Altrincham (now once more a leading Conference club) won that division in 1980, promptly applied for League status, and lost out to Rochdale by one vote - the story goes that one team promised them their vote but found themselves in the wrong side of the room when ballots were being taken!Originally Posted by Nesta99
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979%E...ootball_League
Once again, you're confusing Geography and Demography:
"Brazil has a high level of urbanization with 87.8% of the population residing in urban and metropolitan areas."
While 60m Brazilians (= population of England), live in the 30 biggest cities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._by_population
Of course there are huge distances and time zones between a lot of these, as you say. Nonetheless like eg Australia, the vast majority of Brazilians live on the Eastern Coastal strip (or nearby):
Just think of the Amazon jungle as a very big Mayo, though not as wet!
All indeed true. But as we know - national football leagues aren't restricted solely to the most populated areas/geographies. They operate nationally. And as Brazil has a pyramid system (two actually, you'l be glad to hear - both national and state), it therefore has clubs from all over the country playing each other in its top 2 tiers which are run on a nationwide basis. So in Série A you have clubs in the far north of the country like Fortaleza playing clubs in the far south like Gremio, with a mere 800km or so between them. In Serie B you have clubs like Cuiabá, in the west of the country (the bit your map shows as thinly populated) playing against clubs who are also considerable distances form them in that nationwide tier.Once again, you're confusing Geography and Demography:
"Brazil has a high level of urbanization with 87.8% of the population residing in urban and metropolitan areas."
While 60m Brazilians (= population of England), live in the 30 biggest cities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._by_population
Of course there are huge distances and time zones between a lot of these, as you say. Nonetheless like eg Australia, the vast majority of Brazilians live on the Eastern Coastal strip (or nearby):
Just think of the Amazon jungle as a very big Mayo, though not as wet!
Interesting that you mention the Amazon jungle, btw. It's largest population centre - Manaus (where England played in the 2014 World Cup) has a population of 2.5m, making it 25% more populous than all of Northern Ireland, despite being in the middle of a massive jungle. So it's hardly Mayo/Castlebar territory in all fairness. It also has a team (Manaus) in Serie B, playing fixtures against teams up to 3 time zones and thousands of miles away.
So could you realistically have 92 professional clubs playing in nationwide leagues in a country as vast as Brazil ? Absolutely not, in my opinion. Despite being the a very wealthy sport in the wealthiest coutry in the world, for example, American football doesn't even operate on a nationwide league basis in that large country. Like I said, it's easy to have a lot of pro clubs in a small country with a large population.
Last edited by EatYerGreens; 15/01/2025 at 7:10 PM.
And with as much chance of winning Sam.
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
Boy, has this thread gone off on a bit of a tangent. LOI —> Amazon Jungle!
"We're not Bra-zil, we're League of Ireee-land..."
For strange and wacky creatures!
Ah pre-season.
May it never end
They don’t call it the silly season for nothing PS!Ah pre-season.
May it never end
Even without the old firm, the attendances in the spl are incredible, Dundee has a population about half the size of the cork metro region and it's 2 clubs combined are averaging around 17500 this season, Aberdeen 17800 and the Edinburgh clubs combined over 35000. Celtic 59000, Rangers 48000, absolutely fantastic for a country of 5 .5 million.
Agree entirely.
Mustn't be much else to do in Scotland, mind.
I have huge respect for anyone who follows a Scottish club outside of the Old Firm. Unless they're older than 50 they wont have seen (and remembered) their club win the Scottish top division, and they know they almost certainly won't for the rest of their lives either. Even Hearts haven't won the top tier in 65yrsThe best that fans of 'the other' Scottish clubs can hope for is to win either the cup or league cup once or twice in their lifetimes. Yet still they turn out in big numbers to watch teams who are guaranteed to be also-rans.
I know some will say that English football is like that too. Bit it isn't dominated utterly by only 2 teams ; there are still freak exceptions like Leicester City ; and no-one in Scotland except the Old Firm has won their league in 41years and counting. So it has a couple of generations head start on Europe's other leagues which are slowly becoming strangled by just a few clubs.
Dundalk v Malahide last night, nothing official but a few have said 800.
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), only Irish club to win a game / points in Europa League Group Stage (2016).
Bohs posted their 6-4 Morton stadium match earlier... Was watching and thinking about how shocking the crowd was. Was there even 1k at it? Funny the lack of police and security by the look of it. Was there less of the silly off the pitch stuff then?
When did Bohs-Rovers start becoming a thing? I don't remember it being a big deal back in the 80s. It seems to have really kicked-in since Rovers moved to Tallaght ?
That was 2000/2001 or maybe a year later. Crowds have improved greatly since then I would say if that game was on today Bohs would fill that entire terrace the camera was facing. A great game on a pi33 poor pitch. We need games like that in the league today, plenty of bite, boot and boll@#k. The game played with passion and desire. Sometimes I would like to go back to those days but I think we are doing ok today.
My first derby was cup game in 1976...15000 in Dalymount in a time if declining crowds. Bohs crowds increased early 90s and there were some great matches then. So I'd say certainly since the 70s its been the big one for both clubs
So presumably it filled the north-south void after Drumcondra dropped out in 1972 and Rovers needed a new grudge rival? I still don't recall good crowds at Bohs game in the 80s, which was a barren spell for them trophies-wise.
Ah it looked like pure entertainment alright....They would more than fill that and then some
Rivalry started probably around the late 70’s. There were some big games in the 80’s through to the Tallaght era. I remember the Leinster Cup final around 1991 where there was more action off the pitch than on it. Also the 1994 fai cup games where it went to a second replay. The first game in Dalymount had around 12k and the first replay around 7k on a Wednesday afternoon at the RDS.
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