Hello from Austria

**starwatcher** · 05/02/2003, 10:16 AM

Hello from Austria!

A few years ago I visited Ireland - and I visit a lot of soccer matches. Is here someone who can tell me something about the irish soccer????

Best players, best coaches, best teams and so on

Yours faithfully

**sadloserkid** · 05/02/2003, 11:28 AM

Firstly, I should tell you that 'Irish League' in this context refers to the Northern Irish league and not our own.

Now to answer your questions the best team in the league are clearly Limerick FC though the likes of Bohs (Bohemians), Shels (Shelbourne), Rovers (Shamrock Rovers) and Cork City all have delusions of being important also.

Best players would be most of the current Limerick crop (especially Fyffe, Purcell, Finucane, Welderick and hopefully O'Flynn) but other lesser players of note include Glenn Crowe, Bobby Ryan, Wes Houihan, Paul Osam, Colin Hawkins, Barry Ryan and John O'Flynn.

As for best coach... hmmm probably the Bohs boss whose name temporarily escapes me (forgive me all...) though there's no shortage of good young coaches in the league.

The worst team in the league are Cobh Ramblers also known as Queenstown and the worst player and manager/coach is undoubtedly their favourite balding son Dave Hill.

Glad I could help!

**starwatcher** · 06/02/2003, 6:34 AM

Oh thank you, very very much! You are from Limerick?? I�ve spent some lovely time there, very funny

So, the Name of the League in Ireland is "Premier League", real?? And the "Irish League" is the name of the League of Northern Ireland.

So, there is a Premier League, a 1th Division and a 2nd Division, is that right?? How much teams come "up" and how much must go down into an other division???????

Do you also have got a Cup or Supercup in Ireland?

**sadloserkid** · 06/02/2003, 8:14 AM

The league in the North is called the Irish League and the league here used to be known as The League of Ireland but is now called the eircom league. Here we have a 10 team premier and a 12 team first division. There is NO second division! The first division champions replace the team who finish last in the premier division while the teams who finish 2nd, 3rd & 4th go into a play-off with the team who finishes 2nd last in the Premier. Nobody gets relegated from the First Division. There's a national cup competition and we also had a league cup but that was abandoned (temporarily?) after the 2001/02 season with Limerick

retaining the trophy (in my college of all places!) Glad I could help!

**starwatcher** · 06/02/2003, 10:28 AM

Hmmmmmmmmmm....thank you.

Ok, so there are only 22-Profi-Teams in Ireland?? What about all other teams? Are there any other leagues?

And thank you for your help!

**sadloserkid** · 06/02/2003, 10:32 AM

Yeah, there's only 22 league teams in Ireland. Other football is played on a strictly regional basis but there are junior leagues being run successfully throughout the country (some would say they're better run than the eircom league. Some junior clubs take part in the FAI Cup every year (sometimes the league cup too) and last year a Limerick junior side called Fairview dumped out first division Dublin City 4-1.

**Shed End John** · 06/02/2003, 4:49 PM

Originally posted by starwatcher
Hello from Austria!

Dia 's Muire dhuit � �ire! (Hello from Ireland!).
How are Rapid Vienna doing these days? Last I heard, Lothar Mattheus had resigned as coach, and Austrian football hasn't been featured much on Eurosport's Eurogoals program since then. Please disregard what sadloserkid said about Limerick FC being any good, they're NOT. Limerick are a First Division club. The best teams are Shelbourne, Bohemians, and Shamrock Rovers (all from Dublin), and my own beloved Cork City.

**sadloserkid** · 07/02/2003, 8:19 AM

I did put a sarcastic smiley at the end of my post John, I think our Austrian friend had figured out that I was a little biased. Though let's count the number of trophies we've won in the last two seasons shall we? Limerick 1 - Cork City 0.

**starwatcher** · 07/02/2003, 1:22 PM

I love Limerick, I love Cork, I love Galway, I love Melahide, I love Tramore. In Tramore I have watched the guys playin beach soccer.

Rapid Vienna - Lothar isn�t longer the manager of the team, he joined Patizan Belgrad. The head-coach of Rapid now is Josef Hickersberger, he has been the Coach of the Austria Natinal Soccer Team from 1988 to 1992. I am sure you remember the World Soccer Championship 1990 in Italy, where Ireland went under top 8!

My favourite Team in Austria is Sturm Graz, do you know the team? 8 Years we are coached by Ivica Osim, one of the best coaches of Europe and we join the Champions League 3 times!

The National Soccer Team of Ireland is quiet good, but I cant remember any famous club! Why?

Thank you for your answers guys

Ah...one question - is here one administrator who can move that thread to his right place??????? PLEASE

**pconnor** · 03/03/2003, 4:02 PM

You mentioned a Weldrick playing for limerick. It's not Alan Weldrick that used to play for the Drogs, is it?

**sadloserkid** · 03/03/2003, 4:09 PM

No, it's a different guy. Young player called Oran Welderick. Class engine, great box to box player and very versatile. One of the best young midfielders in the First Division if not the country. And I'm not bullsh1ttin this time.

PS) It's sad loser kid (all one word and lower case)

A statement or irony methinks (though the Queenstown sheep sh@ggers would have you believe otherwise)