Football clubs can give town their identity
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
LEAGUE of Ireland clubs have done themselves no favours during the Covid lockdown by their continual procrastination over when, and if, games should restart, and over the format for promotion and relegation.
In doing so they have brought the entire League into disrepute, with one leading columnist this week asking ‘who cares what happens to the 2020 campaign’.
This must be distressing reading for the players with Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers in particular who have been training hard for weeks with the expectation that not only would domestic games resume, but that they would have sufficient competitive game time to allow them represent their clubs and the League itself with distinction in the upcoming European games.
The fault for all of this can be easily identified, but at this juncture there is nothing to be gained from dwelling on the financial mess that was left after the John Delaney tenure which is at the heart of most of the FAI’s problems.
With very limited funds, the new FAI board and the National League Executive Committee faced an unenviable and indeed almost impossible task in endeavouring to get agreement among the 19 clubs on re-starting the League and finding a format that satisfied all.
The lack of funds to entice clubs back playing was clearly the biggest obstacle from the very start, for a number of clubs were content to write off the season, and concentrate their efforts on starting again next season.
To overcome this reluctance a financial package, calling on funds from a number of sources, was cobbled together and while far from adequate for some clubs, appeared to have received broad acceptance.
There then followed extensive discussions with the clubs over format for both the Premier League, and Division 1 that centred round the number of games for the remainder of the season, promotion and relegation, extending into next season and the prospect of a return to a 12 team Premier League.
This is hardly unique or surprising for the same debate delayed the re-start of the Premier League and Championship in England as clubs could not agree on the relegation and promotion issues.
With no agreement, the executive in England made the decision, and it appears that the Executive Committee within the FAI will at last show some leadership and make the decision on all issues, backed up with a legal threat that clubs unwilling to complete the fixture schedule could face relegation.
That process, if concluded, will be welcome by all followers of the game in Ireland, for with almost every other sports recently announcing their schedule for re-starting games after the lockdown, the LOI has come in for a lot of ridicule for their failure to agree a revised fixture schedule.
The point was taken up by Eamonn Sweeney in his ‘Sunday Independent’ Back Page column, who expanded his question about ‘who cares about the League’ by saying that the domestic game is ‘very much a minority pursuit’.
He fortifies his arguments with a barrel load of statistics, mainly comprising attendances at other sports in Ireland, and comparisons with other Leagues throughout Europe.
Sweeney, who over the years, has been a strong supporter of the LOI, having grown up watching Sligo Rovers, with whom he has a strong affinity, made the point that GAA club county finals in a whole host of counties drew larger crowds than top LOI fixtures.
So too did Irish horse race meetings, and not even that major tracks at that, for venues like Kilbeggan, Gowran Park and Tramore drew bigger crowds than the best attended LOI games.
While the writer holds a sincere wish to see crowds flock back to the LOI he concludes ‘there is no use pretending that a seam of public interest is out there just waiting to be tapped. That’s an eternal mirage which has beguiled domestic soccer and it flies in the face of the evidence,’ he observed.
That depressive conclusion, advocated in a national publication, should worry all connected with the domestic game but that deduction must not be based on statistics alone.
Football clubs, like Dundalk, or indeed Liverpool, (as was evident last week when they clinched the League) are an integral part of their community.
They are part of the fabric and the social structure of the towns they represent, and offer more than a mere football game, for in many cases they give a town it’s identity, as Dundalk have done in recent seasons with their exploits in the domestic game and in Europe.
Indeed if attendances are to be taken as a barometer for the popularity of any sport, then it is true to say that Dundalk’s average of upwards of 3,000 for home games is a decent percentage of the population.
In addition Dundalk in the last six seasons has provided more memorable sporting memories than any sport has achieved in the county in the last 30 years, and any supporter present on those special European nights in Tallaght will never forget that experience.
Sweeney, in his article, accentuates his arguments by saying that Dundalk’s recent ‘miracle’ apart, no LOI club has caught the public imagination to the extent that they will ever have the financial footing needed to make any kind of run in Europe.
In that assertion he misses the point that it was Dundalk’s fine run in Europe in 2016 that brought the club to the attention of their American owners Peak6, who have invested heavily in the club, and were perhaps the only beacon of hope during the Covid-19 pandemic by continuing to pay their players and offering leadership in the struggle to get fixtures re-started.
Much of that investment is geared towards continued success at home, but also in the hope and expectation that having raised the profile of Irish soccer in Europe, Dundalk can build on that in the coming seasons.
No one can deny that the LOI has its faults, and that it is a minority sport in the country in terms of the attendances it draws and the profile it receives, but it is an outlet worthy of support, not just for the fact that it has become a valuable source of players for Irish international teams, but is the lifeblood in the social and cultural fabric of many communities.
Just ask the Oriel Park faithful who can’t wait for the resumption.