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I honestly believe there is a general snobbery amongst the Irish press towards the LOI and the coverage our league gets reflects this.[/QUOTE]
Very true. What's so frustrating is that it wasn't always this way. Once upon a time columnists like Con Houlihan would write as much about the league as he did about the national side. Newspapers would give as much (if not more) space to domestic football as the English game. The League was part of the general mozaic of Irish sport - like horse racing; the GAA etc. The LOI has been completely squeezed out over the last fifteen years or so. It's such a shame. People now only want things that are glossy and glitzy. Maybe something to do with the overall dumbing down of newspapers (and, I suppose, society in general)????
I'd push community connections as well. LoI clubs should have an U16 team, Youth team (U18 but goal-keeper and 3 outfield players can be U19) and a reserve side. The FAI should try to get more counties represented in the A Championship. In Pool 2 for example, get a Clare and Tipperary side involved. They might have to relax the rules a bit for it but keep the regulations as they are for joining the LoI Division One.
also... What the LoI needs is box office news. That will come from regular good progression in Europe to at least the play-offs stages and not just one hit wonders.
The coverage was only a little better 25yrs ago from memory, so it's been a while since the LOI had anywhere near balanced coverage with overseas football.Originally Posted by Straightstory
dcfcsteve, It was marginally better than now back then (there were better crowds from my own memory), but you had more paper coverage, plus the national radio was better at covering it, not to mention Sports Stadium on a Saturday. When they did away with it (Sports Stadium) suddenly there was a severe drop off in sports coverage - cycling, athletics, boxing, LOI football and even live games from the pre-sky league, GAA NL and horse racing. Suddenly it all went satellite and exposure was lost. If only they would put on a show like that again, though on a Sunday, maybe it might just work, but it took a few brain cells to follow it at times.
I'd be fairly confident the League has better exposure now on TV anyway. Sports Stadium gave a bit of coverage most weeks, but in comparison to MNS and the raft of live games we have now there is no comparison to then and now on TV.
I'm also pretty sure crowds then were no better than now, and from memory they were actually a bit worse. They were certainly more erratic - e.g. Dundalk or Sligo could magic up 4-5,000 fans every so often without a cup final, City took thousands around the country etc, but a lot of clubs had less support then than now (incl pretty much every Dublin club plus the likes of Longford, Harps and Drogheda).
The league has never been helped by having been such a closed circle. Some see it as GAA thinking but pride in a county is an Irish thing. Rugby has tapped into Provincial pride, association football hasn't really tapped into anything.
There was a daycent LOI ad on at half time at the Ireland match tonight, just goals.
"If you don't work harder I'll pull you off at halftime,"
“Crikey, at Manchester City all we get is an orange and a cup of tea,"
LOI does tap into a sense of place outside of Dublin - in Derry, Cork, Sligo, Dundalk, Longford, Drogheda etc. Not always, but those areas have shown the ability to generate significant crowds to support their teams on big days out.
It's a different issue within Dublin, where teams don't seem to embody their local areas as much as they do in other big cities elsewhere. Ironically, I've always thought that Pats probably had the best local identity of the Big 4 in Dublin, but Rovers seem to be making the best fist of this recently.
GAA is also fortunate not to have any competitors within its own sport, and the rugby provinces largely drove the current surge in popularity of the game in Ireland rather than merely being beneficiaries. The LOI has neither of those things going for it - we have foreign competitiors who are richer, more glamorous, more successful and better covered than us, and football's popularity in Ireland is largely the result of a combination of Jack Charlton-era Ireland and foreign clubs.
As an aside - were ordinary adult tickets really €40-50 for tonight's game....?
The LoI can never compete with the Premier League anyway, nor can NI, Wales and Scotland.
If the LoI was at Championship/top half League One level in terms of quality and support it'd be good considering the size of the country.
There's is no real progression to the League of Ireland from a youth level. Just to go back on what I said before, all LoI clubs should have an U16 and a Youth team (U18 or U19). Youth level is the place to start to get a connection within communities.
I think, Legendz, what you mention was mentioned before on another thread - about having league underage sides playing within a general LOI structure, however then it boils down to finances.
Dcfcsteve I do remember that Sports Stadium gave more general coverage of the league, highlights of games and rundowns on results - it gave more time to the First Division than MNS for sure. However there would be more live games on now than back when, though radio coverage of games was far better then - lots of live updates etc on the weekend.
This is great in theory and I fully agree with you.
BUT......
The Junior Clubs would go cuckoo bananas
Think the Youths tried to get a U16 team together but the Wexford schoolboys league wouldn't let them enter the league. They have an U18 team in the Youth leagues tho, win the Premier Division every year
There are 22 LoI clubs, as part of their league licence, they should have to field an U16 and Youth team. Have two sections, North and South of 11 clubs each at each level U16 and Youth. Financial wise or not it is the way to progression. Without this the league will never get far.
Using Scotland is your above example is madness.People in Scotland support Scottish teams.Not always their local team as Celtic and Rangers obviously enjoy sopport from all over the country but they dont compete with the EPL in the same way we or the north do.
Just pick up any Scottish tabloid paper and the back pages are filled with local football.Also,if you watch MOTD in Scotland its the SPL shown not EPL.This is not to say that the EPL isnt watched or read about in Scotland,just not in the same way it is on this island.
Even the Welsh comparison isnt correct because while their is a large number of Welsh that support EPL clubs they travel from ie Wrexham to see Liverpool,Everton etc-These people arn't guilty of being barstoolers, its more that they are "guilty" of not supporting local teams.
Local football in Scotland is the template that we should hope to achieve.ie That people support LOI teams first and EPL second but we are a long way from that goal!
The point I was trying to make is that Championship and League One sides are well supported and seem to accept their level. Be great if people got behind their local LoI clubs first and accepted it at the level which it is at but still being great games to go to and watch.
It's an under 17 youths team that plays in the Wexford under 18 league for the last couple of seasons. It seems a fair enough compromise.
I'd agree that there should be some sort of national competiton down to under 16 level for the league of Ireland clubs, it might mean directing a few first team players wages to the underage set up, but long term it should benefit the league hugely. It would also reduce the conflict with the local leagues (in an ideal world).
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Tallaght Stadium Regular
I agree with this point but as i said I dont regard the Scots/Welsh comparison being valid.In fact the only comparison to be made with your average Irish football fan imo would be with fans in the far east who if they are lucky will get to mecca once or twice in their life.
Take another EPL loving nation such as Norway who compared to us have a reasonably healthy domestic league despite a few plane loads leaving for John Lennon airport every second saturday.
We in a footballing sense( and also among other fascets of life) are little west britain.
LOI fans are the resistence!!!
In an ideal world yes. With the current system, the LoI comes out of nowhere without grass-roots. U16 up is the way to go!
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