Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Another Own Goal By The IFA
The exclusion of Donegal Celtic from the IFA’s new Invitational League has provided the icing on the cake for what has been a bit of an annus horribilis for the football authorities in the north in regards to their relationship with northern nationalists. Having first picked a fight with the nationalist community over the eligibility of Irish citizens to represent the Rep Ireland at international football level, the decision to dump the Irish Cup semi-finalists and team finishing 11th placed overall in the league in favour of First Division outfit, Bangor, has dismayed supporters of the club and rekindled not too distant memories of the lengthy battle fought by the club (and Lurgan Celtic) to secure membership of the League- which was only achieved in 2002 following a decision by the Equality Commission to support a court case against the IFA on grounds of discrimination. So should Donegal Celtic attempt to emulate Derry City and take to the Eircom League?
Unfortunately for the Wee Hoops, it would appear that that particular ship has sailed. The growing professionalism of the Eircom League has led to a widening gulf emerging between the calibre of football on offer at local level between the two leagues in Ireland- with only Linfield appearing able to match the growing professionalism of the Eircom League. The launch of the new weekly programme, MNS, as well as regular live television coverage of matches, is further evidence of the positive strides being taken by the Football Association of Ireland to develop the game at local level. Indeed, were Donegal Celtic to even make enquiries about entry into the FAI structures, they may find themselves several tiers below the Premier Division, given the competition from developing clubs across the state.
Unfortunately, north of the border it appears that the IFA continues to rearrange the deck chairs, expanding to a 16 team league then contracting to a 12 team league in the space of a few years. The obvious problem remains the quality of the product on offer by the Irish Football Association. In an era in which SKY tv/ Setanta bring top quality Premiership/ SPL matches to our living rooms, and numerous airlines take hundreds on the small leap across the Sea to view the top teams at low costs in day return trips which allow for fans to eat their fry at home and return comfortably in time to visit the pub or kick the feet up for Saturday television, Irish soccer will continue to struggle.
And in that context, it becomes even more glaringly obvious that the IFA have made a blunder in excluding a team with the potential to bring a whole new audience to local football from their new Invitational League. Worse still, they have merely confirmed the negative perception of the footballing body within the northern nationalist community, a perception built on the harsh experiences of the small number of predominantly-nationalist supported soccer teams who participated in the northern league- and survived to tell the story.
The experiences of Belfast Celtic, Cliftonville, Derry City and Donegal Celtic within the northern footballing setup do not make happy reading. Belfast Celtic exited the league not long after a shocking sectarian attack onb its players at Windsor Park; Derry City’s experience eventually led to withdrawal from the league and, more happily, finding a place in the more progressive looking Football Association of Ireland setup; for years, Cliftonville were forced to hand Linfield the distinct advantage of having two home games versus the north Belfast Reds; even this season, with the club experiencing its best form since winning the title a decade ago, sectarianism reared its ugly head as the Manager was on the receiving end of a death threat days ahead of a Cup fixture with Linfield.
And then there’s the experience of Donegal Celtic. For years the club were denied access to the league, securing membership only weeks ahead of the commencement of a court case taken with the support of the Equality Commission against the football authorities.
Yet here was a club willing to go in for the long haul, taking the knocks and sticking at it in an effort to reach the highest tier of local football in the north. Having done precisely that, and having just finished their best ever season in local soccer, reaching the final four of the Gibson Cup competition and exceeding all expectations and finishing 11th in the league, it is only natural that the club, its players, official and supporters are somewhat stunned by yesterday’s developments.
But have no doubt: the biggest losers in this affair are the Irish Football Association.
Chris Donnelly @ 04:59 PM
Are Derry City applying to the southern tax payers to transform their race track into a football stadium or do they expect the North to pick up the tab.
I believe they are. Looking for 5 million from the Irish taxpayers apparently.
By the way, as people in Derry are northern taxpayers, they are looking for another 5 from the North.
Derry tax payers! there aren’t enough workers in the Bogside to run a sweet shop they are all living off the Londonderry taxpayers, piss off down south and take their benefits paid for by Europe as the south has no industry worth talking about.
Posted by on May 15, 2008 @ 04:19 PMtommytwo - I think you should change your handle to tommyfourbottles as you’re clearly pished if you think that there’s no industry “worth talking about” down Mexico way.
A couple of years of US recession and reckless southern cost inflation and that could all change, mind…
Posted by on May 15, 2008 @ 06:11 PMCome on rise to the bait.
Are Northern taxpayers not Irish as well? (Unless they are a different nationality)
Posted by on May 15, 2008 @ 07:57 PM>>Tommy Burns was a genuinely devout man, a credit to his faith, gracious in defeat ( though to be fair , as Tic manager he had a lot of practice)always willing to help charity events.<<
Nothing controversial there Darth, all true. Those were exceptional times. He managed to get his Celtic team all the way through the season undefeated, yet still came second in the league. The current Rangers team managed to get to a UEFA cup final by being undefeated, but the difference in style could not be overstated in a million years. His teams played football the Celtic way, you score three, we will score four. Several dodgy refereeing decisions, two stoaters at ibrox stand out, and an SFA hell bent on putting barriers in Celtic’s way, whose boss subsequently had to resign, probably stopped TB from having a more successful managerial career.
>>I had thought he would be a good choice for Scotland manager, but I suppose it was his illness which ruled him out<<
No, they just treated him shabbily if the truth be told, embarrassed him by forcing him to go through the application process even though he had been assistant to two managers. Then never picked him anyway. TB refused to get involved after Smith resigned, even though he was invited to put in an application.
>>A hundred times the man of the latterday T shirt wearing or imaginary flute playing numpties who pandered to the lowest common denominator of their clubs’ supporters while probably never darkening the door of a church.<<
The decent fans can see that. We have all witnessed today what Rangers fans sadly have all too well earned a reputation for over the years, occurring again in Manchester. However the ordinary good decent Rangers fans came to Paradise today, some straight from Manchester. Tearfully putting down scarfs and flags in memorial to TB, and the warm applause, sometimes cheering from the Celtic fans was enough to bring tears to a glass eye. I’ll admit to a few anyhow. It was good that these decent people could show that Rangers fans are not all like we see on the telly. All credit to them.
Credit to you as well darth.
Posted by on May 15, 2008 @ 10:53 PMI too am a Linfield fan and when DC gained promotion to the IL a couple of years ago, we followed the saga through that summer. The media covered that they were getting ground improvements done and Messrs Bonnar and co regaled us with tales of thousands coming to see the green and white hoops play senior football. To be honest, I actually was hopeful that they would make a real contribution to the league.
It didn’t work out like that. People in West Belfast didn’t turn out to support the team, the ground consists of 2 small bike sheds with seats in them, one large bike shed that passes for home covered terracing and an away side with no cover and three layers of low terracing blocked by a great big fence which leads to away fans taking their chances on the grassy bank to actually see the game.
The criteria for this new league were agreed a long time ago, all clubs knew what was involved. Community impact was not one of them and if DC want to make that argument then they should have piped up when the criteria were being drafted. Methinks they thought they were a cert because of the “community factors” and that the IFA would be scared to apply the criteria equally to all clubs. They then got a shock when other clubs had worked to the applied criteria and overtaken them.
And yes, I now believe they are playing the “green card” and it is sad. There are undertones flowing through of allegations of discrimination whilst the examples of Portadown, Larne, Limavady and Armagh are conveniently forgotten. All of these clubs have missed out but there seems to be no clamour for them by the misinformed commentators and bloggers.
People should also remember that a progressive club from nationalist North Belfast in the form of Cliftonville have been involved in major ground work over the last couple of years. If they hadn’t done that work they too would have missed out due to lack of facilities. Clubs like Institute and Bangor have invested amounts of money in getting their facilities in a better state. None of these clubs got any funding that DC wouldn’t have been entitled to. They all suffered equally due to the holding back of government funds as a result of delayed IFA administrative changes.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 08:13 AMAn excellent post WindsorRocker.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 08:21 AM
