How many Polish teams have been in the CL proper? One every few years? Sure if we did that you'd just put it down as being a fluke of no interest to you. I can't remember too many games between the two leagues, but do know being a Rovers fan that we rather easily knocked out a Polish team last time we played in Europe.
Its not that they dont understand its that they dont want to understand
Here on a technicality.
Changing the league set up won't change much.Originally Posted by Colbert Report
In your quest for a magic bullet to cure the LOI, you're over-looking - and ironically reasserting - the single thing that would do most to step-change the league.
If all the glory-hunting, star gazing Irish eejits out there who, like you, trip over themselves to salivate at English and Scottish teams instead showed a little bit of local loyalty and supported their own league/clubs then overnight we'd BE at the level of the likes of Romania, Poland etc as you desireth.
Seriously - if only a tenth of the money that Irish mugs pour gormlessly into foreign football was instead diverted towards the local product then they'd have a league worth following. But no - much easier to live up to the thick Irish stereotype and dance like excitable eejits to Sky Sports tune whilst laughing at your own country's efforts.
BTW - would you rate Scottish football and Glasgow Celtic as being worth watching ? You know - that 'Oirish' team who just got humped by a bunch of Portuguese nobodies, or the other Irish-scottish team who just got gubbed by a bunch of nobodies from Translyvenvakia.
Now go eat some Kraft dinner and stop boring us...
Celtic have been terrible lately and the SPL isn't on here in Canada except for the odd re-run, meaning no live matches. I don't have much interest in watching them.
The point is, although Celtic have been beaten badly and are currently not a great or even good team, they have the potential to compete seriously in Europe. There is no team in Ireland that is able to say this. I am 26 and I've never seen a team from Ireland compete seriously anywhere outside of the domestic league.
It would be great to see a Dublin team compete in the English league, similar to how Cardiff are part of the English football set up. I know I'll be slaughtered on here for saying it but it would really help spread excitement and interest in the sport. I grew up in north Kildare and I don't think I ever heard anyone EVER talk about the LOI when I was a young lad. It was all Man U this and Aston Villa that. How can you accuse me of being a fair weather supporter when I was never exposed to the league even in the fifteen years I lived in the place?
We have the supporters. We have the money. People aren't fools and they can spot rubbish a mile away. Why should they be expected to shell out their hard-earned dough on a sub-standard product like watching Bohemians get thrashed four nil when the top teams in the world play every night in their living room?
I live in North America. I have no local team to support, as I stated previously my nearest professional team is 1350km away so you can hardly blame me for not turning out to their matches. Why should I have to watch the MLS? I'd rather watch the Champions League instead.
Are you Freakin serious??
Back to the International threads with you, you are upsetting me
Here on a technicality.
Fools like this can get green cards????
The Earth is flat.
Socchher 4 ever
LOI has neither the supporters nor the money.
Many of the people who have the money are the people who talk about how crap the LOI is but, even though they understand that the only way it will improve is if people support and finance it, wouldn't go for love nor money. They watch Sky TV instead, or get a trip to England.
Does the LOI repeatedly shoot itself in the foot by running the league in the most half-assed manner imaginable? You bet.
But people who somehow expect a low-level league in a country where most football fans support teams in another country to miraculously become much better without any support (financial and otherwise) are playing their part in keeping the league where it is.
Not true at all. Dublin, until three years ago, was one of, if not the most prosperous city on the entire planet. There was and still is plenty of money to support a Premiership team based in Dublin. If Cardiff can do it, why not us? The proof is in the pudding. Very few people care about the LOI, why continue to force a rubbish product down our throats, Croke Park would be a sell out every week at 60 euro a ticket if Dublin FC were taking on the likes of Chelsea, Aston Villa and Spurs. People will pay to watch the best play.
That's not LOI. As I said, LOI has neither the supporters nor the money.
The fact that the country has (or had) plenty but the LOI has none is the point I'm making.
Nobody is forcing the LOI down anybody's throat. The fact that you grew up with nobody talking about it is evidence of that. The fact that the Irish Times doesn't even print results half the time is evidence of that. The fact that it features for 1 hour a week on TV, because the broadcaster is paid to broadcast the show, is evidence of that.
I'd be confident that the LOI has changed the league set-up more times than you've had bad posts. Maybe
The Model Club
Tell all the Bohs you know
that we've gone and won two-in-a-row
and it's not gonna be three
and it's not gonna be four
it's more likely to be 5-1.
Thanks for the compliment!
Them ones in canada could never drink more than a six pack.............grrrrrr
20 years ago i had the same attitude as you but seriously CR, until you have been to games you dont really have any opinion on "the product". Its superb. Its not the best league in the world, of course not, but it is exciting, entertaining live footie. I miss it so much. Its everything the sport should be about. Local people supporting their local team, having a laugh, having a moan, abusing referees, singing, chanting and enjoying the game. You promote the benefits of people watching the best league in the world from the comfort of their own chesterfieldsbut nothing compares to the connection you feel to your local team. I pity the thousands of people who dont realise what they are missing just because they buy into the Sky Sports glamorama...
Osarusan's post above (#967) is bang on the money.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
A "successful" league is not necessarily defined by qualification for the Champions League or results in European ties. I think most LoI fans on here would probably define successful as a financially stable league with decent administrators, a competitive league and reasonable crowds (5,000 rather than 50,000 would be fine).
As SkStu and others have pointed out above, people do not follow their club because they expect them to win the Champions League but because the team, the ground, their fellow supporters and the league become part of their lives. For clubs like Shamrock Rovers, days like today are nice bonuses but its not what being a LoI supporter is about. Obviously winning is important but a LoI title or an FAI Cup would be enough for most of us. Progression in Europe will result from improvements in the LoI but none of us would expect to compete equally with the Spanish, Italian, German and English clubs on a consistent basis. A country the size of Ireland could never support a league like the big European countries.
On the other hand, the idea of a "Dublin FC" style club representing Ireland in the Premier League has been mooted before and has never been able to demonstrate where it's support would come from. LoI supporters are loyal to their own clubs and, like it or not, the lads who support Liverpool, Manchester United and Leeds aren't likely to switch allegiances to this new club either. Croke Park might be full for games against the big English clubs but it wouldn't be full with Dublin FC supporters. In fact, the crowd for a Dublin FC v Blackpool game might not be too much bigger than for a Rovers v Bohs match. People would have no connection with a soulless club like that - that type of connection might build up over time but any investor could not afford to wait long enough for such a tradition to be established. The idea is nothing new and the reason it hasn't happened is because when people sit down to look at the numbers it just wouldn't work.
Last edited by EastTerracer; 30/07/2010 at 2:30 AM.
"There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet" - Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
The important part you seem to have ignored is how this would actually come to be. The English clubs have no incentive to admit a Dublin team.
Cardiff, Wrexham et al. are in the English league system for a good reason. Historically, for hundreds of years (until very recently), England and Wales were for all intents and purposes the same country. Cardiff and the other big Welsh sides competed in the English league before the Welsh league had been set up, and they refused to join it because it was too low a standard for them. The Welsh league was the equivalent (in relative terms) to the Blue Square Conference North or the Leinster Senior League.
It would be interesting though, were a Dublin team to compete in England, whether the average Man Utd/Liverpool/Chelsea fan would switch allegiance. I fear those clubs would be the most vociferous opponents of an Irish team entering, as Irish consumers are a significant and reliable source of revenue for English clubs.
Just thought i'd go ever so slightly off topic, seeing as LOI exposure was mentioned and the fact some of ye might find this surprising (well it took me by surprise anyway) I regularly read "The Province" newspaper in BC & it publishes LOI results & fixtures.
Colbert - your attitude of "I'll only support the league when it gets brilliant" is exactly why the league won't get brilliant. If you want to help it along, do so (and admittedly, that's hard to do from Canada). But if you're not willing to help it along, you've no right whatsoever to dismiss it in the slightest. It's attitudes like yours which result in the league being so weak.
The idea of Dublin FC suddenly being parachuted into the Premiership shows you understand practically nothing about football. I'd love* to see Dublin FC trying to draw in the crowds playing Grimsby in the Conference on their way up the leagues. Dublin FC would die a death very quickly.
* and for "love", also read "hate"
Edit - oh, and the LoI fans who say you're not a proper fan cos you only watch games on telly aren't "snobs" - they're right.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 30/07/2010 at 9:03 AM.
Well said. Nothing beats live football.20 years ago i had the same attitude as you but seriously CR, until you have been to games you dont really have any opinion on "the product". Its superb. Its not the best league in the world, of course not, but it is exciting, entertaining live footie. I miss it so much. Its everything the sport should be about. Local people supporting their local team, having a laugh, having a moan, abusing referees, singing, chanting and enjoying the game. You promote the benefits of people watching the best league in the world from the comfort of their own chesterfields
Osarusan's post above (#967) is bang on the money.
The last Polish team in the Champions League was in the 1996/97 season. 14 years ago.
The last time an Irish side played a Polish side in a non Inter toto game, they lost 7-0 in the 1st leg. That was Rovers BTW in 1994
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
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New blog if anyone's interested - http://loihistory.wordpress.com/
LOI section on balls.ie - http://balls.ie/league-of-ireland/
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