Article: BETOP - Bring Europe to Oriel Park

Thats funny!! Placebo effect is real - Ive felt dodgy driving after 0% alcoholic beers and felt hungover later also. Watched one guy (a smoker) get 'off his face' on rolling tobacco as its was suggested it was more exotic than a rollie (one chap was being given lumps of peat briquette by his 'dealer' and thought it was the best ever 'cause thats what he was told). Conversely I have often seen someone complain that they were in pain after pain relief but couldnt feel being jabbed in the foot with a pen and then some in agony being cured after some saline....mind is a funny thing!

If you suggested to some people in Oriel that at some point they'd have been drinking Carlsberg instead of Harp they'd have freaked out, full stereotype stuff. funny then when one night it was claimed 'Best pints of Harp by far' though Harp had run out and I stuck on some Carlsberg kegs instead. Twas years ago!! So on yer last point, if someone is the type to fight after drink they will fight if they thought they were drinking too lol

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

Happened me at the 1998 euro final, was there with a few pals and we were hoofing into the pints in the stadium and having a great old time when someone found out it was alcohol free and suddenly the mood changed altogether.
Always wondered what would happen in a bar if the publicans secretly switched the beers to 0% and told no one.

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Same thing happened to me and my Dad at the Ireland game in Schalke a few years back. I bought two beers and walked back towards the seating area, asked the stweward if its ok to bring them to the seats expecting a no.... devastated.

Away in Salzburg it had been established within minutes that it was non alcoholic beer in the stadium. The word had firmly spread. I'd been drinking all day and didn't really need any more alcohol in my system but I did need to keep going or else I'd get sleepy, as can happen if you stop drinking for a few hours in the middle of a few days binge. So I made the decision that I was happy with the non alcoholic beer for the illusion (and magical beer carbs I suppose). I must have been told 100,000 times by other fans that it was non alcoholic throughout the course of the match. I'm sure the same people must've told me numerous times. It was as if I was driving the wrong way down a motorway.

Almost outrage Im sure - good job ye didnt order a few cokes or you'd have been banished!

On the other side of the coin we were in Warsaw in 2018 expecting only non alcoholic beer but UEFA had just recently changed the rules so it was down to individual clubs/leagues so there was a nonstop queue of City fans buying beer throughout the game. Aside form the football that was a great day!
In Luxembourg in 2019 we were able to get beer in the ground too, but the security was way over the top. Wouldn't let us drink in the stands, kept changing the rules on whether we could go and buy beer/go to the toilet, whether we could drink beer behind the goal.

In Luxembourg? They're so laid back, must have had a really fussy UEFA observer at the game. (Id also forgotten how that tie had panned out) not the best of European away game experiences :(

Not a thread that needs to stay on topic and an old incident also so i think its ok to mention this here and not start another thread on an old topic?

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/refe...otions-1.29721

I wasnt living in Ireland at the time and predates most LoI fora an Aertel was on the go, but I have no recollection of this incident at all.

This paragraph gives a whole new perspective on refereeing standards (at that time....). Without intending to disparage anyone with a learning disability, but it sound like one chap wanted spoon feeding answers and another that would have been quite happy to be a 4th official.

In Mr Tomney's case he had decided to undergo the physical test even though he had not been feeling fully fit. Mr Traynor, who suffered a reading disability, had always been afforded a privilege of having the examiner explain to him any problem he might have with a question so he could answer. That system had been changed and both men believed they should have been given a chance to resit tests.

*I remember neither ref too so no idea whether they deserved demotion irrespective of test results or how things should have been managed.

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

In Luxembourg? They're so laid back, must have had a really fussy UEFA observer at the game. (Id also forgotten how that tie had panned out) not the best of European away game experiences :(

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Yeah it was strange. The game was out in the middle of nowhere, I think their normal stadium was unavilable for some reason. We were given one side of the pitch. I called it a stand earlier but it was little more than an alleway with a couple of concrete steps. For most of the game we had a line of stewards standing between us and the pitch. Way over the top. Their next game was against Rangers. I'd love to know how they handled the security for that one.

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Originally Posted by El-Pietro

Yeah it was strange. The game was out in the middle of nowhere, I think their normal stadium was unavilable for some reason. We were given one side of the pitch. I called it a stand earlier but it was little more than an alleway with a couple of concrete steps. For most of the game we had a line of stewards standing between us and the pitch. Way over the top. Their next game was against Rangers. I'd love to know how they handled the security for that one.

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Maybe they anticipated the Cork fan reaction to the unsportsmanlike behaviour of tackling? Ive not experienced anything particularly OTT at away European games (bar Israel maybe but thats just a mad spot in general), I have seen locals eg shops, restaurants and bars relax when it was determined that we werent English football fans.

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

Maybe they anticipated the Cork fan reaction to the unsportsmanlike behaviour of tackling? Ive not experienced anything particularly OTT at away European games (bar Israel maybe but thats just a mad spot in general), I have seen locals eg shops, restaurants and bars relax when it was determined that we werent English football fans.

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Thats the weirdest part. I've been all over and never experienced anything like it. Everywhere else we've been we've either been welcomed or ignored depending on how high profile the game was. I think maybe they thought we were English? Or didn't know the difference culturally. I think there was 1 steward for every 4 or 5 city fans. The steward nearest me was sound at least and we have a bit of fun joking with him throughout.

It's true, nearly the first thing done was to establish that we were a club and bunch of fans from Ireland or maybe as much not England. It did make a difference particularly as the groups of fans grew matchday at the more accessible away locations, were quite rowdy but little issue, damn all police bar at the grounds and nothing excessive there either. We seemed more a curiosity to the locals. It's not as if there was no Lux v LoI opposition for some awareness, and regularly of recent years for a very small country (6 times over the last 10 years, and Ipswich Town were the last English club to visit in European competition....). Neidercorn had knocked Rangers out a couple of years before, is it possible it was a milk run for if they went through (maybe stretching a bit there). How many Cork fans travelled roughly EP?
As an aside I thought UCD were pretty unique as Students playing in a country's top levels of football and in Europe until I saw that Niedercorn had beaten Cardiff Met University to play Cork. Some nice facilties available to them but its just not the UCD Bowl!! Whole facility, track and proper under-stand facilities cost 5mil and took 46 week to complete:confused: take out the track and some of the fancy work and ye could knock about 2mil off the price tag, 10-15mil would go a good way to improve the league with facilties similar aaaannnnd start to finish in less than a year.....
https://www.cardiffcityhouseofsport....AVCHOSLECK.jpg
https://i2-prod.walesonline.co.uk/in...9211267JPG.jpg

That's probably the ugliest thing I've ever seen. A running track in a football ground with three empty sides and a single oversized stand

That's where Rovers played the week before we went to Dudelange I think in 2015 too. It looked weird on the video cos you couldn't see any sort of facilities, but of course the camera was in the stand so didn't pick up on it.

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Originally Posted by Bucket

That's probably the ugliest thing I've ever seen. A running track in a football ground with three empty sides and a single oversized stand

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I did say take out the running track, and the fluff and you get an indication of what can be done for x amount of money in a quickly completed project, be that adapted for Oriel Park or part of a redevelopment of Dalymount. Is Athlone better off without their single stand (oversized based on attendances) with 3 empty sides? There's me thinking that Oriel is everyone's favourite eyesore. I should have been clearer above, I wasnt suggesting that the above example could or should replicated, but that that facility is reasonably costed, and indication of what could be done for roughly 50% of Dundalk's 2016 European money and that it didnt take decades from sod being turned to key being turned. Take out the cost of ground works, field area, and any extensive under-stand development on non greenfield site development and costs should fall again.

*funnily enough I thought it has a resemblance to Tallaght in the bottom pic before additional stands were added - maybe it is the ugliest thing ever seen after all!

I wasn't arguing your point, merely expressing my horror at that photo! I think it's actually embarrassing that our league is nearing it's centenary and the absolute state of our infrastructure, collectively. I include the FAI in this along with the clubs, no matter what JD said, Lansdowne is only leased.