France and their great players

KdjaCL

so then ...france...



kdjac

Mr. Presentable

KdjaCL wrote: »

so then ...france...



kdjac

The world's best academy and training facilities. Mentioned early in the thread so I suppose the thread's done.

shane86

DSB wrote: »

The location is definitely important, its far more stable for a young player to be living at home with his family and friends who will keep him with the right attitude to develop as a player.

So this is your basis for the France thing?

Ben Afra is from near Paris. He plays in Lyon, halfway down the country. I doubt the family came with him. In fact Id reckon its faster, cheaper and easier for an Irish player in Liverpool or London to see his family, so I dont know where this one comes from.

The basic difference is this: the best French players are only taken abroad around 22 because the likes of Lyon will hold out for their 5 million or whatever. EL clubs will happily sell a 17 year old for 70K.

gosplan

homerjay2005 wrote: »

Rugby, are we???????? soccer is played by more youngsters now than any other sport. The grassroots soccer over the past 10 years has grown immensly and will continue to grow. there is trojan work being done that we cant see, but i have seen it at local level. soccer is thriving in ireland. GAA is number one, and perhaps will be for years, but that is a part of our heritage.

Rugby, your having a laugh. Rugby is something that we are only interested in when there is some big game on, nothing else. Rugby in Ireland is followed by a select bunch fanatically and then the rest is only a passing interest. Personally, i hate rugby fans but that is only my opinion. We may support Ireland and the likes of Ulster, Munster and Leinster when there are big games on, but how many people will be at a League game between say Shannon and some team outside of Munster? very little i can guarantee ya. It may come as a surprise (cos it did to me) that Rugby is only the 5th most played game in Ireland, Adults and Kids.

Everybody on here im sure could name every Eircom League Soccer club for example, whereas, how many people would actually know the names of alot of the top Rugby club teams? not that it matters, but just pointing it out that as far as most people are concerned, Rugby is about Ireland and the heineken cup. In soccer,there is now a local club in every area of ireland, you cant say that for rugby.



1st - Gaa Football
2nd - Gaa Hurling.
3rd - Soccer.
4th - BASKETBALL:eek:
5th - Rugby.

nice borderline racist signature.

homerjay2005

Gavin shels wrote: »

Someresearch next time you want to back up an arguement. It's actually;

1st - Hurling
2nd - Soccer
3rd - Football

lol...hurling played more than football??? lol, thats gas. im afraid mate, its not possible. 31 counties play football and it number one game in about 23 of them. there is no way that hurling is played more. i would think that soccer aint far off overtaking hurling, making it second alright, but still, hurling is more widespread.

Gavin "shels"

homerjay2005 wrote: »

lol...hurling played more than football??? lol, thats gas. im afraid mate, its not possible. 31 counties play football and it number one game in about 23 of them. there is no way that hurling is played more. i would think that soccer aint far off overtaking hurling, making it second alright, but still, hurling is more widespread.

Egg on face incident here.:o I meant.

1st - Football
2nd - Soccer
3rd - Hurling

homerjay2005

Gavin shels wrote: »

Egg on face incident here.:o I meant.

1st - Football
2nd - Soccer
3rd - Hurling

no problem, ya maybe soccer is now more popular than hurling, there aint much in it either way.....wonder where hurling lies in france?!

Mr. Presentable

homerjay2005 wrote: »

.....wonder where hurling lies in france?!

On the ditch?

Gavin "shels"

homerjay2005 wrote: »

wonder where hurling lies in france?!

They actually have several GAA clubs over there afaik.:cool:

DSB

shane86 wrote: »

So this is your basis for the France thing?

Ben Afra is from near Paris. He plays in Lyon, halfway down the country. I doubt the family came with him. In fact Id reckon its faster, cheaper and easier for an Irish player in Liverpool or London to see his family, so I dont know where this one comes from.

The basic difference is this: the best French players are only taken abroad around 22 because the likes of Lyon will hold out for their 5 million or whatever. EL clubs will happily sell a 17 year old for 70K.

I think you'll note that I didn't mention France once. So I had no basis for anything.

pickarooney

Lyon is about an hour and a half from Paris by train, roughly the time it takes to circumnavigate the M50.

_blank_

Harpy wrote: »

I agree here about sweden the support over there is very impressive but again sweden has double the population of ireland..also they have the facilities there.The teams have nice stadiums and good facilities.. I think these things have to be provided in ireland before people start taking a big interest..

Provided by who?

The clubs are dying under financial difficulties, they simply cannot afford to build "facilities".

Irish investors are more interested in ploughing money into the pit that is the EPL in a stupid bid to try break the big three.

The Clown Association ignores the league and only pays it lip service. No investment there.

dublindude wrote: »

DesF and others are saying the best solution to our national team is developing a strong national league.

Will you please read my posts, and stop misrepresenting me. Please.

I'm not saying a strong national league is "the best" solution. I never said that and I would never be so ridiculous.

I said, and here it is again.

A strong national league is needed to play a part in the progression of the national team.

Is that clear now, because that is the second time I have explained that to you, in this thread.

Thanks.

dublindude wrote: »

I am saying this:

Most soccer fans in Ireland grow up watching English soccer and support English teams. They dream of playing for Liverpool, Man U, etc. They do not dream of playing for Shelbourne or Bohemians and in general have little interest in the Irish league.

Pedantry.

The Irish league is the league in Northern Ireland.

The League of Ireland is the league in the republic, and Derry.

dublindude wrote: »

As others have pointed out, the French league isn't particularly strong.

Erm, it is particularly strong.

Please post proof that it isn't.

Here is some proof that it is.

A French team is in the CL QFs.

Actully, here is yet more proof.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficients

Scroll down to Ranking for 2008-09 UEFA competitions, and you will see that the French League is the fourth placed league in terms of co-efficient.

This coefficient is determined by the results of the clubs of the leagues over the past five seasons. The number of points awarded each season (two for each win by a club from that league, one for a draw) is divided by the number of teams that participated for that nation in that season. This number is then rounded to three decimal places (e.g. 2 2/3 will be rounded to 2.667).

So your assertion that the French League "isn't particularly strong" is, in fact, a crock of shít with nothing to back it up.

LeixlipRed wrote: »

I often wonder if when we have (if we ever have) 10k average attendances in the EL will people like me, DesF, KdjacL, etc, still bitch about how we were there first

Of course, everyone else will be nothing short of a blow in.:cool: