State of LoI football in the capital...

legendary.xix

Considering the population of Dublin and the popularity of soccer in the big smoke, it's surprising that LoI football isn't supported better in the capital.

Shamrock Rovers move to Tallaght has been a positive. I know Dalymount Park is to be worked on. The Sporting Fingal project withered away.

Shelbourne don't want to become tenants in Dalymount Park. Possibly they should work exclusively with an administrative county council like Fingal. Swords is supposed to have a decent catchment area.

I'm not aware of Pat's getting any assistance with improvements on their ground.

The Dublin area has a city council and 3 administrative county councils. On a surface level it would seem LoI in Dublin would be best served with the city council offering support for a club north and south of the Liffey and 3 clubs having the support of the administrative county councils.

While clubs can't just magic up and move, Shamrock Rovers have led the way with there move to the South Dublin administrative area. On a surface level there appears to be a need for a strategic approach to the development of LoI football in the capital.

White Horse

Support in Ireland is very based on regional/local identity. The people of Dublin support the Dublin GAA team despite many of them having no particular interest in their local GAA teams. Many of them don't feel any affinity towards the LOI clubs in their city. The fact that many of them do develop an affinity towards English clubs is puzzling though.

The contrast with the support clubs outside of Dublin get when successful is quite significant. Even when successful, Dublin clubs rarely expand their active support beyond lapsed supporters.

The_Kew_Tour

Living in Dublin it was evident it's more of rugby city too. You could not wear a Football jersey into a pub, but could wear a rugby jersey. I worked for finance crowd and you be given odd look if you had no interest in 6 nations. Hell I even remember a mate I worked with asked a man from Limerick if he has any chance of AI final ticket and his response was that "Limerick only played rugby"

And that's before I was stopped by Gardai in south Dublin as they thought I might be involved in a robbery cause I was wearing a Ireland tracksuit.

GLaDOS

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Living in Dublin it was evident it's more of rugby city too. You could not wear a Football jersey into a pub, but could wear a rugby jersey. I worked for finance crowd and you be given odd look if you had no interest in 6 nations. Hell I even remember a mate I worked with asked a man from Limerick if he has any chance of AI final ticket and his response was that "Limerick only played rugby"

And that's before I was stopped by Gardai in south Dublin as they thought I might be involved in a robbery cause I was wearing a Ireland tracksuit.

Depends on the part of the city tbf. Where I grew up around north Dublin, football and GAA were far more popular than rugby.

The_Kew_Tour

GLaDOS wrote: »

Depends on the part of the city tbf. Where I grew up around north Dublin, football and GAA were far more popular than rugby.

I understand and agree to a point, but even then I remember going to plenty places around amortised and still getting odd looks and comments if football was brought up. Then again this was during the Irish rugby team "golden generation" and football team were struggling.

KaiserGunner

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Living in Dublin it was evident it's more of rugby city too. You could not wear a Football jersey into a pub, but could wear a rugby jersey. I worked for finance crowd and you be given odd look if you had no interest in 6 nations. Hell I even remember a mate I worked with asked a man from Limerick if he has any chance of AI final ticket and his response was that "Limerick only played rugby"

And that's before I was stopped by Gardai in south Dublin as they thought I might be involved in a robbery cause I was wearing a Ireland tracksuit.

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that. I'd say Football and GAA are a lot bigger in Dublin than Rugby Union, but as Glados has said it probably depends on what part of Dublin you're in too.

I personally know a few people growing up that had no interest in Rugby Union at all. It was only after they had graduated from University/college and started their careers that they were suddenly big into the 6 Nations, Ireland Rugby, Leinster rugby etc.

CSF

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

GLaDOS wrote: »

Depends on the part of the city tbf. Where I grew up around north Dublin, football and GAA were far more popular than rugby.

I understand and agree to a point, but even then I remember going to plenty places around amortised and still getting odd looks and comments if football was brought up. Then again this was during the Irish rugby team "golden generation" and football team were struggling.

Have lived in North Dublin all my life and rugby has never been a thing.

The_Kew_Tour

Well that's just not true

Danye

legendary.xix wrote: »

Considering the population of Dublin and the popularity of soccer in the big smoke, it's surprising that LoI football isn't supported better in the capital.

Shamrock Rovers move to Tallaght has been a positive. I know Dalymount Park is to be worked on. The Sporting Fingal project withered away.

Shelbourne don't want to become tenants in Dalymount Park. Possibly they should work exclusively with an administrative county council like Fingal. Swords is supposed to have a decent catchment area.

I'm not aware of Pat's getting any assistance with improvements on their ground.

The Dublin area has a city council and 3 administrative county councils. On a surface level it would seem LoI in Dublin would be best served with the city council offering support for a club north and south of the Liffey and 3 clubs having the support of the administrative county councils.

While clubs can't just magic up and move, Shamrock Rovers have led the way with there move to the South Dublin administrative area. On a surface level there appears to be a need for a strategic approach to the development of LoI football in the capital.

I live about 2km from one of those clubs and IMO the club don't do enough themselves to promote the club within the area.

They should send some of their full time staff into the local schools etc one afternoon a month or something and do some training or something. Give free tickets away. Put promotional events on like children under 10 are free to games etc. Anything to get young people involved.

That's the thing with the league and the clubs in the league. While I completely agree that the support they get from the FAI is a disgrace, they don't seem to have any initative when it comes to doing anything themselves.

Flint Fredstone

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Well that's just not true

I'm North Dublin myself and rugby just wasn't on anybody's radar when I was growing up. Even cricket would have been more popular.

Darkglasses

Depends hugely on where you live in Dublin. Where I went to school in South Dublin, there was never even a mention of Hurling or Gaelic.

CSF

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Well that's just not true

It's absolutely true. Have you grown up in North Dublin or what are you working off here? Because I as a child wouldn't have been able to name a single Irish rugby player until Brian O'Driscoll came along.

HooohRaaah

Rugby isn't as big in Dublin as many people think it is. Yes for a period of one month a year it is the topic of conversation amongst professionals working in Price Waterhouse Coopers but challenge them beyond the basic knowledge and they haven't a clue. I watched Leinster on the TV on Friday night and there looked to be thousands of empty seats in the stand despite it being their first home fixture of the year. The RDS only holds about 15,000. This is a professional rugby team in a city of 1.2 million people and they can only attract 10,000 people to their first home league game?? That doesn't sound like a rugby mad city to me. The Dublin league of Ireland teams combined would get the same as this. Personally I find the people who give people strange looks about football have very little knowledge about sport in general. They're the sort of people who like a day in the Aviva in Feb against England in the Six Nations but have no real emotional attachment.

We saw with the football team during the Euros that the sheer interest and enthusiasm from all walks of life from working & middle-class people, that football is firmly number one. Ireland vs Oman in a friendly on a Wednesday night drew 28,000 fans. Not a bad number considering the night and importance of the match. Would the Irish rugby team get that number on a Wednesday night vs Namibia? I highly doubt it. Sure Leinster vs Munster in the Aviva only gets in the region of 35,000/40,000 despite massive amounts of marketing behind it and being on a Saturday night. When the Irish football team play on a "non-school" night it's always pretty much a sell out.

Football & GAA are number one in the vast majority of Dublin north and south in terms of interest and participation. Sure a huge number of GAA clubs and players on the senior Dublin team are from what could be deemed middle class "rugby areas". Kilmacud, Cuala, Ballyboden etc..

Don't be fooled thinking that Dublin is rugby city. It simply isn't. In the region of 30,000 go to Dublin Allianz league game. That dwarfs what Leinster get for their Pro 12 fixtures.

HooohRaaah

Darkglasses wrote: »

Depends hugely on where you live in Dublin. Where I went to school in South Dublin, there was never even a mention of Hurling or Gaelic.

It depends on where you are. For instance two starting players in Dublin's team last week came from Blackrock College. Fitzsimons who came on is from Dalkey. David Byrne in the backline is from Sandyford/Stillorgan.

Kilmacud Crokes in Stillorgan, Cuala in Killiney/Dalkey and Ballyboden St Endas dwarf the rugby teams in south Dublin for members.

CSF

Absolutely. GAA is 100% the Daddy here when it comes to people being really passionate about a sport.

The_Kew_Tour

CSF wrote: »

It's absolutely true. Have you grown up in North Dublin or what are you working off here? Because I as a child wouldn't have been able to name a single Irish rugby player until Brian O'Driscoll came along.

I lived in Dublin 7 for 6-7 years. Guess it depends where you hung out and in fairness schools would have say so I guess they would know more then me in that regard, but even when I went to pubs in around Fairview there was packed for rugby games and not for Ireland away games.

eagle eye

One of the big reasons that people get attached to an English football club is that they could watch them on their tv set as a kid. It was rare you got to see even a highlights package from the LoI even back in the day.

I remember when there was a highlights package for the LoI. The problem with it was that games were mostly played on a Sunday and it was a late Sunday night programme and kids were in bed.

So these kids got to see Match of the day on a Saturday night but were in bed with school the next day when the Irish league highlights were on.

CSF

You're talking the likes of six nations games here yeah? Comparing like an Ireland vs England game or Ireland vs France in the Six Nations to Georgia or Austria vs Ireland in a qualifier isn't doing anything in a service.

When Ireland qualify for anything, the place comes to a standstill. Bigger than All Ireland final big. And All Ireland finals are clearly insanely big.

My first genuine exposure to rugby was when I went to college and started socialising with people from the other side of the city. Some people get into it then, but it wasn't for me. Neither is GAA really but I wouldn't even think about questioning how huge that is here. Dublin in All Ireland final is only surpassed by Ireland in a major tournament in football.

CSF

eagle eye wrote: »

One of the big reasons that people get attached to an English football club is that they could watch them on their tv set as a kid. It was rare you got to see even a highlights package from the LoI even back in the day.

I remember when there was a highlights package for the LoI. The problem with it was that games were mostly played on a Sunday and it was a late Sunday night programme and kids were in bed.

So these kids got to see Match of the day on a Saturday night but were in bed with school the next day when the Irish league highlights were on.

Thing is, most kids/young teenagers don't watch much football at all. But they're heavily exposed to the presence of footballers in popular culture and FIFA games and the likes and there is no matching that. When they see Aguero is ranked 90 in FIFA and the lad from Longford is a lowly 57 then that is a big influence when it comes to kids whose parents aren't bringing them to games from a young age.

HooohRaaah

I drive a fair bit throughout the city. I've seen Dublin flags out of peoples houses in Castleknock, Knocklyon, Sandycove, Ballyfermot, Ballymun, Killiney and everywhere in between. You just don't get that for rugby. Would you see Leinster rugby flags out all over Dublin for a Champions Cup final?

Rugby is marketed extremely good however and yes the pubs are packed for Ireland vs England at 5pm on a Saturday evening but are they packed for Ireland vs Canada or Leinster vs Edinburgh?

eagle eye

It's basically up the league and the clubs to do a better job promoting themselves. Of course when you have somebody in charge of the FAI who doesn't give a toss about the domestic game it doesn't help.

White Horse

HooohRaaah wrote: »

I drive a fair bit throughout the city. I've seen Dublin flags out of peoples houses in Castleknock, Knocklyon, Sandycove, Ballyfermot, Ballymun, Killiney and everywhere in between. You just don't get that for rugby. Would you see Leinster rugby flags out all over Dublin for a Champions Cup final?

That would be a class thing. Rugby types look down their noses at that type of behaviour.

Guy:Incognito

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

And that's before I was stopped by Gardai in south Dublin as they thought I might be involved in a robbery cause I was wearing a Ireland tracksuit.

In fairness, if you werent involved in one already, you were probably on your way to commit one.:)

The_Kew_Tour

CSF wrote: »

You're talking the likes of six nations games here yeah? Comparing like an Ireland vs England game or Ireland vs France in the Six Nations to Georgia or Austria vs Ireland in a qualifier isn't doing anything in a service.

When Ireland qualify for anything, the place comes to a standstill. Bigger than All Ireland final big. And All Ireland finals are clearly insanely big.

My first genuine exposure to rugby was when I went to college and started socialising with people from the other side of the city. Some people get into it then, but it wasn't for me. Neither is GAA really but I wouldn't even think about questioning how huge that is here. Dublin in All Ireland final is only surpassed by Ireland in a major tournament in football.

6 nations and test matches. I guess rugby matches are on more suitable days (Saturday's and Sunday's) then midweek for most internationals too which I have yo take into account.

I think it was more the reaction of people I found strange yo saying you followed football or supported LOI then anything else but it's lot more popular then even Limerick in my opinion

The_Kew_Tour

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

In fairness, if you werent involved in one already, you were probably on your way to commit one.:)

Been times when I thought I be better off anyway :pac:

HooohRaaah

Munsters crowds look to be really struggling as of late. The game yesterday had both stands behind the goal closed off with thousands of seats empty in the main stands. The bandwagon looks to be really slowing down in Limerick.

johnnyryan89

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Living in Dublin it was evident it's more of rugby city too. You could not wear a Football jersey into a pub, but could wear a rugby jersey. I worked for finance crowd and you be given odd look if you had no interest in 6 nations. Hell I even remember a mate I worked with asked a man from Limerick if he has any chance of AI final ticket and his response was that "Limerick only played rugby"

And that's before I was stopped by Gardai in south Dublin as they thought I might be involved in a robbery cause I was wearing a Ireland tracksuit.

Always had to laugh at this thought of Limerick only play rugby. Soccer is, has and will always be more popular than rugby in Limerick. You only need to take a look at the amount of clubs in the city and with some parishes even having more than one club. Rugby would possibly be only the third most popular sport in Limerick behind Soccer and GAA.

Mars Bar

HooohRaaah wrote: »

Munsters crowds look to be really struggling as of late. The game yesterday had both stands behind the goal closed off with thousands of seats empty in the main stands. The bandwagon looks to be really slowing down in Limerick.

That's the connacht based munster fans jumping over on to the connacht bandwagon.

legendary.xix

South Dublin County Council have built the stadium that Shamrock Rovers are tenants in. Dublin City Council are going to be involved in the Dalymount Park redevelopment. Fingal County Council have flirted with Bohemians and Shelbourne in the past. It would seem there's a place for all these administrative city or county councils to form some identity and work on sporting projects in partnership with LoI clubs. Municipal stadia are in vogue around Europe. LoI clubs fit the bill for being chief tenants for moderate capacity sized stadia.

Zebra3

legendary.xix wrote: »

Considering the population of Dublin and the popularity of soccer in the big smoke, it's surprising that LoI football isn't supported better in the capital.

Shamrock Rovers move to Tallaght has been a positive. I know Dalymount Park is to be worked on. The Sporting Fingal project withered away.

Shelbourne don't want to become tenants in Dalymount Park. Possibly they should work exclusively with an administrative county council like Fingal. Swords is supposed to have a decent catchment area.

I'm not aware of Pat's getting any assistance with improvements on their ground.

The Dublin area has a city council and 3 administrative county councils. On a surface level it would seem LoI in Dublin would be best served with the city council offering support for a club north and south of the Liffey and 3 clubs having the support of the administrative county councils.

While clubs can't just magic up and move, Shamrock Rovers have led the way with there move to the South Dublin administrative area. On a surface level there appears to be a need for a strategic approach to the development of LoI football in the capital.

A big part of the problem is that Dublin has become so spread out and the public transport across the city/county is appalling. While I'm a fan of Friday night football, the down side is that it limits your area for attracting fans and if a fan moves a good distance away that bond can be quite easily broken due to limited time after work, before kick off, and then trying to get home after the game.

Rovers move was good for them even if it has lost a lot of momentum. As a Shels fan I think it's safe to say the vast majority of our fans are against moving to Dalymount. There's no car park and the public transport doesn't serve Dalymount from the north east of the city where most of our fans have been based over the last two decades or where so many of them now live in Swords, Rush, etc.

As for Pat's, they own Richmond Park, so it's up to them to get together redevelopment plans (easier said than done of course).

My own personal opinion of the situation in Dublin is at the FAI want two strong Dublin clubs and then a side from each of the bigger provincial towns competing, like Cork, Galway, Derry, Limerick, Sligo, Dundalk...

Pretty obvious to see who the two Dublin clubs are.....

The_Kew_Tour

What's the population of Dublin? I'm guessing around 1.2-1.4 million. It can have 4-5 decent sides no problem

Ferris_Bueller

I wouldn't think it's a Dublin specific problem, most of the problems Dublin clubs face are the same as the clubs all over the country. It would definitely make sense if the clubs tied in with the local councils and focused on that catchment area. It seems to have worked for Rovers, not firing on all cylinders the past few years but I would think they are in a much healthier state going forward than all of the other Dublin clubs.

Danye wrote: »

They should send some of their full time staff into the local schools etc one afternoon a month or something and do some training or something. Give free tickets away. Put promotional events on like children under 10 are free to games etc. Anything to get young people involved.

This has been mentioned on here in various threads so many times yet it doesn't seem like many clubs do it. Such a simple idea (a very good idea IMO), but why don't more clubs do it? It will be very hard to attract people to games who have supported Liverpool or United for 30 years, focusing on kids is definitely the way forward, realistically how many children will leave thinking the standard was brutal? Most will base it on their experience of attending the game, atmosphere, goals etc. If you can get a child hooked at a young age they could become a fan for life. Does anyone know if any clubs in the league have tried this idea or do engage with local schools at any level?

Darkglasses

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

This has been mentioned on here in various threads so many times yet it doesn't seem like many clubs do it. Such a simple idea (a very good idea IMO), but why don't more clubs do it? It will be very hard to attract people to games who have supported Liverpool or United for 30 years, focusing on kids is definitely the way forward, realistically how many children will leave thinking the standard was brutal? Most will base it on their experience of attending the game, atmosphere, goals etc. If you can get a child hooked at a young age they could become a fan for life. Does anyone know if any clubs in the league have tried this idea or do engage with local schools at any level?

We've sent players many, many times to schools and still do. In our second year it was something Conor Sinnott did practically every week. Our women's squad also do very frequently, went on a big tour with the trophies.

Zebra3

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

What's the population of Dublin? I'm guessing around 1.2-1.4 million. It can have 4-5 decent sides no problem

Dublin city, Co. Dublin, the Greater Dublin Region?

johnnyryan89

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

This has been mentioned on here in various threads so many times yet it doesn't seem like many clubs do it. Such a simple idea (a very good idea IMO), but why don't more clubs do it? It will be very hard to attract people to games who have supported Liverpool or United for 30 years, focusing on kids is definitely the way forward, realistically how many children will leave thinking the standard was brutal? Most will base it on their experience of attending the game, atmosphere, goals etc. If you can get a child hooked at a young age they could become a fan for life. Does anyone know if any clubs in the league have tried this idea or do engage with local schools at any level?

Limerick FC do this as part of their Limerick in the community along with sending coaches out to clubs to help them out by running training sessions but this is mostly done in County Limerick. Biggest problem in Limerick regarding senior soccer is Junior soccer and trying to get around the it's them against us mentality with some of the bigger junior clubs in the city.

MD1990

Not a coincidence football in Dublin has regressed in the same time GAA has been backed with millions in grants & promoted heavily in the last 10 years.

MD1990

sugarman wrote: »

Im sick of hearing the excuses of other sports being the cause of it, its not.

Other countries of a similar population in Europe have many other popular sports where it doesn't deflect from their national football league.

Take Ice Hockey for example, HUGE in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia yet their football leagues are thriving.

The above countries also have a big support in Basketball & Handball.

England, Rugby & Cricket. OK, bigger population but also much more football teams across the league, doesn't deflect from even conference.

Russia has a population of 143 million not similar to Ireland at all lol. First I heard about Latvia's football league thriving. Sweden is twice the size of Ireland too. Other leagues you mentioned apart from Norway are not thriving at all either.
The funding that the League of Irelands clubs get is disgraceful. Only recently RTE has decided to show some games at the strange time of 7.05PM which means reduced attendance's for clubs especially in midweek.

Dirty Dingus McGee

MD1990 wrote: »

Russia has a population of 143 million not similar to Ireland at all lol. First I heard about Latvia's football league thriving. Sweden is twice the size of Ireland too. Other leagues you mentioned apart from Norway are not thriving at all either.
The funding that the League of Irelands clubs get is disgraceful. Only recently RTE has decided to show some games at the strange time of 7.05PM which means reduced attendance's for clubs especially in midweek.

But at some stage do they not have to look after themselves and find ways of generating revenue for themselves rather than waiting on handouts from the FAI.

Omackeral

Here's a thought I've generally had with regard to Dublin clubs and provincial sides. In the likes of Sligo, Drogheda and Longford you've got the town or county name in your name. It's easy to identify with that. It's easier to chant and sing songs about Dundalk if you're from Dundalk.

On the other hand, if a lad from Meath comes to support Bohs or Rovers (and some do, for both clubs) you're not really chanting for Dublin as such. So I think it could be easier for an out of towner to get behind a Dublin club with no "Dublin" in the name.

It's a worthwhile point to think on from a promotional view; In the case of the former you could push your strong identity that people from the town can get on board with or , in Dublin club's cases, advertise that one and all can get behind your club.

Any people from outside Dublin that follow a club from the capital care to comment? Or maybe the other way, someone from outside an LOI town that's behind their team anyway.

Lovely Bloke

There's at least one fella here who supports Longford Town, but he's a Rossi.

SEANoftheDEAD

legendary.xix wrote: »

The Sporting Fingal project withered away.

Shelbourne don't want to become tenants in Dalymount Park. Possibly they should work exclusively with an administrative county council like Fingal. Swords is supposed to have a decent catchment area.

I moved out to Swords earlier this year and was only talking about this on Saturday in the pub. Being originally from Rathfarnham, I used to attend Rovers games quite often. But out here in Swords, there is no LOI football on offer.

Fingal County Council set up Sporting Fingal with the right idea. But there project was doomed from the start because they had no where to play. They set up a club that had to play in Santry and Dalymount... Was never going to work. The idea of Shelbourne moving out here won't work without a decent ground.

But Fingal County has a huge caption area for building a decent following.
Swords, Skerries, Lusk, Rush, Donabate, Malahide... All large areas with potential LOI fans.

I'd love to see a Fingal County Football Club established. There are plenty of potential sites around Swords that could be used to build a small ground to get the club up and running. I'd be straight in with a club membership and would love to have somewhere locally to bring my son to the matches.

chopperbyrne

Shels to Swords is what should happen.

Huge catchment area, well away from any of the other Dublin clubs, and they're an established well known club, not some millionaire's plaything like Sporting Fingal, who pulled out and doomed the club.

Francie Barrett

It's not a shocker, but people are only really interested in following sporting teams when they're successful. The suggestion that Irish fans are unique in this bandwagon mentality isn't new at all. I work with an Italian who is a die-hard AC Milan fan. Back in the days when Milan were flying high in the Champions League, the San Siro was usually packed for most games. These days, he said it's not even 1/4 full most of the time. Performances have been useless, the fans have stopped turning up. The situation is so bad, there are even doubts about the future of the club. This is the second most successful team in Champions League history, yet it's barely even reported outside of Italy.

GLaDOS

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

But at some stage do they not have to look after themselves and find ways of generating revenue for themselves rather than waiting on handouts from the FAI.

Its not handouts they need, its a decent pot of prize money for the league.I think you have to finish 4th or higher to avoid making a loss for participating in the league once registration and fines are taken away.

Dundalk got more money for drawing a single game in the Europa league than they got for winning the league last year.

MD1990

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

But at some stage do they not have to look after themselves and find ways of generating revenue for themselves rather than waiting on handouts from the FAI.

I would not call increased prize money a handout. 110k for winning the league is disgraceful.

FAI decided to pay Trapattoni & his backround team €5m a year. His reign in management probably cost the FAI €20m about half was paid through funding though. For the future of Irish football such money should have used to improve facilities among other things such as improving coaching.

The FAI is now in debt but Delaney doesn't care about the league probably just wants Ireland to qualify for major tournaments to have a sing song.

Also every card in the League of Ireland results in a fine lol.

SantryRed

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Shels to Swords is what should happen.

Huge catchment area, well away from any of the other Dublin clubs, and they're an established well known club, not some millionaire's plaything like Sporting Fingal, who pulled out and doomed the club.

As a Shels fans, I genuinely think this is our only method of survival and it's something I think could work. A catchment area of 100k and rising.

Dirty Dingus McGee

MD1990 wrote: »

I would not call increased prize money a handout. 110k for winning the league is disgraceful.

FAI decided to pay Trapattoni & his backround team €5m a year. His reign in management probably cost the FAI €20m about half was paid through funding though. For the future of Irish football such money should have used to improve facilities among other things such as improving coaching.

The FAI is now in debt but Delaney doesn't care about the league probably just wants Ireland to qualify for major tournaments to have a sing song.

Also every card in the League of Ireland results in a fine lol.

But surely the clubs and league should be aiming to be 100% self sustaining and not even need to FAI for money.

No doubt the national team manager is paid far too much money for what is a part time job and like most things in Ireland money is pissed away needlessly but I think the clubs need to accept the FAI is not going to help them out as much as they would like and plan without them.

SEANoftheDEAD

SantryRed wrote: »

As a Shels fans, I genuinely think this is our only method of survival and it's something I think could work. A catchment area of 100k and rising.

Well if Shels did move out to Swords, I'd be delighted to go support them.

The club and Fingal CC need to start discussing it as a decent stadium would need to be built and like with Rovers/SDCC, some sort of long term lease would need to be agreed.

Paz-CCFC

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

But at some stage do they not have to look after themselves and find ways of generating revenue for themselves rather than waiting on handouts from the FAI.

Never mind handouts, the FAI not using the league as a cash cow would be a start.

The prize money is about €100k more than what the clubs pay in. Then there's the league sponsorship money and UEFA grants (over €1M) that is gained on the back of the clubs but not given back to them. The FAI claim that they lose money on running things, but where does this €1M plus the sponsorship money go? Administrative costs can't be anywhere near that, given the League of Ireland doesn't even have a single full-time employee devoted solely to the league.


Regarding the comment as to why the clubs don't send their "full-time employees" to help out with promoting games. I'm sure they'd love to do that. The problem is, most don't have the money to have anyone full-time. If the league administration don't have one, it'd be hard pressed to imagine that all the clubs would be able to.

legendary.xix

Paz-CCFC wrote: »

The prize money is about €100k more than what the clubs pay in. Then there's the league sponsorship money and UEFA grants (over €1M) that is gained on the back of the clubs but not given back to them. The FAI claim that they lose money on running things, but where does this €1M plus the sponsorship money go? Administrative costs can't be anywhere near that, given the League of Ireland doesn't even have a single full-time employee devoted solely to the league.

The clubs are calling for more transparency league money be it sponsorship or UEFA grants. Funding received for the league is information that has to be available for clubs. If there is any confidentiality necessity around funds received for the league, the clubs who are the stakeholders of the league have to be included.

With the history behind Dalymount Park, I agree with that development being supported. Shelbourne to Fingal seems to make sense for some. I'm sure the Shelbourne board, supporters and stakeholders are well placed to know what is right for them. There hasn't been any moves from Fingal County Council to build any facility like the one mooted for Lusk.

Gavin "shels"

SEANoftheDEAD wrote: »

Well if Shels did move out to Swords, I'd be delighted to go support them.

The club and Fingal CC need to start discussing it as a decent stadium would need to be built and like with Rovers/SDCC, some sort of long term lease would need to be agreed.

Dalymount deal is done sure, too little too late from our Board. We were always doomed anyway, the FAI had a plan for us and if we didn't go along with it they'd have made things hell I'd imagine.

Every Shels fan would bite someones hand off for a revamped Morton Stadium as our home ground or a greenfield site. Would it bother be travelling an extra 20-30 mins, f*ck no - it would mean we'd survive unlike us to Dalymount!