Originally Posted by Bungle
I think it would work better as a sort of expanded, and better run, form of the Setanta Cup. You qualify for it by doing well enough in your domestic competition
Are people on drugs or what!!! Irish people wont get off their barstool to watch Motherwell V S Fingal, or will there be many travelling fans in these days of economic downturn coming from Scotland to see their team against Distillery or the like.
We have a decent league, anything else is just rubbish
Your pathetic muleings are just that, absolute uneducated drivel, talking out your ****ing arse about a club you obviously know nothing about.
Since you seem to have such a hard on for our Joey I can gaurantee you that he is on no more than a grand a week.
From what I heard before we signed him we had 650 euro a week free on the playing budget so im guessing that its either that or a bit less, he wasnt exactly in a position to command a big wage and we are not a club that pander to big wage players.
As for our facilities I suggest you look at pictures of the showgies 15 years ago to what it is now, its come on so so well, dead proud of our club.
As for youth players unfortunately we do not have a pool of players to pull from like the Dublin Clubs do with the LSL so hence why our club has ALWAYS depended heavily on foreign imports.
This is not a new phenominon, look at our league winning side from the 30's and our league winning side from the 70's.
Sure even in the 90's Athlone fans used to sing "SRFC Scottish Rejects" at us.
Always a large core of foreign lads with a sprinkling of local lads, very much the same as it is now.
As for our finances, as far as im aware our finances are sound.
Last year we were the only club to turn a 6 figure profit so I suggest you educate yourself before you embaress yourself any further with your inane ramblings about our great club.
Now kindly **** off to your barstool.
I think some clubs subsidize wages by offering perks like providing a car or a place to stay. Not saying this is the case with Ndo and Sligo (as I have no idea!) but I know some clubs do that to keep players sweet when they are on lower wages
Why in gods name would the likes of cardiff and swansea give up the opportunity of epl money to join such a rag tag competition?
Let's concentrate on the real problem and realistic solutions and not talk silly with such pie in the sky notions!
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
I know I'll get slated for saying this but the only way we'll ever get world class football on a regular basis in Ireland is if the LOI goes under and the English FA let some rich businessman put a "franchise" team in Dublin. I can see 50,000+ showing up once every ten days to Landsdowne Road to see a Dublin United type team play in the Premiership. Of course, it will never happen and we'll be stuck with the crap football forever.
every so often you pop up with this crap CR and then every so often i address it - you'd think id have learned by now - but, essentially, if you dont support it then youre not stuck with anything. Keep watching your premiership and enjoy it.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
Over 36,00 people would disagree
I think it's fair to say I have never seen so much rubbish posted in a single thread. Some people simply haven't a clue what they're talking about. Unreal nonsense.
You guarantee he isn't on more than a grand a week! How can you guarantee anything? You know no more about this than anyone else, other than what you were told by some fella behind the goal at the Showgrounds who took one of the board home in his taxi. Even if your right about the figure on paper, we all know what was going on at Derry. How can we be sure it isn't happening elsewhere?
I am certainly not having a go at your club, or any other club. I am simply looking in at a dreadfully run league, where club after club spend money they don't have to get to the upper end of the league, only to end up relegated, and picked Sligo at random as an example.
This is a league where a team that have won the title on the pitch, ended up being relegated because of what has been going on off it, a 10 team division which has had 4 members (Derry, Cork, Drogheda and Shelbourne) have various financial difficulties in recent years, as well as all manner of other **** ups from player registration, to UEFA licences.
The problem all this creates is that people don't know what they are watching. If people wanted to see the league title being decided by a committee meeting a week after the end of the season, they would buy a season ticket to the meetings rather than the football matches.
If your happy enough winning the cup and getting ****ed tonight that fair enough, but the way in which you reacted to me questioning how it is all being paid for is exactly why clubs are willing to take reckless financial risks chasing the rainbow.
For what its worth, I watched the cup final on telly. Sligo played very well, and thoroughly deserved their win. It was really refreshing to see a big crowd at a local match in a modern stadium. More of that please.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
Perhaps that's because it sums up the whole idea??
Even certain contributions on the 'Eligibility' thread might seem on a higher plane....
I've said this a million times, the money would be so much better spent on improving the existing structure of the league. A "Dublin United" side would not contribute to the national team, the grass-roots game, or anything else apart from the bank accounts of overpaid prima donnas. I can't believe that anyone would suggest that the collapse of the national league would be a good thing. If you want to see "world class football", with diving cheats and hyperinflated egos, buy a Sky subscription and stop wishing ill on our league. Unless you have a spare billion or two to help set up this "Dublin United"
If there was an independent competition a la the 4 associations tournament for clubs replacing the setanta of course, then I can say yeah... however not as a replacement for the leagues. Thats just idiotic.
Though as Stu has rightly pointed out this thread is full of guano.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
You'd swear you actually knew what you're talking about. You've already admitted you know next to nothing about the league, yet you're willing to tar Sligo with the same brush as all of the failed overspending clubs from years past.
Your sole piece of evidence appears to be Joseph Ndo, a 34-year-old player past his prime who long ago decided he was willing to play at a lower level because it suited his lifestyle. You seem to believe he is earning mega wages despite the fact the two big clubs in the country have passed on him and he's joined a smaller club (in monetary terms) and helped them win two trophies.
I don't want to start anything on here and I'll openly admit that I'm very ignorant when it comes to the LOI but I will say that it seems to me that the league doesn't contribute a whole lot to either the national team or the grassroots organisation of the sport in this country.
Before you all pop in going on about Kevin Doyle and Seamus Coleman, ask yourself, do you really think they wouldn't have gotten on with a League 2 club over in England and gone on to progress from there?
It won't cost one to two billion to get the sport going for realsies in Ireland. It would only take twenty to thirty million over the course of a two or three year timespan to get a club into the group stages of the Champions League and build from there. Honestly though, is the sport popular enough in this country to support that? I know people will show up to watch Bohemians play Manchester United one week but will they be willing to show up to see Bohemians vs. Sligo Rovers the next? I just don't see it. I guess we'll just have to keep plodding along with things the way they are. For those of you who like it, good on you for supporting your local team, I only wish I had one to support here in Canada. I'm stuck watching the EPL on weekend mornings.
From the independent:
The FAI deserves credit too for reducing prices for today's Cup final and have reaped the reward with sales in excess of 30,000, a throwback to the days when football was an affordable lifeline for people who had time on their hands but little money.
No team? Doubt that. If not, why not get off your a ss and start one?
Nobody's denying it could be better, but I'm sure you'll agree 20 to 30 clubs distributed throughout the country, linked strongly with the local community and amateur football structure have far more potential to produce players, and provide football to the general population than one super club in Dublin, 4 hours travel from footballing hotbeds like Cork and Derry.
It's a lot to ask of a young lad at 15 or 16 to up sticks, and put all his eggs in the professional football basket in a different country. Those two probably would have made it, but hundreds would be left with no qualifications, and no job prospects. Far better to allow them to stay with their families and friends, continuing their education while playing youth football with Sligo, Longford or Dundalk.Before you all pop in going on about Kevin Doyle and Seamus Coleman, ask yourself, do you really think they wouldn't have gotten on with a League 2 club over in England and gone on to progress from there?
Maybe you're different, but most Irish football "fans" see teams like Panathinaikos and CFR Cluj as failures, despite regular Champions' League football. It's not enough just to qualify, the team would have to hold their own with the likes of Man United and Chelsea to wrestle the support away from them. That's going to take a squad of 20 ~€20 millon players, plus their wages and signing-on fees.It won't cost one to two billion to get the sport going for realsies in Ireland. It would only take twenty to thirty million over the course of a two or three year timespan to get a club into the group stages of the Champions League and build from there. Honestly though, is the sport popular enough in this country to support that? I know people will show up to watch Bohemians play Manchester United one week but will they be willing to show up to see Bohemians vs. Sligo Rovers the next? I just don't see it. I guess we'll just have to keep plodding along with things the way they are. For those of you who like it, good on you for supporting your local team, I only wish I had one to support here in Canada. I'm stuck watching the EPL on weekend mornings.
If we want to bring attendances at Irish football up, it makes no sense to deliberately try and bring it into direct competition with the richest league in the world. Any campaign should focus on local pride and community connections. If you make the only choice on the grounds of quality, Manchester United are going to win every time. Bring community into it, and you're more likely to get the punters in the gates of Turner's Cross, the Brandywell and Tallaght Stadium.
In fairness the thread has shifted significantly from Stutts' original proposal of a re-vamped Europa League. There is a lot of nonsense flying around but maybe best to focus on whatever glimmer's of debate we can, in the interest of good-natured argument.
Personally major domestic league re-vamps, with the potential exception of an All Ireland league, are a no-no since they fundamentally ignore the real issues with domestic soccer. But are there any outlandish, potential innovative, restructuring ideas which could work in the league's favour? Stutts' was fairly pie-in-the-sky, and probably unworkable, but it was still an interesting one given the current Europa League is fairly guff at the moment.
Ou-est le Centre George Pompidou?
I like Stutts' idea in essence as it would revamp what is a fairly gash tournament however I think there is some merit in figuring out what it is we want from Irish soccer first before we seriously consider anything like what has been said so far in this thread and even concerning ourselves with worrying about the Europa League or the state of Scottish football.There are serious fundamental issues with the game here which we all know and these really need to be addressed and fast the Fingal (open to correction here but it ain't looking good as yet, that may change but we don't know so the uncertainty is unacceptable in my eyes) and Bohs situations showcase what can go wrong when.
There is some time between now and January/Feb when the licences are announced to really discuss what we want.
Should we try to emulate the British systems of soccer or should we be more radical with an elite league and lots of feeder/provincial leagues? These are already in place and need to be worked on so that all parts of the league exist to help out all other parts of the league. I want a vibrant, stable and well supported and exciting league. European football should come next in the priorities.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
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