Ireland v Spain - What does it mean to us??

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

I wouldn't have you on my stats team. McGeady has two assists in the past month alone. The only two goals we've scored in that time, incidentally.

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Mr.Stats man, tell us all about his stats in the final third of the field then. He's entirely frustrating to watch. Always has to beat 6 men and run into a corner before crossing a ball when all he needs to do is put his head up and look for a simple pass.

He does have that problem, and yet he still sets up a large propotion of our goals and has begun to score his fair share too.

http://ayetv1.com/2012/06/donegal-ba...-in-the-world/

Monaghan Town... so close...

'What can be done to establish a meaningful connection between Irish domestic football and the national team?': http://www.goal.com/en-ie/news/3942/...ful-connection

Letter in today's Times. Did anyone here write it?

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Sir, – According to figures in The Irish Times on Saturday, the overall attendance at five Airtricity League of Ireland games on Friday night last amounted to a meagre 7,754.The majority of the “wonderful” Irish supporters who caused so much merriment when celebrating the defeats at Euro 2012 obviously have not recovered from their exertions and long travelling to go out and support local soccer.But, no doubt, these dedicated fans will soon turn out in big numbers, as they did thousands of miles away, to boost crowds at League of Ireland matches. – Yours, etc,

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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

'What can be done to establish a meaningful connection between Irish domestic football and the national team?': http://www.goal.com/en-ie/news/3942/...ful-connection

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I like the idea of each Premier team having 3 or 4 centrally contracted players, use some of the money we have earned at major championships to directly resource the league - would take some wage pressure off the clubs and give a long term viable professional football option to players. It might stop a lot of players playing in the lower leagues cross channel when a option is available at home.

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the overall attendance at five Airtricity League of Ireland games

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*Airtricity League of Ireland Premier Division games.


Jesus that annoys me when 99% of the time people just completely flat out ignore the First Division as if it doesn't exist.

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Originally Posted by Spudulika

JD got carried away, so what. Better to have some suited twit who'll take the same pay home and still not give a damn.

LTID - please point out a difference between "fans" and "supporters", there is always a crossover and supporting your country is not inclusive of supporting your local team, especially if you live/were born abroad. The LOI self-pity whinge fest has gone on too long. Get out, back your local club and get the heads of it to change the league from the bottom up - force the FAI to change from the top down. It won't happen because, not too long ago, the clubs voted to back the FAI's running of the league. So the blame lies on the supporters of LOI clubs (in a round about way).

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great post spudulka.

so what your saying is the vast majority of the fans in poland are not football supporters? why because they dont support a loi team or go to matches that is a crazy judgement. i know loads of lads in my area that play junior soccer and got tickets through their junior club and went to the finals not just players but also committee members, managers, and supporters of those junior clubs. that is just in my area im sure it was the same all over the country so i would say the 'vast majority' of the supporters in poland actually play football every week in this country or are actively involved in the running of junior/intermediate/schoolboy clubs. football in ireland is not all about the loi, that makes up a small percentage of football people/supporters in this country.

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Originally Posted by Lim till i die

Why the massive gulf??

Because Spain looked at their broken player development model and fixed it. Spanish people aren't naturally better football players than Irish people



Are people involved in League clubs entitled to be resentful of the fact that €1,400,000 (plus expenses) comes out of the associations kitty to pay a manager and CEO??

Possibly.



The vast majority of people over there aren't football supporters.

They are consumers. This is their summer holiday for the year.

Mournfulness, pride and undimmed allegiance??

Are you for real?! In the majority of cases they're singing and dancing and acting the Paddy because they don't give a ****.

Do I think the genuine fans in Poland are worthy of sympathy?? Yes

Do I think most of the people over in Poland are genuine fans?? No

Your comparison to a Premiership team that's been relegated is silly beyond argument as well.

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above post in response to this sorry :)

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Originally Posted by republican

so what your saying is the vast majority of the fans in poland are not football supporters? why because they dont support a loi team or go to matches that is a crazy judgement. i know loads of lads in my area that play junior soccer and got tickets through their junior club and went to the finals not just players but also committee members, managers, and supporters of those junior clubs. that is just in my area im sure it was the same all over the country so i would say the 'vast majority' of the supporters in poland actually play football every week in this country or are actively involved in the running of junior/intermediate/schoolboy clubs. football in ireland is not all about the loi, that makes up a small percentage of football people/supporters in this country.

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I think the judgement more relates to people who "support" Man Yoo, the Gooners, Chelski etc rather than an Irish team. I don't think involvement in junior soccer is prohibitive to the LOI in the same way the Premiership is.

For example; I myself was involved in underage / junior soccer for years, (before work took me abroad) but the difference with me and other mentors / committee members etc was that I was a regular at Turners Cross on a Friday night - while the rest of the committee supported Liverpool.

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Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid

I think the judgement more relates to people who "support" Man Yoo, the Gooners, Chelski etc rather than an Irish team. I don't think involvement in junior soccer is prohibitive to the LOI in the same way the Premiership is.

For example; I myself was involved in underage / junior soccer for years, (before work took me abroad) but the difference with me and other mentors / committee members etc was that I was a regular at Turners Cross on a Friday night - while the rest of the committee supported Liverpool.

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thats a fair point but he said the vast majority of people over there were not football supporters and going to poland was their holiday for the year which is incorrect from where i was looking. also on the junior/loi/premiership debate, every player and committee member in every loi club also support an english team ie united, liverpool, chelsea so its ok for them to follow an english team aswell as a loi team but not ok for me 'for example' to support an english team because my local club are a junior club and not loi, and because of this people like me are not football supporters??

There are a lot of people here who support English teams as well as their domestic club - there is no one model of being a supporter. Your experience isn't really typical though - most people who follow football in Ireland do so via their Sky Sports subscription and don't get out to help the domestic game.

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Originally Posted by republican

football in ireland is not all about the loi

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It's all about the Premier League. :(

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Originally Posted by republican

also on the junior/loi/premiership debate, every player and committee member in every loi club also support an english team ie united, liverpool, chelsea

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Do they? Plenty of supporters of the League of Ireland have no interest whatsoever in the Premier League/SPL. Why would they?

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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

It's all about the Premier League. :(



Do they? Plenty of supporters of the League of Ireland have no interest whatsoever in the Premier League/SPL. Why would they?

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no interest whatsoever :) yeah so they go to watch loi on fri and dont watch anything again until followin fri :)

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Originally Posted by republican

no interest whatsoever :) yeah so they go to watch loi on fri and dont watch anything again until followin fri :)

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Well I don't know about anyone else, but that's exactly what I do. I have no interest whatsoever in the English football leagues, and have more interest in sticking needles in my eyes than watching Scottish football.

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Well I don't know about anyone else, but that's exactly what I do. I have no interest whatsoever in the English football leagues, and have more interest in sticking needles in my eyes than watching Scottish football.

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Yup similar here. I watch the odd game if nothing else on or if it possibly could be a decent game. Wouldn't go out of my way to watch a game and find myself turning games off fairly quick as I get bored more easily watching it on telly. I'd say I turned off or only half watched 90% of the euros as I found other things to occupy my mind when getting bored watching it.
Alot of my mates have gone the same way. I actually can't remember the last game on telly (Barr Ireland Croatia and Ireland Spain) that I watched start to finish without turning it off or going doing something else.

Can happen at live games too were you end up chatting amoungst each other more than watch the game if they are boring but that rarely happens.

If anyone is on Football365 forum, there is an interesting thread on there called 'FAO Irish' with a poll asking why people on there don't go to LoI games. Some interesting answers, the main reason is 'I've been to a few games but the standard is rubbish'. Other things brought up, but very rarely mentioned on here, are the lack of continuity in squads (I can sympathize with this, I swear one season Bobby Browne used over 50 players) and the lack of it being a 'social event'. That one got me thinking, is the root of the event junkie mentality that we're only really ever looking for a days craic and a few pints- the source or venue of the event is never important, because no-one will think badly or laugh at you if you're going on the lash?

(god I miss last season when worrying about the league meant wondering if Shels would win their game in hand :( )

Ah sure what were you worried about. Don't you know about our inability to defend from the 88th min onwards.