Originally Posted by
Cymro
I have seen quite a few games involving Irish sides, actually, particularly recently as I have started to take an interest in it (as well as reading/posting on here). It's not particularly difficult to get access to live matches and highlights clips if you are genuinely interested. Matches are broadcast on Setanta and occasionally on the internet, neither of which require me to do much more than minimal work to access.
Now obviously I wouldn't claim to be an authority on the league. However, having watched hundreds of Football League games I most certainly know about the English league and it was that comment about the Championship being shocking I was taking issue with. My views on Irish football were simply an opinion and I was clear on that, unlike livehead, who stated his opinion as though it were fact.
As for my argument, attendances and ticket prices (basically, matchday income) are linked to football quality. Certainly, it's not the be-all and end-all, but generally, the more money you draw in on a Saturday afternoon, the better your team is likely to be, especially in the modern era where it's not particularly difficult to sign players from foreign countries, even for clubs lower down the Football League ladder. From what I understand, the Irish leagues (north and south) are roughly comparable with the English League Two/Conference in this area. I'm not necessarily suggesting this automatically disqualifies any Irish side from having a Championship-standard team ever, but it would probably take considerable investment to reach that standard, as at present, all the best players over in Ireland are getting cherry-picked by Championship and SPL clubs.
