Originally Posted by
SolitudeRed
Well did Belfast Celtic not win lots of league titles and trophies as well as beat the Scottish national team in an American tour! or are you saying Europe is the true test of a good club? Plus there were European competitions before UEFA etc came along, didn't Glentoran win the Vienna cup in 1914!
We where talking about Europe, but domestically they where very close to Linfield in honours. Although they where still behind:cool: The Vienna cup was an invitational competition. It's like the Carlsberg Challange a few years back at Windsor with Glentoran, Linfield, Liverpool and Feyenord all in the competition. It's hardly European standard though;)
Look a lot has been made of this Windsor debacle and It seems to most people apart from Linfield fans that there was something is not quite right with it!
Because Linfield supporters are in a more qualified position to comment on it. I'm a Linfield full member, I get the accounts every year and I can assure you, it is only now that Linfield are getting a wee screw out of the rent we get from internationals
For a start one must ask themselves did the IFA forget whose interests they were supposed to be representing when they negotiated this contract as it seems heavily weighted in Linfields favour and almost impossible for the IFA to get out of!
The government forced the IFAs hand with this. Also ALL clubs had the opportunity to put in a business plan etc to the IFA. No one did apart from Linfield.
and despite claims that it has not been that lucrative for Linfield I find it difficult to believe that they would have accepted such terms if it was going to damage the club financially and overall Linfield has surely benefited from this 'contract' if you would call it that! I'm sure if the IFA was a company out in the real world they wouldn't last very long if they conducted business in such a fashion!
I never said it has damaged Linfield financially. Not in the long term anyway. The short term we have struggled as we had to put 2 million towards the Kop. But now that the international side is doing better and we are getting better tv money and more people watchin in the ground. It is only now that we are seeing the benefits. I know this for a fact as I get the years accounts for Linfield every year.
Also for your Information Cliftonville have played made a fair few appearances in Europe in the last 10 or so years, I think we've played in the Intertoto 3 times and the Champions league once about a dozen matches in all. But hopefully this new stand will be built soon and we'll not have to play any more matches at Windsor!
To be fair, my jibe was more of a joke than a jibe.