The threat from Sky sponsored Soccer

kilkennycat2004

Hippo wrote:

For the record I've been a Sheffield Wednesday and Shamrock Rovers supporter for over, er, 30 years, and believe me that ain't been easy!

Leeds United & Waterford United is no holiday either Hippo but my number one is & always will be hurling.
No sport compares.

Hippo

Fair enough Cat, but at least Leeds had the glory days of the 70s. Wednesdsay's were in the...30s. I was just addressing Dub's original post where he said he couldn't understand how people could be so enthusiastic following foreign teams. It's the same all over the world, football is the most popular and accessible sport and teams who get a lot of international exposure are going to attract lots of international support. You only have to look at replica shirt sales in the far east etc. It's no big mystery. Part, no doubt, of the global village phenomenon. Look at McDonalds.
And whatever happened Alfie Hale?

The Rooster

Hippo wrote:

It seems to me that the GAA needs to look at getting its own house in order with regard certainly to the football issues. I don't much like the game, but even I can see that most matches at the top level are incredibly stop-start in their action because of the difficult-to-define 'personal foul', and that far more Gaelic footballers dive to the ground feigning injury than soccer players anywhere, even Italy. Perhaps if the flow of the game was improved more kids would want to play. Apologies if I'm wrong, for all I know the GAA clubs the length and breadth of the country are heaving with enthusiastic young players.

Gaelic football has not much more (if any more) stoppages than soccer. I've been a big supporter of both sports all my life, and IMO a good gaelic game is better than a good soccer game, and a bad gaelic games is much much better to watch than a bad soccer game.

While an element of diving has come into GAA over the last two years, to compare it to English soccer, never mind Italian soccer, is just ludicrous. Idiotic in fact.

The diving that has come into GAA is players going down too easily when they are manhandled by opponents. Its very rare that a player in GAA will go to ground when nobody has touched him. Never will even a half of football in the English premiership go by without a player diving to the ground without being touched.

Hippo

In your opinion...exactly! and that's my opinion. No need to be abusive. You're missing my point completely.

Waylander

Hippo I have to agree with Rooster here. There is no where near as much diving in GAA as in soccer, and it has only crept into the game in the last two seasons. Also as the tackling is allowed to be much tougher in GAA I would have thought it was more freeflowing apart from the fact that there are alot more scores in GAA which may lead to extra stoppages but these are hardly worhty of complaint as they only arise after a score has been put on the board.

The Rooster

Hippo, you are welcome to your opinion that soccer is a better game than gaelic, I would never abuse somebody for their opinion - you obviously just havent seen enough gaelic

However, you made the following statement:

far more Gaelic footballers dive to the ground feigning injury than soccer players anywhere, even Italy

That is unquestionably a truly idiotic statment - and thats a fact, not an opinion.

Hippo

I have learnt my lesson never to use amusing overstatement on the GAA forum.

Slash/ED

Big Ears wrote:

I ****ing hate that too , and I beleive there was a poll on this on the soccer forum a while ago and club winning the CL was ahead of Ireland winning World Cup , makes me ****ing sick .

The majority of voters were eircom league fans, in fact I think everyone who went with the club option there followed a league of Ireland side so it's not a fair example really, in their case it was an Irish team doing well V an Irish team doing well, rather than any foreign team doing well.

Flukey

Hippo, there are more dives in Spanish and Italian soccer than there are in the sport of diving! Gaelic Football doesn't come anywhere near in that regard. There is some, but nothing compared to what you will get in other sports.