INSIDE:INTERVIEW WITH CABINTEELY CHAIRMAN PEARSE TOALE

COLLIE O’BRIEN ‘I WANT A WINNABLE MATCH’

SETANTA CUP: NEVER THE ‘TWAIN SHALL MEET

ARE LOI REF’S AS POOR AS YOU THINK?

LOI INTERNATIONALS: DOMINIC IORFA

AND MUCH MORE...

volume 2 / issue 04 june 2015

Editor / DesignerKevin Galvin

Photography / GraphicsTimmy Keane timtimmedia.com

Eye To The Groundseyetothegrounds.blogspot.ie

Comeragh Photocomeraghphoto.weebly.com

Ciarán Culligan Photographywww.ciaranculliganphotography.com

Contributors /David KentAaron CawleyMícheál Ó hUanacháinDave GalvinAaron DohertyColm Cuddihy Dylan MurphyThomas SargentCraig McMahon John-Paul Fahy Stephen Walsh

Cover Page /Time To Pause: With the mid-season break upon us it pro-vides a good chance to reflect Credit: Timmy Keane The use or redistribution of any part of this magazine is strictly prohibited unless explicitly authorised by LOI Monthly

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DERBY DAYS II - THE LOUTH DERBYCraig McMahon continues his series with a look at the Dundalk v Drogheda Derby in Co. Louth

LOI INERNATIONALS: DOMINIC IORFADave Galvin tells us about the Nigerian international who played for Waterford United, and has had so many clubs nobody can keep count!

LOI ABROAD: ROY O’DONOVANColm Cuddihy starts his new series on League of Ireland players playng outside of Britain with a piece on ex-Cork City striker Roy O’Donovan.

INTERVIEW: PEARSE TOALEStephen Walsh interviews Cabinteely FC Chairman Pearse Toale about the club’s journey to the First Division, Marketing, Pitch complaints and betting on his own side!

STUDENTS TO SPEND SUMMER IN EUROPEDylan Murphy talks to UCD manager Collie O’Neill ahead of their unexpected European adventure

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21 PROGRAMMES! PROGRAMMES!Thomas Sargent calls for the safeguarding of a footballing institution: the matchday programme.

NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET24Mícheál Ó hUanacháin takes in the chequred past of All-Ireland competitions; from Paddy Coad to Milo Corcoran.

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ARE LOI REFEREES AS BAD AS YOU THINK THEY ARE?Given all the recent crticism surrounding referees in the past few weeks, John-Paul Fahy calls for reason in a game which is losing more and more officials every year.

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Hello all once again and welcome to the latest issue of League of Ireland Monthly!

It’s exciting times here at LOI Monthly, where our stats across social media and reading figures have continued to grow exponentially, which is massively satisfying, but more importantly well deserved for the huge work put in by our reporters.

If you are interested in getting involved we are happy to accept new writers every month! We are in particular need of photographers from around the country to diversify our photo collection, so if you’re interested in photography and would like your photographs featured on a national magazine then get in touch!

I’m glad to be writing my notes so late this month; given everything that’s happened at FIFA House, and how our own shining light against corruption John Delaney has reacted.

Delaney and the FAI have taken a hardline stance against the Féderation Internationale de Football Association, and have called for Sepp Blatter’s head, which, in fairness, is the right call to make. Blatter is a wart on football and FIFA’s corruption and blatant mismanagement and sheer disregard for the world’s favourite game, our game, has been despicable to say the very least.

However.

Maybe Mr. Delaney would have been better keeping his head down this time, and instead expressing his own thoughts through that of the association. Though it seems that the Association are making the right steps in the whole for our league, it’s still a little rich to hear a man whose annual salary is more than the entire league’s winnings talk about other maligned executives.

Maybe the Association itself should sort out the petty politics and corruption (If you haven’t read former FAI President Brendan Menton’s book ‘Beyond the Green Door’ I strongly suggest you do!) before being so quick to cast the finger at others.

Even look at our league, clubs collapsing and a

different kind of corruption can strangle our own league’s development, how can we expect to be treated well when we can’t look after our own shop?

In the very recent past Cork City, Derry City, Bohemians and Bray Wanderers (If rumours are to be believed) have all had managements who were rotten and corrupt to their very core, and tried everything in the book to avoid being caught out for mismanaging integral local sides.

However; Derry got caught out, Tom Coughlan was (thankfully) banned from football and has never since returned, and Bohemians were themselves punished for all of those extra specially talented bar staff they were employing for a while.

The problem with all of these situations, and with that of FIFA and the FAI is that the only people who lose, as per usual, are the fans. In all of these cases the fans have suffered (and in Bray’s case are still suffering), and have had to in some cases stump up the money themselves to keep their clubs afloat.

The thing in the end though is that football, like life, has its own special kind of karma. In all of these cases the loyal fans have done everything they can to save their club, and have managed to. In Derry’s case perhaps things on-the-field haven’t improved much (apart from their freakishly strong League Cup record); but for Bohemians, Shamrock Rovers and Cork City, things have returned to normal at the top-of-the-table, with the added bonus of knowing that it’s built on their terms.

In my heart of hearts I hope that the same will happen with the Bray situtation. There are some genuinely fantastic people involved in that club, but unfortunately there is an awful lot going on behind the scenes that we either don’t know, or cannot comment on for fear of ending up in the courts.

Bray is a club that in my opinion needs to be run by its fans. The fans are the heart and soul of the setup down at the Carlisle Grounds, and perhaps with a little help from our association, Bray supporters can create a lasting legacy out of this sorry mess, and create a club that gives as much as it gets out of its volunteers.

Looking at UCD, despite their relegation last season and the constant moan that is their attendances, the club itself is run really well. Yes, they benefit from University money, but that is always invested wisely, and I was deligted to hear that they were awarded their UEFA licence to play in the Europa League

We’ll have an interview with Students boss Collie O’Neill in a jam-packed issue which I hope you’ll enjoy!

Editor.

Kevin Galvin

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A lot was said at the start of the season, and in particular after the news came that the Barclays Premier League would be shown live on Friday nights from 2016, that it would ultimately kill the League of Ireland and what little hope remained for it.

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But my argument against that is that we’re currently in the middle of a resur-rection of Irish football. Take for example the standard of the runaway lead-ers. Many (including myself) are saying Dundalk are the best side seen in the league for decades. 12 wins from 14 so far, 5 goals conceded, and compre-hensive victories over the majority of teams around them. Towell and Horgan

Is this the League of Ireland’s Renaissance?

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are scything teams open week in week out, I would imagine they will not be here in August. You have the scrappy swashbuckling style of nearest challengers Cork, battling for points away from home, but putting on dazzling per-formances at the start of the season to keep the crowds in. Shamrock Rovers have started to attract the fans back again after a slow cou-ple of years, bringing in 4,000+ on more than three occasions so far this year.

Cork are averaging 4489. Dundalk - 3230. Even First Division clubs Finn Harps and Cabinteely have seen crowds over 1,000, which in the First is an amazing feat. The num-bers are slowly and surely returning, and with the conclusion of the English league season last weekend, clever marketing, mixed in with an attractive style of football will see crowd attendances continue to rise. The announce-ment from the FAI and FORAS this week for a new 10 million euro centre of excellence in Cork is a massive boost to the Munster area. It will hopefully encourage younger footballers to play in the league for a little bit, because this is proven to get you a move to England quicker (case in point, Brian Lenihan and Alan Browne). But this is (hopefully) a sign that if clubs work with him, John Delaney is prepared to put more money into football in the country.

The one thing that could be the catalyst to complete the resurrection is Europe. I’ll focus in detail on it more in my article next month, as we’ll know the opposition, but a good run in Europe for any of the five clubs will gener-ate good media for the league. Good media – more crowds for the league – more money for the league – better facilities/standard. Even that sentence itself, when was the last time we actually had five clubs representing Ireland in European competition. OK, UCD might not do the best, and the argument about coefficients for seeding comes into as well (more next month), but you can see the likes of Dundalk or Cork, or even Pats and Rovers, doing dam-age.

Fans should be immensely proud of the league, and they are, just look at #Great-estLeagueInTheWorld on twitter. 8 different winners in the last 10 years, and regular ran-domness that sites like balls.ie, joe.ie and oth-ers just love to see. Cork’s marketing this time last year about Kim Kardashian and Kanye West helped generate buzz.

The football in this country isn’t dead. It’s far from it

LEAGUE OF IRELAND INERNATIONALS

DOMINIC IORFA

BY DAVE GALVIN

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There’s a well-worn gag about the guy who’s had more clubs than Jack Nicklaus and to prove the point, there’s Dominic Ior-fa! In sixteen years as a professional footballer, so extensive is the Nigerian’s’ list of employers, Cork City and Waterford Unit-ed among them that no two sources appear capable of agree-ing on how many clubs there actually were, or even their exact running order.

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Suffice as to say, that having lined out with more than twenty across seven different countries as detailed by Transfermarket.com, Iorfa’s average club tenure works out at barely nine months per contract, which is some employment statistic when you think about it!

For the purposes of this piece, our real interest in Dominic Iorfa lies in his time spent playing League of Ireland football. And while all this hopping from one club to another (and sometimes back again) may raise some doubts as to the relative success or otherwise of his varied career, the fact is that the big centre forward did represent his native Nigeria, lining out in both World Cup and African Nations Cup Qualifiers, as well as playing in FIFA’s prestigious Confed-eration Cup, and also, at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

With his playing days now a thing of the past, it is perhaps more often the outspo-ken and controversial nature of his cur-rent role as football administrator, rather than any recollections of his exploits on the field of play which continues to sustain the Dominic Iorfa story. The recent contro-versy surrounding his claims that the 2014 contest for presidency of the Nigerian FA, in which he himself was an unsuccessful

candidate, had ultimately been ‘bought’ on the strength of payments for votes by the eventual winner Amaju Pinnick, along with further clashes with his home association with respect to the progress of the interna-tional career of his son, Dominic Junior, has ensured that Iorfa Senior remains a head-line maker.

Born in Gboku, Benue State in Nigeria, on 1st October 1968, Dominic Iorfa began his career as a sixteen year old with local side BCC Lions before moving on to play with two other Nigerian outfits, Abioba Babes and Ranchers Bees. Following a move to Europe and Royal Antwerp, where on the strength of a successful campaign in the Belgian top flight, now the Jupilier League, and a debut for Nigeria against Gabon in the World Cup Qualifiers for Italia 90, the then Queens Park Rangers manager, Trevor Francis, paid out £145,000 to bring the striker to Loftus Road.

Despite making just eight senior appear-ances and finding the net exclusively for the reserves, the big man nevertheless earned the affections of some Rangers fans on the strength of his all action, if some-what erratic, playing style. On the other hand he regularly appears on fans lists of the worst ever QPR players! With Rangers,

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and again during a short spell in Turkey with Galatasary, Iorfa earned a further two caps, both African Nations Cup Qualifiers against Benin and Ghana respectively. De-spite the more extravagant claims made by some sources, he actually played just four full internationals with the Super Eagles, and unfortunately did not feature at either the World Cup or African Cup of Nations Finals having earlier helped Nigeria to secure qualification for both.

Following on from a largely ineffectual stint at Galatasary, Iorfa signed with Peterbor-ough United where he enjoyed easily the most successful period of his entire playing career over the next three seasons. A regular starter at London Road, he still retains an endur-ing cult status among many ‘Posh’ fans who obviously appreciated substance above style given his limited ball control skills. It’s fair to say that Peterborough United was definitely as good as things got career wise for the big man and on departing the club his list of his employers expanded significantly.

Two seasons spent almost exclusively on the bench at Southend United, where he earned a final cap as a substitute, against Mexico at the 1995 Confederations Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was speedily fol-lowed by short-lived stints with Falkirk in Scotland, Instant Dict and Buler Rangers in Honk Kong and Guangzhou Apollo in China. An interesting aside is that during this first spell in Asia, Iorfa lined out with a Hong Kong League XI against Yugoslavia in

a long running competition known as the Carlsberg Cup. Included among his team-mates for that 1997 tournament was for-mer Bohemians captain Kevin Hunt and the ex-Sunderland defender John Moore who played World Cup football for the Hong Kong National side and had a brief spell on loan at St Patrick’s Athletic in 1984.

In any case, by August 1998 Dominic had fetched up on trial at Dave Barry’s Cork City just in time for a League Cup meeting with his future employ-ers, Waterford United, at Turners Cross, a game the home side won on a 2-1 score line. Three days later his second and final City appearance came away to Cobh Ramblers in the same competi-tion. I recall a little of that encounter in Cobh, and of Iorfa’s contribution to City’s 2-0 win. In particular I remember the opin-ion of a fellow City ‘head’ that evening who, having seen the

new man run the ball out over the end line for the umpteenth time mused that, … the guy would be dynamite if they could stretch the St Colman’s Park pitch out the harbour to Haulbowline Island…! Bizarrely, that discerning opinion of a quarter of a century ago is shared by his own Wikipedia page today, which says of Iorfa that he was lightning fast but struggled to master the offside rule!

Having failed to secure a contract on Lee-side, there then followed a string of short-

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term contracts/loan spells at English non-league sides St Albans City, Dover Athletic, Thurrock, Gravesend and Northfleet Unit-ed, Aylesbury United and Billericay Town. A return to Southend United also proved short lived with just two league appear-ances before under pressure Waterford United manager, Mike Flanagan, looked to the big man to spearhead a renewed effort to scramble clear of a season long struggle at the foot of the Premier Division. It was Iorfa’s second LOI stint in less than six months and it proved a shrewd move for both player and manager.

This second spell in League of Ireland foot-ball kicked off with a 0-0 home draw with Bohemians on 29th January 1999, not a re-markable result in itself, but nevertheless a welcome point for the struggling Blues and a portent of better things soon to come. Despite not scoring in his opening seven appearances, Iorfa soon established him-self as a focal point for United’s attack and his three goals in a run of consecutive wins in early April against Derry City (home 1-0), Bray Wanderers (away 1-0) and Dundalk (home 2-0), helped in no small measure to save the day on Suirside. In what turned out to be a remarkable turnaround, Wa-terford won their final six games with Iorfa making thirteen appearances in total, all of them coming in the league.

Following on from his time at Waterford United, where he is still fondly remem-bered today, Iorfa moved back again to Hong Kong and a second spell at Buler Rangers, before settling back home in Nige-ria with the Lobi Stars club where he even-tually became club chairman. Thus began a new career in football administration, which has seen him fall foul of the Nigerian FA on a range of issues not least, the finan-cial management of his own club, whose players have twice gone on strike.

Among many controversial incidents was his highly vocal and well publicised criti-cism of the tenure of Berti Vogts’s as coach of the Nigerian national side, which came on the back of having at one point been unsuccessful in applying for the same role himself. Ironically, he had initially wel-comed the German’s appointment as her-alding an ‘apostle of change’ which would turn around the fortunes of Nigerian foot-ball while in classic Iorfa style, he had made his pitch to take charge of the Super Eagles himself despite a complete and utter lack of any formal coaching experience!

Once publically branded a hooligan by a fel-low club chairman, in recent months Iorfa has incurred the wrath of Nigerian foot-ball’s top brass by publically arguing against the call up of his son, the Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Dominic Junior to the Super Eagles U23 squad. Having already played at both U18 and U20 for England, many were furious with Iorfa senior’s in-terference with attempts to secure the services of the promising youngster for the country of his father’s birth.

Mind you, it’s all in a day’s work it would appear for a colourful character that never seems to have gone un-noticed where ever football dictated he fetch up. As with many another club and football jurisdiction, Big Dom managed to leave his mark and divide opinion in the League of Ireland, at both Cork City and Waterford United.

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Seamus Coleman at Everton, Shane Long at Southampton and Damien Delaney of Crystal Palace are just a small selection of players who have plied their trade in the League of Ireland before setting sail for the bright lights of the Premier League, but what about the players who go fur-ther than the UK? I’m going to be looking at those who started their careers in the League of Ireland, but are now earning a living further afield.

We’ll start off with ex-Cork City striker Roy O’Donovan. O’Donovan was actually part of Coventry City’s youth set-up before returning home to play for his local side, Cork City. He played 74 times for the Lee-siders and scored 31 goals and during his first season with the club, where he help the Leesiders win the title, City fought off interest from Wolverhampton Wanderers to keep him. Two seasons later his perfor-mances caught the eye of then Sunder-

land manager, and fellow Corkman, Roy Keane, who signed the striker for a league record fee of €500,000, after reportedly, turning down Lawrie Sanchez’s Fulham in 2007. It could have been the price tag, but O’Donovan couldn’t emulate his form for Cork City, while wearing the red and white of Sunderland. He didn’t get a single goal in 17 appearances, and with relatively under whelming loan spells with Dundee United, Blackpool, Southend United and Hartlepool United, he returned to Coven-try City, five years after leaving them as a youth player.

O’Donovan suffered a fractured metatar-sal, which kept him out of action for just over a year. On his return to fitness, he joined Scottish Premier League side Hiber-nian on loan, where he played alongside current Cork City and Dundalk stars Liam Miller and Richie Towell respectively. He played 14 times for the Edinburgh club,

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LOI ABROAD: ROY O’DONOVAN

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only scoring once. During a game against Hearts, both O’Donovan and Towell said they were abused by some of The Ma-roons fans due to their religion (Hearts a majority Protestant supported club, whereas O’Donovan and Towell are Catho-lic), but both said it motivated them to perform better, Hearts ended up winning the game 2-0. On his return to Coventry, his contract was terminated.

Next port of call was League Two side Northampton Town. He was reunited with the man who signed him for Coven-try City, Aidy Boothroyd. O’Donovan and current AFC Wimbledon striker Adebayo Akinfenwa’s partnership upfront was an important factor in Northampton’s promo-tion push to League One in the 2011/12 season. The Cobblers managed to get to the final of the play-offs, where they were eventually beaten by Bradford City 3-0 in Wembley Stadium.

After this unsuccessful season, O’Donovan flew to Dubai, where he would have a trail for Brunei DPMM in Singapore. Despite turning down a contract in January, he signed for the club in February of 2014. He was re-united with ex-Cork City team mate Joe Gamble, and his was managed by ex-Blackburn Rovers manager, Steve Kean. It looked as if O’Donovan had found his niche with the Singapore club, scoring 26 times in 35 matches. He also won helped the side win the Starhub S.League Cup and he also was voted the most valuable player of the tournament. In an interview with Sky Sports during his time with the club, he said he was really enjoying play-ing in Asia and that it was the right deci-sion.

“Things are going very well and I think I was right in making the decision to come

out here to Asia, In my last year at North-ampton I had a lot of injuries, but since I have been at DPMM I have been injury free and enjoyed a really consistent season and played in my favourite position just behind the striker.”

O’Donovan’s was released by the Singa-pore club by the owner (The Crown Prince of Brunei) after a picture of O’Donovan and fellow ex-City team mate George O’Callaghan, who was manager of Malay-sian side, Sabah appeared on the Sabah website with the headline, “O’Donovan signs for Sabah”, which wasn’t true. After-wards, he was linked with a return back to Cork City, he even scored for John Caul-field’s men in a pre-season friendly against Skibbereen, and he was also linked with a move back to England, as apparently Birmingham City were interested. But O’Donovan decided he’d move to Indone-sian champions Mitra Kukar. O’Donovan only played once for the club without scoring. At the time of writing, O’Donovan has been let go by the Singapore club, after the league was suspended and he is currently in talks with FIFA to find out what course of action he should take against the club. If the problem isn’t re-solved, links to the MLS in America, or the A-League in Australia will surely material-ise.

Better things were expected of O’Donovan when he signed on the dotted line for Sunderland. Some say he wasn’t given a chance, while others say he just wasn’t good enough. But despite a rather aver-age spell at Northampton, it was Singa-pore where he most played his best foot-ball since leaving the League of Ireland.

Of course with many clubs in the First Division it has been commonly referred to as a “graveyard” due to the little media exposure they receive but as Toale explains many of the stunts like above are all about getting the club out in the wider public;

“Their helping us get exposure but apart from that I don’t know if it is actually contributing to attendances but then again it puts us out there and that is the main thing. It gets us known and it doesn’t do us any harm.

As explained in the public back in January Cabinteely were going to operate two different boards in the club one for the 1,000 schoolboy players and the other for the senior side and communication remains very good with all associated within the club says the former schoolboys chairman. The schoolboy section is now gearing up for a mini world-cup in June that will attract over 1,200 kids between five and twelve to Cabinteely over a two week period.

With “Cabo” as they are most commonly referred to as in public having over 1,000 juveniles they contribute hugely to the positive gates the club has been receiving in Stradbrook this season. Their average crowd this season is around the 800 mark with the club members being a big factor in the crowds.

“Most would be the schoolboys and their parents and people who are associated with the club. I don’t know if its 50% of the total crowd but it has been a big contributing factor to the big crowds we have had so far this year.”

By: Stephen Walsh(Ed Note: This Interview was conducted before the recent departure of Eddie Gormley).

As part of LOI Monthly’s sixth issue, Stephen Walsh caught up with Cabinteely Chairman Pearse Toale to ask him how he has found the opening half of the season and what are the future plans for the club based in the Dun Laoighaire Borough.

Before we spoke to him in the build up to the Cabinteely vs Cobh Ramblers a game that caught the attention of many people online due to a unique admission offer where if one lost an accumulator on Finn Harps the week before they would get free admission to the game. This stunt was done by the Link Marketing group who were introduced to the club through a sponsor and they have since managed the website, showing that Cabinteely were willing to embrace many ideas on their League of Ireland adventure that was only officially announced back in January.

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LOIMonthly Interviews:

CABINTEELY CHAIRMAN: PEARSE TOALE

Pearse Toale (on the left) with club Director of Coaching Pat Finnerty

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However Toale knows that League of Ireland is a hard sell to general population saying the club was fully aware of the challenge before entering the league;

“We were conservative in approach, but we have been pleasantly surprised with the numbers we have got so far this year. Even our recent run of form hasn’t been the best however we still managed to get decent support. Long may that last, we would love the Dun Laoighaire Borough to get behind us a bit more but overall we’re very pleased so far.”

Their first league game was against Wexford Youths in Stradbrook which they won through a John McKeown goal to see them collect the three points. Unluckily for Toale he missed the goal as he was stuck in club business in the corridors of Blackrock RFC. But when questioned as to what the build up to the match was like for him he laughs for a short while before answering.

“It was manic; we as a board of directors are all new to the League of Ireland so there was a lot of work to ensure we had the stewarding correct, proper entrances in place a health and safety plan and more stuff like that. Even things like looking after the media, players and referee’s, that was all new to us but we are getting less stressed out after each game now as we are getting more experienced.”

However in the aftermath of the victory some of the Wexford Youth players expressed via social media concern with the quality of the pitch in Stradbrook something Toale acknowledges as a problem but they are doing their best to improve the surface as the season progresses.

“It’s challenging as everybody knows the pitch is a rugby pitch for Blackrock however we have been putting a lot of work into it along with Stradbrook to improve the surface and it’s improving every week.”

This August will see the much heralded SSE Airtricity League U17 being introduced as part of the FAI development pathway and Toale is very optimistic of the benefits of this league in comparison to many other chairman around the country who view it as an extra expense on their club.

“Well we have the 17’s kicking off in August and that will bring a pathway into the junior club in August when that is kicking off and we will be part of that U17’s league. That will benefit the junior club”

With the interview winding down it’s clear by listening to him speak that Cabinteely are in safe hands and it’s quite clear that Cabinteely are here to stay for the foreseeable future.

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UCD manager Collie O’Neill spoke exclusively to LOIMonthly about all aspects of his side’s im-pending European adventure; from UEFA’s strin-gent licensing requirements to who he’d like to face in this month’s draw.

What will UCD have to look forward to this sum-mer that Liverpool will not? European football. While the Reds’ many thousand fans must be content with spending their July in weary Liver-pool, the Students could be on route to visit their compatriots, West Ham, in the Europa League qualifiers.

UCD will benefit from Irish football’s rise into the top 3 of UEFA’s Fair Play rankings; within Ireland, the Students were the cleanest team not to have already secured their European place, mean-ing they will join West Ham and Go Ahead Ea-gles from the Netherlands as the other Fair Play

entrants in the 1st round draw on June 22nd. Incidentally UCD have already ensured they will go down in history as one of the last ever participants to enter via this route, as UEFA are replacing the additional qualifying berths they have traditionally used to reward ‘Fair Play’ with a financial bonus from next season onwards.

This isn’t to say that the financial benefits are not already lucrative, UEFA also recently increased prize money for these earlier rounds, with UCD now guaranteed €200,000 before they even kick a ball; a mesmerising total for a club attracting paltry crowds of less than 500 to the Bowl every fortnight. Whereas the type of myopic League of Ireland club that proliferated during the Celtic Tiger years would have gambled their earnings on excessive player wages in a vain attempt at reaching the group stages, the typically astute Students have sensibly decided to invest the cash

Dylan Murphy caught up with University College Dublin manager Collie O’Neill on the week that the

Students have been awarded their UEFA licence.

STUDENTS TO SPEND SUMMER IN EUROPE

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windfall into their already impressive facilities.

‘I think to any League of Ireland club that amount of money would be very, very important. I think, because of the new U17 league coming on board, that money is going to go straight towards a new floodlit, all-weather pitch to help cope with the extra number of teams that we’ll have.’ UCD man-ager Collie O’Neill revealed to LOIMonthly.

UEFA impose stringent licensing requirements on all participants in its competitions ranging from the size of a sponsor’s logo to the number of seats in a ground, doubts have been raised about UCD’s ability to re-ceive a license, particularly playing out of the rudimen-tary UCD Bowl. O’Neill, however, is confident that the Students will satisfy the various requirements.

‘We don’t have official confirma-tion from UEFA yet whether we have qualified, but the feedback from the FAI is very, very posi-tive and it doesn’t look like there will be an issue licensing wise getting into the Europa League.’

It also appears that the UCD Bowl will welcome European opposition for the first time but if a big name with the potential to attract a sizeable crowd were to visit in July the tie may be moved to another Dublin venue.

‘It will depend on the team we get; if we get a normal team it will be in the Bowl but if we get a bigger club attendance wise we might have to look at a different location’

Another of UEFA’s provisions requires partici-pants’ managers to hold a UEFA Pro licence but as UCD have qualified through Fair Play they are fortunately exempt from these requirements.

‘I have a UEFA A badge, you need a UEFA Pro

badge to compete in Europe, but we have gone down the route of entry for non-league teams that win a cup competition; there is a lax of the law there that you don’t require a PRO badge to qualify.’

Looking ahead to this month’s draw, the Students can rest assured that they will not be forced to spend a considerable chunk of their prize money on travelling to Kazakhstan or further afield as the first round will be regionalised. However, UCD will be in the unseeded pot, alongside Cork City, and may face a wide array of sides ranging

in quality from the likes of West Ham, Rosenborg or Aberdeen to lesser

teams including Differdange (Luxemburg), Vikingur (Far-

oes Islands) or Skonto Riga (Latvia).

‘It looks like this year will be different to other years where it is going to be re-gionalised so we’re not going to get a team from Russia

or far away, it will be close enough to us;

middle Europe, Norway, Iceland, Scandinavia.’

The ambitious O’Neill is hoping for the easiest possible tie rather

than a lucrative glamour tie in the upcom-ing draw which reflects a widespread change in attitude in the League from previous years who viewed European football as more of a holiday and harboured little expectations of progress.

‘I would prefer a winnable match, I know the club would prefer another way from a money perspec-tive but for me, no I’d prefer a winnable match that we could get through and compete and go as far as we can.’

Despite the massive financial implications of European progression, O’Neill still maintains that the club’s main objective of promotion to the Premier Division is sacrosanct.

‘I know the prize money is big this year, it may

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be €400,000 to get through to the second round. Our priority though is Premier Division football, that’s all we want. When we set out at the start of the season we knew that we wouldn’t win it this year, but, the way the league has gone we’ve played every team in it and I think if we can add one or two players in I think we can be there or there about come the end of the year but getting back to the Premier Division is our main priority.’

Within the desolate summertime landscape of the sprawling college a proud European history is concealed, with UCD suffering just 1 defeat in 4 matches against foreign sides. The many predict-ing a humiliating defeat need only look to UCD’s previous European appearances for doubt.

Perhaps the Students’ greatest ever moment came in European competition when a strong Everton side, who would go on to win the com-petition, only narrowly scraped by the Dubliners 1-0 on aggregate in the 1984 Cup Winners’ Cup. Following a famous 0-0 draw in Dublin, UCD hit the bar late on while trailing 1-0 in the away leg, a goal which would have been enough to send them past the team containing Peter Reid, Neville Southall and Kevin Sheedy.

UCD were also highly competitive in their only other European adventure, when they bowed out on the away goals rule despite drawing home

and away with Velbazhd Kyustendil of Bulgaria in 2000. Most remarkably and most recently, a Villarreal team, containing World Cup winner Joan Capdevila, were humbled in a 4-3 defeat to a resilient UCD side in a 2011 friendly at the Bowl. Co-efficient fetishists needn’t mourn as the League’s ranking won’t be drained by a poten-tial first round exit by the First Division’s young guns. Whilst the points earned by all Irish clubs in Europe will be divided by 5 rather than 4 this year, to reflect our fifth entrant, this won’t leave a tangible impact on our league’s ranking in the future. Furthermore unless the League of Ireland’s ranking improves to 24th or falls to 47th (we are currently 40th) there won’t be any change in which round our clubs enter at, leaving UCD’s surprise entry this year as a virtually harmless novelty for the League of Ireland.

Many will rue the wasted opportunity of sending a relatively small club to represent us in Europe and whilst there will be no armada of feverish fans descending on the continent, a band of unquestionably loyal supporters will accompany our perpetual underdogs on a journey that will reward them all with well-deserved memories. We should get behind the Students next month and hope for another famous European night for the League of Ireland.

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One of the great things about football in Britain and Ireland is that you will find lots of grounds tucked behind a row of houses in a residential area.

This makes the walk to the ground that little bit extra special. Following the floodlights, you pass people walking in the opposite direction down the street. Looks of bewilderment are exchanged with those not attending the match. You stare and think, “Why isn’t he going to the match?” they look starkly back and presumably think, “Why is he going?”

The stroll to the ground slowly comes together as you reach the corner of the main road and the side street that leads to the turnstiles. Suddenly, the road is densely populated, everyone is walking in the same direction and the person who brings the final piece of the pre-match jigsaw together mans the corner: the programme seller.

A staple of the match going experience for over a century, it is something I cannot resist buying wherever I watch football. In fact, if the programmes are sold out it sours my match day experience, and the football club in question receives a

PROGRAMMES! PROGRAMMES!BY THOMAS SARGENT

subconscious yet permanent black mark against its’ name.

The cry of “Programmes! Programmes!” induces a knee jerk reaction of my hand delving into my pocket frantically scrambling amongst the keys, wallet, bus tickets, tissues, receipts and sweet wrappers in search of the few coins need to obtain what is essentially a booklet which is barely touched again after full time.

At this point, I dare say I’ve frittered away hundreds of euros on football programmes. I don’t even keep them all - I’m more of a ticket man myself - it is just something that I have to hold at the match (or sit on should conditions be absolutely Baltic).

Each club programme is different – they vary in price, quality of content, quality of paper (yes, it is important), number of pages, feature and design scheme. Indeed, going to a new ground and therefore

acquiring a totally new programme for your collection is an added bonus to the whole day out.

Many clubs over in England are moving to PDF format programmes

or online versions like our own magazine. I hope this

doesn’t get introduced across the board as

we increasingly digitize our lives (Ed note: We echo this statement but are proud of our little e-mag none the

less!).

Your first programme, is

usually purchased through the encouragement

and funds of the person who takes you to your first match – be it your father, friend, uncle, mother, aunt – whoever it is, it sets that bond between yourself and the match going experience. It makes you want to get in the ground, hear the clickety-click of the turnstile, smell the fried onions and see the pitch for the first time.

To take it away, would take something glorious away from not just your first match but every match.

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So when the brash young Irish sports broadcaster Setanta offered to sponsor an annual cross-border competition and put up a mouth-watering €350,000 prize fund, and €1.6m in other sponsorship support, it seemed like a dream come true. The offer followed the launch of Setanta Ireland in August 2004.

Behind the glitter, however, the auguries were less than promising. No fewer than six previous cross-border tournaments had been started on much the same sort of basis: League and Cup winners North and South to play each other for an all-Ireland trophy.

All had bitten the dust for a variety of reasons, some within a couple of years. And if there is a common thread between them, it is a lack of

consistency and a failure to build what we would now call brand awareness.

The Dublin & Belfast Intercity Cup seems to have been invented to fill the gap created by the restriction of most UK leagues during the war, and was by far the most successful of the competitions. Six teams from each association took part, and according to reports it generated significant revenues for the competing clubs. It lasted eight seasons between 1941 and 1949, in which time Shamrock Rovers won the Cup four times.

It probably didn’t help that the first two finals (two-legged affairs) were played between southern teams only, and it may have been a sign of the decline of the competition after full post-war league action resumed that for the second leg of

NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET

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The Holy Grail of football development in Ireland, according to a significant section of fandom, is reunification: an All-Ireland League, and an integrated Ireland national team.

In second place, but for others much more immediately important, is improved media coverage, especially live television.

Finn Harps celebrate their Irish News Cup win in 1999

Mícheál Ó hUanacháin looks at the chequered history of cross-border football competitions

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the 1947/8 Final, which should have been played in Dublin, no venue was made available for the match between Belfast Celtic and Distillery.

More than a decade passed before the authorities tried again, but the North-South Cup lasted only two seasons, with Linfield winning in 1961/2 and Glenavon in 1962/3.

The Blaxnit Cup had a somewhat longer run, and Irish League clubs won five of the seven editions played between 1967 and 1974.

Black and Co was a family-run hosiery business in Newtownards, Co Down, whose best-known product was a brand of socks known as ‘Blaxnit’. One of the biggest employers in the area by the middle of the last century, one of its directors, Harold Black, a former Ards winger and later chairman of the football club, was instrumental in its decision to sponsor a competition for the semi-finalists of the FAI Cup and the Irish Cup.

Sadly, Ards was eliminated in the very first match of the first year of the tournament, 1967/8, beaten 3-0 by eventual winners Shamrock Rovers. Ards qualified again the second year, and were once more unsuccessful in the first round. But they had the last laugh, as they beat Ballymena United 3-1 in Windsor Park in the final of the last edition, 1973/4, and accordingly still rank as the holders!

It was a challenging time to undertake a competition involving clubs from both traditions, as the situation in the North deteriorated from 1969 onwards, and it is a measure of the commitment both of the sponsors and of the two associations that it lasted as long as it did.

For the record, Cork Hibernians (1971/2) were the only other Blaxnit Cup winners from the FAI,

and Coleraine were the only club to retain the trophy, winning in 1968/9 and again in 1969/70. Linfield in May 1971 and Glentoran in 1973 each overcame Cork Hibs in the second legs of their respective finals, having drawn the first 1-1 in both cases.

About the same time, another cooperative effort was being launched, and a nice concept lay behind the Texaco Cup, pooling the highest-placed teams that failed to qualify for European competition from the English and Scottish leagues, and the Irish League and League of Ireland. It could conceivably have reinvented the old Home Nations competition, but it lacked Wales - and staying power.

In 1970/1 and 1971/2 the competition comprised two LOI and two IL teams, drawn regionally against each other, four Scottish and eight English. Derry City, then still an IFA club (and a participant that year in the Blaxnit Cup, too), reached the Semi-Finals the first year, and Ballymena the second, but things were getting difficult north of the border, with Derry forced out of the IL that season, and violence escalating.

The competition didn’t include either Irish league from then on. Texaco invented a separate competition, which ran for two seasons, 1973/4 and 1974/5, but it failed to

capture the imagination of the fans. Portadown won the first

and Waterford United the second.

And the last cross-border competition before Setanta was the Tyler Cup, which ran for four seasons from 1977/8. It was a challenging moment to set up such a tournament, and in the event it proved difficult to police.

There is anecdotal evidence of crowd trouble at Finn Harps: “People in Ballybofey still talk about

The great Paddy Coad with the Belfast & Dublin Inter-City Cup

Football League for four years (1988–1992) to a similar figure each year in the first Premier League BSkyB contract (1992-96), and three times that in 1997.

In that first Setanta Cup, the top two in each league and the winners of the FAI Cup and Irish Cup qualified, and Linfield took the trophy - and the cheque - northwards.

It was renamed the Setanta Sports Cup and expanded to include the winners of the League Cups north and south the following year, when Drogheda United won, beating Cork City in the first all-southern final.

The first cracks appeared in the fabric the next season. The winners were now offered £100,000, but despite the rich fund Shelbourne pulled out, being unable to guarantee to field a team. Drogheda retained the Cup, beating Linfield at Windsor Park in a penalty shoot-out.

Negotiations over the timing of fixtures delayed the draw for the next edition until New Year 2008. The first group

games were played between February and

April, and a remarkable four-month gap ensued before the groups were completed in September and October. And some of the large group of Linfield supporters who travelled for their match against St Patricks Athletic clashed with gardai and were escorted from the Inchicore ground before kick-off.

Holders Cork City failed to qualify for the 2009 competition, and following pressure from the FAI the competition was expanded to nine teams to accommodate them.

But external affairs threatened the Cup. Setanta had entered the UK market, and made a remarkable £425m joint bid with ITV for England international and FA Cup matches from

the visits of Linfield and Glentoran. It was total mayhem”, in St Mels Park when Linfield played the Final 2nd Leg there in 1980: “the flag burning in the ground, the local knacks pelting everyone with stones from the railway bridge on the way out from Mels plus the fighting and the near full scale riots through the centre of town”, and at Shamrock Rovers in 1980: “some of the worst trouble ever seen in Milltown was when Cliftonville came down ... apparently they wrecked the place and took over the Shed on a Wednesday afternoon”.

The format appears to have been straight knock-out, with the top eight teams in the two leagues invited to take part. Honours were even, with northern and southern clubs winning twice each. But even in that short space of time, cracks were appearing, with Waterford United apparently declining the invitation for the last edition of the Cup in 1980/1.

No true all-island competition was played thereafter for a quarter of a century, though the North West Cup, 1995-1999, was a step in that direction, pitting the four best-performing teams in that area against each other. The competition later involved teams from the whole border area, and was sponsored by the Irish News newspaper for a £3,000 first prize. Finn Harps won the final edition, beating Ballymena 2-0 in Ballybofey, just a week before the start of what was to be their marathon FAI Cup loss to Bray Wanderers.

As the Millennium approached, the Armed Struggle began to leave the stage and on came the Celtic Tiger - and Setanta TV.

The huge prize-fund offered for the first edition of the Setanta Cup in 2005 (€150,000 to the winner) was in keeping with the spirit of the time, and mirrored the sort of inflation seen by English TV rights: from £44m paid by ITV for the entire

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The Blaxnit factory in Newtownards, about 1960

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2008 to 2012. But Rupert Murdoch and News International, ultimate backers of BSkyB and Sky Sport as it became, had endless patience and very deep pockets. Setanta had neither, and Setanta GB collapsed a year later, leaving the FA as much as £41m out of pocket.

The reverse had implications at home, and with the delay of the announcement and draw it was unclear if the competition would be going ahead. It did, but as a hybrid season, beginning in late 2009 and resuming in February 2010 - by which time Cork had resigned and Derry had been expelled, rendering two of the three groups almost meaningless. And there was a bit of trouble at Dalymount Park when Linfield went there in March, with gardaí intervening when a Glentoran supporter tried to hang a Northern Ireland flag.

But at least Setanta had confirmed their support until 2013.

For 2011, the competition was expanded again, the top four teams in both leagues qualifying, along with the winners of the FAI Cup, Irish Cup and the two League Cups. Sporting Fingal were to have competed but withdrew in February due to financial difficulties which saw them fold the following day. And the games were played in a realistically compact time frame, beginning in February and concluding in May, in a knock-out format.

It was two-leg knock-outs again for the next two years, with the top teams given byes to the quarter finals, and wins for Crusaders and Shamrock Rovers (their second) following Bohemians in 2010. But doubt surrounded the Cup at that point, with Setanta’s sponsorship coming to an end and no other prospect in sight. Finally, the broadcaster agreed to resume its role - but for a reduced format of eight teams, and a prize fund down now to €73,000 in total (€30,000 to the winner).

And the organisers suffered a new blow when ever-present Linfield and IFA Premiership champions Cliftonville turned down the invitation to participate, citing fixture scheduling as well as the reduced prize money. Though Ballinamallard United and Coleraine took their places, it was undoubtedly a blow to the prestige of the competition.

Sligo Rovers defeated Dundalk 1–0 in another all-southern final in Tallaght.

By Christmas 2014, with no announcement about the upcoming tournament, the rumour-mill was in overdrive: the competition was cancelled; no it wasn’t, it was just delayed; yes, it would start in June. A February-May schedule was clearly out of the question, and it was late April before there was mention of a draw for the 2015 edition.

Then it was rumoured that clubs from the IFA were unhappy with the proposed format and fixtures once more (matches were to be midweek, starting in late June). Linfield issued a statement confirming they would not take part, Glenavon were resisting the midweek proposal, Crusaders also disliked long midweek trips and Glentoran would play, but “... the whole competition seems geared towards the League of Ireland clubs”.

Even a supposed offer of a £1,000 subsidy for IL clubs facing a journey from the North to Cork failed to placate them.

They tried to put a brave face on it, but the announcement last month that the Cup would not now take place this year was in effect its death knell. Milo Corcoran, Chairman of the Setanta Sports Cup committee, described it as a “setback”, and Brian Quinn, Setanta Sports Marketing Director, said it was a “break for this year”.

I won’t be holding my breath.

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For those of you who are reading this and have the pleasure of following me on social media, you know I’m a massive advocate for the League Of Ireland and getting fans to attend games weekend in and weekend out.

But for me there’s one club that’s a level above everyone else in attracting fans to its ground on a regular basis, that club is Cork City. I’ve said it from the beginning of last season that they are head and shoulders above anyone else in the league when it comes to attracting fans, especially as Cork City are competing during the summer both successful Cork Gaelic Football and Hurling sides. This great work was to the fore a few weeks ago when they played League Champions Dundalk at home in a live game to a packed out Turners Cross. It showed that on

any given day the League Of Ireland can match any grounds’ atmosphere anywhere in the world.

As an outsider they seem to have done a fantastic job making sure fans enjoy their match day experience; from always having mascot Corky The Cheetah at Turner’s Cross on match days to meet and greet the children, to the well known Commandos 84 group who do huge work in improving the atmosphere. For those fans for whatever reason can’t make any game they have a dedicated radio station set up within the grounds which is manned by two (Ed note: handsome!) fans (who from what I’ve heard don’t always give a biased account on what’s happening) to report on all games. Cork, I think are also the first club to offer match programmes online for its fans on a

LEADING THE WAYBY: AARON CAWLEY COVER: COMERAGH PHOTO

weekly basis.

If every League Of Ireland club followed City’s example I am one hundred percent sure they could attract the wealth of new supporters of all demographics that they constantly crave. After all it is us fans that go through the gates week in week out that are the lifeblood of the clubs we support. I for one would be thrilled to see the number of fans who travel across the Irish Sea weekly to drop and those fans put a bit of money into their local clubs who need it to survive from day to day.

But will anyone else follow Corks example to get more bums on the seats and more importantly for the players a better atmosphere in their respective grounds? It doesn’t or won’t take much. From what I can see all it takes is for League Of Ireland clubs to start looking after their younger fans. Make match days appealing to them, and in my opinion you’re going to increase revenue on match days. In the short-term a youngster will always need an adult with them, thus upping the gate by one and a half every time they want to see a game; also in the longer run if a ten or twelve year old child goes to a match on a regular basis when they are young you can guarantee that when they’re older they’ll be still attending League Of Ireland matches,

and therefore will be more likely to bring their own kids in the future. We all know football remains a popular sport amongst the youth; all you have to do is look at the amount of kids wearing jerseys from teams in the Premiership and further afield. I think it’s sad that very few young people go out and support their local League Of Ireland team and it’s up

to the clubs themselves to try and change this.

That being said I can’t be

putting all the emphasis on the clubs, the governing body need to step up and make

the league appealing

as much as individual clubs

need to. With the FAI’s backing (however

unlikely it may seem) our league has the potential to flourish like others around Europe. Things cannot continue the way they are now, otherwise more and more clubs are going to disappear like they have done, and the instead of bringing our grandchildren to matches, the League of Ireland will simply be a distant memory to those of us who will be old enough to remember attending matches.

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PLAYING THE LONG GAME

BY AARON DOHERTYIt feels like an eternity for the fans of Bo-hemians FC since club legend Owen Heary was in charge. During his time at Daly-mount Park, Bohs failed to play with con-sistency and never really looked like they had a plan. They finished seventh last sea-son but had they lost their last game to Derry (They won 2-1) Bohs would have fin-ished ninth. Not good enough for one of Dublin’s big clubs.

Bohemians moved rather quickly to find a replacement for the Sligo Rovers bound Heary, when they appointed Keith Long as the new manager. The appointment raised some eyebrows as Long was the manager of Athlone Town, and had just been rel-

egated with the Midland outfit. Keith had replaced Mick Cooke mid-season and done extremely well to make them competitive on the pitch but ran out of games to keep them up.

Keith spent over ten years as a player in the league where he represented Dundalk, St Pat’s and Bray Wanderers. He would go on to coach and then manage Bray and done a decent job with limited resources. As a coach, Long is well respected, and works extremely hard to make his sides very hard to beat and pushes his players to give 100%.

This season Bohemians have surprised eve-

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ryone with their excellent start to the sea-son and currently sit in fourth place. They have lost just three games, two of which were against the top four sides and held rivals Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght. They also recorded a 1-1 draw against Cork City at Dalymount Park. This organised Bohemi-ans team has also picked up points against the sides that they struggled against in previous campaigns.

Keith Long works very hard on organising his team in all areas of the pitch and that showed when up until recent-ly they had shipped only seven goals in 12 games. When they met Galway United two weeks ago they conceded five times; which could have been put down to bad refereeing and laps-es in concentration. Two days later Galway knocked them out of the league cup quar-ter final. It turned out to be a bad weekend for Bohemians.

Keith Long signed Derek Prendergast, Keal-on Dillon, Dean Kelly, Marc Griffen and Rob-bie Creevy to add to players like Derek Pen-der, Paddy Kavanagh and Roberto Lopez. Players that are experienced in the League of Ireland and each bring their own qual-ity to a hard working side. When you watch this Bohs side lose the ball, their ability to get back into an organised shape and cut off the angles is outstanding and full credit goes to the coach.

Adam Evans has been a real revelation so far this season and has already scored five times from the left flank. Adam is one of many young talented players in the league and is definitely one to keep your eye on. There is not much strength in depth with this Bohs’ side, which could very well be

their achilles heel to stay in the top four. Derek Pender and Anto Murphy have picked up bad in-juries in the recent draw with Bray and will be ruled out for sometime.

Jason Byrne clearly hasn’t got the legs anymore and doesn’t fit into Long’s way of thinking at the mo-ment. Dean Kelly isn’t a twenty goals a season striker but his hard work up top on his own will pave the way for others to take the chances. A lot of questions still remain over this Bohs

team, Will injuries effect their season? Will the goals dry up? Can they finish in the top five?

The summer break is coming fast but be-fore then Bohemians must travel to Oriel Park and then host Shamrock Rovers. It might be a case of perfect timing in regards to the break after these two big games and also a good chance for this hard working side to re-charge. Keith Long has already improved the club on the pitch but can he maintain it come October?

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DERBY DAYS PART II - THE LOUTH DERBY

CREDIT: LARRY MCQUILLAN/DROGHEDA UNITED

Louth is the smallest of the 32 counties yet it is the most densely populated in Ireland, outside of Dublin. The majority of the county’s 122,897 population live in either Dundalk in North Louth, or Drogheda in South Louth. The 2011 Census confirmed Drogheda and Dundalk as not only the largest towns in the county, but also the largest and second largest towns in the whole of the Republic. So while the Wee County may be small geographically, there’s a big time battle simmer-ing and we’re going to find out all about it; this is the Louth Derby.

Like the vast majority derbies, this one is based on proximity to each other. A mere 20 miles separate the towns and, therefore the clubs. Both clubs are central within their locality and are the only game in town. This rivalry extends beyond football and into other sports, as well as into everyday facets of life. For this piece, I have gotten the words of locals to help give an insight of some of the feelings in the North-East. When asked about Dundalk vs Drogheda in general terms, Alan, avid United fan says ‘’I have lived in both towns and always tried to promote goodwill between them. However, I have always noticed that younger lads had this ‘us versus

them’ mentality at sporting occasions, especially soccer matches. The real problems arose in the last 15 years or so when Louth County Council ex-ecutives mixed with governmental departments showed a financial bias towards Dundalk. De-spite the equal population base the allocation of government and civil service jobs and grants was greatly weighted towards Dundalk. This caused frustration in the south of the county and rightly so. There is a ‘Dundalk Gets Everything’ feel-ing.’’ He went on to say, ‘’It causes resentment and that’s exactly why a lot of Drogheda people have a problem with Dundalk. We have been screwed for decades by Louth county council and by the government in general’’.

Dundalk are historically one of Ireland’s most successful clubs and without doubt the biggest provincial achievers. As 10 time, and reigning, League of Ireland Champions and currently perched atop the SSE Airtricity League, it seems the halcyon days have returned to Oriel Park. It hasn’t always been this way in recent times though. Relegated in 2002, the club saw its fortunes go from bad to worse as crowds dimin-ished, league fom slumped and promotion back to the Premier Division seemed nigh-on impos-

BY: CRAIG MCMAHON

sible. In 2006 Dundalk won a promotion/relega-tion battle with Waterford United only to be told it would count for nothing, as the powers that be had decided to rejig the league, taking on and off the field factors into account. The club was deemed expendable at this juncture and was denied access to the top tier. Furious, a fanatical Dundalk supporter stormed the FAI Headquar-ters with a petrol can and threatened to cause havoc.

Meanwhile, the fortunes of Drogheda United were on the up. Having been elected to the league in 1963 as Drogheda FC, the club merged with another non league entity by the name of Drogheda United to form Drogheda United FC and their first game as a senior side was against Dundalk. As Dundalk were having their major diffi-culties in the mid 2000’s, the Drogs were gaining national attention. Hav-ing dispatched Dundalk in the third round, Drogheda went on to lift their first ever FAI Cup in 2005 at the famous Landsdowne Road stadium. They fol-lowed this up by becom-ing the only ever back-to-back Setanta Sports Cup winners, which pitches the best of Northern Ireland against the best of the Republic in a cross border competition. Cries of ‘’All-Ireland Champi-ons’’ from Drogs fans could be heard around the country. It didn’t stop there.

Drogheda United went on to become League of Ireland Champions for the first time in their history. They then famously took European heavyweights Dynamo Kiev to the brink in the Champions League and were within a crossbar of progressing through to mega bucks when Shane Robinson hit the woodwork in the dying sec-onds. There was a real swagger about the town as they had reached their peak.

I spoke to a to staunch Dundalk fan about the ri-

valry. He informed me that, ‘’When they won the league for the first and only time back in 2007, their fans paid for a billboard in the centre of Dundalk town which read ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet...’. It turns out we had actually seen every-thing. A brief bright spot in a history littered with failure. Nope, can’t be having them as serious arch-rivals, they’re more like an annoying boil on your ar*e or a younger annoying little brother. In fairness, games at Hunky Dory Park are usually great for atmosphere.’

‘’Bar a brief spell about ten years ago when they won a couple of trophies they have been a yo yo club who have always been in our shadow. To be a rival you must be able to compete and for

the vast majority of their history the Drogs have been nothing but an easy opportunity for picking up league points to Dundalk fans’’.

Fans of the Lilywhites are currently riding the crest of a wave up in the town known as El Paso, as Dun-dalk have indeed come back to claim their throne as top dogs in the coun-try. They have perhaps the finest player in the country on their books in the dynamic Richie Tow-ell, aswell as the gifted Daryl Horgan. But they must still be wary of their neighbours to the south.

Only last season on the opening day, the even-tual champions were humbled by the Boynesid-ers in a 4-1 defeat. Fans of Drogheda could have been forgiven for unfurling a banner proclaiming themselves to be the Pride of Louth and getting lost in the moment. However, a receipt was com-ing and come it did, as the Louth Derby became more of a demolition derby in a return match with the Claret and Blue going down in a merci-less 7-0 hammering. ‘Forever in Our Shadow’ was the message from the boys in white. While it’s hard to argue with that sentiment at the mo-ment, even a fool knows that every Drog has his day.

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You may remember back to the May edi-tion when the standard of refereeing in the League of Ireland was questioned, it’s a topic that comes up often from fans, and in the vast majority of cases, like last month’s issue, it was one of sheer negativi-ty. In this month’s edition I am going to try and counteract that opinion with my own, and let you decide for yourself whether enough is being done to ensure refereeing in this country is at the highest order.

Let my start with a hypothetical (yet very common) situation: You’ve gone to a game

with high hopes that your team is going to win but unfortunately on this occasion it doesn’t quite work out how you planned it, instead there was a major decision that went against your team that prevented them from winning or drawing and you’re walking out of the ground saying how dreadful the referee or his assistants were. Ask yourself this question, have you ever left a game after your team wins as the result of a contentious decision and criti-cised the referee? Maybe once or twice but I’m sure you’ll agree the balance to criticising officials in defeat weighs much

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ARE LEAGUE OF IRELAND REFEREES AS POOR AS YOU THINK?

JOHN-PAUL FAHY RESPONDS TO RECENT CLAIMS IN THIS MAGAZINE ABOUT THE MEN IN THE MIDDLE AND ASKS...

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greater than criticising them in victory.

The thing with refereeing is it is a matter of opinion; everything comes to do “in the opinion of the referee” and opinions can-not be wrong, however they can be disa-greed with. The number of book-ings and red cards were highlighted as a matter of concern but again that all comes down to an opinion of the referee and how he sees the situation and game develop-ing, some ref-erees do tend to more lenient than others when it comes to issuing cautions or dismiss-als but it all comes down to how he sees his best way of managing the game. I often hear people say, “oh, the last time we had him he was excel-lent, tonight he was awful” is that because you lost, or because big decisions didn’t go your way? It could be that the referee needed to be authoritative this time around to keep control of the game.

Many people criticise the FAI on their development of the referees and their monitoring of them, I will admit, until I switched from the IFA to the FAI I was one of the FAI’s biggest critics when it came to them not giving a toss about the referee’s, but they do. “What is being done to improve referee-ing?” I hear you ask. Every year the FAI holds an annual seminar that every regis-tered FAI referee, from junior to elite MUST attend and pass to be able to referee the

following season. The seminar consists of a fitness test which referees must com-plete so many meters (depending on their level) in 12 minutes followed by four 200m sprints in 40 seconds. Following the fitness test is the laws of the game test, where

referees are quizzed on their knowledge of 10 multiple

answers of having to choose the correct

wording from the FIFA law book, of

which they must get 50% correct, failure to pass either of these will result in a repeat of which one they failed.

The final part of the seminar is a

development mod-ule where referees are

taught how to deal with a range of situations such as

racism, sectarian abuse and side-line abuse.

Referees are dying breed - we have refer-ees at all levels falling away from the game because of one thing or another; and each year the FAI are organising courses throughout the country to try and recruit new referees from all ages. Remember, without the referee there can be no game of football. Therefore I ask you to consider taking on the role of the referee; only then will you fully understand how difficult the job is, but not only that you will also begin to learn why a referee has made a certain decision or how he may have saw it.

Anyone interested in taking up refereeing, please visit: http://www.fai.ie/domestic/referees/welcome