Newbie to the Irish leagues looking for help...

I'm no expert on the league but I'll try and help you.

This year the league will be starting summer football for the first time, so right now it's pre season and the season will be played out over the summer months, it's hope this will help get more people in. The attendences usually aren't exactly brilliant but the atmosphere the people there generate is absolutley fantastic.

The powerhouses right noware Bohemians and Shelbourne, both of which are Dublin based profressional clubs, out of the two Bohemians are the current champions and it's expected to be between the two again but Bohemians are favourites to retain their title again. Bohemians have the leagues best known player in Glen Crowe, who was recently the first Eircom League player to be capped by ireland in over a decade however there are internationals from other countries including Trinidad and Tobago as far as I know.

Are you going to be moving to Ireland? If so where abouts, that's a good place to look to decide who to support, but if it's Dublin there's quite alot of clubs to choose from.

The standard of football is definitely getting better, Bohemians beat Spurs 3-1 recently, it was in a friendly but it should be mentioned bar Robbie Keane Spurs were at full strenght while Bohemians were playing a weakend side! Bohemians are expected to do well in this years champions league qualifyers, some people think with a kind draw they may even make the group stages but should get to the third and final round at the very least, the draw they recieve would mean alot from there.

That's about all I know, I'll leave the rest for the experts on the league

 

What are the opinions on switching to summer football? Positive or Negative?

Just curious, since I would support the concept of summer football in Scotland, given our crappy weather.

 

I can see it having a positive effect on attendences at least, also the plan is to have been playing alot of competitive football by the time the euro qualifyers roll around. We'll have to wait and see I guess but one of the regular match going posters on here might be able to give a better idea when they come online.

 

In general I think the idea of summer soccer for any where in Northern Europe makes perfect sense, and can't understand why it hasn't been tried before in England or Scotland. Obviously clashing with the World Cup and Euro would be a problem, but one that could be worked around.

The weather in Ireland, and the rest of the B Isles for that matter, is perfect for playing soccer, as it never gets really hot, and a damn sight better than playing in Dec or Jan up your ars* in mud and both players and fans freezing their goolies off.

The one drawback I see with the League of Ireland switching to summer is the inevitable clash there will be with GAA (hurling and Gaelic football) fixtures, especially now that the GAA has gone to a new format which means lots more games, many of which draw crowds of 50,000 plus. Esp if Dublin have a good run in the Gaelic Football championship, as have the teams in the League of Ireland premier league are Dublin based.
I suppose this could be avoided by playing Friday night and mid week evening games... evening games would be ideal in the summer with the long evenings we get.

On another note, one thing I have to say about the Leage of Ireland is that it is very Dublin-Louth centric. Of the 10 teams in the premier league 6 are from there, and that doesn't include Dundalk and Bray, 2 other very well known clubs currently in Div one, either of which could very well be in the Premier next year.

It's slim pickings in the rest of the country as far as soccer is concerned and I can't for the life of me understand why the FAI/LoI haven't done more over the years to tap into a sports mad populace in there. You get huge crowds at Hurling/Gaelic Football and Rugby games in the rest of the country, all those same people would be avid soccer fans too (like myself) who follow the Irish National team and regularly watch English and Scottish football.

 

I don't think there's much demand for switching in England, since their weather is a little warmer in ours. Plus I don't think rugby league would be too delighted, since they switched to summer to avoid football,

We (Scotland) really should switch though. Our game is pretty much skint, and it costs a significant amount of money for pitch protection when our scarce resources could be better spent.

There was a bit of an uproar after a Celtic game at Motherwell was postponed last month due to a frozen pitch, which has made this problem worse. The implication seems to be that skint teams (Motherwell are in administration, and have maybe two players older than 21) should be spending £100K plus on undersoil heating!

Summer football looks a more logical alternative to me. Hopefully it goes well in Ireland and this convinces some of the traditionalists over here.

Too right, I nearly got frostbite one night at Perth!

I would have thought that would doom the switch to failure. I can't see how soccer could get much coverage, given the amount of attention to GAA.

Of course, this wouldn't be a problem in Scotland as we don't really have much in the way of summer sport except maybe golf and a bit of cricket.

 

Shamrock Rovers are a historically great club but they're not having the best of it as of late, they also hate Bohemians. They're building a brand new stadium right now which they hope will get more support in their local community and help them push up in the league, could be a good team to follow for you. Is there much coverage of the Eircom League over in America or will you be following over the internet? I'd recomend two sites for their excellent coverage of the league, www.soccercentral.ie and espically www.eleven-a-side.com aswell as www.fai.ie which is the offical FAI site.

 

One more joined a couple of weeks ago - Eloka Asokuh to Finn Harps. He has a bit of pedigree as well - he's joining from the Nigerian champions, he was a member of the Nigerian U-20 team (along with Kanu, Babayaro, etc) which won the World Youth Cup 6 or 7 years ago, and he's won a couple of senior caps as well.

Cork City would seem like a good bet for you as well - bit of history, usually there or thereabouts, but in no way dominant right now. They also have the added bonus of being from outside the Pale

Or, if you want to start in the First Division and work your way up, I highly recommend Harps. We even have a ready-made icon in Kevin McHugh, quite possibly the best striker in the country And again, about as far from Dublin as you can go without getting your feet wet. www.finnharps.com if you're interested.

 

Roughly speaking - Dublin.
It's a historical geographical term going back to the Vikings in the mid/end of the 1st millenium.

 

Re: Re: Newbie to the Irish leagues looking for help...

Good luck trying to find an Eircom game on FSW, I've never seen any. However I did see an FAI cup final on Fox Sports NY about 3 years ago, thats about it.

 

Re: Re: Re: Newbie to the Irish leagues looking for help...

The epic three-legged Harps-Bray game, by any chance? I still don't know how we lost that.

The Pale is, as Samarkand said, Dublin and the surrounding areas - it was originally the area of English settled influence (as opposed to Irish clans), wasn't it? Extending to Queenstown and Philipstown (as they were) in Offaly, IIRC.

 

Might have more to do with the Vikings and Offaly was always outside - well outside.

 

Sorry, my mistake. I must have just had the impression that it extended a fair bit beyond Dublin's current boundaries.

So have you picked a team yet, Prof?

 

What about Waterford Utd? Recently promoted to the premier division with a decent young side. Although struggling for a long time now also traditionaly one of the clubs outside the pale to challange for honours.

 

Boo, hiss