Petition the FAI to have Ireland matches played in Ireland

[Colbert Report]

Can someone explain to me why we had that match in London today? I realise that there was an agent to paid the FAI an appearance fee, but surely when tickets were that cheap and so few people attended we'd be better off having the match in Ireland?

[BonnieShels]

What harm? It gives ex-pats a chance to watch the team.

Just how many people do you reckon would have turned up to Lansdowne for last night's game?

[Colbert Report]

More than the pitiful few that showed up at Craven Cottage, that's for sure, especially at ten euro a ticket.

[Dodge]

Can someone explain to me why we had that match in London today? I realise that there was an agent to paid the FAI an appearance fee, but surely when tickets were that cheap and so few people attended we'd be better off having the match in Ireland?

Would you prefer London or Oman? Not every game can be at home

[ped_ped]

Would you prefer London or Oman? Not every game can be at home

Oman.

[Colbert Report]

Why don't we play more away friendlies? We almost always seem to be the "home" team.

[Dodge]

Why don't we play more away friendlies? We almost always seem to be the "home" team.

We weren't the home team yesterday.

[p2011]

Would you prefer London or Oman? Not every game can be at home

Oman.

Play an away friendly in the away country so their fans can go or else play a home friendly in Ireland. No more of these soulless neutral friendlies please. There are ex-pats in London and in nearly every city on earth.... so what. In Ireland or a proper away fixture please.

[Dodge]

The question was rhetorical. The FAI is broke and plays these games to pick up easy money rather than travelling further afield

[Closed Account 2]

I think it's a good idea to play games in London. If you look at who we've played over the last decade or so there are teams like Brazil, Jamaica, Nigeria, Colombia, etc. It gives us exposure to a style of football that we wouldnt necessarily get by playing a friendly against a European team. I'm not sure how easily we would be able to attract these teams to play in Dublin that frequently. We might get 1 or 2 big non-European teams a year, and be able to get an occasional North African team (e.g. Morocco played in Belfast a few years ago). Possibly if an opposition team was training in Europe ahead of big tournament (eg Paraguay pre WC2010) and wanted to face us as a style proxy for England/Scotland etc we might be able to get them in a home friendly. From an opposition's point of view playing London is probably more attractive than Dublin - certainly London is a bit better connnected intercontinentally, in terms of airports etc, than Dublin. Could we have convinced Oman to play last night at the Dublin Showgrounds or at Thomond Park?

The other advantage is, after a long away trip to Kazakstan, playing in London means less flying and travel time for UK based players. As others have said we can't play all our games at home and we dont seem to play that many friendlies away from home at all. Other teams play friendlies at neutral venues (Switzerland seems to host quite a few, African teams sometimes play in suburban Paris and teams like Angola and Mozambique often play in Amadora in Lisbon)

[Junior]

The question was rhetorical. The FAI is broke and plays these games to pick up easy money rather than travelling further afield

Absoutely. If that game had been played at the Aviva or elsewhere in Ireland for that matter, It would have cost the FAI money rather than generate any.

This was less hassle, guaranteed fee, less travel for players heading back to clubs, in a stadium where we have had decent attendances in the past (Colombia springs to mind and Nigeria to a lesser degree). Opportunity for ex-pats to attend and imo it would not have generated any notable improvement in attendance having it in Ireland. Perhaps Sligo maybe (they seem to be getting good attendances for the under age games) though did they host the U21 game against Italy the night before?

[Closed Account 2]

The trouble with Sligo is would Oman have fancied it? The airport is pretty much closed so you would be looking a fair journey to Dublin or Shannon (2-3 hours) and then either a change of plane via Europe or UAE (time consuming) or a private flight (expensive) back to Muscat. Contrast that with Craven Cottage, where they have a journey of 20 mins down the M4 to Heathrow and about a 7 hour flight home.

[paul_oshea]

Oman.

Play an away friendly in the away country so their fans can go or else play a home friendly in Ireland. No more of these soulless neutral friendlies please. There are ex-pats in London and in nearly every city on earth.... so what. In Ireland or a proper away fixture please.

You will find, that the majority of those who go to away games are actually ex-pats/2gs/3gs. Most of who live in London/UK.

[EAFC_rdfl]

The Italy U21 game was away from home.

[tetsujin1979]

Around the time of the two friendlies in Thomond Park, the FAI hosted a reception for local businesses. My friend's dad is a bank manager in Limerick, so he got a ticket to go along. John Delaney had a brief Q&A and was asked if we would see any Ireland friendlies outside of Dublin in future. His answer was that, because of the cost involved in Aviva stadium, all Ireland senior internationals for the forseeable future (at least a decade) would be held in the stadium.

[Junior]

I understand that the rationale behin that would be generating further income to pay off the debt (as well as profile for the stadium, perhaps contractual obligations to Aviva also I'd imagine). However the Oman friendly would have resulted in costs/losses if hosted at the Aviva, probably why the neutral venue also works for the FAI