interesting piece ( part deux) on rte
from http://www.rte.ie/sport/2006/1005/coefficient.html
As the UEFA Cup made its transition to the group stage, supporters of eircom League football were forced to wave goodbye to its last remaining representative at European level for the 2006/07 season, writes Michael O'Reilly. The honourable 2-0 defeat at the Parc des Princes put paid to Derry City's hopes of finally making that coveted breakthrough.
When Pedro Pauleta struck just before half-time, the fate of The Candystripes was effectively sealed. The 2-0 aggregate defeat meant the campaign was over for both Derry, and the League itself. Seven European nations suffered a similar fate on the same night, among them Croatia, Sweden and Norway. As the Champions League and UEFA Cup cascade onwards through the winter, it's valuable to look at the direction our league has taken over the campaign just gone, and, most pertinently, where we've come from.
At the end of the 2002/03 season, the rankings emanating from our continent's football governing body made for grim reading. Our three representatives had managed just a single draw between them, courtesy of Shelbourne's first leg stalemate with the Maltese champions, Hibernians. A cruel 1-0 defeat in the return leg in Dublin, coupled with back-to-back defeats for Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers, meant that the European adventure was over before it got off the ground. The status of the league was at rock-bottom. The phrase, 'making up the numbers' never seemed so apposite.
Only the leagues of Andorra and San Marino maintained a position below our own on the rankings table. We had distinguished colleagues across the continent to thank for depriving us of the ultimate ignominy. FC Encamp and SP Domagnano respectively, sole representatives from their countries, clocked up defeats all round, thereby elevating us to 49th place for the season out of the 51 participants. Truly, we had reached a nadir for club football in this country.
Just four years later, supporters of eircom League clubs could scarcely have dreamt of the advances made. Despite a healthy level of cynicism from certain quarters within our own borders, the league continues to grow in stature abroad. Officials are keenly aware that off-field difficulties with club licensing and tax liabilities, as well as falling attendance figures, are worrying in the short-term. However, proponents of the League realise that results in Europe are a key part of securing a foothold for the hearts and minds of the public. With this in mind, recent successes have been heartening.
The most welcome development of this campaign has been the consistency which our clubs have attained. All four of our representatives progressed past their opening round. Shelbourne won three out of four, unlucky to go out of the Intertoto Cup to Odense of Denmark who have since qualified for the UEFA Cup group stage. In terms of ranking points, our representatives in the Champions League and UEFA Cup excelled at various stages - Derry City's wonderful away wins in Sweden and Scotland being the standout moments. Drogheda United's well-earned draw in Helsinki and cruel shoot-out defeat against IK Start in the following round showed the Louth side can compete at this level. Billy Woods' wonder goal against Limassol and the battling performance in Belgrade 14 days later reinforced the belief that Cork City are building serious European credentials.
In contrast with four years ago, the eircom League is keeping company with an altogether different level of opposition as the rankings table currently stands. Nestled either side of the Netherlands Eredivisie and the Scottish Premier League, the eircom League stands 17th of the 52 countries which began the 2006/07 campaign. Among the leagues which finished behind us in the rankings this season were Sweden, Norway, Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia - all leagues with serious European pedigree and laden with international players to boot.
With Wisla Krakow, Partizan Belgrade and Austria Vienna the sole clubs remaining from their countries in European competition, there's every chance that the Polish, Serbian and Austrian leagues will also be left trailing in the eircom League's wake. As the campaign heads to its conclusion, the decent money would be on the Austrian League, at least, languishing behind. At worst case scenario, we will finish 23rd out of 52 for the 2006/07 season - unheard of progress - with our overall position computed from results over five seasons having risen from 40th to 35th in the space of just two months.
Of course, the trick is to consolidate such progress over the next five to ten years. Rather than being a blip on the rankings radar, the eircom League could make the jump to such exalted status permanent, offering benefits such as seeded status, byes to second rounds, and increased representation in the club competitions. If the levels of outside investment off the pitch could match the strides being made on it, great days could lie ahead for our much maligned domestic followers.
