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I am more of an Irish national team 'follower' than a 'supporter'. I 'support' my local team, Finn Harps, by going to games the length and breadth of the country, buying club merchandise, programmes, club lottos, half-time draws, selling fundraising tickets, etc.
I have never invested the same energy into the national team.
Always been a huge Ireland fan and always will be. Was an Ireland fan before discovering the LOI.
I'm also posting from Stansted on the way to Blarney, and would pretty much echo what Kev is saying.Quote:
Originally Posted by MariborKev
I'm lucky that I'm in the position financially and leave-wise that I can follow both my club and country.
Club matches do mean more to me, though I have missed Derry matches because I've been abroad at Ireland ones. I don't really feel that much of a detachment from the national side, as some have been saying on here, though some Ireland fans are dreadful to be around, who'll ridicule the LoI then suddenly demand James McClean be called up as soon as he signs for Sunderland.
What tends to happen at away matches, for me anyway, the LoI fans stick together. You'll always see plenty of LoI jerseys about, and it's a conversation starter.
The club will always be top though. Just means more as it's my home town.
Nope , i have pretty much zero interest.
I'm Irish, I support Ireland in all sports and pursuits. It's a curse at times but it's my country.
That's what people in Nazi Germany said.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spudulika
The people in Nazi Germany felt Irish?
Should probably invoke Godwin's Law here...
Nah no interest, much prefer to see a LOI team do well in Europe
No.
I feel no attachment or affinity for the national team.
Not because of the players as such, but the whole circus surrounding the national team.
The media who salivate over gash Irish performances and celebrate what should be lambasted such as the Euro performances. The very same media whose total disinterest in our National league is only set aside when they have an opportunity to ridicule our national league. The same media that is part and parcel of the very hypocrisy which churns out never ending column inch's to the English leagues.
The plastic paddy brigade which follow the national team, the self appointed 'best fans in the world', don't make me ****ing sick. Would they have the same commitment to the national team if they were genuine fans that followed their club teams? Its why the best club fans in the world have generally an abysmal national team following because in the end of the day the national team is a side show.
I don't want to be associated with those bandwagon clowns who are just there for the event, essentially a holiday, its not about football or the results, that was evident from their celebrating the embaressing performances the national team produced.
Trap and his dinosaur tactics don't help but in all honesty I could ignore all that if I felt an affinity and if I had more in common with the majority who follow the national team but I don't.
They are a joke, mimicking real football supporters because lets face it with all their chest puffing it is a bit hard to get that emotionally involved in a successful English club team which they have some transient excuse for supporting.
Give me a Sham I despise any day over those plastic paddy's, at least I respect other LOI fans, but the majority of the national team following I don't and never have.
I agree that these are unfortunate realities, but could the national team do anything about the above - with the exception of your aversion to Trap's tactics of choice - to bridge your sense of detachment? Perhaps you need to question your own commitment before judging others on theirs?Quote:
Originally Posted by Rasputin
Don't you feel some sort of affinity with the likes of Seamus Coleman, for example?
Maybe it is my own commitment that needs to be questioned but I just can't associate with the majority of those who follow the National team, I don't have anything in common with them on a football level and don't respect them, in fact I think they are ridiculous. I couldn't actively par-take in their self congratulatory back slapping about how they are the best fans in the world as they fit in trips with the national team in-between their bi-annual visits to Old Trafford.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
Its all just a bit too ridiculous for me and I don't want anything to do with it.
As for Seamus Coleman i'm delighted for him, but like I said its not really about the team or the tactics, all of that is secondary to the circus that surrounds it for me.
Only went to one senior game (a friendly in Thomond vs Australia) and a few u21 games but little interest in the national side, Club first country second.
LOI mascots did a dance-off at half time during the match today. Hooperman won. *****.
Nice to see the bit of rivalry still going when as soon as the music kicked in and Hooperman went into the centre circle the Pats mascot did a runner straight for him and tried to spear him to the ground! :D Poor auld Hooperman had a bit of a mixed day, he got a bit of a kicking off the rest of the mascots down in the corner after he was announced the winner and during the first half as they were doing laps around the crowd this little fat kid a few rows down from me spent ages trying to have a scrap with him.Quote:
Originally Posted by fionnsci
:D
Also, Dennis really should put some keks on if he's going to be going around high fiving kids, that's a quickfire way to be put on the register!
I've said repeatedly on foot.ie that the "best fans in the world" mantle is simply a stick for cranks to beat ROI fans with. I believe it even more now having read Rasputin's posts.
No ROI fan I know uses the term or even comes close to believing it to be true. If anything, those of us who support the national team with an almost religious fervour are pretty frustrated at how flimsy the support is.
It's frankly ridiculous to assume we're all EPL-loving part-timers who look down on the LOI. In fact the 20+ ROI regulars I associate with are all very positive towards the LOI and are very quick to criticise the commercial vulgarity of the EPL. I have an interest in how the EPL pans out, just as I do all the major European soccer leagues. I have had a lifelong affection for Arsenal and probably will do even if I struggle to relate to the English game anymore. I have also had a lifelong affection for Shamrock Rovers, and was quite simply thrilled to see Sligo win the league last year. I'd be equally delighted to see Pats win it this year. Great clubs.
Post #31 above by Rasputin betrays an absolutely enormous shoulder chip. I don't care if people support club over country, or no club at all. There is no one best way to be a football fan or to love the game. It's a broad church and everyone's welcome.
You agree that the media salivates over gash performances? You obviously read different media sources than I do. You believe there's a platic paddy brigade that follows the team? You believe that only a fan that follows his club team is a genuine fan? You have a different sense of reality to me Danny!Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
The LOI and the Irish national team are both valid sporting entities. There's room for both.
And know at least one poster's views are different in reality to what they've said here...
;)
No, I dislike the the whole national side of things, I enjoy watching local football and getting some entertainment. I find our fans obnoxious with this "best fans in the world" stuff. Losing 4-0 to Spain wasn't it? Singing their hearts out when they were watching pure rubbish. It would make me sick to he associated with them. The whole circus that surrounds the Irish national team is easily disliked. This were rubbish but we don't care attitude of fans is depressing. That's why I couldn't give a hoot if Ireland lose 7-0 or win 7-0. Either way doesn't bother me.
I am brazilian, and the brazilian CBF is about the same or even worse than the FAI. For a start, our John Delaney is a former far-right politician that helped to arrest leftist activists for torture during our dictatorship years. Recently, he was caught pickpocketing medals in a cup final. Even though the irish green shirt is far from being the mythical thing that ours is, the way our federation uses our national team as a golden egg chicken made the matches so farcical, so stupid, that it's impossible to keep caring about them. Year by year, there's always one or two players that are in the squad for obviously other reasons than football (this time, it's Hulk. Lucas is one of the best players in the world but he cannot manage to be in the starting eleven because he doesn't have the necessary relations). That, plus the plastic support mentioned, tickets for the matches cost way more than what the brazilian working class can pay, this in the rare occasions where the game is in Brazil, because mostly they play in Switzerland, USA, Japan, Dubai or something like this, there's no real brazilian diehard football supporter attending those matches anymore, just a bunch of posh rich kids. Not to mention the awful standard of football, for a team that used to be the Harlem Globetrotters of football. I care so little about this team that several times I went to Aviva to see Ireland playing someone else instead of watching my own country.
Given my little rant about the biggest and most traditional national team of the world, I totally understand if some people lost their patience with a much less attractive product like the Irish team.
My statement was probably too broad. I should have been more careful and ought to clarify.
The media devote much more coverage, especially positive, to the national side - or the EPL, even - than to the League of Ireland, perhaps to the detriment of the game in Ireland. Not that there is some obligation to cover the "domestic" game; I just think it would be nice to see Irish clubs and their players on the back pages for positive reasons rather than tucked a few pages in for more-often-than-not negative reasons.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
I suppose I believe there's a "brigade" of Irish people who claim to take an interest in Irish football but don't seem troubled by the disconnect that exists between the national side and the "domestic" game whilst happy to pump money into Manchester United, Liverpool or Chelsea, of all teams. Despite their claimed interest, they appear unable to equate national indifference for the game in Ireland, or the League of Ireland, with the national team's happy-go-lucky ambitions, where our fortunes are largely dependent on chance or dependent upon living off the scraps of English academies rather than relying on or benefiting from any serious developmental framework or footballing pyramid of our own. I think that's unfortunate, yes. Think of the potential and the pride a strong and healthy league could bring.Quote:
You believe there's a platic paddy brigade that follows the team?
Not at all. People can follow whoever they like. I just think it's unfortunate when certain people claim to support one thing but it doesn't appear to dawn on them that their conduct may actually be proving detrimental to the entity they claim to support in the long run; an entity in which I also take an interest. I'd be reluctant to come across as condescending or as if I know it all - I don't - but surely no harm in highlighting a concern.Quote:
You believe that only a fan that follows his club team is a genuine fan?