eL politics

I am posting this here in the city forum as this generic topic happens to be sparked by two recent incidents involving city, and i'd like to see what people think.

On reading the ccfc official matchday magazine (ucd/waterford) i noticed on the commercial page that there was a little dig at Pats. I think it read something like this, while congratulating JOhn O'Flynn for his U21 performances vs Albania and Germany, 'Perhaps the result would have been better against St Patrick's athletic if they had agreed to reschedule the game'.

Moving on, i was talking to a Longford fan who posts regularly on this board yesterday about coming down to cork (where as most of you probably know i am living) and it came across that he was pretty peeved about the match switch to the 4th of July, as is understandable in the situation. His understanding of the situation in brief (and im sure someone will probably explain further) was that Longford had been pushed and left with virtually no time to decide? Without any problem he was able to say that he hoped Longford did the same to Cork for the next fixture. I made the point that was a very defeatist type attitude but he had a solid point and i couldn't argue with him. My fear is that LTFC might be of the same opinion and that they might do same (completely hypothetical).

My point is simply this; we (referring to us all as a part of this league) could really do without all this begrudgery and needless tit for tat messing between clubs. Between fans it generally boils down to a bit of fun, and reading the 'out of the west' (?) article in the latest ccfc matchday mag you can see a prime example of what it is to be a football fan in this country. I for one am looking forward to visiting the cross as often as possible this season while i am here and rooting for city when it doesn't clash with my obvious allegience to UCD. On the fourth of July i intend to shout for Town simply because they'll be in the minority and i have known one Town fan who will be travelling down and i don't see often for a good few years. On the 11th i'll be in the shed 'cos Rovers are our closest rivals and i'm looking forward to the craic.

When the rivalry extends to the management of clubs, and goes as far as the confrontational attitudes like the shels/pats ones (again very relevant to city seeing as Dolan was the pats supremo during that time) of a couple of years back (and i'm not condoning shoddy administration in clubs here) it makes the league look like a disgrace.

Referring back to the City/Pats situation, without getting into blaming anyone, i understand that Pats made a presentation to Pat Dolan on the pitch that night, a really nice gesture indeed. I'm sure it was a really nice welcome Pat recieved at the club he put so much into. If relations are this friendly on the surface, then surely each club would do their utmost to accomodate and oblige each other. Yet in an official City publication, created for the fans, it is published, from the pen of a CCFC official, that this wasn't the case, or that it was of the writers opinion so. Should we all have a grudge against St Pats so?

Obviously these situations arise many times a season. Obviously regarding the most recent one, City/Longford, the Longford fans, whether right or wrong in their opinions, are disappointed and with the information they have are disappointed in Cork City Football Club.

How do we get away from this crap?

I agree that we shouldn't bother with this in fighting, but like was said before it would have taken Longford's agreement to change the match and since they also have a league cup semi final with Derry coming up next week it is in the clubs interest to switch.
I don't think Longford will try to change the return fixture just to be petty.

Well @ndy, I was at the Pat's agme and while the presentation was nice, I felt that following events rendered it merely window dressing. Andy O'Callaghan gave Dolan the piece, and he seemed very genuine, while most fans seemed to be against the idea.
The team and management acted in a very different way as well, especially in their way over the top celebration to the (extremely dodgy) penalty goal, trying to goad Dolan, and the after match comments of Collins were disgraceful. Some of the gestures to Dolan were petty at the least.
Pats would not entertain in any way a fixture switch. Dolan has said that he wrote to the FAI and he got a letter from Rooney in the dressing room before hand, thus verifying that he went through the proper channels.
City cannot be blamed for the pathetic attitude of Pats to a former manager of theirs (who did an awful lot for the club).
City were very accomodating for the opening fixture, doing what suited TV3 and the FAI, but not City.
I do not know about the Longford game, but surely they must have agreed to it, or else it could not have been switched.
So I feel City have been a club who has acted with the best intentions before. Yet a lot of Dub clubs will only act in a selfish way, so City can't be blamed if they start to act in their best interests only as well.
City got flak for playing their FAI cup semi on a Friday night last year, to a massive sell-out, yet Derry play on Thursday night, without a peep of protest from anyone.
Of course all clubs should work for the betterment of all, but try to convince chairmen of certain Dublin clubs that.

[SIZE=1]btw, I presume Dodge will be on soon, telling me how wrong I am. [/SIZE]

there is no love lost between your manager and all at st pats,
your manager felt he was hard done by and the rest of our club couldnt wait to get rid of him so there was bound to be bitterness

the presentation was window dressing, part of the PR charade that your boss loves

anyway we're shot of him now so happy days all round

It the FAI council needs to be scrapped pack of kids bitchin all the time to each other afraid someone is getting more than they are. That is where the problem lies.

I'm not necessarily sure that we had to agree to the switch, but last season youse accomodated us with the Saturday game, and we did likewise with the early kick off of the midweek rearranged fixtures.... I can only assume that this is the Fat One at play again, and will surely cost youse in the long run.... On a Saturday night we would've brought a good crowd - a Friday at relatively short notice I think we'll bring a poor crowd....

Personally I hope we do switch our home game - Cork is pretty much our big overnighter... Longford is yours so whats good for the goose.....

Enjoy the hype and the long ball rubbish football...

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Originally posted by wws

anyway we're shot of him now so happy days all round

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Maybe you can answer me this (genuine question)I cant understand why you lot were so glad to be rid of him,with all the success he brought the logic escapes me.Obviously I dont know the whole story,but im willing to be enlightened.

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Originally posted by Dricky
the FAI council needs to be scrapped pack of kids bitchin all the time to each other afraid someone is getting more than they are. That is where the problem lies.

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just thought it deserved to be read again...

what i can't understand is why pat's fans continue to go on, and on, and on, about how glad they are to be 'rid of him.' If ye're so glad then why to ye continue to moan!

getting back on topic, i think most clubs, and more particularly their fans, have been victims of fixture foul-ups over the years. I can recall a number of occasions where two weeks before a match we don't know what day of the week it's on. you then have clubs moving fixtures at short notice and others not moving fixtures when requested to.

but the crux of the situation is not that clubs carry on like this, without respect for the other clubs and, again perhaps more importantly the fans, but that there is nothing stopping them from doing so. i would imagine this all goes back to the 'league rulebook' as in if it were written properly there would be proper channels and procedures to deal with fixtures and any change of fixtures.

I think theres a lot of misunderstanding about this thing with cork fans

I dont think you're well clued in with the pats/dolan row last season

basically he was sacked and left with a lot of bad blood

since than we've lost a lot of dead wood and signed quality left right and centre proving that dolan was not responsible for bringing any new talent to the club as those connections l;ay elsewhere(mainly with EC)....this is further bourne out by dolans inability to sign anyone of note for cork city

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Originally posted by wws
this is further bourne out by dolans inability to sign anyone of note for cork city

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Not too sure about that,K Doyle is shaping up to be a class signing.As I understand it Dolan wasnt fired but rather jumped before he was pushed.Again I stand to be corrected.

WWS..you still did not answer the question that was asked.We here as fans of Cork City FC would like to know WHY Pats fans come on here regularly moaning that they are delighted Dolan has left there club, and is now with City.As far as i can see Pat Dolan has put your club on the map over the last ten years and to talk about a man that has won the league for you just because he left is more jealousy as far as i am concerned.If its not then tell us what he has done that annoyed everyone in Inchicore so much.Also you say since he left you have signed class players left,right and centre.Are you sure you are talking about St Pats?????

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Originally posted by joe
what i can't understand is why pat's fans continue to go on, and on, and on, about how glad they are to be 'rid of him.' If ye're so glad then why to ye continue to moan!

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That's what gets me aswell, they must miss him a lot if he is still in their thoughts so much!:)


On the whole City - Longford issue, we play all our games on a Friday night, Longford play all theirs on a Saturday night. Why would Longford move from their regular match night just to spite us??? The suggestion alone is absolute rubbish!

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Originally posted by Colm
The suggestion alone is absolute rubbish!

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I certainly didn't suggest it, just commented that the suggestion has been thrown about....and that the fact that it has isn't right at all.

Y SHOULD WE DO A TEAM ANY FAVOURS WHEN FAVOURS CERTAINLY ARENT BEING DONE FOR US

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Originally posted by patsh
City got flak for playing their FAI cup semi on a Friday night last year, to a massive sell-out, yet Derry play on Thursday night, without a peep of protest from anyone.[/SIZE]

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to be fair, derry almost always accomodate city with a sunday match (as we do to them) i personally think derry had a case to be disgruntled last year and fair play to the legions they brought down with them. there is a distance limit in the league rules dictating whether a club can do a midweek game, derry-dublin just falls within this distance, so no one has a leg to stand on there unless the rules are changed.

i'm already on record as saying that the longford switch is of benefit to both clubs from the point of view of preparing for the LC semis, it's unfortunate that so many fans had made plans around the saturday night, but longford did agree to the switch (i'll conceed they might not have been given much time to talk it over).

the pat's city game did not have to be switched, we had only one player out, you need three to force a switch. it shows overeliance on flynny. having said that pat's could have accomodated our request and i believe they did not out of spite to dolan. there's a lot of bad blood still running there. it's interesting to see if city will object to the shels game switched to thursday because of their mid-season friendly, adding to the idiotic tit for tat.

@ndy is spot on though, we need to get rid of this rubbish and infighting from the league, we hold each other back too much when the league should be progressing. (even the recent desires expressed to see rovers lose in poland goes to show how narrow minded we are when it comes to the success of the league as a whole).

joe's point that the rulebook needs to be looked at is a good one (although it should have been done when we switched to summer leagues), the longford switch wouldn't have been an issue if all league cup games had to be played on wednesdays (as they're regionalised until the semis the distance rule would not be in effect i.e. city could not draw derry until the semis) instead of maybe being played on a monday.

obviously each club has to look after it's own interests but unless we all combine to further the standards and promotion of the league (avoiding egg on face fiascos with registrations of players, scheduling of fixtures etc.) we'll soon run out of teams to play against.

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Originally posted by thecorner
Y SHOULD WE DO A TEAM ANY FAVOURS WHEN FAVOURS CERTAINLY ARENT BEING DONE FOR US

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maybe only to show teams how it should be done, someone has to start to break this cycle, i'd like to think city are big enough to do this.

longford agreed to the switch without half of the crap that was spewed by us (myself included) when Pat's didn't switch for us. we're starting to appear like a petty little club when it comes to things like this.

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Originally posted by tiktok
it's interesting to see if city will object to the shels game switched to thursday because of their mid-season friendly, adding to the idiotic tit for tat.

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I don't see why City should agree to switch this fixture? Shels should have checked their league schedule before agreeing to any "preseason" friendlies. You can't put priority on a pre-season friendly over a league game. You would never see it in any other league. Shels are at fault on this one......City should not accept the change in dates for the good of the league.

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Originally posted by Colm
On the whole City - Longford issue, we play all our games on a Friday night, Longford play all theirs on a Saturday night. Why would Longford move from their regular match night just to spite us??? The suggestion alone is absolute rubbish!

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We have moved our regular match start time forward to allow youse get home a little earlier and we have played on Sunday to suit youse...

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Originally posted by Xlex
. to suit youse...

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ya jackeen langar ya X-LEX
:)