Sometimes you have to wonder if there's anyone in the League Of Ireland who actually owns a calculator. Drogheda's weekly wage bill was €40,000 with an average home attendance of ~1700. And in the past 3 years they have spent about €12M. €12M!! For a team that attracts only ~1700 paying punters once every two weeks during the season. Any kid in primary school would have found those figures suspicious. Add to that Cobh have asked their players to take out personal loans to keep the club afloat along with all the other bullshit of recent seasons of Shels, Sligo, Finn Harps and Cork, and what you have is a League that in the long haul that has not been able to find a sustainable business model. For the second time in 3-4 years the previous season's champions have pretty much gone bust. Time to find some thing that works, because the present system is functionally broken. The All-Ireland League is going to have to get a serious look; so is a return to part time football. With the way the economy is going, finances are only going to be thinner on the ground.
The last 3 "Champions" have cheated their way to the trophy. Clubs need to look at the Rovers model of a fans owned club only paying what we have and not running up massive debt for short term gain. KOH
Current Table: Bohemians 30 76 St. Patrick's Athletic 29 57 Derry City 29 51 Drogheda United 30 45 Cork City 30 42 Sligo Rovers 30 41 Shamrock Rovers 30 36 Bray Wanderers 29 33 Galway United 30 26 Cobh Ramblers 30 26 Finn Harps 30 25 U.C.D. 30 21 Unbelievably, Galway United have a chance to stay up. After looking certain to go down all season, they are unbeaten in their last 6 league games winning 3 of their last 4. Their final two games are against Finn Harps & UCD.
I would not doubt that many other clubs will begin to follow the model of fan ownership, with a vision for the future while trying to get present day results. To means worldwide since the global economy is suffering and the game we love is global. The response that was given from the IFA and the FAI for not pursuing the all Ireland league was that the timing was bad and that the leagues were beginning to turn things around financially. There woulid have to be clean sweep in the leadership in both footballing federations. Both federations need different leadership who are willing to put their selfish pride and predjudices for the betterment of Irish football, Island wide, and do what is necessary not necessarily comfortable.
i see the drogs were deducted 10 points, now while as a club they spent way too much on sub-standard players, its not good to see a club in ireland having to revert back to part-time basis. hopefully the bohs situation doesnt wreck our title win, and hopefully we can do something in Europe next season.
I seem to remember Rovers lodging the same set of accounts for two consecutive years , surely cheating as well ?
Galway looked really good on Friday night, 3-0 was a fair scoreline. Harps just weren't good enough. Derry will have to settle for third after drawing against Rovers.
Absolutely and we paid the price. You have to remember that was the old incompetent board who were succeeded by the fans who have done everything by the book since. KOH
Delighted that GUFC completed the miracle last night. Only one loss in the last 10 games. To stay up after getting just 1 point in the first 7 games and looking certain to go down until the last week or two is a tremendous comeback.