Football can unite us

thejollyrodger

Football can unite us

Sport was a winner last week. Let's use it to solidify a peace

Henry McDonald
Sunday August 15, 2004
The Observer

Shelbourne have done a Glentoran. Their scoreless draw last Wednesday with Deportivo La Coruña is equal to the Glens' famous holding of Benfica at The Oval in 1968. Just as on that historic Sixties night, Shelbourne have injected some badly needed pride into senior soccer on this island.
At the very least the Shels' magnificent draw with the Spanish giants demonstrates that there is still a skill base, collective belief and even life itself left among local football sides crippled by debt and overshadowed by the obscenely overpaid super-clubs of the English Premiership and the Scottish Old Firm. Yet the achievements of the North Dublin reds alongside the recent UEFA cup exploits of the pride of East Belfast should also provide an opportunity to debate maturely one of the central structural problems that beset Irish soccer on both sides of the border: the existence of two separate football league championships.

Think about the absurdity of having two distinct championships on one small island. Tolka Park and The Oval are a two-hour coach journey apart but there is a greater likelihood of Shelbourne playing in Galicia than the east end of Belfast. Ditto for Glentoran. Can you think of another part of the EU, with the exception of Cyprus, where there are two different leagues catering for a relatively small fan base?

The Irish League and the Eircom League are products of partition and thus prisoners of our troubled history. But why should sportsmen and women who have been among the pillars of decent civic society during three decades of incipient civil war be imprisoned by the past? There ought to be no political agenda or hidden conspiracy in any future all-Ireland soccer league championship: after all, there is and have been warm relations and close co-operation between football clubs on both sides of the border. The Dunfield experience has been an example of cross-border co-operation before cross-border co-operation became fashionable post-Good Friday 1998.

The collaboration between Dundalk and Linfield (Dunfield being the synthesis of the two sides' nomenclatures) in promoting cross-community, trans-frontier projects, especially those involving children, is proof that sides from both leagues can work together for the common good. Moreover, there has been a steady cross-border flow of talent between clubs in the south and the north. Shelbourne manager Pat Fenlon is an example of this having played for several seasons at Windsor Park.

Aside from the political and security objections to any all-Ireland set-up there are also practical and financial challenges. The travels costs for smaller clubs such as Distillery or Crusaders playing Cork or Waterford could put them in serious economic difficulties. The way around this is to break the league into three components: a 10-strong Premiership consisting of the top five from the Eircom and the Irish leagues; a southern promotion league and a northern counterpart, each putting one team respectively into the top flight at the end of every season.

In its early stages, therefore, the Irish Premiership will be comprised of the likes of Linfield and Glentoran in the north playing the bigger Dublin clubs such as Shelbourne and Bohemians. The capacity for these clashes raising gate receipts alongside an all-island television deal could in turn generate more sponsorship and cash for the entire all-Ireland soccer enterprise thus supporting the poorer clubs north and south.

One of the strongest deterrents for supporters turning up to Irish soccer matches is the allure of an English and Scottish Premiership side. Every weekend in the season the airports of Belfast, Dublin and Cork are filled with thousands of passengers waiting for flights to Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, Stansted and Gatwick. Given the increasingly availability of cheap flights from Northern Ireland and the Republic to Britain, the fan-drain from this island every Saturday is bound to accelerate. For that reason alone, a future all-Ireland league should follow the example of Eircom, which runs its league in the months largely outside the English and Scottish Premiership seasons.

The British government is about to spend millions regenerating local football in Northern Ireland, but without insisting the game moves into some kind of an all-island context there is little prospect of the sport attracting the extra thousands of fans needed for survival. Surely there must be some forward thinkers who are prepared to think the unthinkable and radically alter the structure of Irish club soccer after more than 80 years of division and decline. If there are, then they may find new financial donors from beyond these islands in the direction of Europe.

Because an all-Ireland league founded for sporting reasons would be an ideal candidate for millions of euros from the European Peace and Reconciliation Fund. The fund has already spent millions on the people who actually wreaked havoc and division on this island for 35 years, so it must be time to lavish their cash on a project that will do the opposite.

Big Ears

well the Setanta Cup is going to be doing its bit .

But I think some of the main reason are the 2 assoaciations .
Currently both associations have one side in the Champions League qualifyers and 2 in the Uefa Cup Qualifyers . (plus one inter-toto each , I think but that dosent matter)

now even an Irish joint League would not start with the quality to have 2 Champions League qualifyers and 4 Uefa Cup qualifyers .

So if there was a joint league Uefa would probably take away some European places and id say we'd end up with 1 Champions League place and 3 Uefa Cup places .

clubs would now find it harder to get into Europe , and thus a lot of revenue would be lost .

also it would be odd to have 1 league and 2 nationel teams , and thus the northern FA (IFA) could fear they would be forced to have one nationel team .

Still id like an all Ireland league , and over time the quality would get better and less players would be exported to Britain .

KdjaCL

Ironic he mentions Old Firm and doesnt mention Shels played rangers in europe few years ago and were 3-0 up at one stage. Or doesnt mention Cork v Bayern Waterford v Man utd.

The cup is the way to go for mega money hopefully it will take off with high attds and Setanta wil lose it after the initial contract (does anyone actually have Setanta?) I just want to see Linfield vs Rovers

kdjac

Big Ears

you want Linfield to be the home team ?

KdjaCL

The crappy thing is when that game comes about, any EL side vs Linfield the scum from north and south (old firm fans) will make it a classic derby. Rangers and Celtic been milking the sectanarism for years we may as well milk it also.

Although i hate those fans (the ones who dont actually realise there is a game on ) it will raise the profile of the league considerably. And i really want to know how good Linfield are

kdjac

Seaneh

I'm stunned that artical doesn't mention Athlone Town drawing with A.C. Milan in the early 70's.

thejollyrodger

the article seems to be a bit of a sop to nordies. I.E both north league are equal now, which they arent, just wait to see the EL clubs dominate this Sentanta Cup!!

Maybe 1 league would be a good idea except for the loss of Champion Leagues spots... UEFA has to keeep the places if there is 1 league

Dub13

KdjaC wrote:

Ironic he mentions Old Firm and doesnt mention Shels played rangers in europe few years ago and were 3-0 up at one stage. Or doesnt mention Cork v Bayern Waterford v Man utd.

The cup is the way to go for mega money hopefully it will take off with high attds and Setanta wil lose it after the initial contract (does anyone actually have Setanta?) I just want to see Linfield vs Rovers

kdjac

Most people in Dublin have Setanta,and you can get it on Sky for a fee.Thats alot of people

Big Ears

Dub13 wrote:

Most people in Dublin have Setanta,and you can get it on Sky for a fee.Thats alot of people

yes but its no good , just promoting the game in Dublin .

I wuld like to see the competition , but Setanta is going to be something like €14 a month and quite a bit of whats on Setanta can be seen on other channels .(Gaa + Premiership)

Dub13

Big Ears wrote:

yes but its no good , just promoting the game in Dublin .

I wuld like to see the competition , but Setanta is going to be something like €14 a month and quite a bit of whats on Setanta can be seen on other channels .(Gaa + Premiership)

Its free on NTL and they are not just in Dublin they are also in Galway, Waterford and all of Northern Ireland.Setanta are also talking to Chorus who do the rest of the country,so thats most of the country if not all.As Setanta does not launch ontill next month they allready reach about 1/4 of Irish viewers for free.

eirebhoy

Dub13 wrote:

As Setanta does not launch ontill next month they allready reach about 1/4 of Irish viewers for free.

I don't know if you typed that by mistake but Setanta launched 2 weeks ago.

BTW, Big ears, nothing on this Setanta channel can be seen on any other channel in Ireland. ATM they show the SPL and a few premiership matches (none of the premiership matches are on sky).

Dub13

eirebhoy wrote:

I don't know if you typed that by mistake but Setanta launched 2 weeks ago.

Setanta does not launch ontill some time in September,they are testing now and seems as they have the rights to some games they are showing them live.But they do not officially launch ontill September,they are just being nice by showing the games we got last week and next week.

By the way it will not be going 24 hours a day ontill some time in January

por

It's the slippery slope to a combined Ireland national team if you ask me, and that's the last thing I want. We will end up at a World Cup having to sing 'Irelands f***ing call' and facing a flag that is not our own. The best move teh FAI ever mand was their first move, breaking away from the IFA.

Big Ears

eirebhoy wrote:

I don't know if you typed that by mistake but Setanta launched 2 weeks ago.

BTW, Big ears, nothing on this Setanta channel can be seen on any other channel in Ireland. ATM they show the SPL and a few premiership matches (none of the premiership matches are on sky).

game of the day , which is a pretty long highlights programme of games .
You will have to pay for Setanta on Chorus aswell .

Mossy Monk

Big Ears wrote:

(Gaa + Premiership)

tbf the GAA Setanta show is on the PPV channel and not available in this country. as noted above the premiership games cant be seen anywhere else in this country (officially )

thejollyrodger

It's the slippery slope to a combined Ireland national team if you ask me, and that's the last thing I want. We will end up at a World Cup having to sing 'Irelands f***ing call' and facing a flag that is not our own. The best move teh FAI ever mand was their first move, breaking away from the IFA.

I agree totally.

Bateman

If we have an all-Ireland football team, that would be progressive, regardless of flags or anthems.

The article wasn't supposed to drop names to prove he knows about eL football; it was an article about all-Ireland football; not an article about famous European results by Irish teams. In fairness though, the Setanta Cup is something to seriously look forward to, there is no point in complaining about security issues, as this will only hold us back. As it is, there is trouble down here and up there, but the question is with sensible security policies can it be contained; of course it can.

KdjaCL

Bateman wrote:

As it is, there is trouble down here and up there, but the question is with sensible security policies can it be contained; of course it can.

The irony there is excellent, a Bohs fan saying they can be contained , didnt look like it in Dalymount or when inchicore was wrecked by yourselves and Rovers fans. Or is that a certian amount of containment (ie: not our place)?

About Setanta i have no interest in getting its a crappy channel if theres a game on i will go pub , but would prefer terrestial or Sky to have the rights to it for proper mass marketting and availability..

kdjac

Bateman

With a bit of sensible policing it can be contained, as it has been in the more recent meetings between the two teams. :rolleyes:

Last game; Saturday 2.30 the day of the Chili Peppers gig; no trouble
Game before that; Friday night 19.45; no trouble.

If the police have 80 in the ground, and none outside, well that's asking for it. If you went to the fixture in more recent times, you might know there has been no "wrecking". Pats fans broke nearly as many seats in the Connaught St side of Dalymount as Rovers fans this season. :rolleyes:
And who ever "wrecked" Richmond Park? Rovers smashed a couple of buses outside it a year ago, but when has anything happened inside that ground?

kilkennycat2004

Dub13 wrote:

Its free on NTL

But for how long?
F from the people who previously took away Eurosport & then it re-emerged for a fee.