Jason Byrne

[WeAreRovers]

The loss is yours I am afraid. Is the English team the FA Team or the Scottish team the SFA team? No. The national team belongs to the people: the hard core fans, the casual fans, the ole ole fans: just about like every team in the world. To miss out on going abroad to far flung places and singing your national anthem in front of thousands of foeigners is such a thrill and gives you such a great sense of national identity. Because the team is run by people you don't like or deem are incompetent or has supporters who irritate you is not a good reason in my opinion. Like it or not the international team also puts whatever money is available in to the grass roots. If there was no international team there would be no money to put in to the local league: fact.

On the contrary, I feel nothing for the national team so I'm not missing out n anything. Since our season finished I've been to games in Middlesborough, Rome and Cardiff and I'll be in Milan next week. I just prefer to travel to football without 10,000 drunk Irish fans hanging around the streets.

KOH

[Lim till i die]

to be fair in another thread you said that you dont even "feel" Irish. Long live F.I.R Limerick.

Viva La Revolution

The international team has repulsed me since the fawning in Saipan but that's a whole other kettle of fish. The vast majority of its "fans" have been repulsing me for far, far, longer

[soccerc]

Like anyone else with more than a passing interest in the fortunes of our senior international soccer team, there are many answers on a variety of subjects that I would like to get from Merrion Square, but if I had to choose one at this point in time I’d ask the following: why is the selection committee for each international squad made up primairily of the chairmen of the 44 chairmen of the English Premier League and Championship clubs, plus the chairman of Celtic FC?

After all, if none of these 45 deems you worthy of their investment, you have little or no chance of playing for the Boys in Green.

MORE

[NY Hoop]

If supporting your team meant you had to agree or like with everybody else who supported the team , there would be no football supporters left. There are ********s who go to every team in the world.

But the point is there a lot more ********s who "follow" Ireland. The main reason I havent been to a home game since 95 and wont be going back either.

Notice it didnt take you long to lose the boez avatar!


KOH

[NeilMcD]

Dont worry It will be back but as we are coming up to an Ireland game I thought I would have the Ireland avator for a while but when the new season starts the Bohs one will be back. It is possible to support a club and country. Its not for you but it is for me.


At the end of the day I woudl agree there are more ********s that support Ireland than support Rovers just like there are more ********s in France than there are in Portugal. Why because of numbers pure and simple.

[NY Hoop]

Dont worry It will be back but as we are coming up to an Ireland game I thought I would have the Ireland avator for a while but when the new season starts the Bohs one will be back. It is possible to support a club and country. Its not for you but it is for me.


At the end of the day I woudl agree there are more ********s that support Ireland than support Rovers just like there are more ********s in France than there are in Portugal. Why because of numbers pure and simple.

But I do support Ireland away from home.

By ********s I mean clowns who "support" mankpool or their new team chelsea who refuse to recognise their own league. In France and Portugal they support their own clubs.

KOH

[Student Mullet]

At the end of the day I woudl agree there are more ********s that support Ireland than support Rovers just like there are more ********s in France than there are in Portugal. Why because of numbers pure and simple.

I don't agree, the %age of clowns at Ireland soccer games is much higher than at any other sport I've attended.

[tetsujin1979]

In France and Portugal they support their own clubs.

In France and Portugal, the clubs are well run, are successful on the European stage, attract a host of international stars and bring through their own top players without having the majority of young talent taken on by foreign clubs before their 18th birthday.

[Dodge]

In France and Portugal, the clubs are well run, are successful on the European stage, attract a host of international stars and bring through their own top players without having the majority of young talent taken on by foreign clubs before their 18th birthday.

Because they have money. They have money because people go to the games and tv companies spay them to show their games.

Irish clubs have no money because nobody goes to the games

[NeilMcD]

i agree anybody who disses their own countries league and supports a foreign one is a muppent in my opionion. Of course the quality is not there but it is football you can go to week in week out and I prefer to attend games rather than watch them on the TV. But I would not tar all Ireland supports with the same brush the same way I would not tar all EL fans with the same brush and so on.

[NeilMcD]

I don't agree, the %age of clowns at Ireland soccer games is much higher than at any other sport I've attended.

That is not what i said, I said hard and fast numbers. If you want to bring percentage into it thats another debate that would be hard to prove and could only be backed up by anecdotal evidence. In addition its pretty subjective who and what is a ********. Ones mans ******** is another mans politician or are they the same thing.

[jebus]

Honestly OwlsFan the main reason I have for not supporting Ireland is that I think they play the most bland, defensive football of any team I know and I can't force myself to watch any Irish game just because I'm from Ireland. I still don't see how supporting the Irish team should be used as any form of measure of how Irish I am

[tetsujin1979]

Because they have money. They have money because people go to the games and tv companies spay them to show their games.

Irish clubs have no money because nobody goes to the games

I don't think it's as simple as getting more people in the gate.

[Dr. Ogba]

Honestly OwlsFan the main reason I have for not supporting Ireland is that I think they play the most bland, defensive football of any team I know and I can't force myself to watch any Irish game just because I'm from Ireland. I still don't see how supporting the Irish team should be used as any form of measure of how Irish I am

So are you saying that you would support the national team if they played attractive, free-flowing football?

Would this, perchance, make you the proverbial "bandwagon jumper"?

[John83]

So are you saying that you would support the national team if they played attractive, free-flowing football?

Would this, perchance, make you the proverbial "bandwagon jumper"?

No, it would make him a football fan, as opposed to a supporter. Some people actually appreciate the aesthetics of the game for their own sake. I realise it's tough to imagine that the game has some value other than tribalism.

[Dr. Ogba]

ah right....thanks for that...

[Jerry The Saint]

the main reason I have for not supporting Ireland is that I think they play the most bland, defensive football of any team I know

Stan's doing his best to win you over. I'd recommend you watch a tape of the Cyprus game but I imagine most copies have been destroyed at this stage.

[Dodge]

I don't think it's as simple as getting more people in the gate.

Its the startng point.

More people through gates = more revenue = better stadia = more attractive tv = more sponsors = more exposure = more media coverage = more people through gates

[eirebhoy]

But it's easy to say for someone supporting the team as a kid. A tiny percentage of football attendances are made up by neutrals and the vast majority of the Irish population are neutrals.

[NeilMcD]

I love good football and when I am a neutral I look for teams that play good football i.e. or try to play good football Barcelona, Man Utd, Derry City, Falkirk , Arsenal, Argentina etc. However when I am a supporter of a team I also look for that team to play good football but I would not stop supporting them because of the brand of football they are playing. You support your team through thick and thin and that also mean whether they are playing long ball ****e or good pass and move stuff, playing in triangles and the full back playing the ball to the centre mid etc and the game developing from there.

There is also a certain amount of pragmatism that has to go into Internationl Football. An international manager only has his team for a short period of time so any sort of good coaching is hard to get across. Therefore his main job is to set out a simple pattern of play, make sure they are good from set pieces and that you use the talent as best as you can. Scotland against France at home is a classic case of cutting your cloth to suit and as a result Scotland won the match.

I dont think Wenger could be a good manager of a country like Ireland as he woudl want time to develop all the players and get the players that can play his certain brand of football. An international manager does not have this luxury.