found this at footballunlimited.com - it comes from the guardian
Irish football needs to sex up and wise up
Mistakes, ****-ups, snags, hitches; Robert Clougher argues that, ultimately, only improved organisation can move Irish football forward
Thursday August 25, 2005
There are some things you rarely see in print. The hen's teeth of the football pages include statements such as, "Manager praises referee", or "Forward admits to diving". Until recently, you were just as unlikely to read news of an Irish football team performing well in a European competition. Now suddenly, teams from the Emerald Isle have started to shine. Sort of.
Cork City go into tonight's Uefa Cup clash with Djugarden after drawing the first leg in Sweden 1-1. In 2004, Dublin-based Shelbourne were one match away from qualification to the Champions League group stage. These results didn't just happen by accident. They came about following two fundamental changes: clubs started employing players full-time, while the decision taken three years ago to switch to summer football means that Irish players are at their peak while most of their continental counterparts are still puffing through pre-season training.
But if Irish football is to make the move from moral to meaningful victories, it must first make the move from haphazard to professional organisation.
The schedule switch - the season now runs from March to November - has not increased attendances as much as league officials had hoped. Wholesale postponements are now a distant memory, but crowds remain as drearily low as before. In the Premier Division, the top teams average gates of a couple of thousand per match. And although there have been some impressive exceptions (last week's Cork v Shelbourne match attracted 7,000), a more vigorous campaign to promote domestic football is certainly needed.
As things stand, matches are promoted as if clubs are aiming to fill the function room of a local pub. A couple of posters here, a radio ad there. It doesn't work. The lack of traffic around various grounds on matchdays is testament to the league's tendency to whisper about itself when the situation demands it grab a bullhorn. There was hardly a better time to launch a publicity campaign than when the British leagues were on holidays, but instead of fanfare and fireworks, there was a pitiful silence. Irish football can't become relevant and meaningful to a public that is largely oblivious to its existence.
In addition to flaunting itself more brazenly, Irish football will only ever be more attractive if it sorts itself out organisationally.
While the quality of football among top teams has improved, the league is too often a parody of a serious tournament. Regrets? There are too many to ignore. Shamrock Rovers, Ireland's most successful club, were recently deducted eight points after their 2005 club licence was found to have been awarded on the basis of flawed financial and accounting information. This isn't an isolated embarrassment.
During the 2001-02 league season, St Patrick's Athletic completed an unenviable double: on two occasions they were found to have failed to register a player. In the first case, St Pat's successfully appealed a nine-point deduction, explaining that Paul Marnrey's registration forms had been lost in the post. In the second case, the Dublin club weren't so lucky; they were docked 15 points for failing to register Charles Mbabazi Livingstone, a penalty which ultimately cost them the league title.
Mistakes, ****-ups, snags, hitches; call them what you like. They all have the same effect: they divert precious media attention away from what's happening on the pitch. And what sponsor wants to be associated with such farces? Despite their Champions League campaign last season, Shelbourne couldn't attract a major backer before the start of the following domestic season. That's what happens when you pal around with known undesirables. :D
The performances of Cork and Shelbourne have shown that Irish football has moved on from the days when European clubs used to go to Ireland and run up a rugby score. At the moment, neither the league nor the clubs are taking the necessary steps to ensure the game never returns to those times.
the link is:
http://football.guardian.co.uk/comme...555380,00.html
