Local Football

[A face]

Do you ever wonder sometimes why you bother? I mean, how easy would it be to forsake the local version of the beautiful game for the warm and cosy alternative offered courtesy of your satellite dish?

You've got your numerous camera angles, expert analysis, build-ups, post mortems and all manner of gadgets and gizmos at the other end of a wee red button.

Hard to beat, isn't it? Irish League football doesn't really stand a chance. So why do we bother?

Maybe it's something to do with a sense of belonging, a sense of pride in your own community. Your local club, well, they're YOUR team.

You know the players - and they're ordinary blokes like yourself.

You pass the ground on a regular basis, you've seen it develop over the years - the lights, the new stand.

You've maybe went down on a winter's morning to help clear snow so the match that afternoon can go ahead, maybe turned up in the summer months to give the old place a much needed lick of paint.

You sell programmes, raffle tickets, attend club dinners, sponsor a player, buy a brick. You do your bit.

Then there’s the match itself. That feeling when things go right on the pitch. The last minute winner enjoyed in the company of your mates not forgetting the despair during the bad times. You’re all in this together.

After the game, walking home, getting stopped in the street, queuing at the corner shop for the paper, "How’d they do today?". You’re a real supporter, a true fan. You’re recognised as such. There’s something in that.

And woe betide anyone who dares rubbish your team, especially some ‘expert’ who claims to support some bunch of overpaid prima donna’s they’ll only ever see on the box.

What do they care? It won’t ruin their weekend if ‘their’ team loses or make it if they pick up those precious three points.

Leave them to their replica shirts and their once a season trip over to scoff their prawn sandwiches. They’re not fans, they’re customers.

With you it’s different. It matters. It matters a lot.

[Gerrit]

Copyrights irishleagueforums.net


well copy-pasted But agree, it's a very nice post that goes for all such leagues like IL, EL, League of Wales who're all in the shadow of the English League and the Old Firm...

[shedite]

What's "The Pink" then Face??? Never heard of it in Cork

[Poor Student]

The Manchester Pink. A lot like the old pink sports version of the Evening Herald on a Saturday with all the weekend's results. It possibly doesn't exist anymore. A Face exactly what relevance does this have to World Football?

[jockser]

and your point is?

[A face]

A Face exactly what relevance does this have to World Football?

and your point is?

Lads ... where ever you go, north or south of the equator, and no matter what time zone you are in, the football in that area will be local !!

[A face]

The Manchester Pink. A lot like the old pink sports version of the Evening Herald on a Saturday with all the weekend's results. It possibly doesn't exist anymore.

Started in Italy years ago ... famous pink pages were to celebrate the pink jersey in the Giro d'Italia !!

[hamish]

Great posts.. A face.

[4tothefloor]

What do they care? It won’t ruin their weekend if ‘their’ team loses or make it if they pick up those precious three points.

Leave them to their replica shirts and their once a season trip over to scoff their prawn sandwiches. They’re not fans, they’re customers.

That's typical EL codswallop. I support both Limerick and Liverpool and am passionate about them both. If Liverpool lose, i'm in a bad mood for the weekend. I eat, sleep and breath Liverpool to be honest and am as much a fan as any Liverpudlian. The EL is great, but to be honest is closer to junior football than professional football, save for less than a handfull of clubs operating at the top of the premier. There's so many aspects of it that you just can't take seriously as it's so poorly organised and administrated. I've been a Limerick fan since I was about 7, but never as consistently or as passionately as for Liverpool, as the club has in general been a shambles over the years which has left the soccer public down here disillusioned and sick of bad management, including me.

No prawn sandwiches at Anfield either by the way, just a proper traditional football club in a working class city