It’s ended up the way many Irish football conversations do; League of Ireland fans in one corner and everybody else sitting opposite, silly and snide comments being hurled across the canvas separating them. There’s no referee, no rules, ultimately no winner and consequently there’s little sense to it all. Meanwhile outside the ring and away from the glare of the spotlight, real life and the real problems of Irish football continue.
2 weeks ago an estimated 32,000 Irish supporters reacted to the 4-0 mauling at the feet of Spain by delivering a magnificent rendition of ‘The Fields of Athenry’. It was Irish football fans being shown in the best possible light on the World’s stage and a genuinely special moment.
Like many, I’d seen it before. I’ve been lucky to travel around Europe supporting a League of Ireland side in Champions League, UEFA Cup and other competitions through the years. In the face of clearly superior opposition it is usual for supporters to cheer their team, to help lift heads, to recognise the effort and to communicate that ‘We hoped, but deep down we always knew’.
The special moment became polarised when Roy Keane commented about the Irish being there for the sing song. Keane is a divisive character but both sides of the ensuing argument should see there was merit in his comment; once the surface of it was scratched. It is admirable to cheer your team off the pitch when hopes are dashed. It’s meaningless without also examining why the hopes went unfulfilled. It’s vital that players, management and the FAI don’t see the support exhibited as acceptance of the performance. Given most interviews and sentiments expressed since, fans’ disappointment is shared.
In the weeks that has followed, criticism has been directed at individual players, the management team and the association itself and that is appropriate. It’s a positive that we want to do better and it’s vital that constructive criticism always has a voice. The sentiment that it was an achievement to qualify given our perceived lack of quality has an element of truth in it, but as the 13th ranked European Football team, to make the final 16 should be an expectation.
The conversation shifted with the sad news that Monaghan United had decided to withdraw from the league. They cited a ‘lack of support’ from the region, the football community and the association itself. As a Premier Division club pulled out of the league, 30,000 Irish football fans were in Poland waiting to watch an improved Ireland take on Italy in what would be our last game of Euro2012. League of Ireland fans vented their frustration at the disconnect between the numbers watching the national team thousands of miles away and the combined attendance of a full series of League of Ireland matches, which across both divisions would rarely approach 30,000.
To lament this disconnect is understandable and reasonable however to lambast those in Gdansk while pointing to the Monaghan situation helps no-one. After Monaghan’s decision to withdraw from the league only 12 of the 26 counties of the Republic are represented in the Airtricity League and only 5 of them in the Premier Division. A number of the 30,000 in Gdansk are LoI supporters, some live too far from LoI grounds to travel and admittedly, a number have no interest. Those that have no interest may have sampled the product and rejected it, or never sampled it at all. But LoI clubs and LoI supporters have to recognise that there are reasons people choose not to attend LoI matches rather than abusing them for doing so. We should be working to examine the reasons. Those of us who attend LoI matches know that we have a good league that can develop and produce international class players such as James McClean, Shane Long, Kevin Doyle, Keith Fahey, Wes Hoolahan, Seamus Coleman, David Forde and David Meyler. We need to get better at selling what we do well and recognise our own failings; we have to face up to the fact that while we love the ‘character’ of most LoI grounds, they are neither attractive nor comfortable to infrequent visitors.
The relationship between the League of Ireland and other bodies under the Associations umbrella (and somewhat outside their control) is poor. The League is looked upon as a huge drain on the FAI’s resources and finances. This is a fallacy that the association does little to counter. The League is seen as a Public Relations disaster for Football in the country; an argument with merit given the recent history of clubs’ financial irregularity and their facing the wrath of the revenue commissioners in the High Courts. That the largest groupings of those actively involved in football in the country can hold such a negative view of the LoI is of huge concern, it’s something the FAI and clubs must seek to address together.
On the other hand, it is vital for those who disregard the league to understand that the issues we have at senior international level are more connected to the LoI than they may realise, and retorts of ‘why would I watch that shite?’ are ultimately costing the national side.
For four years now I have listened to Giovanni Trapattoni discuss repeatedly the need to adhere to the system of football we play because we don’t have the players to play a more expansive game. Many football pundits agree while they lament the playing of Green, Whelan and Andrews in midfield. Too few people across the country reflect on why this is the case. The real question isn’t what we have to do to be successful with these players, but why we haven’t developed them to be better players or developed better options for Trapattoni to enable the playing of a better system. We have qualified for Euro2012 as we have for other tournaments; without having much of a plan in place about how we’ll qualify for one in four years later.
Over recent years the FAI, under the office of the recently departed Wim Koevermans, have started to build a framework for player development in the country. It is decades too late, it suffers from vested interests and it’s not producing players yet but it’s been started and football fans from all aspects of the game have to recognise its importance and the role each facet of the game here has to play in it. It has to be coherent and it has to be organised. During his tenure Koevermans tried to roll out a fluid 4-3-3 system down through all the underage levels, locally and internationally for 11 a side games. He promoted the small sided game for our youngest footballers, allowing them more touches per game and more enjoyment while playing.
This must continue and we have to careful that we don’t replicate Giovanni Trapattoni’s preferred system, required due to a perceived lack of quality, down through our underage structures and into our clubs. In the Kennedy Cup competition a few weeks ago I saw too many representative sides, containing our brightest prospects, play like Ireland. Trapattoni’s system must not become the template for football in Ireland; we have already seen it fail. The touted successes too often a result of panic defending and moral victories.
Our burgeoning academies must feed into the schoolboys associations and emerging talent programme. From there we must continue the drive for younger competition at National Level by replicating the U19 League at U17 level to provide a pathway to high quality competition out of ETP and Schoolboys leagues.
We must move away from the desire to see our brightest shipped across the water, we should feel regret rather than pride on seeing a 15 year old picked up by those clubs in the UK where his training will be no better than at home. The players touted as Ireland’s future by RTE pundits after the Spain loss were primarily former league of Ireland players who completed their education in Ireland and moved cross-channel in their late teens or early twenties. We should be angry and embarrassed when we see Irish teenagers burned out, rejected and unqualified after being spat out by the English football system.
The second biggest cheer from Irish supporters at Euro2012, after that of Sean St.Ledger’s goal against Croatia, came with the introduction of James McClean from the subs bench. Less than 12 months ago, McClean was a League of Ireland player with Derry City. He has made the transition from LoI to the Premiership to the National set-up with ease because of the grounding he’s gotten at home and making the switch when he was physically and mentally strong enough to work for it and to recognise the opportunity it is.
To continue to produce players like McClean, all levels of the game in the country need to stop in-fighting and start working together. League of Ireland football isn’t for everyone but it’s better than the ridicule many heap upon it and it’s a vital step in the production of the next generation of players who will not only qualify for finals tournaments, but compete in them. Shouting at each other from corners won’t help a single child reach his potential and play for his country.
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