COMMENT We need to stop playing ignorant blame game
THE TELEVISION coverage of Ireland’s top professional league of the biggest sport in the world is an embarrassment.
And yet no one seems to care. Apparently this week RTE Head of Sport Declan McBennett has been on a charm offensive.
Declan is a very well-spoken, bright and confident man. He believes that some of what he calls ‘the League of Ireland lobby’ are ill-informed.
In my view, those that want to bash McBennett are shortsighted, beca use th e relationship between our top professional league and our national broadcaster has been a big problem for decades.
The bottom line is that our best young boys and girls have been let down by those of us running professional football.
On too many days, by European standards, we have been too unprofessional.
Dismiss
I don’t know Mr McBennett. I have never met him, never had a conversation with the chap, but I have been told that apparently he is a proud Monaghan man.
As head of sport of our national broadcaster, and being from that very special county, to dismiss Monaghan United as a club that nobody followed, that had no local initiative and were simply “lads arriving on a bus from Dublin”.
A great friend of mine, Frank ‘The Bank’ McPhillips was part of the first Monaghan United team, managed by that great Monaghan hero, the late, great Sean McCaffrey, when they went into the League of Ireland B in the late-70s, before entering the league proper.
To dismiss some very fine Monaghan people who had a dream, I found it so disturbing and dreadfully sad.
So the above remark is as illinformed as any ill-informed ‘League of Ireland lobby’.
League of I reland f ans remember Frank Treacy, Brendan McCaffrey, Kieran Conlon, Mike McCarron, Nigel Corrigan, Seamie Finnegan, Kevin Reynolds, Greg Turley, Paul G illiland, T im O’Hanrahan… do I need to go on?
The only way that professional football becomes competitive at a European level is for the FAI to produce a league that has a consistent product that Irish people want to buy.
I had great respect for Monaghan United and I had great respect for Eddie Murray — a really great man in my book.
To serve as a member of the Gardai in Monaghan during the time showed a courage and that not all of us possess.
And I know that many people from this wonderful part of Ireland have great respect for Eddie, who rose through the Garda ranks with distinction.
Eddie is now 81 years of age. I asked Frank ‘The Bank’ how he was. As a former player of Monaghan United who knew Eddie very well, he told me that he was so hurt by some of the coverage and abuse that had come his way after serving as the FAI honorary secretary.
County
I always remember passing Gortakeegan, coming back from a game late at night and seeing the floodlights on.
There was superintendent Murray giving his time, effort, energy and love to the beautiful game in the beautiful county of Monaghan.
For anyone to laugh at this gentleman, who has given such great service to this country and to Irish football, I find that as insulting as anyone who believes that Monaghan United were effectively a Dublin club.
We need professional football in all our 32 counties. We need to stop playing the ignorant blame game. We need to stop any PR campaign and start working together.
Many people in the Irish media don’t even call football by its proper name.
I often wonder if those who refer to Ireland’s and the world’s biggest sport as ‘soccer’ question why the Football Association of Ireland is known as the FAI and not the SAI.
There is one question, though, that I would love to ask our national broadcaster.
In the week that has just gone, and today, seven days after that historic first day of Irish Freestate League of Ireland football, on Saturday September 17 1921, are the FAI and RTE happy about how this centenary has been celebrated and remembered?
Has it received the historic dignity it deserves?
Have I missed the coverage? Can you imagine our other major sports being treated in the same way?
I live for the day when football is no longer discriminated against as a foreign sport, when our top politicians no longer refer to it as ‘soccer’, and we understand that it was those who created the Freestate League of Ireland who gave us a Football Association in the first place.
YOU’VE got to give it to Vinny Perth. Just how the hell did he pull out that cracking FAI Cup quarter-final victory to knock out in-form Finn Harps?
After that gut-wrenching concession of two late goals in the first game, when Dundalk looked as though they had the match won, it only took six minutes in Oriel Park for
Sean Boyd to put
Harps ahead.
Long
It looked like it was going to be a long night for the Lilywhites.
But those two goals in extra-time were special moments for all Dundalk FC lovers.
And Vinny Perth’s joyful jig, as described in this newspaper, when Michael Duffy executed a great free-kick, maybe was him putting in an audition for Dancing With The Stars.
I always talk to manag
THIS ONE is absolutely huge. It’s live on TV and with fans back, the atmosphere is going to be electric.
It’s not just Declan McBennett who wants to see a title race, it’s everyone.
So while I admire the brilliance of the Shamrock Rovers coaching ticket, I am going for St Pat’s to put on a Supersaints exhibition and get the win that will put them within three points of the Hoops.