Love your local team

**jebus** · 19/02/2007, 6:35 PM

Originally Posted by BohDiddley

Compared to what?

The English Premiership, The Scottish Premiership, The Hungarian Third Division, you name it it's better run than this league

Originally Posted by BohDiddley

Outside where?

Outside this cosy little bubble called the Eircom League. Is there always a need to spell everything out to people in this forum?

**BohDiddley** · 19/02/2007, 6:52 PM

Originally Posted by jebus

The English Premiership, The Scottish Premiership, The Hungarian Third Division, you name it it's better run than this league

Outside this cosy little bubble called the Eircom League. Is there always a need to spell everything out to people in this forum?

I'm not going to defend the running of the eL, but if you are putting forward the EPL as a model league, then it is you who is living in a bubble. Just keep paying your Sky sub and things'll be fine.

**NeilMcD** · 20/02/2007, 9:18 AM

Which league has climbed up the rankings as quicky in recent years as much as the Eircom League.

**jebus** · 20/02/2007, 1:29 PM

Originally Posted by BohDiddley

I'm not going to defend the running of the eL, but if you are putting forward the EPL as a model league, then it is you who is living in a bubble. Just keep paying your Sky sub and things'll be fine.

Never said it was a model league, but it is run far better than the Eircom League, and it is probably the best marketed league in the world, which is what counts in this day and age.

Just keep throwing out your petty Sky insults, makes up for a lack of any proper discussion

**BohDiddley** · 20/02/2007, 2:59 PM

Originally Posted by jebus

Never said it was a model league, but it is run far better than the Eircom League, and it is probably the best marketed league in the world, which is what counts in this day and age.

Just keep throwing out your petty Sky insults, makes up for a lack of any proper discussion

I didn't mean it personally, so apologies if you took it that way.
What I mean is that it is easy to watch EPL etc. from a distance and take the airbrushed Sky view that everything is wonderful. The EPL is riven with corruption, they have their own ineligible player ****-ups (why on earth is that banned?), and, apart from those issues it's a farce, with ludicrously big squads and domination by the Big Four that makes it akin to watching Formula One.
It's also easy to kick the eL by comparing it with the richest league in the world, and one that is now a global media/merchandising business with competing multinationals. If you think the eL will ever match that, in any department, you will be sorely disappointed.
I don't mean this a barstool-baiting rant, I follow Leeds for God's sake

, but the eL-is-a-shambles line is trotted out much too easily.

**BrayUnknowns** · 20/02/2007, 3:11 PM

Originally Posted by jebus

Never said it was a model league, but it is run far better than the Eircom League, and it is probably the best marketed league in the world, which is what counts in this day and age.

Just keep throwing out your petty Sky insults, makes up for a lack of any proper discussion

Jesus if Sky was to give the eL a 1/4 the amount they spend on the EPL then the game in Ireland would change for ever ! Sunderland finished last in the EPL in2005/06 and got �484,961 in prize money, thats a lot more than what the FAI are spending on our whole league which will cover all teams.

From next season onwards each EPL club will be guaranteed more than �13m a season before prize money and appearance fees are taken into account ! If our clubs got 5% of that amount we would be competing in the champions league season group stages in season out IMO

**bennocelt** · 20/02/2007, 6:54 PM

Originally Posted by jebus

Spare me. If this preseason has thought us anything its that people won't show support for an inferior product shoddily run by people who couldn't give a toss about the game in this country. I fully understand why people look at the Eircom League and start laughing, I really do, and all the 'barstool' jibes in the world won't change that

yeah but football isnt business, and if i wanted happiness all the time then i wouldnt support ireland, or my local team...i would go for brazil or barcelona as "my team"
why settle for a british team to follow when you can follow an irish team?

**Sniffer** · 20/02/2007, 7:08 PM

You're preaching to the converted bennocelt. Problem is, most Irish kids grow up without ever seeing the inside of an Irish soccer ground, unless it's to watch the International side. I was football mad as a kid, as everyone here was/is I'm sure, and never saw an eL game until I brought my own son to one. Kids are more likely to be brought to the Shrine and such places rather than Tolka Park or DC Park for that matter. I know that clubs are trying to address this now; but we have the misfortune of being pitted against the glamour and spin and sexy sound effects of the Sky Sports package.

**CollegeTillIDie** · 20/02/2007, 7:44 PM

The video is fantastic and the words are by a Ballymena United fan that I met many moons ago. Not your glory hunter, but your genuine football fan like many of the contributors here ..... on the other issue regarding what happened to the Reds....There was if I am not mistaken, an Article in a recent edition of the Irish Mail in which a business reporter forecast that the collapse financially of an English Premiershi* club is a lot closer than some of you might think. Apparently some other clubs Cross Channel are currently attempting a Shelbourne only on a much larger scale...!

**jebus** · 20/02/2007, 7:59 PM

Originally Posted by BohDiddley

I don't mean this a barstool-baiting rant, I follow Leeds for God's sake

, but the eL-is-a-shambles line is trotted out much too easily.

I knew I took a dislike to your comments for a reason, you support that dirt team called Leeds United!

(I'm a Wednesday supporter)

**fabio** · 20/02/2007, 8:23 PM

That is a class video and really just sums it all up for me

**BohsPartisan** · 20/02/2007, 8:27 PM

Lads, we're run by a bunch of morons but we're not the only league to have problems. Marseille were relegated for financial reasons. Torino had to refound under a new name. Fiorentina were relegated a few divisions a few years back. Then you had the Serie A match fixing scanda etc etc
I'm sure there are many more examples from around the world.

**Lim till i die** · 20/02/2007, 9:14 PM

Originally Posted by CollegeTillIDie

There was if I am not mistaken, an Article in a recent edition of the Irish Mail in which a business reporter forecast that the collapse financially of an English Premiershi* club is a lot closer than some of you might think. Apparently some other clubs Cross Channel are currently attempting a Shelbourne only on a much larger scale...!

The Irish Mail??

I shant hold my breath

And even if it is true what relevance does it have??

It's alright for the LoI to be crap cos look loads of other leagues are crap too??

I dunno who a lot of you socialise with but if you can't see what a shambles the ordinary man in the street thinks the current set up is...........

**BohsPartisan** · 20/02/2007, 9:15 PM

Socialise???

**Lim till i die** · 20/02/2007, 9:17 PM

Originally Posted by BohsPartisan

Socialise???

Oh don't get me wrong BP, I piece together most of the "normies" opinions from snatches of conversations I hear on the bus

**CollegeTillIDie** · 20/02/2007, 9:33 PM

Originally Posted by Lim till i die

The Irish Mail??

It's alright for the LoI to be crap cos look loads of other leagues are crap too??

I shant hold my breath

And even if it is true what relevance does it have??

I dunno who a lot of you socialise with but if you can't see what a shambles the ordinary man in the street thinks the current set up is...........

Lim Till I Die

The Relevance is , that it's not only Irish clubs that are incompetently run, despite what SKY SPORTS tell you the EPL is NOT the best League in the World. The FAI are in charge of the EL now and if it is a shambles, John Delaney has no get out clause.... HE IS responsible fully for it now.

Delaney OUT!!!!

**Lim till i die** · 20/02/2007, 9:38 PM

The Relevance is , that it's not only Irish clubs that are incompetently run, despite what SKY SPORTS tell you the EPL is NOT the best League in the World.

SKY SPORTS tells me nothing

More nonsense along the lines of "oh he's bad-mouthing the league he must be a sky watching barstool monkey"

The FAI are in charge of the EL now and if it is a shambles

Would you actually say that it isn't