As a Pats fan i'm definitely ****ed off we werent asked (as league champions)
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As a Pats fan i'm definitely ****ed off we werent asked (as league champions)
I am glad the Europa League sold out. It would be very nice to have it back again, did anyone on this forum go to it? I am a little surprised, with greater tv and internet access, that more Irish soccer fans do not follow some of the other European Leagues apart from England and a bit of Scottish Football. Two teams from Portugal were in the final then, and AVB was manager of one of them, their fans were very colourful around the city center as well. Strange time to be in Dublin with traffic blocked off etc. Also I noticed out by the airport there was loads of photographers on the road beside it the day before. If this was to do with the soccer final it must have given Ireland greater exposure/media coverage than the visit of Queen of England and Obama (forgot about him), but maybe I am wrong on this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by desaintsno.12
Warrior have organised this match.
They weren't gonna just invited any team from Ireland to play this, even the league champions. They wanted a team who are also sponsored by Warrior so that every player the public see's in Lansdowne Road that day will be showing off the Warrior badge.
Warrior did not organise this game.
Is that all?Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
Do you just not want to believe it or do you want to share some information on what was the reasoning behind choosing the 2 teams involved?
I was at the Europa league final, picked up a couple of free tickets and thoroughly enjoyed it. There seemed to be an awful lot of free tickets floating around and it would have been easy to get a ticket on the day even if it was officially sold out.Quote:
Originally Posted by wonder88
Despite having an interest in following Rovers and Liverpool this friendly game is not really appealing to me at all. A ten year old me would have driven my parents mad wanting to go and see Liverpool. These days all I can see is Rovers B playing Liverpool's disinterested reserve side and I've got better things to do with €30.
There's nothing to believe. Good luck to Rovers and fair play to them for playing their part in organising it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boots9
If Warrior arranged it wouldn't you think that they would have been shouting from the rooftops about it? They haven't been mentioned in any of the press releases that I've seen
You're ****ed off that your status as league champions wasn't recognised by being invited to play in a meaningless mid-season friendly between two B teams? It's a commercial fixture designed to make money and the organisers invited the two teams they felt would best achieve that. It sounds like Rovers were also pro-active in making sure they were one of the clubs.Quote:
Originally Posted by desaintsno.12
What I think happened is that Rovers approached the FAI to see about availability of Lansdowne if they could arrange a high profile frinedly. FAI say "funny you should ask, we had great success with Liverpool last year and were thinking of bring them back. Do you want to come in and we'll give you €x and we'll take the rest?"
Rovers get their few bob hassle free (and great PR) and FAI get another few quid to pay off the Lansdowne debt. Liverpool get their shed laod of cash so all 3 delighted with themselves
You discounted Warrior being involved earlier but even if they didn't organise it (I've never heard of a kit sponsor putting on a game in Ireland) they did help to grease the wheels and make sure both their kits were on display.
I went to it, got tickets the day of the game. Although the match itself wasn't great it was a great occasion to have in Dublin, enjoyable day.Quote:
Originally Posted by wonder88
Check out Warrior Ireland's facebook page it all over it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nah Nah Nah Nah
Warrior Ireland is John Courtney. He's a Rovers manQuote:
Originally Posted by Neish
As I said, Warrior had nothing to do with organising it but I'd fully expect them to promote it. Why wouldn't they?
Just reading in today's Indo that Shams are to collect over €100k for this gig. http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-30143084.html
Can anyone explain, from my perspective at least, why Shams are getting preferential treatment from the FAI? Do the FAI not have a duty to the other Clubs to act in a fair and transparent manner? Level playing pitch, etc. - pun intended.
I for one would certainly give serious consideration to supporting the other Clubs if they refused to play both Shams' teams. A drastic and unprecedented measure but given that the FAI are in effect financing Shams why should the other Clubs just accept it?
Get over it. Rovers have always had preferential treatment from the FAI and from the establishment ( Media, revenue, politicians etc). Similar to certain favoured clubs in other countries, i.e.Linfield, Munich, R. Madrid, PSG. The difference being that the latter clubs win their major domestic trophies on a regular basis.
I am not sure it was always Shamrock R who got special treatment; I remember Roddy Collins saying in his newspaper column a few years ago that Bohs were getting certain advantages when the money from Zurich Bank and the property developers was wining LoI titles for them. Everyone likes a winner so decisions from refs, blind eye turned to certain rule infringements often happen. The big Dublin clubs (whoever they may be at the time) also benefit, which again in natural. Other clubs just have to try harder and when it is blatant highlight it and fight it. There is a cost of fielding a B team this year for Rovers so this friendly income should go and cover that. We couldn't have a 7 team First Division.
But sometimes picking winners is not that easy and Fran Gavin and the FAI may get it wrong, which is why it would be better to have the clubs themselves in charge of running the league, rather than the FAI. Then there would be less chance of blatant unfairness happening.
Whatever deal Bohs did with Zurich Bank is between themselves and Zurich. Yes, they got money and won titles, but they are now paying the price with Dalymount Park mortgaged to the hilt and heavily in debt.
The FAI are not a commercial bank. They are the governing body. They should be, and be seen to be, independent.
In relation to the B team, that is a reflection on the FAI in that they could not get a new member.
Nobody knows the exact circumstances of how the friendly came about and what how extensive a role the FAI had in its organisation so it's a bit much to be alleging favouritism.
the various posts on this thread only reinforce the fact I love love love being a Rovers fan!!!:-))
Is that like an Al-Qaeda terrorist cell where no one person knows all the details?Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Or like the late Ollie Byrne - where only one person knows all and tells no one else?
Either way it is a stroke of genius!
No, it's more like a business deal where all the details haven't been announced in the newspapers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezeikial
Thats a relief - at least somebody knows the details!Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Yep , a lot of clubs including mine know that spending money that you borrow gives you a short term advantage and then you reap the whirlwind. On the other hand your club getting thinly veiled handouts from the state and the governing body is a tad different , no?. Anyway congrats on the the April Fool jape of quoting Roddy to support an argument, any argument, priceless!Quote:
Originally Posted by wonder88
Rovers, homeless, model club, etc. Can we skip all the tired arguments and leave this thread until some real facts come out?
And go against all the time-honoured traditions of foot.ie ?Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
It could be true about Warrior arranging the game. Courtney is trying to get the Warrior brand into Ireland and Warrior are also trying to break the European market. Plus rumour has it Warrior are interesting in taken over from Umbro when the FAI's contract with them is up. Most clubs in England are at the mercy of their sponsors. That's why so many clubs travel to Asia, Africa or America for pre-season. Emirates did something similar with Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain out in Qatar.
The idea that the small Dublin office of a relatively minor kit manufacturer jumped over the heads of every event promoter in Ireland, some of which the FAI has contracts with, to arrange a fixture was always a bit fanciful. As Dodge says, Warrior in Ireland is just Jomathan Courtenay, I wouldn't be surprised if he had a role behind the scenes bringing the two sides together and bagged himself a consultancy fee, but this would be the first time I've ever heard of Warrior arranging a fixture. It would make far more sense that either one of the clubs, the FAI or a company like Platinum One made this happen.
It's notQuote:
Originally Posted by GypsyBlackCat
The current deal runs until 2020Quote:
Plus rumour has it Warrior are interesting in taken over from Umbro when the FAI's contract with them is up
Why not? Warrior might only have a 12x12 office in Dublin but they are a big brand in the US and are trying to break the European market. They signed a £300m deal with Liverpool and I'd imagine they have a few clause in there like playing friendlies. It would make sense for Warrior to arrange a match between two of it's clients in a country were Liverpool have a big fan base.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Quote:
Originally Posted by GypsyBlackCat
Whoever signed that deal was a visionary.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
Is the 2020 deal not just with TopLion? Given that Umbro has lost a rake of teams over the last year since the Nike divestment and we remain relatively in unscathed in Ireland with our LOI teams constantly churning out templates from them.
With a lot of international teams, WCQ and not changing kits from umbro this time round I wouldn't be surprised if we landed with Warrior.
Equally. They may not.
TopLion was just Courtenay again I think. It's reverted to Umbro Ireland now.
I support Bohs and Everton.
This could be a good opportunity for LoI clubs if they could get the assistance of their kit suppliers in arranging glamour friendlies, which would bring in vital revenue. Warrior should get a spike in sales for the Liverpool jersey in Ireland as all their fans will want to look their best at the game in Lansdowne.
Anybody know how this is selling? Rovers were making out like the tickets would be golddust and you'd have to hang onto your Sligo stub to buy one, but I've seen a few times over the past couple of weeks they're still pushing tickets on Facebook. Going by Ticketmaster, most of the cheap seats are gone and there seems to be a couple of thousand still on sale but you don't know how many they're holding back from that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Kids tickets are sold out, only €30 tickets left from what I was told
Just saw an ad on Setanta saying they'll be showing this game. It's not on their TV schedule so not sure what channel yet but presumably the free one.
I saw some ad on BT earlier advertising the game so assume its them thats showin it!Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Yeah it's on their site now. Annoying for those without subscriptions!Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II