Especially if they had played the home leg in Oriel Park!!!!
Especially if they had played the home leg in Oriel Park!!!!
Not to state the obvious even though I'm going ahead to do so - disappointing not to see at least one club through a round. There was some tough draws this year and with qualifiers being knock-out in nature, year's like this are going to happen. I think UEFA should allow all champions the safety net of Europa League i.e. Sligo dropping into the next EL round but UEFA care about money so that aint going to happen.
I'd like to see a fresh debate/discussion on the merits of a summer league. It was a positive move in terms of looking to give the league's clubs a competitive edge in the qualifiers and possibly have had raised the profile of the league through a few good performances in Europe. Is it a good idea though to be up against the GAA championships which seem to take up the spotlight? Obviously much more to this debate than these few points. European football is a bonus after a good season. What can be done within current structures to raise the league's profile? I know the FAI have poor finances but surely they could make some effort to promote the league using the example of international players who've come through the league and promoting up and coming talented players in the league. All competitions have their star players. It usually these players that do the promotion of the game on the pitch.
https://foot.ie/forums/117-Kerry-FC
A Championship: 4 years - 8 first teams - 0 financially ruined. First Division '14: 7 first teams.
Opportunity lost for new clubs/regions to join the LoI family.
I see Soccerway added salt to the wounds of the other evening:
FT
Molde 1 - 1 Legia Warszawa
You've got no fans.
We be down to 44th in the co-efficient table next year ...... thats how far the league of ireland football has fallen!
One decent season will have us mid 30's again, calm down. We won't get the same kind of horrific draw we did this year every season.
Žalgiris are leading Lech Poznań 1-0 away from home at the minute; they're 2-0 up on aggregate and looking good to progress.
What the hell is going on with the Luxembourg league?! Differdange - having already put out someone I've never heard of and then Utrecht - are now 1-0 up on Tromso, and 1-1 on aggregate. If they win, and pick up another win in the next round, the Luxembourg league goes level with us. Amazing stuff!
Dunno whether it's good or bad that Zalgiris are doing well. Is it a case that Pat's put up a good fight against them in hindsight, or is it just that the bottom nations are now getting so close together that an LoI team could easily have gone on the run they've gone on, so we were just unlucky this year?
Last edited by pineapple stu; 08/08/2013 at 6:40 PM.
I for one welcome our new Luxembourgian overlords.
http://m.uefa.com/news/1979895/
More money this season for first/second/third and play off rounds.
Pity we didn't get any teams progressing this year..
They are doing quite well, arent they? Still think they are a sh**e team though, but well done to them. But seems this year will have a lot of weak teams in the group stages of the europa.
But what about the three Romanian teams getting into the next round - Petrolul Ploiesti, Pandurii Târgu Jiu, Astra Giurgiu - where the hell does these teams come from!!!
Differdang went all the way to penalties against Tromso before losing 4-3. Mad stuff happening this year!
Edit - also out on penalties are St Johnstone, after a first-ever home defeat in Europe (seven previous home ties)
Last edited by pineapple stu; 08/08/2013 at 9:46 PM.
Them Roma are everywhere though.
Celtic have drawn Shakhtar Karagandy in the Champions League. It'll be interesting to see if they can emulate their Irish brothers with a win out there.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
The bigger the hole a league digs, the harder it is to get a decent season and climb up. Pats were seeded in the EL draw and got a lowly unseeded team who had finished 2nd in Lithuania, no big deal but it just so happened that team was in top form this season. You could say Pats were unfortunate to get such an uppity unseeded team but on the other hand the Lithuania champions Ekranes (who were seeded) were knocked out by an unseeded Icelandic team.
The other LOI teams in European competition were not seeded.
One decent season will not get the LOI up to the mid 30's, possibly 4 or 5 seasons with fortunate 1st and 2nd round opponents, total of 8 wins or 6 wins 2 draws etc).
Afaiu, Pats coeff 4.7 Sham Rov coeff 5.0, would not be seeded in the 2nd round of next years CL qual draw, should they qualify.
LOI clubs would only be seeded in the Europa league 1st round draw. it's not going to get easier.
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