Have you seen the FAI's accounts?
(But yeah, in terms of general support, I wouldn't make things that drastic)
Such a pointless sweeping generalisationOriginally Posted by Murfinator
I somehow doubt that if we don't qualify that football will be in serious trouble here at all
Have you seen the FAI's accounts?
(But yeah, in terms of general support, I wouldn't make things that drastic)
eh I don't think it's false to claim BOD and ROG have more popular personalities than anybody in the Irish team. I'd say Stephen Hunt is the only real personality in the side.
And maybe the sport wouldn't be in the dire trouble for not qualifying but it'd certainly stay rooted in 4th while kids continue to pour into Rugby schools.
Even look at today, were the Irish national soccer team is struggling to get 10,000 into a stadium Munster fill regularly with ease. Would you have believed that 10 years ago? What would be pointless would be to deny the swing that has taken place in recent years.
Don't know where you live but I don't see any extra kids pouring into rugby schools in Dublin, especially now with the recession. Association football is still the no one participation sport in the country.
As regards the game in Limerick tonight, I think if it was being played in Dublin the attendance would be at least 25,000.
Limerick is the hotbed of rugby in this country, though having said that if the game was a qualifier I reckon it would be a sell out.
Always look on the bright side of life
Football is still the highest participation sport in the country. We are comparing an away qualifier against the pinnacle of one sport's season. Let's see where we are after the Italy game.
True, hopefully with the change to an increased European Championships in a few years we will qualify for the summer tournaments with more regularlity in future years. Its that sort of exposure during the summer is what is needed for the Irish team. Nonetheless I still think the Irish team is followed on a large scale by the Irish public as evidenced by the viewing figures. What we really lack in Ireland is a strong domestic club league.
To be fair soccer is the highest participation game in the states as well!
I live in the mid west and I notice soccer is declining rapidly in recent years, as reflected by the ticket sales for tonights game. Maybe it's still strong in Dublin and/or Cork I don't know, I can only speak for my neck of the woods and I notice it's certainly a lot harder to strike up a conversation about soccer than it is with rugby or the all irelands in Football and Hurling.
It's a very personal thing to say you associate with or are "in touch with" a particular person so your opinion may well be valid. However, for my own part I know that I have much more in common with Damien Duff, Robbie Keane or Kevin Kilbane than I would with most of the Irish rugby team. That just comes down to personal observations and preferences though. I know I care a lot less about the rugby team than I do about the football team but that will vary from person to person.
In terms of a worldwide game though it has to be accepted that rugby is a major sport in less than 10 countries globally. Over 80% of the people playing rugby globally live in the 8 main playing countries. 97% of the viewers for the last Rugby World Cup were in the same eight countries. It is nice to do well in an international sport but football is still way ahead of rugby in terms of its global impact. While the sport is going through a period of popularity, long term I really don't think rugby will ever overtake football in terms of its popularity.
"There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet" - Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
I have no interest in GAA so I can't speak for the general interest levels for those sports but in South Dublin, football is certainly more played and talked about (unfortunately, usually the TV version) than rugby. I can't imagine that would be reversed over the rest of the country.To be fair soccer is the highest participation game in the states as well!
I live in the mid west and I notice soccer is declining rapidly in recent years, as reflected by the ticket sales for tonights game. Maybe it's still strong in Dublin and/or Cork I don't know, I can only speak for my neck of the woods and I notice it's certainly a lot harder to strike up a conversation about soccer than it is with rugby or the all irelands in Football and Hurling.
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
Definitely, not just for improving our player pool but on a sentimental level. A major problem people have in general with the Irish national team is the entire squad is full of people who don't actually live in this country, so it's hard for Irish soccer supporters to have the same affiliation with Robbie Keane off in London as a Munster supporter might have with say Ronan O Gara since they have the pleasure of being able to watch him play every week through the good and bad times. It always saddens me after an away fixture going "home" for the team means arriving in an airport in London or Manchester.
Hard core tv viewing figures for the Ireland games is around 550,000.
The longer we stay in contention the higher the figures will go up.
Ireland v Italy or the play off games, hopefully will topple that mini tournament rugby game.
My friends and I are all huge sports fans. I can have quite in-depth conversations with anyone about F1, football, rugby, golf, tennis, baseball, american football, boxing and numerous other sports.I live in the mid west and I notice soccer is declining rapidly in recent years, as reflected by the ticket sales for tonights game. Maybe it's still strong in Dublin and/or Cork I don't know, I can only speak for my neck of the woods and I notice it's certainly a lot harder to strike up a conversation about soccer than it is with rugby or the all irelands in Football and Hurling.
I have no idea who is in the upcoming GAA football final, I could name one single GAA player (Colm Cooper off the hilarious lucozade ads). All my close friends are the same bar one who has family from Kerry and so keeps an eye out on GAA scores and knows a little bit about it, but nothing more.
That sort of thing doesn't bother me in the slightest and only seems to bother those of the GAA persuasion, who also seem to take it as a personal insult that a football player may dive, yet exult at some farmer from Mayo punching an overweight barman from Westmeath in the head as if it's some higher form of Irishness.
Give me Robbie Keane leading our national team across the world, carrying himself with great dignity and respect on and off the pitch, proving himself to be one of the best players in the biggest football league, and the craic of talking to locals in Sofia or Podgorica in pidgin English about Robbie Keane's goalscoring heroics over anything the GAA could offer.
It's the GAA that will be serious trouble in this country over the next 15/20 years, particularly their anachronistic position on so many issues, and their mind-numbingly boring football code (boring from the skill / tactical point of view, I'm aware it's reasonably exciting if you like to see amateurs punch each other and try to kick the ball as hard as they can, I just like a little something more from the top sportsmen in a particular field )
Last edited by Jicked; 08/09/2009 at 12:38 PM.
You're being pretty offensive with that to be honest.
Interestingly, Boo Boy's stream for the Salzburg-Bohemians game RTÉ refused to cover peaked at over 7,000 viewers, for a stream which was not publicly advertised and for which viewers had to actively search.
A leading authority on League of Ireland football since 2003. You're probably wrong.
To whom?
Shhh, the GAA Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propoganda doesn't like to talk about such things, much better to brush that under the carpet and then talk to the press when their flagship event topples those big bad West-Brits viewing figures.
Lads as rugby grows, GAA will stay the same or grow with it as lads inter change between both sports. Those that play GAA and play Rugby have a mutual respect for each others code, yet have a slight disdain toward soccer. Even over here in England you get a lot of young lads who play rugby during the season take up gaelic during hte summer to stay fit and focus on upper body strength. However those that focus on one or the other of those codes dont play soccer, bar maybe your odd game here and there, a 5 aside mini tournament at xmas or whatever. Ive had this debate before, and the simple case is true, soccer is far easier organise than a gaelic match in terms of numbers, training etc. A load of lads can turn up sunday for a game and thats that. In gaelic you need to be training a couple of times a week with a lot more players etc. Its a simple argument, but a powerful one. Hence why soccer is the biggest participation sport in Ireland. It is waining though lads, and Murfinators argument is the same up and down the country. Living in England you meet lads from all over Ireland and you see the same reaction when rugby is mentioned, and when soccer is mentioned. We do really need to qualify for this world cup to stop the slide in popularity of soccer, if this was 6 or 7 years ago soccer would still be top, this hasn't been the case the last year or so as the figures have shown.
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
To GAA fans and Irish people in general. I'd honestly only expect some comment like that from some english supremest who deludes themself that they have an in depth understanding of our country. Pretty sick to think there's people living in my country with that kind of caveman view on our national game and the people who support it.
Yes but that was the only source to watch the game.
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
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