Ireland v Greece 10.09.2024 Match Thread - UEFA Nations League

Ah there it is, its Stephen Kennys fault despite not having managed the team in 9/10 months. Or maybe the players just arent that good.

Did they have had the money to terminate his contract early?

How come Scotland with 5 million people have a far superior league than Ireland. All of Ireland has 7 million now. Ie 40% more people than Scotland. Could have a league as good if not better. They have the same problem being beside the english league so not sure that is an excuse.

It seems people here are content with the fact that LOI is far poorer and less followed relative to other European countries the same size..... it is ireland, sure the league will alway remain shi* .seems to be the thinking.

Rugby made huge success here when it was shaken up and the four provinces was introduced.

Well generally the bigger the market/fan base the better the league. If the leagues were merged it would be a start to improveing it.

Soccer has been the main game in Scotland since the 1880s, it's support runs deep, all the way down to the lowest level, and it's been that way for over a century.

That's not the case in Ireland, in Ireland the GAA is what soccer is in Scotland.

You can't change that by just merging teams or creating an All Ireland league, or creating teams and hoping they get support.

Rugby is totally different, you have the high profile national team and the four provinces, but after that it's dead, the club game, the All Ireland League which was introduced in the early 1990s before professionalism has been totally eclipsed by the four provinces.

It's a dead zone, one man and his dog territory.

I think Scotland has the highest attendance per capita in the world or Europe so it's not a good comparison.

I think average LOI attendance for the top tier was 3300 last season and is 3500 this season.

With Cork City promoted and Derry's new stand, it'll be close to 4000 next season.

That's actually a pretty healthy attendance.

With the new Dalymount and other stadium upgrades, I think we'll hit 5000 in a few years which is actually plenty.

The problem with the LOI is that there's no TV deal and transfer fees are very low.

I think what would really boost the LOI is if the government funded the LOI academies. This might only cost 20 or 30 million a year in total.

If each club had a full time academy from under 6s up for both boys and girls, you're not just developing players but you're developing fans and ties with the community.

With this you'd see sustainable growth and then in time we might see a proper TV deal. That might take 10 or 20 years though.

You'd also get more revenue from advertising and sponsorship as well as producing better players and higher transfer fees.

What do people think is the number of LOI fans in Ireland?

Not necessarily fans who regularly attend games but follow a team and follow the league.

Is it maybe 100,000 people? Maybe a little less.

That's probably not enough for a TV deal.

But with sustainable growth from the LOI academies maybe in 20 years that number could be 200,000 or 300,000.

We'll have a population of 6 million in a few years and assuming no economic crash, we'll be a very wealthy nation.

I still think an all Ireland league and national team is a good idea if possible.

We'd have a population then of 8 million in a few years which might be enough for a TV deal.

Knee Jerk reaction. He has been in two games. Too early to call it a disaster

True but even so take them out and you still have a crowd of 35000+ last year and 25000+ the year before approximately. And that's not including that two of the biggest clubs with the largest floating fanbases in Cork City and Shamrock Rovers aren't included and you're close to if not above the 100,000. It is tricky to judge the underlying LOI fanbase and interest levels alright but I do think it's higher than 100,000.

I'd say it's around that. It's very tricky to judge because for some clubs 10,000 would be a clear underestimate but for some particularly those like Cobh Ramblers and UCD in the 1st division it's an overestimate. That's not meant as a dig at the clubs particularly Cobh but they are just a very small club with a small catchment area.

I don’t see that the appointment of any manager of the national team should have any impact on support for the league. It never has, for good or ill. Certainly doesn’t affect my support for my team.