QuoteBut now they are adults and if they like football they can go watch it. If they have kids they can bring the kids. then the kids would be able to watch live football of the team they support.
but most people support (mainly english) teams since they are little children...i think thats what he means.
But now they are adults and if they like football they can go watch it. If they have kids they can bring the kids. then the kids would be able to watch live football of the team they support.
i dont think that matters IU. I supported Everton (no jokes!) up til i was introduced to Bohemians by a fellow fan 10yrs ago now (jeeze)Originally Posted by irishultra
I instantly felt more of a connection with Bohs than with Everton, whom i had been to see a number of times. In other words i did exactly what POS said it is not possible to do.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
That's the real Irish footballing culture for you. Brainwashed by Sky, newspapers, etc, and aided by the fact that every decent Irish player is shipped off to England before completing his intermediate. As kids we all want to support 'winners' which is why you can often see an Irish person's choice of a nowadays cr*p team as an estimate to their age, because when they started following the team, it was at its greatest. Leeds circa 1960 - 1967 (which included me until they started playing sh*t, such is my fickleness as a follower of English football). Derby fans circa 1965. Forest and Ipswich fans born circa 1970. Villa circa 1975. Blackburn circa 1985.
Against the Premiership hype which dwarfs anything from the sixties and seventies, the League of Ireland doesn't stand a chance.
This is the cooooooooooooolest footy forum I've ever seen!
Its age thats the key thing. The Premiership has the stars that the kids look up to, including Irish internationals, and when they are young, unless they have someone to bring them to LOI games, there is no reason a 7-10 year old kid will look any further. Kids that age don't understand the concept of community clubs, or helping Irish football from the grassroots upwards, they just want to see their heroes play every week with flashy TV coverage and big stadiums. Obviously with the media plugging the EPL so much in Ireland, and a proportionately tiny amount of LOI coverage, its a losing battle.
Not trying to defend it, I would love to see a strong domestic league with Irish internationals scattered around it, but its easy to see how a strong attraction develops with an English club (or Celtic), and its not easy to chuck that away when you get to 15 or 16 and learn more about how the game works, and the Irish game in particular.
However, I think the day an Irish club makes it into the group stages of the Champions League (which I think will happen within 3 or 4 years) will be a big change. Overnight the LOI will become a sensation, and if the FAI can capitalise on that, we could begin to see a change.
I totally disagree. It'll just be a flash in the pan for domestic football. Remember when Shelbourne got to the 3rd round of the qualifiers? The game after they played Depor (with what 25,000 there?) they had pretty much the same attendance as always. There may be a bit of revival eventually but unless it's properly invested in, it will probably never sustain decent crowds (sadly).
Last edited by jmurphyc; 29/10/2008 at 4:46 PM.
My concerns are global. I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method, is love. I love you Sheriff Truman.
The group stages might provide more enthusiasm, 6 games, 50% chance there would be an English team for added spice, likes of Milan, Barca, Real, Inter, Bayern (assuming all are in the competition that year) plus the 'first time' effect might help. Suppose its impossible to know until it happens though.
Hopefully we won't have to wait too long to find out!
Yes ultra you got the point or at least some of it, thats half the point, the other half is the issue of growing up near a LOI club. The reality is, is that as a child you see more about Man United, lIverppool etc, due to television, brothers/uncles/irish players playing for them/whatever than you do say a club 40 miles down the road(i..e those outside dublin)
The point is obvious enough, and its the case with those people mentioned before by Bill.
Sksu, i never said anything about it not being possible.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
Ya well said, but the key would be sustaining it. So they mightn't get great attendances throughout the year but they would get them for 6 games of the CL. Can a club survive on that alone? If they can and it occurs yearly that an EL team appears in the group stages of the CL im pretty sure the support would grow for Irish teams.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
A bandwagon effect is certainly possible, especially if a team were to make the breakthrough in Europe. As an example look at the crowds the Ireland team attracted in the mid eighties, pre Charlton. I vividly remember a game I attended against Brazil (which was actually after Charlton had taken over, but before qualification for Euro 88) in Landsdowne in 1987. There were 17,000 there and tickets were available at the gate. If that game was now tickets would be like golddust. If it can happen at National level it can happen at club level. It's all about hype and perception. Though as I've said some team is going to have to be capable of actually making the breakthrough first, which is a bit chicken and egg - ie harder to do without decent support in the first place. We should never stop aiming for it though, or believing it's possible. After all, that's what all football support is about.
Out for a spell, got neglected, lay on the bench unselected.
Like waiting on a stranger to tell you your wife is good looking before you beleive it yourself....
I like your analogy if thats the right word.
I was the same. No real interest in the LOI until a friend brought me to a game and I was hooked immediately.
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
Jaysus....what happened to me then?...1965 Watford FC 9th in the Third Division!......and they're still cr*p!!
Tact is for people who are not witty enough to be sarcastic
I suppose you're one of the people who SkStu is talking about and going for your local team rather than, as I did, the team winning nearly everything but in reality also a dirty bunch of boring b*stards. Anyway, you must like the experience. And you got in that time an FA Cup final, second place in the League, a couple of dodgy trips to Europe thrown in, plus a discount on Elton John's Greatest Hits CD.Jaysus....what happened to me then?...1965 Watford FC 9th in the Third Division!......and they're still cr*p!!
This is the cooooooooooooolest footy forum I've ever seen!
Their countries' football cultures have been raped by their former colonial masters since time immemorial. There is a serious (i.e., one I couldn't be bothered outlining to the likes of you) debate about this within African football, and CAF recently established a continental tournament exclusively for national teams of domestically-based players. In any case, academies such as the famous ASEC club in Cote D'Ivoire - more advanced than any in Britain - produce players for domestic football and export. The best graduates eventually go overseas, but they grow up rooted in Ivorian football culture and so representing that culture means something to them.
It's a football thing. You wouldn't understand.- whatever the f*ck that is.
Eh...yeah. The Barcelona fanatic Fabregas who came through that club's youth structure, you mean? Who, incidentally, is seen as no more than a good substitute at national team level, partly because he doesn't fit the mould.Or even Fabregas, never played a senior game in Spain in his life - how can he be part of his countries "football culture".
You'd want to listen again then, champ. Because if you look at the badge on a national team shirt you'll see exactly what it represents - the country's football association whence it derives its legitimacy. LOL at "LOI fascists." Do you people seriously not realise that you'd be laughed out of any other country in Europe for this attitude? You'd fit right in in South East Asia though.Last I heard you are representing your country when pulling on the green shirt, not the "football culture" of that country as dictated by LOI fascists.
A leading authority on League of Ireland football since 2003. You're probably wrong.
SHCUMI did you mean to post that here?
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
yeah but some people would thump a persons lights out if they said his wife was good looking....
ya the big boggers from galway of a saturday night!
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
I think this deserves to be highlighted. Personally I thought it was blown out of proportion at the time. I also take the quotes attributed to Alan Lee with a pinch of salt.
Joey sounds like a good lad.
O’Brien clears up Ireland quit claims
Bolton Wanderers defender Joey O’Brien has dismissed speculation that he was ready to call time on his Republic of Ireland career.
O’Brien lost his place in the Irish squad for last month’s friendly against Poland after speaking of his frustrations at his lack of game-time at international level.
He questioned whether boss Giovanni Trapattoni had even seen him play – and the subsequent omission was seen as a rebuttal from the veteran Italian.
But O’Brien insists he has never contemplated following Manchester City midfielder Stephen Ireland into international exile.
The 22-year-old, who has been out of action for six weeks with a groin injury, said: “I was asked the question back in October, was I frustrated with international football? And my answer was, of course. I said that I was becoming a bit frustrated going away with the Ireland squad and sitting in the stand. But I never, ever said I would quit. That was blown up out of all proportion.
“The press tried to link it with what Stephen Ireland was saying at the time – two young lads calling it quits – but it is something I never said, and I have clarified the situation with Liam Brady.
“I told him that I had no plans to retire, I still love playing for my country, but the simple fact was that I wasn’t playing. I was sitting in the stands. I was walking round in an Ireland tracksuit claiming I was an Ireland player, when obviously I didn’t feel like I was.
“I think a curse was put on me the moment I said anything. But that’s football, I suppose. When I made the statement, I was in the Bolton Wanderers team. I wasn’t used to sitting in the stands.
“I answered the question honestly. If I had said that I love going away and sitting around doing nothing then people would think I was winding them up. I thought I’d said the right things but people have put their own spin on it, but the bottom line is I love playing for my country and I hope I get the opportunity to do it again.”
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