Kildare County FC

**Wizzard** · 21/02/2002, 1:29 PM

The eircom League has invited Kildare County Football Club to replace St Francis, and the club could be competing in the First Division when the new season begins in early July. The decision comes following months of scrutiny by League officials in the wake of St Francis' retirement from the League last summer, and the club are expected to accept the invitation at the League's AGM in April.

Kildare County FC will operate as a separate legal entity and will play its home matches in Newbridge at the current ground of Newbridge Town FC. Kildare is one of the fastest growing counties in the country with a population of close to 150,000, and until now has been the largest county without a representative club in the eircom League.

Twelve clubs around the country were originally contacted to establish whether they had an interest in joining the League, and following interviews with five clubs, two (Kildare County and Mullingar Town) presented detailed business plans to the League. While selecting Kildare County, the League paid compliment to Mullingar Town on an excellent proposal and wished the club well with its continued participation in the eircom Under-21 League, while also advancing its detailed development plans with a view to full League membership before long.

From [COLOR=red]RTE.ie[/COLOR]

**Macy** · 21/02/2002, 1:35 PM

Can Westmeath Scum MK2 still apply for election for the league? Could they replace Westmeath Scum MK1?

**Wizzard** · 21/02/2002, 1:39 PM

They are both probably outside the catchment area.

**pete** · 21/02/2002, 2:28 PM

A club from Kildare doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Maybe i'm wrong but I heard Newbridge has a bad reputation & is a 'tough' area?

**SÓC** · 21/02/2002, 8:42 PM

Yea it's tough alright, alot of people were relocated from Dublin to there, also alot of the people living there are employey by the Defence Forces, there should be some fun with the Security at those games

**mouldymurphy** · 22/02/2002, 10:34 AM

St Pats boss Pat Dolan has welcomed the news that Kildare County FC will become the Eircom League’s 22nd club. They will replace St Francis who resigned from the League in the close season as they opened merger talks with the Richmond Park outfit....

“It’s quite right that the biggest county without an eircom League club should join us. It’s nice that the place hasn’t gone to another Dublin side, we’re a national competition and that should be reflected in the make up of the league”

Pats meet Bray Wanderers in the league and Dolan knows that his side can’t afford to lose as they chase the title in a dogfight with Shelbourne.

”Wanderers are a good side and have a great squad. They are always difficult to beat and Pat Devlin is one of the canniest managers in the game. There’s a lot of respect between the two clubs and we always have good tussles.

At this stage of the season you can’t afford slip ups, you need to win all your games particularly when you have home advantage.”

from: www.soccercentral.ie

**Patsys Fags** · 22/02/2002, 3:46 PM

Kildare is a just another suburb of Dublin. Why couldnt the place have gone to a more football starved area like Tralee or maybe even Killarney?The FAI should be trying to spread football and not centralise it in the Dublin catchment area.Another step in the in the wrong direction from the FAI?

**A face** · 22/02/2002, 4:42 PM

Clubs to make a proposal and to convince to the league that they are a viable club and would be a good addition to the league.

The Munster senior league dont seem to be in the least bit interested in helping any club get into the league no matter how viable it might be. One thing is for sure if there were a club between Tralee, Kilarney and Shannon (in that general area) then it would surely do well in the first division.

**pete** · 22/02/2002, 5:39 PM

Well apparently the FAI invited 12 clubs to apply for the extra place. Only Kildare & Mullingar applied & they judged Kildares to be the best.

If Tralee or whoever else wanted to join they should have applied. The FAI can hardly be blamed for that.

Kildare has a much bigger catchment area than Mullingar (Athlone & Longford not so far away) so sound like the best option. Its all very well having clubs spread around the country but thats not much good if not big enough population to keep them alive.

**ccfcman** · 23/02/2002, 7:24 PM

fully agree there bout to many dun teams, spread west or even south what happened to tralee and rockmounts attempts???

**Patsys Fags** · 24/02/2002, 9:06 PM

Tralee would serve all of Kerry which has a population of 150,000+.Bet all the dubs didnt know that.They probably think theres 20 people there.Even if Kildare has a bigger population Tralee is bigger than all towns in Kildare and soccer here has proven to be town based rather than county based. Dont see many people from Micthelstown goin to City matchs do ya???