Don't care who comes out victorious from the playoff once it's not UCD. They've no place in the top flight
Don't care who comes out victorious from the playoff once it's not UCD. They've no place in the top flight
Ha - from a Longford fan. I'll get over that insult I think
Every fan of every other club shares that sentiment I'm afraid. I just don't see how a college team fits in with the league with the trajectory the league is on
I’ve no problem at all with UCD except when they beat us
And I suspect a majority of fans share that viewOriginally Posted by Nah Nah Nah Nah
Especially since we stopped beating teams with fans
No problem with Ucd either. Club with alot of history and apparently we'll run. Just a pity they can't grow the fan base. I know from reading here they have tried alot different things like changing match days over the years to no avail.
Actually think they are a bit of a sleeping Giant for LOI - if they focused not on being a university team per se , but Dublins South East's team.
In some parts of the South of the City, you can be a hefty chunk of time to another LOI team.
There are plenty of University teams that have huge fanbases across the world.
This is the thing. Universidad de Chile get avg 6K +, Universiatea Craiova get 13K+. Have UCD ever had 500 fans?
UCD don't appear to give a **** about growing a fan base. From their lack of promotion around the campus to the total lack of information or marketing online, they appear happy with their lot.
Despite that, I've always been of the belief that no team belongs at any level. Always hear stuff like oh it's a crying shame x is going down, you end up in whatever league you deserve to be in.
Not to mention the incredible talent UCD has produced for the entire league down the years.
I actually fancy UCD to do very well in the play offs, they have been slowly building off the radar at a nice time in the season
UCD are wherever they deserve to be on merit. They are not burning through money to do so. We wil havel nothing bad to say about one of our main fomer feeder clubs!
I really feel the South-East of the City is crying out for a team that is already there, if it was just linked together.
The biggest gripe I would have is Belfield is not easy to get too, because its so deep in the city.
To be fair, last time I was in UCD, there did seem to a lot of kids about, and they even had a drum. Pretty sure there were lads with a drum last Friday too. They brought more away fans than some clubs to Oriel this year.
From a football nerd point of view... It is an interesting time for UCD. The LOI is changing, and their once niche of basically being the one-stop bridge of young players to senior football in LOI is no longer the case as football development in the country has radically changed.
At the same time, reading from here (and other online activity), they seem to have a deeper local connection now, especially helped with underage LOI teams and their link-up with Mt. Marrion.
They have a great history and added a lot to LOI, and their presence in the league give it a nice oddity. They win their spots in the leagues based on performance.
I hope they can continue to develop.
They're different clubs in fairness. Universidad de Chile is one of the oldest clubs in Chile, joining the top flight six years after the league was founded. They haven't had a formal link with the college in 40+ years.
I don't know Craiova's exact link with the college, but given they signed a Palestine international for €700k from a Polish top flight side in pre-season, I imagine it's relatively tenuous, a bit like a lot of the Communist clubs linked with trades (Lokomotiv, CSKA, etc) - even like the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant softball team). I guess they're also helped by being the only top team in a regional city.
UCD are quite an old side too of course, but we were non-league until 1979 when non-league was really quite casual/social (a lot of works teams for example). By 1979, a lot of family supporter alliances had been formed, and of course at that time we had Shamrock Rovers right on the doorstep.
The south-east city thing is easier said than done, as Cabo and even Bray have shown. We just don't have the money to challenge and get enough interest that way. You're right that the academy setup is a big change for UCD - though in fairness we're still well up there in terms of the academy leagues (surprisingly so, given Rovers should have underage all sewn up). A decent record in the UEFA Youth League shows that - not only reaching it twice, but taking Haaland to penalties and getting through a round last year, only the second LoI side to do that.
Equally I feel the divide between the Premier and First has never been bigger - not just for us, but for Athlone, Longford, Kerry, Cobh, Treaty, etc. For about the first time since I've been going to LoI games we seem to have the ten biggest sides in the Premier and the ten smallest sides in the First (Dundalk the exception - I guess there's 11 big sides and 9 small ones). UEFA Solidarity funding is increasing the gap too of course. If we go up (which isn't impossible) it's hard to see how we could stay up.
i for one dont mind UCD at all being in the LOI. So many ex players coming thro their ranks. Public transport wise I never had issues headin out to Belfield Bowl.
Its one of the few grounds that I actually know a lot of their fanbase from the time One F in Longford and STIG had their bi annual games on pitch at HT! I know that theres challenges with tryin to grow their fanbase with so many LOI clubs right on their doorstep. My club and UCD would have a lot in common in challenges in trying to grow the fanbase. What more can you do?
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
While I full agree with the merit side of things, it seems reasonable to me that at some point in the future they should have to justify the fact that they have literally almost no fanbase at all. Re Athlone - worst team in the country by a mile, with the town drowning in apathy over its men's senior team, Longford have been in the doldrums for 2 decades now, reasonably justifiable low attendances for both these sides. UCD are perennially in the hunt for promotion with a legacy of being the League's feeder club and yet the Bowl only fills up adequately solely from away fans presence.
We did have to justify it in 2006. You might remember it - we were actually runners-up in the "justify yourselves" exercise to Galway's DVD.
I don't think any club ever has to justify such things though - other than how well you play football. That we lasted so long in the Premier was a bit of an embarrassment to clubs who should have been there instead of us (Galway being one) - but as clubs have gotten their stuff together (and started racking up record losses too I think), we're in the First now, and that's fine.
There's lots of smaller capital city clubs around Europe. It's nothing unusual.
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