Are we the only league that does this?

[Roverstillidie]

UCD have a niche and proved their worth over the years. are they the biggest small club or the smallest big club? they organically progressed through the intervarsity side of things to the point where they could compete in the LOI. But that happened over years.

Longford, Kilkenny and Monaghan are the senior clubs of large towns with a junior st up underneath them. Longord are a shining example of what ccan be done on and off the pitch.

CHF are none of the above. They just appeared with no dynamic behind them, just 'no-one else was interested'. That is pathetic and I fear that genesis will encourage 8 other ego trips as opposed to the 8 biggest towns/areas that have no EL side's biggest teams stepping up.

[Derek]

Yes you are all right, I will call the Chairman in the morning and insist that he disbands the club asap.

Get a grip the lot of, Nobody duped me or fooled me. I feel part of the club, had no ties before supporting The Dubs and hate Homefarm. I knew very little about the EL before supporting the Dubs.

Shamrock Rovers:
Went to a lot of their games but didn't enjoy the atmosphere because of all the wanabe brit hooligans who make supportting them if you have kids a joke as you would fear for thier safety.

Bohs:
Similar support to Rovers but just not as many mentle cases:

If you don't believe me about the nutters then you should have been at the playoff with Dublin City and Rovers last Friday

Example 1.
200 Bohs fans to my right in Tolka constantly shouting rubbish at the Rovers Fans, Rovers Fans shouting back just waiting for the final whistle so the could square up and cause trouble, muppets the lot,

Example 2.
End of the game waiting for the Rovers fans to leave the area outside Tolka so I could bring the kids home three Rovers fans walk past me, I'm standing thier with my five year old, my nine year old and my twelve year old all wearing Dublin hats etc and one of the nobends gestures his hand in the motion of having a waank, then lets out some verbals of the same variety to me and the kids, know I know the garda did a good job keeping the waring factions apart but are you trying to tell me that they needed to have a fight that badly they needed to have ago from my gang of Dublin City Ultras. What a scalp that would be went they get back to the rehab centre and tell all their mates.

Shels:
Good club with plenty of decent fans, almost picked these but they have enough fans already.

Cork:
Based on the fans ignorance that I come across from their fans on foot.ie I'm glad I live so far away although the distance would not have stopped me supporting.

Derry City:
Good fans, no, Great fans, great atmosphere and a good night out when you go to the Brandy well.

Pats:
Didn't feel anything when watching these.

UCD.
Never actually went to see UCD before I picked my team, Sorry.

Wanderers.
Never actually went to see Wanderers before I picked my team, Sorry.

So that left Dublin City, from the very first game I went to see them I felt at home, Good atmosphere even though the games can be a bit quite. You can be sure your kids will not have to listen too or watch your own fans throw abuse of objects at the opposition.

If I left anyone out sorry but you get the gist of my response, Just because some of the posters on this site say such rubbish about Dublin City doesn't mean it's true but the idea of constantly running down clubs for what ever reason is silly, give Dublin City time.

[HarpoJoyce]

I do know there are no big clubs in this country. Having few fans doesn't mean that a club is not ambitous. If promotion is a measure of success then Dub City have done it twice already. ( how clever of them to mimic Home Farm Everton's promotion in 1996 which eased UCD's second season-in-a-row in the Premier Division.)

But I do know, that larger clubs' supporters prefer not to associate their clubs with small club anecdotes. While I prefer to emphasise with most of the worlds supporters.

http://www.wsc.co.uk/archive/wsc44.html
Tadek Kospzywa’s eulogy of life as an East Stirlingshire supporter is also a classic WSC piece, extolling the virtues of being "free from the ruthless ambition which spoils the atmosphere at places like Falkirk and Airdrie".
Recalling the consequences of the 1979-80 season, when ES had moved up a division, Kopszywa laments having been introduced to a world "where opposition supporters talked amongst themselves of promotion as though it were vital for human survival. They also sneered at us simply because there were not that many of us. The upshot of this was to make the supporters hateful of success and even more so of those who long for it." Looked at that way, the years since have certainly been kind to him.


PS. Flamengo of Brazil claim to have 35million fans, maybe bigger clubs supporters do outnumber the smaller clubs.

[tiktok]

I think everyone would have a lot more time for Dublin City if they were called Home Farm, simple as that, the main problem is that they're perceived as an opportunistic franchise, though I don't particularly care for the club, they'll be in the top flight on merit and fair play to those who turn out to support them, they get a lot of Sh!t over it.

I dislike their chairman/benefactor greatly however, based on first hand experience of him.

Part of me has always liked the fact that UCD are in the top flight of the EL, having a 'university side' playing top level football is interesting, UCD have long since earned their status, I think the point that attracting support is always going to be a problem for them is fair, especially wrt students, any student interested in the LOI will most likely already have 'their' team.

Belfield depresses the fcuk out of me though.

[patsh]

Yes you are all right, I will call the Chairman in the morning and insist that he disbands the club asap.

Get a grip the lot of, Nobody duped me or fooled me. I feel part of the club, had no ties before supporting The Dubs and hate Homefarm. I knew very little about the EL before supporting the Dubs.

Shamrock Rovers:
Went to a lot of their games but didn't enjoy the atmosphere because of all the wanabe brit hooligans who make supportting them if you have kids a joke as you would fear for thier safety.

Bohs:
Similar support to Rovers but just not as many mentle cases:

If you don't believe me about the nutters then you should have been at the playoff with Dublin City and Rovers last Friday

Example 1.
200 Bohs fans to my right in Tolka constantly shouting rubbish at the Rovers Fans, Rovers Fans shouting back just waiting for the final whistle so the could square up and cause trouble, muppets the lot,

Example 2.
End of the game waiting for the Rovers fans to leave the area outside Tolka so I could bring the kids home three Rovers fans walk past me, I'm standing thier with my five year old, my nine year old and my twelve year old all wearing Dublin hats etc and one of the nobends gestures his hand in the motion of having a waank, then lets out some verbals of the same variety to me and the kids, know I know the garda did a good job keeping the waring factions apart but are you trying to tell me that they needed to have a fight that badly they needed to have ago from my gang of Dublin City Ultras. What a scalp that would be went they get back to the rehab centre and tell all their mates.

Shels:
Good club with plenty of decent fans, almost picked these but they have enough fans already.

Cork:
Based on the fans ignorance that I come across from their fans on foot.ie I'm glad I live so far away although the distance would not have stopped me supporting.

Derry City:
Good fans, no, Great fans, great atmosphere and a good night out when you go to the Brandy well.

Pats:
Didn't feel anything when watching these.

UCD.
Never actually went to see UCD before I picked my team, Sorry.

Wanderers.
Never actually went to see Wanderers before I picked my team, Sorry.

So that left Dublin City, from the very first game I went to see them I felt at home, Good atmosphere even though the games can be a bit quite. You can be sure your kids will not have to listen too or watch your own fans throw abuse of objects at the opposition.

If I left anyone out sorry but you get the gist of my response, Just because some of the posters on this site say such rubbish about Dublin City doesn't mean it's true but the idea of constantly running down clubs for what ever reason is silly, give Dublin City time.

From an ignorant City supporter's point of view, this sums up DCFC perfectly.
You don't go shopping around for a club to follow,the club picks you.

[LFC in Exile]

Worse, CHF is an opportunistic attempt to cash in on a name and a blue shirt in an already crowded city club scene.

Kind of like Dublin clubs adopting a light blue shirt and navy shorts as their change strip. That would be really cashing in wouldn't it.

[bigmac]

From an ignorant City supporter's point of view, this sums up DCFC perfectly.
You don't go shopping around for a club to follow,the club picks you.

Great attitude to get people interested in El football Patsh
"Don't come unless you hear the call!" It's not a fcuking vocation, fair play to Derek for taking an interest - who's to say that DC didn't pick him anyway.

[LFC in Exile]

This is an interesting debate and about time.

I agree with the thrust of the original post. It is surprising that eL supporters in particular would take the "small clubs don't bring anything to the league" attitude. If taken to its logical conclusion of course the eL could be disbanded for "bringing nothing to Irish sport", if we base it solely on attendances, which seems to be the deciding factor on a club's contribution.

Fair play to Derek for getting involved in an eL club and bringing his kids along to eL games. I couldn't care less what club he supports if his kids are walking around wearing merchandise for an eL club rather than a foreign one. And I bet they loved last Friday night. Already I guess they're hooked.

[Derek]

From an ignorant City supporter's point of view, this sums up DCFC perfectly.
You don't go shopping around for a club to follow,the club picks you.

Didn't go shopping around, just wanted to watch homegrown football but never felt the calling you talk about until I went to Dublin City, That's when I got hooked on one team, simple realy. And another thing I think the standard of football is about right for the size of the league and the money it generates, the only way we can improve is to hope that TV takes off and we can get more bums ons seats for all teams. This will all equate to money with means more to spend on players which means that the likes of Doyler who went to Reading might actually stay. It's a catch 22, people in Ireland have just gotten out of the habit of doing something other than watching TV in the pub watching the English crap.

I would love to know what the viewing figures were for the reglegation playoff on Setanta last week, or the final **** v Derry game, anybody any ideas on how to find the figures out?

[Derek]

Fair play to Derek for getting involved in an eL club and bringing his kids along to eL games. I couldn't care less what club he supports if his kids are walking around wearing merchandise for an eL club rather than a foreign one. And I bet they loved last Friday night. Already I guess they're hooked.

They all have DC flags, hats, full kit and wahtever else they can buy.
For example, the great thing about Dublin City being small at the moment is the access to the whole club, Robbie Collins gave the nine year old his boots after the win in Athlone, the two boys were mascots at the City v Rovers playoff game in Tolka and I had a few pints with the players after the game, I mean for fcuk sake what team in the english muck can you get involved to such an extent. The kids go around the house singing Dublin songs all day long, pay almost no attention to Man U or what ever, we have a little foosball table, one team wears blue and the other wears yellow, so the five year reckons that when he playing with it the teams are Dublin City and Kilkenny. That has to be a good thing even if some consider Dublin City to be a francise, I reckon my kids and kids like them are the future of the EL,
They spread the word in their schools and remember all PR is good PR.

[Jerry The Saint]

From an ignorant City supporter's point of view, this sums up DCFC perfectly.
You don't go shopping around for a club to follow,the club picks you.

This might be true in Cork, where a franchise club had to be invented to cater for the largest population area in Ireland without a team, but you can't say the same for Dublin.

Despite the size of the population, there is a huge amount of people who have no interest in soccer and the majority of those that do have no allegiance to an Irish team, as much as we'd like it to be different.

Of the 5 Premier (and 1 First Division ) teams, only Bohs and Pats are still firmly identified with their original community base (fair play to UCD for their efforts to change this). In Derek's case it appears that Shamrock Rovers did, in a way, "pick" him but it was not a good experience:

Shamrock Rovers:
Went to a lot of their games but didn't enjoy the atmosphere because of all the wanabe brit hooligans who make supportting them if you have kids a joke as you would fear for thier safety.

By your logic he should just have given up on the eircom League completely rather than "shopping around" for a club that he wanted to get involved in.

(Although judging by the Shels comments, it seems like he really should have picked them...)

Shels:
Good club with plenty of decent fans, almost picked these but they have enough fans already.

Actually, it seems to me that people who support DC should really be Shels fans, given the general catchment area and the litigious nature of their leader. There were strong rumours of a merger for a while, anyone heard anything about this lately?

[Block G Raptor]

Fact of the matter is No club in this country can bitch at another about lack of fans, we all follow clubs which play in the nations top two divisions
in front of a reletivley pityfull crowd, lets face it if everyone from phibsboro/cabra/finglas/blanch who followed a english club came to the bohs match we'd sell out croker every week ! Fair fcuking play to fans who go to watch Dublin City or UCD, I love going to bohs because of the craic and banter etc. it's much harder to follow a club when you know it's going to be one man and his dog on a ****y october night. We all need to look at attendances and try to constructively come up with Idea's for all clubs to improve this aspect because lets face it we are waiting for a blinding flash and the fai/league suddenly start to market the league then we're in for a
long wait
so instead of throwing abuse at smaller clubs lets get our heads together and try and get more bums on seats at all grounds. It's the only way the league can improve !

[NY Hoop]

[QUOTE=Derek]Yes you are all right, I will call the Chairman in the morning and insist that he disbands the club asap.

Get a grip the lot of, Nobody duped me or fooled me. I feel part of the club, had no ties before supporting The Dubs and hate Homefarm. I knew very little about the EL before supporting the Dubs.

Shamrock Rovers:
Went to a lot of their games but didn't enjoy the atmosphere because of all the wanabe brit hooligans who make supportting them if you have kids a joke as you would fear for thier safety.

Bohs:
Similar support to Rovers but just not as many mentle cases:

See this what bugs me about CHF "fans". Claims that we are ALL "wanabe (sic( brit hooligans. Pal there are loads of families that go to Rovers games and go home unharmed

Some Rovers fans made gestures at him. Oh dear call the cops. Did they throw nuts at you too ffs??? Show me a league in the world where one set of fans wont make gestures at each other if one club relegates the other.

The LSL is where your club belongs.

KOH

[Mr A]

Some Rovers fans made gestures at him. Oh dear call the cops. Did they throw nuts at you too ffs??? Show me a league in the world where one set of fans wont make gestures at each other if one club relegates the other.

Question- seeing as it's ok to throw small objects and gesture at 5 year olds (It's not like we're talking about gesturing generally at 1000 people, it's one man with his children), I was wonder where the line is when things aren't ok?

Does someone have to use a Samurai sword, or is that ok too as long as no one actually gets killed?

Just wondering, seeing as we're always wondering why people don't go to eL games and all

[NY Hoop]

Question- seeing as it's ok to throw small objects and gesture at 5 year olds (It's not like we're talking about gesturing generally at 1000 people, it's one man with his children), I was wonder where the line is when things aren't ok?

Does someone have to use a Samurai sword, or is that ok too as long as no one actually gets killed?

Just wondering, seeing as we're always wondering why people don't go to eL games and all

People dont go to EL games cos they are brainwashed by the blanket coverage for the premier**** not cos of inane ramblings on an internet site

When the ole olers do see EL action from whitehall can you blame them for laughing? Plus the herag constantly printing lies about Rovers fans hardly helps........

KOH

[pete]

No idea about CHF v Rovers playoff ratings.
Cork City v Derry City on RTE was 355,000.

I accept that club formerly known as Home Farm might be a startup & need time to develop but that would be fine if in part of the country where no other club. I just cannot understand the development model of DC. They do not develop players & are just like any other club that surrounds Dublin picking up those floating players who move to whichever club is the Premier each season.

If DC were serious they'd move to Blanchardstown or Lucan or somewhere. Might be some point aside from selling shirts to tourists then.

Have DC actually developed in the last 3-4 years? Manager & players seemed to change as often as their hoem ground...

[patsh]

1. I doubt if anybody at all has criticised the fans of DCFC. They are perhaps the only good thing about the club.
2. In the rush to condemn anybody who criticised the DCFC club, the point of many posters has been overlooked. AT present, there is an upsurge of interest in the el, probably beginning with $hels run in Europe two seasons ago, and the arrival of Setanta. The aim of everyone on here is, presumably, to highlight the good things about our league, to attract bigger crowds to the eL and generate more interest. We need to reach the barstool brigade and get them through the gates. To do that, we need to show our league as exciting, with lots of atmosphere at games. Rovers, irrefutably, bring a lot more excitement, colour and atmosphere to games than DCFC do. If Setanta show a DCFC home game will it compare in any way to a Rovers home game? NO, it won't.
Whether you like it or not, a "home" game for DCFC struggles to attract 3 figure crowds. This is exactly the kind of thing so many barstoolers point to to dismiss our league.
3. The viewing figures for the City v Derry game were 355,000, a massive number, (and hardly just in Cork or Derry) and it shows that there is a latent interest out there, that the eL as a whole need to tap into. I just don't see how DCFC will generate any interest or excitement, certainly not on the same level as Rovers (which in itself is far behind what it could be).

[Philo]

Shamrock Rovers:
Went to a lot of their games but didn't enjoy the atmosphere because of all the wanabe brit hooligans who make supportting them if you have kids a joke as you would fear for thier safety.

Bohs:
Similar support to Rovers but just not as many mentle cases:

If you don't believe me about the nutters then you should have been at the playoff with Dublin City and Rovers last Friday

Example 1.
200 Bohs fans to my right in Tolka constantly shouting rubbish at the Rovers Fans, Rovers Fans shouting back just waiting for the final whistle so the could square up and cause trouble, muppets the lot

Thanks. I was one of the Bohs fans in that section and though there was singing and gesturing, I didn't see anyone squaring up to cause trouble (other than the Rovers casuals on the pitch). There were no Bohs casuals (BSC) present, just a decent bunch of maybe 50 vocal fans ejoying the moment. I think you are very, very far removed from the realities of genuine football culture. You are one seriously frightened individual if you think anything untoward happened last Friday.

[Macy]

I accept that club formerly known as Home Farm might be a startup

It's either a name change of Home Farm, in which case it isn't a start up or a brand new club that was elected to the league. They can't have it both ways.

I've mellowed on UCD, but I have no time for CHF or the mini ollie that is seery. The whole thing is Franchise football whether people like to admit or not - the name, the nickname, the merchandise, the european super league aspirations etc etc.

Monaghan, Kilkenny etc fill a regional void, and I really haven't seen too much criticism of them as clubs. Infact the opposite, with Kilkenny getting praise for the way they've gone about developing the infrastructure rather than pour money into the team. Something CHF should look at, and then maybe people would respect them.

[Schumi]

I've mellowed on UCD

You and Nightdub in the one season?!