Airtricity League: Will we ever learn the lessons of Gdansk and Gortakeegan?
“If we ever want to win more than the party, we have to truly value what’s on our doorstep,” writes Niall Kelly in this week’s Airtricity League column.
AS IRELAND’S EURO 2012 adventure limped to an end against Italy on Monday night, the 30,000-strong green legion — “the best fans in the world” — knocked back the last of the Poznan beer and readied themselves for the journey home.
Where to now, lads?
For most, the answer is unlikely to be one of the country’s Airtricity League grounds. When the 2012 season kicked off back in March, the combined attendance for all Premier Division and First Division games stood at just over 12,500. Something doesn’t quite add up.
Domestic football’s many trials and tribulations are no secret but the bleak reality was hammered home again on Monday when, as Europe fawned over Trap’s Army, Monaghan United announced their decision to withdraw from the league for financial reasons.
Advertisement
The timing was not lost on those who love the League of Ireland and once more unto the breach, they dusted off and took up their cross to begin another stirring, passionate defense.
On Tuesday, an open letter written by Catherine O’Mahony landed in TheScore’s inbox. After thanking the Irish fans “for doing the country proud off the pitch in Poland in the absence of pride on it,” it continued:
Sadly, Ireland are out and I’m sure you’ll all be returning home tired and hungover. But you’ll still have that buzz, that feeling of belonging. That sense of collective identity and excitement that only live football can bring. There is live football happening every week in your national league and it desperately needs your support.
Shelbourne winger Paddy Kavanagh didn’t mince his words when asked if crowd numbers at last night’s Dublin derby might suffer because of a clash with Portugal and the Czech Republic’s Euro 2012 quarter-final.
Anyone who starts choosing European games over their own homegrown teams would want to have a look at themselves. It’s our league and it’s our country.
The quality of games in the league is always improving and this year it’s better again. Why not come out and watch and support them and have a great night instead of sitting in front of a TV listening to some clown talking crap about foreign players?
It should be possible, though, to have a constructive discussion about the League of Ireland without it descending into some pseudo-nationalist debate between Irish patriots and West Brit barstoolers. Trying to ram the league down reluctant throats will never work. It’s human nature to rebel against a sense of obligation, not least when that obligation is going to lead you to a wet and windy terrace for a game that you’re not that interested in.
For fans, the frustration mounts when the domestic game is dismissed as “shite” out of hand, often by people who would close the curtains if there was Airtricity League match on in their front garden: “Why would I watch that muck when I can sit in on a Saturday night and watch Xavi and Iniesta?”
For all of the league’s faults — and God knows that’s no short list — nothing will ever get better without support. Not the standard, not the grounds, not the facilities, nothing. And in this day and age, the most basic and direct means of support is with bums on seats.
It shouldn’t be a chore. Why would it be? After all, 30,000 spared no expense to trek to Poland and cheer on a rather average group of players who were prepared to live and die by the honesty and intensity of their effort.
The dual blows of Gdansk and Gortakeegan are more closely linked than many care to admit. It’s only one small part of a big picture but if we ever want to make something of ourselves on the international stage — if we ever want to win more than the party — we have to truly value what’s on our doorstep.
I’ve been a league of ireland fan for years, but it is a dreadful product and I use that term on purpose. Negative, cynical football, ramshackle grounds, filthy toilets, vitriolic fans. There is no intention or effort to entertain. You can’t blame people for turning their back on it. It has to earn support, not expect it as a right
Very sad to see the Mons bite the dust, really were a Dublin based team, a pub in Clondalkin were their main sponsors for years. Cant remember them winning anything possibly a div 1 title 10 years ago?
Nice sentiments Catherine, but you know out of that 30,000+ returning crowd from Poland only a very minute percentage will attend games on their doorstep(lucky to be 1%). Unless it means a holiday, a hoolie or a session these people wont waist their money on the Football. Thousands were spent to travel yet €200 for a season ticket, or even €15 cannot be found to attend and experience an LoI match. Unless the FAI are willing to make radical changes and begin investing any amount of time on the national league survival will always be a struggle for clubs.
Easterby hails 'pretty impressive' Sheehan after capping off ACL return with hat-trick
13 mins ago
2
FreeFarewell
Peter O'Mahony departs with expectations for Irish rugby taken to a new level
1 hr ago
2
Scenes
Newcastle stun Liverpool to end 56-year trophy wait with League Cup success
12 hrs ago
89
Sign in or create a free account
To continue reading create a free account
Or sign into an existing account
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 157 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.Privacy Policy
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 109 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 141 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 111 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 38 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 34 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 132 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 60 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 74 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 38 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 46 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 90 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 97 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 72 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 53 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 86 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 68 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
I’ve been a league of ireland fan for years, but it is a dreadful product and I use that term on purpose. Negative, cynical football, ramshackle grounds, filthy toilets, vitriolic fans. There is no intention or effort to entertain. You can’t blame people for turning their back on it. It has to earn support, not expect it as a right
Very sad to see the Mons bite the dust, really were a Dublin based team, a pub in Clondalkin were their main sponsors for years. Cant remember them winning anything possibly a div 1 title 10 years ago?
Nice sentiments Catherine, but you know out of that 30,000+ returning crowd from Poland only a very minute percentage will attend games on their doorstep(lucky to be 1%). Unless it means a holiday, a hoolie or a session these people wont waist their money on the Football. Thousands were spent to travel yet €200 for a season ticket, or even €15 cannot be found to attend and experience an LoI match. Unless the FAI are willing to make radical changes and begin investing any amount of time on the national league survival will always be a struggle for clubs.