With Shamrock Rovers' European campaign ending the domestic season, the countdown to March begins now. It's all change in Dublin, with Rovers and Bohs having managerial vacancies, while St. Pat's have hired managerial veteran Liam Buckley, so Sligo appear poised to capitalise on the domestic upheaval. Provisional updates on licencing will be issued next week, but for once it appears the 12 clubs which finished the season qualified for the 2012 Premier will remain there at the start of the season:

Bohemian FC
Bray Wanderers
Cork City
Derry City
Drogheda United
Dundalk FC
Monaghan United
St. Patrick's Athletic
Shamrock Rovers
Shelbourne FC
Sligo Rovers
UCD FC

The First Division appears more turbulent, with only eight clubs confirmed there at present (Athlone, Finn Harps, Limerick, Longford, Mervue, Salthill, Waterford, and Wexford), with financial worries surrounding the Donegal and South-East teams. Cobh Ramblers, FC Carlow, Galway United Supporters Trust and Tralee Dynamos all seek League football, but Cobh still haven't settled their 2009 tax liabilities, and Carlow wish to play their home matches in Kilkenny.

Didn't Roy Keane start out at Cobh? How much do they owe? I bet he'd have it in a jar on his mantelpiece.

Not sure, think it was around €200k, also there was some controversy about the FAI taking ownership of their stadium for collateral, but they'd be an asset to the League again if everything was sorted out.

Cobh have come to an agreement with the FAI which has settled their outstanding debts. Elsewhere, Steve Staunton has become favourite to manage his hometown club of Dundalk FC, while both Jason McAteer and David Kelly (ex-RoI, Wolves and Newcastle striker) have applied for the managerial vacancy at Shamrock Rovers.

I was driving all over galway city at the weekend, and passed the three league of Ireland grounds, and it struck me that here is the problem of the league of ireland Writ large.

Galway is a city of about 75,000 people, and you'd think that would be enough to support one decent sized league of Ireland club. In fact galway has never been able to really support a league of ireland club. Galway utd, based in terryland, north of the city centre have never had an arse to their trousers for the length of their existence.

It would however be a terrible mistake to think of this as a lack of interest in football. Because while Galway utd have teetered on the brink of extinction for as long as anyone can remember, two other relatively new galway clubs are also in the first division. One for the east side of the city (Mervue) and one for the west side of the city (Salthill Devon)

These three clubs are no more than 3 or 4 miles apart, and are living testimony that the people of Ireland have a terrible difficulty giving a shit about what is happening in the neighbouring parish. The people of the west side of galway (salthill, knocknacarra, rahoon) Couldn't give a fuck about about galway united and would prefer to have their own tiny, team living from hand to mouth, but it is their own, and that is what matters.

In short, league of Ireland clubs have a tiny support footprint, drawn from a couple of miles from around the ground. Everyone else follows their own local club just enough not to be able to care about forming an attachment to another Irish club.

League of Ireland clubs in dublin used to draw huge crowds up until the early 60's. But that was because they were all slap bang in the middle of huge urban slums. When those slums were cleared, and the people moved out to the new towns like tallaght, crumlin, ballymun etc, those people were entirely lost to those clubs and attendances plummeted.

Then you add in the other problems faced by the galway clubs. They are competing with several GAA clubs, including a super club, that occasionally wins all-Ireland club competions, and has a 34,000 capacity stadium. then you have the IRFU throwing loads of money in the effort to make connaught rugby a sustainable entity, and then add in the huge 'blow in' population of galway city, who just aren't going to be interested in a local club, because they already have their own.

This is exactly the dynamic of supporting your local club that a lot of people on this board would like for England. ultimately I can never really care much about a club like shamrock rovers, because it's part of the same continuum for me as my local club, (which is over 100 years old) I could no more support Shamrock rovers, than a GAA club in an unrelated county.

english football is on an entirely different continuum altogether. so that is grand. What you have to remember that say a footballer like stephen hunt, would have grown up playing soccer, gaelic football and hurling, for two different clubs. Supported those clubs, supported his county in gaelic games, and also probably supported a premiership team. to pick on the fact that a lot of irish people follow english clubs, is to miss out on the fact that Irish people play for and support local teams to a much higher degree than anywhere else.

The league of Ireland's problems are as much of a function of the parochialism of irish sport as anything else, and it has very little to do with the premiership.

It has an awful lot to do with it, Berbaslug. The Premiership means that Ireland's many soccer fans get their fix away from the local senior club - not only the action, but the banter, the speculation and all the guff that comes with following a team. If the Premier League didn't exist in it's current state, there's no doubt there would be more punters coming through the turnstiles.

I don't think it can be combated though. Top-flight English football has always been part of our football identity, and the domestic scene's many ills are mostly self-inflicted, so I wouldn't be quick to blame English football for the state of Irish football, but it's impact cannot be understated. Domestic soccer just needs to offer more than it does at the moment - whether that improvement is in the quality of the stadia or of the football.

stephen kenny to shamrock rovers.


hasn't been the best couple of days for derry city....

Premier Division fixtures released tomorrow, First held back until the licencing meeting on February 12th, giving any new clubs just 19 days to be ready for the new season.

Sligo's 20 goal striker, Eoin Doyle, joins Fenlon at Hibs, while Michael O'Neill has reportedly been made the next Northern Ireland manager.

It has an awful lot to do with it, Berbaslug. The Premiership means that Ireland's many soccer fans get their fix away from the local senior club - not only the action, but the banter, the speculation and all the guff that comes with following a team. If the Premier League didn't exist in it's current state, there's no doubt there would be more punters coming through the turnstiles.

Ah, but the problem is with the phrase local club. A league of ireland club is only the local club for a very limited number of people and that is the problem.

You'd have thought that galway united would have been the local club for the people of galway, but it turns out that 3 miles in a small city/large market town is too far for irish people to deal with, so instead you have three micro clubs. THis has nothing to do with the premiership.

Even if every other sport and televised distraction cleared out of the way, league of ireland clubs would only get so big because they draw their support from such a narrow geographical base.

if premier league football didn't exist in its current state, most irish people would watch spanish football instead. League of Ireland football and premiership football occupy two different kind of places in irish people's thinking.

league of ireland football goes into the same drawer with junior football, gaa and club rugby, something that local people are interested in. Then you have meta local things, where people are vaguely included in some bigger body or geographical expression, like following county teams in GAA or provinces in rugby, or the ireland team. Then there is televised sport like the premiership that fills an entirely different space.

The only really sensible approach for league of ireland clubs is to run on an even keel, tart the grounds up a bit, and try and get as many local kids as possible into the grounds, in the hope that a reasonable proportion of them get bitten by the bug.

The Awesome Berbaslug!!! wrote:


TAB hits the nail on the head, though perhaps for different reasons than he suspected. While the existing LoI clubs are almost incestously near, whole swathes of the country are excluded from any engagement - i.e., how could I, as a Kerryman, root for either Cork or Limerick, and which club would fall into TAB's catchment area in Cahir? The entire reason for the success of the English Football League was that it expanded on the basis that every English county eventually had a side in one of the four division, so local derbies fuelled attendances. In fairness, the FAI have grown grass-roots football in rural areas since the Eighties, but until Kerry, Tipp, Mayo, Kildare etc have senior LoI clubs, the domestic game will never have bottom-up support nationwide.

Diable Rouge wrote:


How much is the GAA to blame for the failure of football to grow outside of Dublin?

It's well known of course that they banned its members from playing 'foreign' games, but I remember reading somewhere that they had spies who would be on the lookout for GAA members attending soccer matches, and those who were caught were threatened with expulsion if they persisted.

Such a policy would be easier to implement in rural areas than in inner city Dublin.

Historyman, football is huge outside of dublin and the biggest team sport in terms of regular participation. I'm sure that the ban set football back for a long time, but that is gone a very long time now.

But even if there was a league of ireland team in kerry, it wouldn't make a difference. Tralee dynamos would be of very little interest to someone from kilgarvan or tuosist. It wouldn't matter to the people of Cahir if clonmel town, or St michaels from tipp town were in the league of ireland. You would play against their junior teams as a kid for your own town.

Ridiculously premature as usual, it's time for my 2012 League of Ireland season preview:

1. Sligo Rovers

At present, the Bit O'Red appear to have held on to manager Paul Cook, and despite losing striker Eoin Doyle to Hibs, 12 signings indicate their 35-year title doubt could be poised to end in October.

2. Shamrock Rovers

Look to have appointed wisely with Stephen Kenny, but the inevitable transition and increased focus on Europe could prove to their domestic detriment.

3. St. Patrick's Athletic

Liam Buckley knows how to acheive the maximum with available squads, and while not title contenders, should qualify for Europe.

4. Derry City

Managerless, and sans James McLean, will struggle to match last year's surprise heights.

5. Cork City

Last year's First Division champions have the squad to be immediately competitive upon their return.

6. Shelbourne

Similar to Cork, the Tolka Park outfit have a notable domestic reputation and a top-half finish will be expected.

7. Bohemians

New manager Aaron Callaghan has been greeted with scepticism, but the financial and squad situation seems to have stabilised.

8. Bray Wanderers

The perennial strugglers improved dramatically in 2011, and while Europe looks beyond them, Pat Devlin should comfortably see them avoid the relegation zone.

9. Dundalk

Hotly tipped last season before swiftly disappointing, expect mid-table mediocrity at Oriel Park.

10. Monaghan United

With Roddy Collins at the helm, expect either a meteoric rise to glory, or, more probably, a plunge to the foot of the table and a winding-up order. I'm splitting the difference.

11. UCD FC

The Students annually struggle with attendances and finances, but should survive in the top-flight.


12. Drogheda United

Only saved last season due to Galway's car-crash campaign, the local, amateur side will require a miracle to stay up.

Either I've been away from Ireland too long, or you were smoking something when assessing Bohs.
Flattered you put Bray 7th, but really, are ourselves and Monaghan really going to finish ahead of Bohs? It's never happened before. Assuming they get a licence, they'll find a way to sign some big names before the start of the season.

Will say though in fairness, you admit yourself it's premature. I'm not going to be so brave and going to wait two months to make my predictions. Or maybe I'll wait 10 months and astound ye all...

The FAI now plans to announce the First Division line-up on January 19th, and it appears that Tralee will be included, subject to some minor stadium work and a fundraising campaign.

Reports emerging from the West suggest that GUST have been refused a licence, so after 74 years, Galway United have ceased to exist. The FAI's "logical" reasoning is that Galwegians will rally behind Mervue and Salthill, but as TAB noted, both teams essentially draw their support from local housing estates, and will never grow any larger.

TG4 (which broadcasts from Galway) ran a story tonight confirming that GUST won't be awarded a licence, but with the added twist that the FAI wants them to merge with either Mervue or Salthill. Abbotstown mediated talks between Galway and Salthill which broke up without agreement last night, but these will resume on Thursday morning, after GUST's EGM is held tonight.

The latest on the three Galways.