Next Ireland friendly

[pete]

I heard Ireland due to host Italy next year...can any one confirm?

[eirebhoy]

Matches Set

The FAI will offer their new manager a triple-header Croke Park test against Brazil, Argentina and Italy next year.

John Delaney confirmed that he has concluded negotiations with the South American giants for Dublin visits.

Brazil are first up at Croke Park in February with world champions Italy set to follow in March and Argentina due in town next autumn.

“I have been negotiating with Brazil and Argentina to come to Croke Park and those games will happen,” said Delaney.

http://www.irishabroad.com/news/irish-voice/sport/RaceIsontoSucceedStaunton031107.aspx

[jbyrne]

maybe overly critical but these games, except maybe v Italy, are nothing more than carnivals to make money. we should be concentrating on playing teams similar to what we will have in our group for the euro champ qualifiers. surely thats what friendlies are for

on the plus side, they may at least re-kindle a bit of interest in the team again with a new manager at the helm

[Wolfie]

Matches Set

The FAI will offer their new manager a triple-header Croke Park test against Brazil, Argentina and Italy next year.

http://www.irishabroad.com/news/irish-voice/sport/RaceIsontoSucceedStaunton031107.aspx

Anyone aware of the phrase "Baptism of fire".

[Stuttgart88]

We'll lose all 3 and we'll all be going "Hiddink out, he hasn't a clue"

[Kingdom]

The most interesting thing that I picked out in that piece was that senior players want an input in the selection process. Come off it !

[Torn-Ado]

We'll lose all 3 and we'll all be going "Hiddink out, he hasn't a clue"

Not at all. These are friendlies man.We win handsomely playing total football scoring suberb goals.

[reder]

we should be concentrating on playing teams similar to what we will have in our group for the euro champ qualifiers. surely thats what friendlies are for


100% agree. Our biggest problem over the past few years in qualifying has been our away form. We should be arranging friendlies against eastern block countries away, as opposed to these money making glamour games which will be of no benifit when we play our next qualifier away from home.

[jmurphyc]

100% agree. Our biggest problem over the past few years in qualifying has been our away form. We should be arranging friendlies against eastern block countries away, as opposed to these money making glamour games which will be of no benifit when we play our next qualifier away from home.

That's the FAI for you. Money grabbing sc*m.

[CollegeTillIDie]

We played Italy last time they were World Champions at home back in 1985, Paul McGrath's debut. Let's hope we unearth another gem like him this time around.

[ifk101]

That's the FAI for you. Money grabbing sc*m.

Yes and no. I going to defend the FAI here - rental costs of Croke Park and the Lansdowne redevelopment mean that they need full houses for friendly games. To guarantee full houses they need big name teams who coincidently don't come cheaply.

[eirebhoy]

The last Italy match was one of Duff's best ever Ireland performances imo. They had 3 or 4 players on him by the end. :)

Just looking at the FIFA rankings. Off the top of my head I think we've played every team in the top 20 in the last decade bar England and Uruguay.

[jmurphyc]

Yes and no. I going to defend the FAI here - rental costs of Croke Park and the Lansdowne redevelopment mean that they need full houses for friendly games. To guarantee full houses they need big name teams who coincidently don't come cheaply.

But according to media reports they still managed to make a fortune from the 4 group games played there this year. And if you work out the approximate figures, the media are probably right. Why not just have one massive game at Croke Park and then have a few away friendlies. We've only had about 4 away friendles in the last 4 years (and that's only if you include the 2 american games in the summer).

Having a good shot at qualifying should be the first thing on the FAI's minds. If we manage to qualify then the FAI should easily get the lost money back.

[geysir]

Is it confirmed though? that is Cathal Dervan in Irish abroad.

At least it sounds promising.

[Jerry The Saint]

Three friendlies sounds a lot, throw in competitive games and I'm not sure how accommodating the GAA and, maybe more importantly, the local residents would be.

Maybe this is an indication that our early competitive games for the World Cup will be away matches?

[jmurphyc]

Three friendlies sounds a lot, throw in competitive games and I'm not sure how accommodating the GAA and, maybe more importantly, the local residents would be.

Maybe this is an indication that our early competitive games for the World Cup will be away matches?

I'm currently a local resident and I'd obviously have no problem with it. If there's a residents meeting in regards to these games I'll definitely be there and giving my opinion. I can't see it being an issue personally. The Germany and Cyprus games were relatively peaceful, although a glamour friendly may be another matter...

Besides, I assume the FAI have already conferred with the GAA on this matter if they're planning three friendlies.

[RogerMilla]

sounds a great idea to me , good opposition to blood in players and tactics. as for the away friendlies forget it , we won in denmark and in amsterdam under kerr and it did very little good once the real games came about , best preparation for an away win is having a confident panel flying to the game.

[jmurphyc]

sounds a great idea to me , good opposition to blood in players and tactics. as for the away friendlies forget it , we won in denmark and in amsterdam under kerr and it did very little good once the real games came about , best preparation for an away win is having a confident panel flying to the game.

But we also won home friendles before big games and it did us no good. Why are home friendlies a good idea but away friendlies aren't? If you have a full panel of players to choose from it shouldn't matter where the game is, and away games are surely much more testing to help blood new players into the team.

[irishfan86]

I'm all for these friendlies. They'll be against good opposition and they'll give Irish fans something to get excited about.

You all talk about arranging away friendlies, well what good did Denmark do for us?

May as well make the money if it's there to be had.

[DmanDmythDledge]

We'll lose all 3 and we'll all be going "Hiddink out, he hasn't a clue"
No chance, we always play well in March.

[Colbert Report]

Blatant cash grab by the FAI. It's the only reason they got rid of Stan, because they knew the fans would stay away from Croke Park if he was still manager. The size of the crowd against Cyprus was all too telling.

That said, you only get better playing against teams that are better than you. Argentina, Italy, and Brazil certainly fit the bill.

[kingdomkerry]

Friendlies against Brazil, Argentina and Italy and people are complaining
:confused::confused::confused:

[osarusan]

I think the FAI will be looking at getting some revenue, getting the fans interested again, and giving the new manager 3 games to work with his players without feeling too much pressure regarding results, as in nobody will complain too much if, or more likely when, we lose all three.

[kingdomkerry]

Wont loose all three. Guaranteed we always play better against better quality opposition!!

[Superhoops]

That's the FAI for you. Money grabbing sc*m.
Pal, do you engage your brain before the fingers start typing? Your'e not by any chance one of that rent-a-mob that paraded around with placards saying no to foreign games at Croke Park dressed in Celtic gear?

You obviously have no idea about how football in Ireland is financed. Anyone who does not applaud the FAI for attempting to bring the 3 top ranked teams in the world to Dublin definitely belongs in the 'bedgrudger' camp.

FFS, cop on to yourself man! :mad:

[gspain]

I'd like a couple of away friendlies as well. It would be great to have 3 of the top teams in world football coming here. Frankly I was expecting a Canada or Tunisia to be tied in with Brazil.

The GAA have already sanctioned friendlies for football and autumn tests for rugby.

[SuperDave]

i can understand the whole financial thing, but surely we should have at least one away friendly? I seriously think instead of a **** up in june in the states or something, that is the time we should be heading to eastern europe andplaces like that. I seriously think a game in late may or early june against a team preparing for euro 08 (someone like sweden, or even austria or switzerland) would be ideal and is something that needs looked at.

big money home friendlies are definitely a financial necessity, but squad preparation also needs to be addressed, because lets remember qualification for major tournaments is also financially beneficial to the fai, including increased gate revenues for games before and after due to the interest created. I know my fandom is largely due to the success at italia 90 (when i was 6) and even moreso the 1-0 over italy in 94.

[backstothewall]

Maybe this is an indication that our early competitive games for the World Cup will be away matches?

I would presume this will be the case. The FAI will been keen to play the home qualifiers in Landowne, and playing the away matches first gives us the best chance of doing that.

It would probably be advantageous from a footballing point of view to get them out of the way early on. The 2 away draws in Holland and Portugal gave us the springboard to qualify in the 02 campaign. Having the stadium underway gives us a great excuse to insist on this when the negotiations over fixture scheduling take place

[SuperDave]

I would presume this will be the case. The FAI will been keen to play the home qualifiers in Landowne, and playing the away matches first gives us the best chance of doing that.

It would probably be advantageous from a footballing point of view to get them out of the way early on. The 2 away draws in Holland and Portugal gave us the springboard to qualify in the 02 campaign. Having the stadium underway gives us a great excuse to insist on this when the negotiations over fixture scheduling take place

if anything, we are likely to have the big nation home games early and the littler ones later, when we move back to lansdowne. if anything, the fact we will be moving to a smaller stadium during (hopefully) the campaign means we will have the big games at croker earlier and the littler ones at lansdowne later. no?

[Superhoops]

if anything, we are likely to have the big nation home games early and the littler ones later, when we move back to lansdowne. if anything, the fact we will be moving to a smaller stadium during (hopefully) the campaign means we will have the big games at croker earlier and the littler ones at lansdowne later. no?

I expect they will want to showcase Lansdowne Road with the big games if they can.

I would also assume there will be more revenue generated by playing at the new LR rather than at CP. If not, what is the point of the FAI being involved in the new LR?

[SuperDave]

I expect they will want to showcase Lansdowne Road with the big games if they can.

I would also assume there will be more revenue generated by playing at the new LR rather than at CP. If not, what is the point of the FAI being involved in the new LR?

1) they can't afford their own stadium
2) croker costs 1m to rent at the minute, and the difference in capacity between lr and croker is around 20,000. 20,000 x e50, which equals, you guessed it, e1m.
and
3) lets not forget croker is only being opened for a limited time period

one thing i'm not sure though is whether the fai will continue to pay the irfu rent at lansdowne, cos they are stumping up a big chunk of cash, and probably more than originally budgeted for, because steel prices have risen quite a bit more than inflation in the last couple of years.

note: the welsh and slovak games had 71,000 odd attendances and they were full houses according to soccernet and wikipedia, and the figures from the lrsdc.ie website quote future capacity as 50,000, which is where i'm getting the figures.

edit: i have another point. the fai are selling 10,000 ten year premium level tickets for lr at 10,000e a go. their contribution to the new lr is less than 100m, therefore present revenue is not needed to pay for lr, this revenue alone will pay for lr.

[RogerMilla]

Why are home friendlies a good idea but away friendlies aren't? .

more irish fans can attend and more funds are raised.

[jmurphyc]

**** off you Pleb.

Very articulate way to start your post. I was actually unsure of whether I should post my earlier message as I realise that there is a certain extent of hyperbole in it, which I'm sorry if you didn't realise but I think you'll find that my other posts in this thread are more reasonable.


where do you think we're going to get money to hire a proper manager from or invest in youth structures and lansdowne road?

I think you'll find that I've briefly gone into this in other posts on the thread. If the FAI add, say, 2-3 away friendlies against teams more at our level then I will re-evaluate my post. But I still think that they are playing three games against the some of the top teams in the world is a bit too much. How will this affect the new manager and the development of his squad? What if we go into the qualifiers with a record of say 7 games or more without a victory (it's currently at 4)? The media will almost certainly pick up on this and it could potentially affect the players.

All this is rather besides the point though. In answer to your question I doubt the FAI will use this money to develop the new Lansdowne Road. They will be paying for this for some time to come, and they already probably had a payment plan set up.

They are probably using the new premium seats and box seats (10,000 and 1,300 respectively) to pay for the new stadium. Looking at www.lrsdc.ie they will need to pay back roughly 87,500,000 euros (the costs will probably rise to 100,000,000 million euros once building is finished). The premium level seats alone cost 10,000 euros I believe, so this is what they will probably be using to pay for the majority of the stadium redevelopment. If they were planning to use these games to pay for the redevelopment then they could have serious problems; what if they don't get enough people in the stadium? It would be very foolish to use these games to pay for the redevelopment as things could potentially go wrong.


if the FAI weren't trying to maximise revenues they wouldn't be doing their job and we'd have to continue hiring cut-price gob****es like Staunton.

I understand that they have to maximise revenue, and John Delaney has clearly done a very good job in regards to this (the media reported that the FAI had made 10,000,000 euros for the Germany game). This, plus the amount we made for the other games should help to acquire the funds for a good manager. As far as I'm concerned, we don't need three top class teams to come to Dublin.

If Delaney really cared about the current team's fortunes and the fans that much then why didn't he get rid of Staunton earlier? It was obvious to everyone bar the FAI what was coming and he acted completely unprofessionally IMO by denying there was any booing in Prague. He should have come out and tried to appease the fans instead of just downright lying about it.

I'm sorry for the long-winded reply, but I didn't like the tone of your reply to my earlier message, and was merely defending my beliefs, which I don't think are that unreasonable.

[jmurphyc]

Pal, do you engage your brain before the fingers start typing? Your'e not by any chance one of that rent-a-mob that paraded around with placards saying no to foreign games at Croke Park dressed in Celtic gear?

You obviously have no idea about how football in Ireland is financed. Anyone who does not applaud the FAI for attempting to bring the 3 top ranked teams in the world to Dublin definitely belongs in the 'bedgrudger' camp.

FFS, cop on to yourself man! :mad:

I don't argue just for the sake of arguing, I merely expressed my views quite vehemently in that post without a reasonable explanation. If you want to understand why I said that then please read my other posts as I'm not just some babbling idiot.

I'm not going to be so arrogant as to say that I undrerstand completely, but I understand to some extent how football in Ireland is financed. I know that it's quite difficult for international associations in particular to finance projects due to the lack of options available in terms of revenue as they have hardly any matches per year to help them out. In regards to the 3 top ranked teams coming to Dublin, please read my above post for my opinion.

[TommyGaynor]

BRAZIL have revealed they will play a friendly against the
Republic of Ireland in Dublin next February.
The fixture at Croke Park was announced in a statement on the Brazilian Football Confederation website.
The CBF statement said: “The Brazilian national team will play next year’s first international friendly on February 6 – date set by FIFA – against
the Republic of Ireland in
Dublin.
“The game will be played at Croke Park Stadium, which has 82,300 seats available.”

[paul_oshea]

Tommy is that you in chicago?

I expect there to be a lot of brazillians at that match when ye consider the amount in Gort and Roscommon town alone. There must be around 5 - 10k in total in ireland....

[TommyGaynor]

Chicago?:confused:

[pete]

I only started this thread as my Italian sources suggesting a game was on the cards.

[backstothewall]

I can't see us developing any further from sticking another 4 past Denmark and 3 past Sweden, who are presumably the kind of opposition some of you guys would like to see us play. We have shown we can do that in 3rd gear in friendly games. The higher standard may let us learn something about the players we have, and how they can cope with being up against it.

Plus, this is the best preperation possible for the challenges the new regime will face in South Africa :)

[mypost]

Is a match against Italy, subject to us avoiding getting them in the WCQ?:confused: