Boylesports Sponsorship

[Sheridan]

Ladbrokes sponsor TG4's LOI coverage too.

[centre mid]

They have a shop at the Stadium Of Light

[Raheny Red]

Rovers have a deal with Willy Hills.

[Pauro 76]

They have a shop at the Stadium Of Light

http://www.safc.com/home/?page_id=12493

Think that's their only store. Think they're trying to break through on the online market....

[jinxy lilywhite]

of England maybe?

I hope you know what I mean.
When we call it the "League of Ireland" psychologically we are saying that our league is inferior to other leagues say the "Bank Of Scotland Premiership" or the "Barclays Premiership". Though this maybe true in many cases we still do have a good product that can be sold to general public as opposed to Irish football supporters buying season tickets for Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, Celtic, etc.
I think if we lost the "of Ireland" and just said per se the "Eircom(or whoever sponsors the league next season) Premiership" or the "Eire League" we would have a better product to sell to the people who don't go the games.
No matter who has sponsored the league that effin sentence is always on the end of it and it needs to go. I hold my theory (which is probably going to be torn to shreads) to the fact that as soon as LOI is mention to someone who has never attended a game the phrase "Not that f**kin sh1te again" always is spat back at you.

[Sheridan]

The "of Ireland" was only appended to the "eircom League" last year. League of Ireland will always be a generic term for the competition regardless of its official title. It's called that because the shower up North lay claim to the title Irish League.

[holidaysong]

With Boylesports sponsorign Sunderland, do they have betting shops in the UK? I've never seen one.

There is one in Armagh.

[Duggie]

lets call it Seria "B" - it would be like the italians never existed.....

[holidaysong]

On the LOI naming debate - hopefully now people will call it the League of Ireland and not the Boylesports League.. The term 'Eircom League' always annoyed me a bit - why give the sponsor name such prominance? You don't hear people going around saying the Barclays Premiership all the time.

[LeixlipRed]

I hope you know what I mean.
When we call it the "League of Ireland" psychologically we are saying that our league is inferior to other leagues say the "Bank Of Scotland Premiership" or the "Barclays Premiership". Though this maybe true in many cases we still do have a good product that can be sold to general public as opposed to Irish football supporters buying season tickets for Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, Celtic, etc.
I think if we lost the "of Ireland" and just said per se the "Eircom(or whoever sponsors the league next season) Premiership" or the "Eire League" we would have a better product to sell to the people who don't go the games.
No matter who has sponsored the league that effin sentence is always on the end of it and it needs to go. I hold my theory (which is probably going to be torn to shreads) to the fact that as soon as LOI is mention to someone who has never attended a game the phrase "Not that f**kin sh1te again" always is spat back at you.

I realised what you meant. I was just making a joke

[jinxy lilywhite]

You see we don't need the Ireland or Irish because you want to say to the people that there is no other league out there than ours. We have our own language that we could use to rebrand the league to something original that no other league can take away from us. I'm probably clutching at straws here but sure f**k it.

[LeixlipRed]

Don't think using a dead language to rebrand the league is going to have any impact.

[jinxy lilywhite]

Better than nothing and if it f**ks up then at least we can say well we tried it.
Irish maybe a dead language but in some way it is making a resurgance especially phrases. Just a pity the schools shoved it down our throats all those years but now I wish I knew more than "conas a ta tu?"

[EalingGreen]

The "of Ireland" was only appended to the "eircom League" last year. League of Ireland will always be a generic term for the competition regardless of its official title. It's called that because the shower up North lay claim to the title Irish League.

Founded in Belfast in 1890, The Irish Football League is the second oldest football League in the world.

In succeding years, it began to spread its membership beyond its origins in Belfast (the traditional home of football in Ireland), to cover other parts of Ireland, including Dublin, when Bohemians joined (1903), followed by Shelbourne (1904).

Following political partition in 1921, these latter two clubs broke away and formed a separate League of Ireland, along with six other Dublin clubs.

So there's no "lay claim" about it; the title of "Irish League" is and always was the property of "the shower up North", as you so charmingly put it.

"And if
You know
Your History
It's enough to make your Heart go
Woaaaaaaaaaah"

[Nesta99]

Don't think using a dead language to rebrand the league is going to have any impact.

Dead langauge??? I use it every day and i am far from dead nor are the 23 children that i teach in my Gaelscoil! 'Boylesports Premier League' sounds good and doesnt reek of inferiority complex as Jinxy is saying.

[Nesta99]

"And if
You know
Your History
It's enough to make your Heart go
Woaaaaaaaaaah"

Touché lol

[Sheridan]

Meh. You'd still be calling your national team Ireland if you thought you could get away with it. Nation states take precedence over provinces as far as I'm concerned.

[jinxy lilywhite]

I agree with our Northern Neighbour in relation to this. The FAI broke away from the IFA so the FAI at the time tried to distinguish the difference our league for various reason and I'm not going off topic into why the break up happened. The Northern league can call itself whatever it wants or lay claim to "Irish".
This is where we can be different though and use what is unique in Ireland to our benefit and where the people of the south and our ex-pats abroad can have a proud affiliation with the league instead of the embarrassment of coverage that the league now gets. An AIPL is not the answer because the basis of their arguement is to incl. linfield and glentoran and all will be rosy in the garden of Irish Football in general but the issues of self sustainablilty of clubs is not being addressed.

Dead langauge??? I use it every day and i am far from dead nor are the 23 children that i teach in my Gaelscoil!

Hope I didn't offend you by claiming schools shoved Irish down our/my throats in my wasted youth


BTW: If the Boylesports thing is true is this the FAI giving two fingers to Drury (Director of Paddy Power) and P1 or Boylesports being a thorn in their side

[EalingGreen]

Meh. You'd still be calling your national team Ireland if you thought you could get away with it.

We could get away with it. When FIFA arbitrated on this very issue in 1950, they declared that for World Cup matches, the FAI's representative team must be called "Republic of Ireland" and the IFA's team "Northern Ireland" (with this arrangement subsequently being extended to the European Nations Cup/Championship).

However, as the original Football Association on the island, FIFA also permitted the IFA to continue using the title "Ireland" for all non WC/EC matches, such as the British Championship and friendlies.

This we did for another 20-odd years, until we voluntarily and unilaterally decided to rename ourselves "Northern Ireland" for all games.

Nation states take precedence over provinces as far as I'm concerned.

Good job it's not down to you, then, isn't it?

P.S. Has your heart gone "Whoooooooooooooa" yet, or is your state of ignorance still keeping it ticking along at an idle rate?

[Sheridan]

Nah, I just don't give a toss about this Nordie boll0cks. No-one here does. So go looking for reasons to be offended somewhere else and let us get on with our thread, eh.