Barstool facepalm

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Originally Posted by sadloserkid

And before you say it, yes, I will enjoy watching my local LOI team in action

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Good stuff! ;-)

I know people living in Donegal closer to Derry City and they support them.

I'm going to look into the Banner Blues out of curiosity.

I doubt I'll see a Kerry team in the LoI. Must be one of the most dedicated places outside of the LoI with involvement in the old U21/U20 league, A Championship, League Cup and now involvement again in underage LoI football. The Oscar Traynor Cup seems to be the pinnacle for achievement. Underage LoI football should stand out future Oscar Traynor Cup teams along with re-entering the League Cup again in the next few years.

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Originally Posted by legendz

Good stuff! ;-)

I know people living in Donegal closer to Derry City and they support them.

I'm going to look into the Banner Blues out of curiosity.

I doubt I'll see a Kerry team in the LoI. Must be one of the most dedicated places outside of the LoI with involvement in the old U21/U20 league, A Championship, League Cup and now involvement again in underage LoI football. The Oscar Traynor Cup seems to be the pinnacle for achievement. Underage LoI football should stand out future Oscar Traynor Cup teams along with re-entering the League Cup again in the next few years.

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The banner blues are on Twitter

Excuse # 185

Me to Co Louth publican who travelled to Basel for the Liverpool Europa League earlier this summer:

" Are you going to the big match in the Aviva on Wednesday?"

Publican: "What match?"

Me: " Dundalk V Legia Warsaw, probably the biggest Irish club match ever"

Publican: " To be fair, I don't want to be a bandwagon jumper, but I might watch the 2nd half on telly"

Enjoyed this article from Dundalk fan Kenneth Sloane and think a lot of you will to.

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There’s a moment familiar to every League of Ireland fan. It occurs at the first informal gathering of any new peer group. This may be the first tea break at a new job, the first night out when you started college, or any other occasion where a little ice breaking is required. When cast into such circumstances most men swiftly and instinctively resort to the topic almost guaranteed to reveal common ground with a complete stranger, “so who do you support?”

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https://kennethsloane.wordpress.com/...eally-support/

12,873 at Thomond Park to watch Celtic vs Inter. A few lads I know at it have said not a hope 12,000 at it. When it was announced I reckon they thought it would sell out.

From what I was told you need nearly a sell out to make any money from these games so looks like it was a loss making game to me.

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Originally Posted by Jofspring

12,873 at Thomond Park to watch Celtic vs Inter. A few lads I know at it have said not a hope 12,000 at it. When it was announced I reckon they thought it would sell out.

From what I was told you need nearly a sell out to make any money from these games so looks like it was a loss making game to me.

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They won't be doing that again. People voted no. Aviva only I guess.

Has Thomond Park ever sold out for a football match be it Republic of Ireland international or Limerick glamour friendly?

12000 my hole.

Think four figures rather than five.

Celtic are not a draw and haven't been for years and years.

Thomond Park is an actual graveyard for bad ideas. It will never be full again.

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Originally Posted by legendz

They won't be doing that again. People voted no. Aviva only I guess.

Has Thomond Park ever sold out for a football match be it Republic of Ireland international or Limerick glamour friendly?

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No I don't think so. In fairness though most the matches on have been rubbish. The Ireland vs Australia match had a very big crowd, but was so bad a lot left at half time and nobody bothered going to the South Africa match after that. It was like the players didn't try and people voted with their feet. Limerick vs Man City had 22,000 which was good. A second string Celtic vs an inter team with maybe 4 players anyone really knew was never going to sell well. If they keep putting rubbish on in Thomond park they will continue to get rubbish crowds.

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Originally Posted by Jofspring

No I don't think so. In fairness though most the matches on have been rubbish. The Ireland vs Australia match had a very big crowd, but was so bad a lot left at half time and nobody bothered going to the South Africa match after that. It was like the players didn't try and people voted with their feet. Limerick vs Man City had 22,000 which was good. A second string Celtic vs an inter team with maybe 4 players anyone really knew was never going to sell well. If they keep putting rubbish on in Thomond park they will continue to get rubbish crowds.

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There must have been a clause in the contract FAI signed with the company that were to organise the Dublin Super Cup that they got sole rights for so-called glamour friendlies. I think the FAI were to pocket €1m a year from the deal. It was surely the reason they didn't allow the Barca game a few years back. They shouldn't be be competing against clubs for these games.

The Oman game has come out of the blue.

Limerick's Barcelona invitation was before the Dublin Super Cup.

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Originally Posted by legendz

It was surely the reason they didn't allow the Barca game a few years back.

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That was the 'participation agreement' which mean they couldn't sanction friendlies which were held on the same days as competitive league games, or was it friendlies in grounds with a capacity of 20,000 peop...no wait, 15,000 people.

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Originally Posted by Jofspring

From what I was told you need nearly a sell out to make any money from these games so looks like it was a loss making game to me.

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Good! And I don't give a F*** how petty and small that might sound. Vultures.

That post appears just above the "Liam Tuohy died" post on my live feed. Was wondering what poor aul Liam Tuohy had ever done to you!

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Limerick's Barcelona invitation was before the Dublin Super Cup.

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The FAI had already signed a contract with the organisers of the now defunct Dublin Super Cup. That was definitely more to do with it than the participation agreement which was just a smokescreen and political moving goalposts talk.

Nice ****take from The Republic of Telly just now, of Irish fans coming home from France and being unable to move on. "And what's your favourite League of Ireland team?" "Umm...ahh....the...Charlie Birds?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlj4VmlzW4U

Damien Reilly, a sports correspondent at Britain's Tory-leaning Spectator magazine, isn't Irish and was born and raised in England, as far as I can make out, but I thought the below section of his take on Arsene Wenger's current woes at Arsenal was worth posting here nevertheless. I can't believe it isn't parody.

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Originally Posted by Damien Reilly

I had 20 good years supporting Manchester United but now I follow Arsenal, and I find the treatment of the magnificent Arsène Wenger by large sections of my fellow fans mystifying and depressing. I supported Manchester United because when Rupert Murdoch bought top-tier English football in the early 1990s and started marketing it aggressively at the middle classes — who, like me, had previously had no interest in the sport — United were the only logical choice. They played pulsating, swaggering football and often scored thrilling wins from seemingly impossible situations. The young men who made up the spine of the team had grown up together in a boys’ own story and — most importantly — they had a manager in Sir Alex Ferguson who was a high priest of romance.

But then he left. And what followed has been very dull. So I stopped supporting United and started following Arsenal. Chiefly out of admiration for their dignified and daring French manager.

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http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-conte...%20%282%29.gif

A quick glance through the guys Twitter page shows all you need to know about the ultimate clickbait artist.

Maybe it is parody. Or simply attention-whoring.

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Originally Posted by osarusan

Maybe it is parody. Or simply attention-whoring.

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Either way it is still what most football fans cringe most at, often in a patronising way of 'the poor auld fool changing his favourite team, how sad and pathetic'. Often deserved contempt for the common glory hunter? I still see the odd Blackburn shirt about that I scoffed at in the past but now think fair dues as the once maligned glory hunter is still in some way standing by the 1st EPL winner to drop to the 3rd tier.
Click bait or not he is spoofing it as it was more the Taylor report that changed the game in England imo. Sky Sports helped with the financial burden of meeting requirements of new or adapted stadia. I dont recall marketing the game specifically at middle-classes but soaring ticket prices changed the demographic attending the top flight clubs - maybe thats what he is getting at. People started drifting back toward their smaller affordable local clubs in many cases in England and many rediscovered their 'enjoyment' of the game in the way that is closest to LoI fans' masochistic nature and in some cases small clubs started improve their stock, Barnsley, Burnley Bournemouth examples.
Fans did have their glory teams like Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea but were more often at Oldham, Orient, Brentford games, and didnt expect the same product at their 'home' clubs as their glory clubs, they didnt walk in to Griffin Park and after a few minutes say 'well its no Stamford Bridge' or 'football is desperate I am never going again to see that useless pub league team'. Eddie May being manager at the time piqued my interest and it was dire, much worse than his Dundalk or Drogheda sides yet there wasnt the derision of the club that happened probably in every pub in Ireland at some point on our domestic league.
Who was filling the seats in the English Premier League that had been vacated by those who couldnt buy a ticket (£35 in to Loftus Rd to see a 3rd Division game v Reading in 1996, though the exception rather than the rule here) the many Irish day trippers and no shortage of Scandanavians but even the likes of the Finnish were fair to their own local teams and domestic league, acknowledged limitations yes but no spitting at the mere mention of Bord Gáis/Eircom Premier League et al. I have seen many eyes being rolled by the 'us' type comment in a thick Irish accent in pubs prior to games - ironic in Old Trafford when the attitude was coming from someone what had travelled from Plymouth. It wasnt the 'us' that really was the source of amusement of the 'locals' so much as it was accompanied with lots of bragging about what great fans us Irish lads are and not like the barstooler United fans at home who have never even been in Old Trafford/Anfield or wherever etc. It was all very fake and plastic in the way that elite football is in many ways now and embaressing. That wee piece above just reminds me of those facepalm moments back in the day. The whole us Irish fans are the best fans in the world wasnt just the mantra of those supporting the national sides and the irony was never seen even when pointed out that there was a league in Ireland for Irish to follow too. Meeting English football fans that had more interest in the LoI game on in the local than most of the Irish in the same Paddy Pub was tough to try and explain. I have to say that Dundalk's European run las year did buck the trend Odd sort of rant I know......