QuoteHopefully Shay Given will be playing first team football by then.Originally Posted by Bungle
Er, I meant it's not good enough to host a final...but then you knew that.
Hopefully Shay Given will be playing first team football by then.
If you say so. But you know it is.
Not to my mind. Croke Park looks impressive when one is inside it but it's essentially 3 uniform stands merged together and lacks the external space, infrastructure and grandeur to stage a final.If you say so. But you know it is.
Apart from the fact it can hold 70K+ and has held dozens of GAA Finals and numerous other sporting events...
It holds 80k+, but that doesn't mean it's a great soccer stadium. Like a lot of Olympic stadiums in Europe, it's very big but not exactly an amazing atmosphere for football matches, in part because it's just not a football stadium.
I'm already aware of the capacity. However, the final of the European championships is on another level to anything that it has played host to so far, and it lacks the factors I mentioned to do so. Also, as Charlie says, it isn't a great soccer stadium.
Last edited by The Fly; 20/09/2014 at 1:31 AM.
If you say so, reckon the majority who've been to both would disagree...
It's more about the media facilities, comes infrastructure, temporary seating etc.
As a stadium it's fine. I've no doubt something like Atletico v Dortmund would be unbelievably atmospheric.
I didn't know you meant these watches
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/socc...ersy-1.1935273
The whole patronage system in global football governance stinks. Greg Dyke, arch critic of FIFA corruption, was also a recipient but claims he never took it out of the bag. They're all hypocrites.
Dyke claims he wasn't aware of the watch's value and has passed it on to charity. Whether or not he did that before or after the story broke in the media, I'm not sure. Platini also claims he was unaware of the value of the watches but it seems he held on to his. His defence is peculiar; whether or not FIFA wanted to make an issue of it now, presumably in order to safe face after the revelations in the media, or four months ago when the watches were received, Platini still surely realised he was in breach of FIFA's ethical code...
On Croke Park, as grand a stadium as it is, albeit aesthetically imbalanced, it would have to meet UEFA's requirements for a category 4 stadium in order to host a UEFA final. As Croke Park has never been evaluated by UEFA and we don't think the media facilities meet the criteria, we cannot say for sure, but it would, most likely, require some refurbishment. One end of the ground would also require temporary seating; do UEFA still permit that? I assume they do, but wasn't there some issue made of it a few years ago? Did we have to get special exemption or something? Obviously, Croke Park wasn't built to conform to UEFA's requirements as, hosting GAA primarily, there was no need for it to meet such criteria, whereas a stadium like the new Lansdowne Road would have been built with UEFA's criteria in mind.
By the way, John Delaney is said to be disgusted by this whole World Cup delegates watches thing; he wanted one too!
Isn't Croke Park in line to be the centrepiece of the Irish RWC bid in 2023? Will same refurbishments be required for that if bid is successful?
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
Football always has higher standards than rugby in fairness. There were grounds used in New Zealand that still had grass banks!
I always laugh at people in ireland saying we could host a major sporting even and point to GAA county grounds as examples of stadiums. They're clerly fit to host GAA games but would struggle badly to fulfill criteria needed for UEFA
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Isn't there something about the number of stadiums per city in UEFA competitions as well?
Think you can only have one, whereas with rugby you can have two - Limerick's Gaelic Grounds and Thomond Park are supposed to be part of the bid too
Delaney saying in The Indo today (link will follow later) that he wants the euros to leave a legacy and that will be that Dalyer will be saved. He wants Shels to ground share.
It'd be nice if it was more than just saved. A wholesale redevelopment into a semi-modern biggish stadium would be brilliant, albeit a pipe dream probably.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/s...cy-287805.html
Ya I read that this morning. But with the shopping centre there and the houses and school behind it it can't be redeveloped into anything too great. If they got decent facilities and 6-10k seater they would be doing well. Hopefully delaney delivers but would shels and bohs really be willing to groundshare?
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Shels have ground-shared with Rovers before (albeit in Tolka Park). If they can ground-share with Rovers, I'm sure they can ground-share with anyone!
I think they should call it John Delaney Park and have Bohs, Shels and Pats all share it. And Dundalk.
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