Greatest League in the World 2025 [LOI Thread]

So was there any truth to that rumour about Dundalk players not getting paid last week?

Good riddance to them out of the top division anyway. Never had time for that lot. Even moreso now if they have done that

What he said about McGraith was 100% correct. He didn’t insult the man’s integrity, didn’t call him a cheat. He called it as it was. Would you see someone getting a ban for criticising a players performances?

Stupid from Bradley, he was always going to be caught. I could see him communicating with the bench and I was at home watching the game on TV.

An additional ban will have no effect in Drogheda unless there is a distance penalty.

He can stand beside the dugout like any supporter and shout at the players!

Thr 1 game ban was a joke anyway, even if he was 100% on the money with what he said. Other managers have been banned for 2 or 3 games after insulting the ref during a game. He only gets a 1 game ban for doing it on TV after the game in front of everyone, and then he doubled down a few days later in the paper again. It should have been 2 or 3 to begin with.

Suspect he knew he was going to have the ban extended similar to what happened with Caulfield earlier in the season, but he chose to prioritise the Shels game over the following ones against the bottom two.

Irish football can't get referees.

At junior and youths levels, you have blokes in their 50s refereeing several matches every weekend.

Referees would have to commit murder for the FAI to do something about the bad ones.

The epl has fully professional refs for a while and still you get terrible decisions. And they have them advantage of var to help.

It's human nature. I don't think there is anything sinister going on in LOI, I just think the refs aren't very good. Of course when you have 1 person trying to control a game being played by 22 cheats, there will always be mistakes made.

There's nothing sinister going on, its quite obvious in fact, are there ref's that dislike certain teams? yes, are there refs that like certain teams? yes. Are there refs that are of a poor standard? yes. We've all seen our teams get good & bad calls and like to think we're the victims in some big conspiracy but in reality we're all dealing with sub par officials & run that gauntlet every time the whistle blows.

McGraith is a special case though, I'd be concerned if he was reffing an u13 game, he gets so many big decisions wrong, he really shouldn't be permitted to referee at the highest level in the country IMO. I appreciate the shortage of officials but if we're left having to persist with that level of incompetence the game is in bigger trouble than a manager calling out a poor ref producing an even lower than normal standard of refereeing.

Exactly right. Well said.
Absolutely not just a LOI problem, but it’s ridiculous blaming a ref for giving a pen for someone diving, or not giving a pen for a player who they know dives under the slightest or even no contact, so they make that assumption this time.
If players didn’t throw themselves onto the ground after contact then refereeing standards would improve dramatically.

Is this not basically saying that if refereeing wasn’t required, then it would be better?

Not really a LOI specific topic, but I’m yet to have someone explain to me why deliberately fouling is more noble than deliberately diving.

There’s no deception involved in a deliberate foul.

I understood a "deliberate foul" to mean those where the player knows he will give away a free, and perhaps receive a yellow, but does it anyway. I still think that's what you originally meant. Regardless, I still think diving is worse than trying to foul without being caught.

However, as mentioned, players and managers have no business criticising a referee's performance when 99% of players take every opportunity to deceive a referee. How, as a player/manager, can you attempt to cheat, or condone/turn a blind eye to it, but also expect referees to get 100% of decisions correct. It makes no sense.

missed a stonewall penalty in the Dundalk vs Pats game.

Haven’t seen that one. But he’s walked straight from being the decisive person in one RTE televised title race game, to somehow getting the next one and doing it again. And somehow he is above criticism.