What's the motivation so then? Surely more promotion & more interest creates more money which in turn increases the standard of football.Originally Posted by ifk101
Last edited by galwayjames; 28/11/2009 at 12:01 AM.
If you've nothing good to say, say it.
More promotion? Assumption or fact
Assumption or fact. Consider Setanta Cup attendances and ask yourself are matches against Institute, Dungannon and Lisburn Distillery of more interest to a Galway public than matches against Sligo, Athlone and Limerick.
Again assumption or fact. The only certainty is that it will increase expenses.
Not for LOI sides.
I would only be in favour of an AIL if all the clubs were involved and not this "super league" nonsense
GJ is right, playing v. a wider variety of teams can only help general standards, including our brethren in N.E.Ulster.
The benefits of an AIL can be seen in rugby, but it probably won't happen in soccer, more for reasons of political paranoia than any sporting ones.
It's the Celtic league that has transformed playing standards in Rugby and enabled us to win Heineken Cups, Grand Slam and beat Springboks etc. It would require a similarly radical solution to make "proper" club football viable in Ireland. An AIl i nitself would achive very little. we simply have too many teams with inadequate support bases.
Aye, but it had to have a base somewhere. As in where above started from.
And Congrats to Ireland beating the World Champions and narrowly failing, via Messrs.McDowell & McIlroy to make us, Ireland, World Champions in the golf!
Better luck next time lads!
Erin Go Bragh!
Article in the Irish Times by Michael Walker
Ireland should have one league and one team
Good article, but the down side is it's going togenerate another 500 posts from our paranoid friends....who're opposed to any sort of, er, 'unification'.
They ridicule our Finals record, but it's been the best part of a quarter of a century since they last qualified and will be that maybe again before they come close again?
I'd say the above is more likely to generate the 500 posts.
Anyway, 1 down....................
Too right Ireland should have one league and one team, works in all other sports, so why not football i ask ?
It would only benefit everyone, we'd be more competitive, have access to more players, no more arguments if a lad from Derry wants to go south but then the nordies have a bloody tantrum about it coz technically he's Northern Irish...B*ll**ks.
Nordies complaining coz they'd have to travel down to Dublin every time, you kidding? It's motorway all the way it takes 2 hours, it'd be worth it going to Lansdowne instead of that bog Wind****e Park.
Club football certainly needs the competitive edge that bringing the stronger teams on the island into regular league competition.
In reality I suppose there is the fear that the fans of some of the clubs might take this competitive edge too far. If this issue could be dealt with then bigger clubs competing against one another regularly on a league basis could only improve club football on the Island.
How often is it that stuff that makes sense does not happen on this Island.
I am not fussed about merging the International sides as there is really is a defacto All-Ireland team after the last FIFA regulations regarding players playing for ROI.
If an All-Ireland teams happens in the longer term then so be it.
If the clubs on both sides of the border do not get their acts together then the quality of players available to both sides may detierate as with the pick of the best young players from all over the world how much longer can either International side rely on English clubs to develope their players.
How, exactly, would it "benefit" the vast majority of Northern Ireland players and supporters?
Northern Ireland supporters have absolutely no desire to watch our International football in Dublin.
I repeat, if Northern Ireland fans were minded on being "more competitive", in the context of a merger, they'd be supportive of an all UK team.
PS. In answer to your opening question, once upon a time there was one....
Last edited by Not Brazil; 06/12/2009 at 11:01 AM.
The Englishmen came over in the year 2005
But little did they know that we'd planned a wee surprise
Sir David scored the winner, and Windsor Park went wild
And this is what we sang...
Don't worry. We'd be happy to play all the games in Beal-feirste.
Though you'd need to build a
Hear that site at the Maze is still free....
Thanks for the link. Unfortunately it crashes my computer- obviously some f*n**n ploy to prevent any angry replies from nasty orange bigots- but luckily Ardee Bhoy lent me his paper copy down the pub, thanks.
Er, both players do- they have a choice. Both teams do, up to a point- the pool of potential players is increased. And most importantly, the fans do. They get to see a team that genuinely represents them, rather than an unwelcome hybrid which doesn't.
No they won't. They'll be disappointed and maybe annoyed (given that Duffy has already played regularly for our u-19 and u-21 teams), but neither those teams nor the senior squad will be marginalised. They'll still exist, they'll still be competing in the World and European championships, and for the time being they'll still be third-ranked (third-rate if you prefer), just like the South.NI supporters will see [any decision by Duffy to declare for the South] as another small step towards the marginalisation of their squad and team
The Republic of Ireland can't afford to pay its civil servants, faces massive unemployment for years to come and is struggling to mop up with large areas of its major cities under water after recent flooding. They're in no position to give Bohs, Shels and Cok- let alone Derry, Linfield and Glentoran- millions to spunk on an unsustainable vanity league.There should be if necessary government money put behind [an all-Ireland league]
Actually, it DID fall apart. World War One saw millions die, then many powerful countries collapse and others rise in their stead, including the Irish Free State. They wanted their own football team, and got it. What's the problem?Ireland has had one international team before and the World didn't fall apart
Er, the teams that knock them out, dear. That's how competitive sport works. Northern Ireland may not qualify- we certainly won't be favorities to do so- but we'll give it a go. I expect the South will do likewise.If both Irish sides fail to qualify for Euro 2012, whose purpose will be served?
What's this guy on? If NI qualify, it'll obviously be brilliant. If the South do too, that's great, look forward to seeing you there.or the opposite?
Good if fringe player for club and country. Parents possibly can't spell?We need to talk about Darron
OK, from another of Walker's columns on Saturday but it does show his wider understanding of the game.Leeds too good for the third division
Go away and stop stirring.Ireland should have one league and one team
Hang on- you (RoI fans generally) criticise and even ridicule your recent qualifying record; you hardly need us to do it for you. The record just isn't very good. One finals of the last eight tournaments- Slovenia, a much smaller country has been to three in the same period.
NI came respectably close to Euro 2008- we were still able to qualify at half time in the last game of 12. Even this time we were only three points behind the eventual runner up going into the last game. With 24 Euro finalists in future (albeit a crazy idea in my opinion) our chances of qualifying, like everyone else's are obviously increased.
Er, it doesn't work in all other sports, as I detailed up-thread. There isn't an all-Ireland cricket league. The island's two best players play for er, England. Many Irish sportsmen and women represent Northern Ireland and/ or Britain in international competitions such as the Olympics and Commonwealth games. Gaelic games and their all-Ireland teams commemorating paramilitarism and the rest only work to the extent that barely anyone in any other country plays them. I don't follow rugby union but if I did wouldn't be enthused by an Irish team which represents the South in all but name.
A-ha ha. You've some nerve accusing any other country's fans of throwing tantrums- for the last three weeks many of yours, along with players, your management, your FA, your minister for justice and your leading pop vocalist have been throwing the toys to the extent that they're a laughing stock for many both outside and within the country...no more arguments if a lad from Derry wants to go south but then the nordies have a bloody tantrum about it coz technically he's Northern Irish...B*ll**ks
We're complaining because you- along with all the other stirrers, halfwits, cartoon provos and lazy journalists on this thread are trying to abolish our football team. It's got nothing to do with motorway maintenance between Dublin and Belfast.Nordies complaining coz they'd have to travel down to Dublin every time, you kidding? It's motorway all the way it takes 2 hours, it'd be worth it going to Lansdowne instead of that bog Wind****e Park
Last edited by Gather round; 06/12/2009 at 5:06 PM.
So you're in favour then?
wrt an All-Ireland league, Walker says it'd improve things but doesn't say how. Personally I'm in favour but I'd like to see reasoned argument supporting his assertion.
Paranoia is alive and, er, 'well'. Just because one of your 'own' suggests an AI soccer team or League, you think it automatically means 're-unification' ?? Some great 'logic' there.
And how can us in Ireland be 'southern' when it contains the most northerly county and geographical point in Donegal & Malin Head?? Maybe re-name the North as North-East Ulster ??
It's been said that the AI teams in cricket, golf, hockey and rugby union/league are 'unsuccessful'. Hmm, to the extent that they've all recently made a mark in their own World Championships or equivalent.
And that's despite the likes of 'Ingle-land', in certain instances, trying to poach anyone who's half-decent....
Respectable performances and finishing position in that group, yes.
Qualify at half time in the last game? in theory yes.
Probably a 1-500 chance to qualify at half time in that last game.
You were still able to qualify on the hour mark, probably a 1-1m chance.
I think we're broadly agreed- NI were respectable overall and had a nominal chance almost to the bitter end.
Going into the last game, I recall the bookies suggesting a 10% chance we'd beat Spain (beat them for a second time in the group, so the likelihood was hardly infinitesimal). Apply a similar figure of 10% to the Sweden- Latvia game, and you've got 1% for a combination of both the results we needed. A significantly higher likelihood than that of FIFA replaying any qualifiers or increasing the number of teams in South Africa, I reckon.
It hasn't as far as I've heard (as you suggest, Irish rugby union, cricket and golf have rarely if ever been more successful), but so what? It doesn't mean Robbie Keane and Aaron Hughes would lift Euro 2012 by playing together. And even if it did, NI fans are not interested. However much you want to celebrate two guys from Portrush and Holywood coming second in a golf tournament, or three blokes from the Republic making the 15 man squad for the cricket World cup.
Last edited by Gather round; 06/12/2009 at 8:22 PM.
Not saying they would, but a bigger pool of players would improve our chances of at least qualifying. Even with 24 teams, yours must be virtually
And don't understand your last sentence;who else would they support?
'Ingle-land', Scotland ??
Well you keep telling us everyone from the N-E Ulster is 'Irish, so why wouldn't we not want to see a UI team do well....However much you want to celebrate two guys from Portrush and Holywood coming second in a golf tournament, or three blokes from the Republic making the 15 man squad for the cricket World cup.
By half time that 1-100 chance, one could argue that it became a 1-500 chance. As compared to half time in Paris where we were clear favourites with the bookies to win the game. But I wasn't making that comparison
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