Sad sad news. I’m a huge Man Utd and Ireland fan but something told me to take a more active interest in LOI. So I started doing the hour long drive to Sligo and every chance I get I’m done to watch The Bit of Red. And I’ve never had so much Craic.

The people and club officials could not be more welcoming. I’m welcomed by name (you wouldn’t get that at a premiership match regardless of how many years attendance) and the real buzz around the place is uplifting.

People should really start going to local soccer matches as they need the revenue FAR MORE than Delaney and his pals in Abbotstown. Over 400 grand a year for his job? He’s a disgrace.

The Irish will fly around the world to watch football, but won’t walk down the street. The state of the game in this counry is depressing, all the more so because we’ve had to listen to two weeks of hearing how we’re the “best football fans in the world”.

Delaney’s rounds for the fans over in Poland would have kept Monaghan afloat for years. But sure he earns more than the president of America. He is worth it though, after all he is in charge of the league and the FAI.

Kind of symptomatic of the Irish attitude to football that the author of this piece doesn’t seem to know that our league is in mid-season…

This is poxy. Everyone across europe knows the words to “The Fields of Athenry” and at home a club is going down the pan due to apathy towards domestic football. Gonna get worse too.

clubs in shite,John Delaney earns over 430K,getting pissed in Poland with his buddies at probably our expense,Carlsberg don’t do Football Associations………

yes the LOI is not at the premier league standard,and never will be without money and investment,but as a weekly attendee of games its not as bad as some people think or say, and for a gate fee of roughly 15 quid its alot cheaper than “Irish football fans” who spend 60 pounds sterling plus air fare every other week to support “their” team. The fai and Ireland fans need to realise that grassroots starts at home,and without their support the national team will continue to suffer as it has the past two weeks. shamrock rovers made history for Irish football with their appearence in Europe last season and the gap between irish football was shown for what it is,but surly if a full time fai funded Irish league existed to blood players was in place this appearence in European football would not just be a flash in the pan,and the level our football would be played at would improve. people need to realise that football in this country will die on its feet without support from both the fai and the football loving public. rant over….

Clubs just don’t have the support anymore and the fai don’t seem to care about the smaller clubs because they can’t make money off them, look at the situation in limerick where the club has been blocked from hosting a big game against Barcelona and now they have been stopped from hosting a tournament involving Chelsea, Celtic and two other teams, this was a huge coup for limerick fc and would be a huge earner for the club had the greedy fai let it go ahead. What hope do these small teams have in the future

Devastating news

Sad to see this happening especially the last couple of years. Clubs that try to make the jump to a full time set up seems to be a gamble, which unfortunatly dosnt pay off alot of the time. It also seems there is a lack of support from the LOI.

“EMBATTLED LEAGUE OF Ireland outfit Monaghan United has opted to withdraw from top-flight football rather than shoulder the financial burden attendant upon completing the current season”

What part of that sentence suggests that the authour doesn’t know that its mid season?

I presume many clubs could be rescued by supporting them E430,000 every year instead of one person’s pocket…

The greatest fans in the world will now be singing a fields of anfield road from the comfort of a barstool

Does this mean Roddy is available to take over from Trap, coincidence, I don’t think so.

The standard of football excuse is starting to wear a bit thin tbh, especially considering the VASTLY exagerrated standard of football in everyones beloved “mighty Premiership”. It really is nothing more then laziness and apathy towards our own. Nothing annoys me more then the end of May every year when you get the usual “don’t know what I’m going to do for the next 8 weeks now with no football being on”.

People need to get out and support their local clubs, its as simple as.

The simple reality of the matter is the vast majority of Irish football fans prefer their football on TV than going out to watch it. While millions of people tune in each week to watch football beamed in from England or Spain League of Ireland games attract attendances more often measured in hundreds than thousands. Against such massive disinterest it is impossible to run a professional league be it either full time or part time. The financial rewards of League of Ireland are such that many talented players chose to remain in their own local junior leagues where they don’t have to travel far for games.

The armchair fan who decrys the standards of LoI invariably has only ever been at a couple of gamesand these often years apart. Despite their indepth knowledge of players teams and grounds in the UK they would struggle to name half a dozen LoI players. Their knowledge of tactics, formations and rules have been lovingly imparted to them by Alan Hansen, Andy Gray, Gary Lineker etc. They will tell you, if you’re prepared to listen ,of their trip to Old Trafford or Anfield or some other Premier League ground, about the crowd, the athmosphere , the game. These are often the people who wouldn’t dream of going to Landsdowne Road for the qualifier against the likes of Latvia but will complain bitterly about how the “genuine fans” can’t tickets for the big qualifier against France or whoever. If you can get them to count you invariably find that these massive fans have actaully attended less than one live match for each year of their lives. And yet these are the people that the League of Ireland need to attract.

The rugby comparison is probably unfair in that rugby has only four professional teams in the country who do not play in a domestic league. The structure of football is such that UEFA will never allow a European League as exists in rugby so the only outlet for the FAI to harness that huge interest in football is through the senior international side. Their promotion of that aspect at the expense of the domestic game is relentless. In many ways the LoI appears to be a neccessary irritant to the FAI in that to remain within UEFA they must run the domestic league. I susppect that if a Euro League were to be set up at the expense of domestic leagues the FAI would be the first to sign up.

The poor performance in the Euros certainly requires much thought but it is impossible to build a structure from the top down which is exactly what the FAI have done and are trying to do. A fraction of the salaries paid to the management teamof the senior side would make such a difference to a club like Monaghan United. The FAI have got to look after the game in this country first and foremost and try to stop the drain of money from this country to the game in the UK. There have been many noted noted Irish investors in UK clubs, like Celtic, Sunderland, and Man U, not to mention the likes of Carlisle, Peterborough in the lower leagues there. It is investment like that the FAI must chase for the domestic game if they have any interest in it. The first step will be to start to educate the fans about the importance of the domestic game. I am sure that players like James McClean, Seamus Coleman. Shane Long. Kevin Doyle etc who have played LOI would willingly assist in a advertising campaign to help the league that launched their careers and brought them riches they could only dream about. It might not be much but it would be a start and could be followed by the FAI investing in upgrading facilities in the LoI grounds. This is the route that Bordn na gConn successfully pursued with greyhound stadiums around the country a few years ago.

The ball is truely in the FAI’s court now and as they have their board meeting amidst the glamour of the Euros in Poland they might well reflect that holding the next one in the club bar in Gortakeegan would be a proper reality check on the state of the game here.

Heartbroken

Scrap the league entirely and introduce a new league with county teams. Town/city clubs are just too small to survive on their own or to invest anything for the future. County teams are the way to go. The rivalry is already there for over 100 years.

Does this mean that Sligo Rovers are back in the FAI cup. No seriously it is a shame, they did seem to be improving. Maybe if they stuck at it they could have attracted more supporters however the consensus seems to be that most clubs based in large towns/small cities garner pretty much all their support from the town itself and cant attract any support from around their surrounding county and regions. Would soccer fans from Cavan have considered supporting Monaghan Utd, unfortunately a natural GAA type mentality means they probably didn’t.

experience and facilities into the development of football in the county of Monaghan”.

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