for the last two.
They have an abundance of talent, but are just incapable of maximising that talent is their problem. How can you honestly say they cant produce players.

[Dodge]

What? Are you for real. England have qualified for every major tournament since the 94 world cup, have reached the quarters of the last three tournaments, went out in the lotto that is penos for the last two.
They have an abundance of talent, but are just incapable of maximising that talent is their problem. How can you honestly say they cant produce players.
England is a huge country (in europea terms) and hosts one of the top 3 leagues in the world. They should be producing as many world class players as Italy, Germany etc but they simply aren't.

Here's the BBC take on it http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6976899.stm

[Stuttgart88]

They have an abundance of talent, but are just incapable of maximising that talent is their problem. How can you honestly say they cant produce players.Funny thing is, they say it themselves!

I think his point is that they're not providing that many players for the big clubs (none really at Arsenal, and 2-3 only at each of Liverpool, Chelsea & United. Look at Spurs who have an English core and they're half-decent but no more. Scratch the surface and there's a lot of mediocrity. A lot of mediocrity that we'd grab in an instant mind you!

[DaveyCakes]

Penalties aren't a "lottery"

[Ireland4ever]

I dont think you can argue that germany are producing these great stars. Sure before the last world cup the country was getting beating easily and was going into the tournament without any confidence. In was the end of an era according to themselves.

And as for not providing players for the big clubs the list below is a decent. Given the fact that the top four clubs have non-english managers there is still alot of quality english players staring for these clubs.

United - Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Scholes, Haregraves, Rooney,
Chelsea - Terry, A.Cole, Bridge, Lampard, J.Cole, swp,
Liverpool - Carragher, Gerrard, Crouch, Pennant

[shanman2]

I dont think you can argue that germany are producing these great stars. Sure before the last world cup the country was getting beating easily and was going into the tournament without any confidence. In was the end of an era according to themselves.

And as for not providing players for the big clubs the list below is a decent. Given the fact that the top four clubs have non-english managers there is still alot of quality english players staring for these clubs.

United - Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Scholes, Haregraves, Rooney,
Chelsea - Terry, A.Cole, Bridge, Lampard, J.Cole, swp,
Liverpool - Carragher, Gerrard, Crouch, Pennant

That aint a team you have mentioned and the average age is about 29-30 years old it's whats behind that is what the English are worried about.
Trevor Brooking even said it himself that the future for england is not looking very good at the moment. The future of Irish soccer lies here in Ireland not in England. If they cant produce their own players how are they going to produce for us.
As for Germany they were in the world cup final in 02 and beaten by the eventual winners in 06. They have always produced world class players even if they never get recognised. Just watch the Bundesliga I think the games are excellent.

[Pablo]

€10m? Thats gonna be some Junkett to South Africa for the World Cup Draw.

[mrtndvn]

Whats that got to do with anything..but if your asking

What you mean Duff 2 premierships,
o'shea premiership ,
finnan champions league FA cup, league Cup..
McGeady 3 Spl titles

So

Finnan good player but a right back, hardly the most influential position on the field
Duff - Never bloody fit
McGeady and o'Shea, would any body rate these as good players?

Just wise up lads, the talent aint there. And, its no the FAI's fault, the the fault of the Irish people for not supporting the EL

[Ireland4ever]

I dont agree, having a half decent EL isnt gonna be the saviour of Irish football. Sure, everyone would love to see the EL do well, but regardless of how much progress is made the top young players are gonna choose england and the british £ ahead of stying in Ireland.

And citezenerased point was medals dont always show the worth of a player, sheasy has got a premier league but is far from being our best player.

To say that we dont have the players is a cop-out, are our players that bad that a 5-2 reverse at the hands of cyprus is as good as we should expect? No!

[Dr. Ogba]

So

Finnan good player but a right back, hardly the most influential position on the field
Duff - Never bloody fit
McGeady and o'Shea, would any body rate these as good players?

Just wise up lads, the talent aint there. And, its no the FAI's fault, the the fault of the Irish people for not supporting the EL


Wait a second, its not the fault of the FAI that they have failed to develop interest in the EL post Euro 88/Italia 90/USA 94???????? Football is now competing with GAA for the hearts and minds of youngsters in this country yet the national league is still a joke.....not the fault of the FAI? They have squandered millions on ill-advised projects (Eircom Park to name but one) and constant in-fighting which could have been invested in the domestic league. Their myopia and lack of forward-planning is exactly the reason why both our national league and (now) our national team are a joke....

And I firmly believe that with any half-decent manager at the helm, we would have the players to easily get out of that group...

[shanman2]

Wait a second, its not the fault of the FAI that they have failed to develop interest in the EL post Euro 88/Italia 90/USA 94???????? Football is now competing with GAA for the hearts and minds of youngsters in this country yet the national league is still a joke.....not the fault of the FAI? They have squandered millions on ill-advised projects (Eircom Park to name but one) and constant in-fighting which could have been invested in the domestic league. Their myopia and lack of forward-planning is exactly the reason why both our national league and (now) our national team are a joke....

And I firmly believe that with any half-decent manager at the helm, we would have the players to easily get out of that group...

Your right Dr Ogba it is the FAIs fault they never invested the monies needed to develope the game in this country. First stage coaching course is I think 300euro to do. surely they dont need that much money off it. If they bothered their arses to help educate the many managers in the country who are chomping at the bit to help out young lads we wouldnt be as badly off as we now are.
They are making an effort to improve the amateur game in this country which is a help because if we can improve this level then the underage lads can improve as they come through their respectve clubs then maybe the Eircom League might benifit.

[Stuttgart88]

They have squandered millions on ill-advised projects (Eircom Park to name but one) I for one wish they had squandered a few more million and actually completed the damned place. Very similar to the stadium in Cologne, or maybe Anfield, which generates a brilliant atmosphere and could hardly fail to give us genuine home advantage. Croker does little for me as an international football venue and Bertie's "national stadium" plans left me cold.

[mrtndvn]

Wait a second, its not the fault of the FAI that they have failed to develop interest in the EL post Euro 88/Italia 90/USA 94???????? Football is now competing with GAA for the hearts and minds of youngsters in this country yet the national league is still a joke.....not the fault of the FAI? They have squandered millions on ill-advised projects (Eircom Park to name but one) and constant in-fighting which could have been invested in the domestic league. Their myopia and lack of forward-planning is exactly the reason why both our national league and (now) our national team are a joke....

And I firmly believe that with any half-decent manager at the helm, we would have the players to easily get out of that group...

1: we are not, never have, and never will compete with the GAA

And two, having a strong EL will improve our international team. It will push up the average standard of players Ireland has.

A strong EL is the only way forward, we need the Irish public to wake up to that, its is there fault we dont have the international players.

Our players are s***e, thats why we never qualified.

[Dr. Ogba]

1: we are not, never have, and never will compete with the GAA

And two, having a strong EL will improve our international team. It will push up the average standard of players Ireland has.

A strong EL is the only way forward, we need the Irish public to wake up to that, its is there fault we dont have the international players.

Our players are s***e, thats why we never qualified.


I do actully agree with you re the EL, its obvious guys like Doyle Long Houlihan, Murphy et al are proving that if young lads decide to stay in the EL till they've matured a bit (early twenties) then they have a much better chance of getting first-team football at an early age which in turn brings (if they're good enough) transfer fees to EL clubs which enables them to invest in facilities/young players etc etc. A better standard of player will always attract more crowds but this is only half of it...Irish crowds aren't going to suddenly "wake up" and decide to go to EL matches, and I'm sure this has been discussed ad nauseum on the EL forums, but there needs to be investment in the facilities and under-age infrastructure by the FAI to ensure that our youngsters have an option other than heading-abroad in search of £££...

In fairness, they have begun to pull the finger out: investment in amateur football as Stutts alluded to earlier and also they have been marketing the EL quite well recently by appointing development officers at each club but there's still quite a bit of work to do before the fans suddenly "wake up"....


Oh and the reason that we're out of contention for qualifying...The manager and noone else...