Shamrock Rovers supporter’s clubs have announced a boycott of all Bohemians merchandise and goods amid concerns over the threat their club faces faces from the Dalymount outfit.

The action follows closely on the heels of similarly effective action at Derry City last week, when hundreds of Hoops fans forsook the pleasure of a nine hour round trip to the North to make the arduous journey to their nearest television instead.

A statement posted on the club’s website states: ‘It is with great regret that the various Shamrock Rovers supporters groups have decided to cancel all orders for Bohemians merchandise. This unprecedented measure has been taken because of genuine fears for the safety of Shamrock Rovers’ league position, the potential damage to hired players and the frontline risks involved for our coach.’
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Wearing my Derry City shirt over here in England I do get the odd, er…odd look. I’ve been mistaken for a Stoke City, a Sunderland, and an Inter Milan fan, among others on occasion (home, home, and away kits respectively). We play ‘jumpers-for-goalposts’ (or Finn Harps) level football in the park at the weekend and while it can be a great way of breaking the ice with people, everyone spent last weekend asking me how I felt about losing the FA Cup to Manchester City.

Sadly, it’s the same when I’m home in Ireland. That said, spotting another LOI-coloured fan is always nice. It’s a Friday night and you’re walking down Grafton Street on the way to a game, when a girl in a Shels top walks past. For just a brief second, among the shop assistants on their way home, the office workers going for a pint, the tourists, and the Ladbrokes sign advertising odds for the nights Blue Square League matches you share a kind of mutually acknowledged respect- we are LOI fans on our way to see our teams play.
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Both sides of Manchester will be celebrating this weekend as both United and City clinched the top prizes in English domestic football. For them and, indeed, all British clubs, players and fans, it's almost time for a well-earned breather before the pre-season matches, transfer speculation and season 2011-12 preparations get fully underway in July.

On this side of the water through, we're just into a dozen games into the season with plenty to come, not least the inevitable trials and tribulations of the Champions League and Europa League campaigns. There's plenty to look forward to over the coming months and it would seem to be the perfect time for the league's marketing department (I assume we have one) to be pushing it's benefits to those who face the next few months bereft of their weekly football dose.
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We’ve all heard it; like a particularly tone-dead, annoying, half-witted cuckoo heralding the Spring, it recurs with depressing regularity, often around this time of the year as the Premiership season nears it’s conclusion.

Yes, it’s that hoary old chestnut, “I don’t go to League of Ireland games because the fans are too cliquey and they won’t make someone outside their gang feel welcome.” League of Ireland fans “look down from a self-appointed pedestal,” denigrating those foolhardy enough to intrude on their private functions. That latter quote is from an actual ‘journalist’ by the way- no name put to it, oddly enough.
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Occasionally, just occasionally, I regret being a League of Ireland fan. It can be downright torture. Most people living in Dublin recognise the infamous rivalry between Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers, even if they have little interest in the League. Bohs-Rovers derbies are greeted by certain tabloid newspapers as the coming of the apocalypse in sporting terms. When violence rears its head on these occasions, it receives blanket coverage. You try to hold your head up as people quiz you about the ‘animals’ that frequent games, or what would possess you to sit (or stand) in the same ground as them for ninety minutes plus. Never mind that the accusations themselves can be carried out with about as little dignity as the alleged acts themselves.

When TV3 screened a documentary on Green Street-style violence in Irish football, the sheer amateurism and inanity of its presentation was met with derision by League of Ireland fans. I can’t pretend to support the inane ramblings of fifteen-year-olds seeking a post-match fracas on Bebo, but the overall feeling that I was left with was contempt – for TV3’s commissioning editors. Screenshots of Bebo and indiscriminate footage of people running does not make a convincing argument for Irish people to live in fear of the League (it doesn’t even make a convincing argument for the filmmakers to call themselves ‘journalists’).
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The news that wacky Egyptian Mohammad Al Fayad has unveiled a statue of fellow fruit and nut (and now deceased) Michael Jackson has been greeted with a disappointing silence from League of Ireland clubs.

The nuttier-than-a-squirrel’s-lunchbox ex-owner of Harrod’s announced the tribute last week hoping that, “that Fulham fans will appreciate seeing the finest performer in the world, in and amongst them, the finest fans in the world.”

If nothing else Al Fayad’s hair-brained scheme has set an example that League of Ireland clubs should take note of- that of non-football related statues outside football grounds- if anything screams Cork City more than a bronze likeness of Graham Norton in the act of telling a naughty joke, We Play On Fridays has yet to see it. And surely someone in Derry should be checking if Nell McAndrews is available to pose nude for a cast to be placed outside the ground, an act that would surely put the ‘Lone’ in Lonemore Road.
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Athlone Towns young squad will possibly face their biggest test of the season so far when they play host to league leaders Cork City this Friday 25th March in Athlone Town Stadium. Kick off 7.45pm. Last week Athlone Town made the trip to Drom where they secured a point against Salthill Devon keeping ...

This is the inaugural Foot.ie Advert / Short Film Competition and below are the entries to it. The inception of it was a bit rough and ready, with the guidelines and rules being conceived within a very short time frame. It was a good bench mark though and it should give people a good idea of what to ...

I haven't found time to articulate my feelings on the lunancy of a return of winter football but as I look out on what used to be a garden, covered in snow for the guts of ten days now it seems an apt time to get something down on it.

As with most serious items in the League of Ireland, the news of a possible return came first from whispers, then rumours and finally a few carefully leaked press articles where if you can accurately read between the lines you can nearly work out which club official the journalist was talking to. The Daily Mail was the first paper to explicitly state that a return to winter football was on the table as an options(along with the normal deck chair rearranging of changing the number of sides in the top flight).
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Brendan Place takes charge of Athlone Town for the second last time as manager this Friday 22nd October as they head to the south east for the second time in seven days aiming to put a severe dent in Waterford United’s promotion challenge when the two sides meet in the RSC.* Kick off 7.45pm. This [...] ...

Derry City aim to edge closer to the First Division title with a win over derby rivals Finn Harps at the Brandywell.

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Airtricity League referee appointments

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Bid for your favourite players' jersey as worn over the 2010 Airtricity League...

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