Did you don't know that Dundalk folk were not the only ones annoyed by Galway's presentation?Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
There was discontent a lot closer to home...
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Did you don't know that Dundalk folk were not the only ones annoyed by Galway's presentation?Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
There was discontent a lot closer to home...
I think at that time Galway were a much bigger club than Dundalk and this probably the reason why these 12 clubs were chose ahead of you.Quote:
Originally Posted by SMorgan
Behave yourself. Galway were never, in the history of Irish football, a bigger club than Dundalk.
Galway United sent the FAI a slick DVD with a famous tune from one of the world's leading DJs as the soundtrack.Quote:
Originally Posted by SMorgan
Dundalk sent the FAI a madman with a dislike of Christmas trees and a petrol canister to their offices. If their was a soundtrack it would have been this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6TXMsvgQg
Which team would you have promoted to the Premier Division?
Galway are an abomination of a club, they've no business in senior football (that's soccer for those of you in Connaught, outside of Sligo). I'm with Maxi, burn those friggers down.
Thanks for that, give me a good chuckle!:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Rovers Maniac
Well at least Maxi isn't the CEO of Dundalk FC.Quote:
Originally Posted by JC_GUFC
Those that won promotion through the league.Quote:
Originally Posted by JC_GUFC
On the other hand, GUFC were able to manage a whole season in the premier before the financial **** hit the fan.
Did Dundalk vote for or against the process that lead to IAG and Galway going up?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezeikial
Clubs that voted for this IAG process in good faith were sold a pup by the FAI. If ever that was clearly demonstrated, it was by the disgraceful duplicity that was the play-off process - only announced (and the outcome duly disregarded) when it appeared that league standings might not suit the FAI's designs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr A
Fair play to Galway at the time for getting a good PR spin together - it's a sad reflection on the FAI that spin and style outweighed substance and sporting achievement. The IAG process was a scam then, and is even more obviously so a small number of years later.
The position regarding the play-off was clearly indicated months in advance. I recall Bald Student pointing it out in July or August of that year, indicating that it would be the most pointless match ever. If you didn't read that bit, that's your problem. (And I'm no fan of the whole IAG nonsense).
The promotion/relegation play-offs were not part of the First Division competition when it commenced. They were subsequently introduced during the season, without clubs agreement, at a time when Dundalk were leading the division by about 6 points.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Initially it was billed as a promotion/relegation play-offs and this was subsequently down-graded to a determination of final "rankings", when it became apparent that the sporting outcome may not have been in line with the FAI / IAG agenda.
The whole IAG process was seriously flawed, but this piece of duplicity laid bare its total lack of transparency and fairness. To partially defend this outrageous gerrymandering strategy by the ridiculous assertion that the "position" was clear before the play-offs took place, reflects badly on your knowledge and insights.
Where was it billed as a promotion/relegation play-off?
The clubs signed up to the IAG, so you can't now say they didn't agree with it. Of course it was nonsense, but a club can't sign up for something and then cry when they don't like what they've signed up for.
Edit - here's Bald Student in May of 2006 drawing attention to the game. He quotes the section from the FAI, which makes no mention of "promotion/relegation". It was merely a 12th/13th place play off.
This reflects badly on your knowledge and etc etc.
From the start of the IAG process it was clear that Dundalk had not a hope of promotion due to their poor performance in the years leading up to it leaving them at a serious disadvantage.
It was and remains a source of much amusement that so many at DFC seemed surprised by the outcome when it was so clear from the start.
Not a hope??. We would have been promoted were it not for Galway's claims. But listen, that's all by the by. We're in the Premier Division with average crowds of over 2,500 and major revelopment of the ground and Galway are a complete basket case with two men and a dog at their home matches and making appeals for somewhere to train, ffs!! Now that's what I call a wrong being righted!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr A
It wasnt "style over substance" as you claim for Utd.At the time of the IAG process they had the best off the field set up-best training pitches,the ONLY club to have a 5 year plan,finances in perfect order etc etc.However a combination of poor decisions by Nick and the Board(ticket prices being one),Nick turning it into a dictatorship and poor attendances has led to the current situation happening in the last 9-12months.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr A
It was no surpirse to many at Dundalk that we were denied promotion, although not for the reason you mentioned.
Galway had similar crowds in their first year up. And managed to pay the wages in full all the way through it as well. GUFC took the process aboard and made the best of it, DFC should have done the same.Quote:
Originally Posted by SMorgan
And if I recall correctly Waterford were next in line for a premier place, not Dundalk.
As for the comment about GUFC being the only club with a five year plan- that was an outrageously untrue claim that Leeson made.
Is that where it came from? Thought I was imagining our own five-year plan.
Think Galway were E150k in debt at the end of 2006, having lost E50k-E100k that year, so I think that rules out "finances in perfect order", as eamo1 said.
While the early announcements were typically FAIesque in content, the media interpretation was unequivocal, even if subsequently incorrect, in billing it as a promotion/relegation playoff. Even as late as the build-up to the actual fixtures this notion was still prevalent:Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
[/QUOTE]Quote:
http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...ord-70392.html
By Daniel McDonnell, Saturday November 25 2006
DUNDALK have a number of fitness worries as they travel to Waterford for the second leg of their promotion/relegation playoff at the RSC this evening.
[/QUOTE]Quote:
http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...ng-138095.html
Dundalk, you may recall, recently won a promotion play-off against Waterford United.
I didn't say that. What I said was that the entire process was a farce, and that the play-offs only being unilaterally introduced after the season had started, was simply a further bizarre element in the whole gerrymandering process that was the IAG.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Perhaps it should have been obvious from the outset, given that the "on-field" criteria was set over the previous five seasons, that Dundalk had little prospect of achieving sufficient points, but the lack of transparency and the denial of sporting and natural justice still rankles.
In hindsight, Dundalk are probably better equiped now - from an organisational and financial perspective - then they were then to compete in the premier. With no disrespect to Galway, I doubt that they were in a superior position then or now.
LOL at using a Dundalk fan to back up your argument!
And it doesn't matter what the media thought; you noted they were incorrect.
The IAG judgement rendered it so.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
The play-off farce was not really the critical aspect of this mullarkey - it merely highlighted the (failed) lengths the FAI / IAG were prepared to go to create the illusion that natural justice and sporting acheivement was in some way relevent to their (pre-determined) decisions.
Any notion that the process was designed to reward those clubs with the best off-field organisation is also a nonsense when you consider that Dundalk were ranked in the top 10 by this criteria!
What does that mean?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezeikial
Those newspaper articles are both dated long after Bald Student pointed out that it wasn't a promotion/relegation play-off. The articles, therefore, are wrong (and written by a Dundalk fan), and should be ignored.
It was never designed to reward those clubs with the best off-field organisation; it was designed to reward a mixture of off-field organisation and on-field performances.Quote:
Any notion that the process was designed to reward those clubs with the best off-field organisation is also a nonsense when you consider that Dundalk were ranked in the top 10 by this criteria!
It looks like we agree on something!Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
It was designed to reward the clubs that the FAI / IAG wanted in the premier - it's really that simple.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
It's pretty clear that they wanted Shamrock Rovers and Galway from the first division (with Waterford as next preference), and designed a system to accomodate them - gerrymandering is the most apt description.
Are you inherently argumentative or do you believe that this procees was in some way fair and reasonable?
You reckon they wanted UCD in the premier? Yeah right!
And why would they be so anti-Dundalk?
To me, the fact that UCD were not screwed over actually gave some credibility to the process.
Back then i think they wanted the biggest clubs together, they probably seen Waterford's and Galway's plans for a new ground and they are bigger population centres than Dundalk and said right Galway and Waterford are bigger clubs. Dundalk remind me a bit of Galway in their first season up in the premier in terms of crowds.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezeikial
I don't think they were anti-Dundalk. I think they had looked at a map of the country and picked locations where they wanted franchises.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr A
With Drogheda being an established permier club at the time, they didn't want a club in the far north east of the jurisdiction.
They were pro-Galway United due to it's location and the size of the city.
It is the lack of honesty on the part of the FAI in this regard that still gets my goat.
As mentioned, I think the fact that we got in rules out that theory. It wasn't even as if our on-field stuff saved us either; we were second in the off-field nonsense. i think it was just an idiotic idea implemented by idiots. No conspiracy.
The Dublin IAG refs probably helped us.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr A
I don't believe that the FAI / IAG were intentionally anti-Dundalk, but that they were pro-others. They obviously skewed the criteria in such a manner that they would maximise their preferred selections. Your earlier post illustrates an understanding that many of the outcomes were fait-accompli before the season even started:
I imagine that one of their regrets was the inability to create a system that would also exclude UCD.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr A
You cannot seriously expect anybody to believe this can you?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezeikial
You're getting very argumentative, osarusan.
(LOL at the notion that it was harder to devise a system to relegate us than to keep Dundalk down. This is a system whereby we lost points for coming sixth instead of seventh that year).
Who do you think you are? Galway having no business in Senior football, you obviously don't know what you are on aboutQuote:
Originally Posted by eelmonster
We have higher crowds than Bray, and just a little less than DroghedaQuote:
Originally Posted by SMorgan
I'm not sure if you are referring to my tongue-in-cheek remark about excluding UCD, or my belief that the criteria was gerrymandered to favour certain clubs.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
I don't have expectations of most people believing anything other then what they want to believe!
Most agree that the whole process was a farce and an affront to fair play and natural justice. My fundamental point here has consistently been that the play-off series being introduced after the competition had already commenced was simply a further illustration of the lack of integrity, fairness and transparency by the FAI/IAG.
The play-off was fully transparent. It was never hidden what it was a play-off for, as the link I posted shows.
Can you suggest any logical reason why it was not part of the competition from the outset?Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Because, as was clearly stated at the time, the FAI said that the IAG criteria were to be decided mid-season; the clubs agreed to an IAG before the season in full knowledge that the exact details were yet to be formulated. Those details came out in May. The clubs were fully aware this was going to happen.
I bow to you in the face your incontrovertible logic!Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
The FAI get the clubs to agree pre-season to an undefined selection process. When they see how the first division is shaping up, they then go "ehh things aren't looking too good here - our picks ain't doing as well as we hoped. OK lets put in a play-off in case anyone starts bitching about who we have selected"
A disgraceful sham from start to finish.
I'm reopening this now, and I'm feeling generous so I haven't doled out any infractions. It's unlikely this will last.
Mods, this applies to you too. You should know the "attack the post" refrain better than anyone.
adam