League of Ireland 2015 quick preview The Northern Clubs

   There are 12 Premier clubs fighting for the glory of the Championship of the League of Ireland. Here is a quick look at the 12 clubs broken into my 3 geographical areas. The Dublin Area, the Northern clubs and the Southern Clubs.  I am listing them as where I think they will place at the end of year.

The Northern Clubs			Capacity	Avg attendance (2014)
1	Dundalk F.C	Oriel Park	4,500	2,534
2	Sligo Rovers FC	Showgrounds	5,500	2,087
3	Derry F.C.	Brandywell	7,700	1,298
4	Drogheda United	United Park	2,000	1,023

        

                League of Ireland 2015 –a quick view of the Northern Clubs

                Well we have the defending Champions of 2014 Dundalk. This was Dundalk’s 10^th Championship. They are one of only 4 clubs that can put a gold star -to represent 10 Championship’s after their name.  The other 3 clubs reside in the Dublin area. The Lillywhites will again be led by the 23 year old Richie Towell. He was the catalyst in the middle...pictured below. Dundalk has a young team and management spent the biggest budget of any club. Since they will be playing internationally this summer and collecting participation money (about 120,000) I again see Dundalk opening their purse strings and challenging for another title.

Richie Towell will be back in 2015.

Sligo Rovers won the league as recently as 2012. Sligo has also won the FAI Cup 2010, 2011 and 2013. Sligo has had the added bonus of the international prize money to support the club the last 4 years. This year will be different. Sligo missed out on the very desirable international play, so will not have the money from that participation. Sligo Rovers are spending big on their continued development of the Showgrounds. They are owner by their supporters and incorporate their entire community. They have built their stadium one stand at a time. Their stadium is installing a state of the art full weather pitch, and all grass pitch and 2 5 vs 5 playing surfaces within the Showgrounds facility. The total cost is close to 500,000 Euro's.

Derry City is the only club from Northern Ireland. They play in Brandywell Stadium and which was recently granted 5M in funding from the government. (Northern Ireland).  The money will revamp the entire stadium which will be something every supporter will look forward to. Derry has been in 2 of the last 3 FAI Cups. Winning one of them. The candy stripers will be looking for success and their new stadium.

Drogheda United does not have a long history of success however their success is most recent. In the 2007 season the Drog’s won the trifecta….winning the League of Ireland, the FAI Cup and the Setanta Cup. These Northern Clubs add great competition to the League.

Combine the League of Ireland with IFA Premiership.....will not work!

                  and the   

     The League of Ireland will not combine with the Northern Ireland League.  At first glance it would see a no brainer to add the marketing power of Belfast and Northern Ireland and expand the league. This would provide badly needed attention and press to both struggling leagues. Each league would benefit from the exposure they would get from having new clubs play in their home stadium.  Each league could now play in a 19 team league and play eachother home and away like the other big leagues in Europe. This league could also compete for respect and attention from the other leagues.

Now I have to deal with reality.........

Champions League

            Well I am here to tell you that it will not happen. The main reason is money. Presently each league gives about 100,000E to the champion. However Each League  gets to send their Champion to the EURO Champions League. The Champions League gives about 200,000 to each winner and about 130,000 for each round the play in. So Each League champion gets 330,000 at a minimum in the Champions League. Advanving out of the 3rd round get the winner in the lucrative group stage games while the loser is placed in the playoff of the Europa League.

            Most of us would be willing to sacrifice this but the owners of the clubs are not. Presently the top clubs in the LOI are owned by their supporters( Shamrock Rovers, Sligo Rovers, Derry City F.C. , Bohemians F.C. and Cork City F.C.). These supporters are the ones at the games. These supporters are also the ones supporting the budget for most clubs.
        Most League of Ireland Clubs are made up mostly of part time players. The average club havs a working budget of about 500,000 and under. Budgets are very hard to determin since there is not information on the internet. These fugures are my guess.  I know Sligo and Shamrock Rovers are closee to 750,000 however other clubs are well below 500,000 budget. The teams are just not willing to throw away a cash windfall the Champions League provides.

            These clubs are also the clubs that are fighting for the 2 other Europa League spots. This is what keeps the league interesting throughout the year. Let say one club has a runaway year and no other club can catch them. Clubs ranked 2 to 7 are vying to place in the top 3 to qualify for the Europa League spots. It is massively important to keep the other clubs interested in the league play or attendance could drop like a rock. These clubs need something to play for. Clubs like Glentoran, Crusaders, Cork City, Derry City, St Patrick’s Athletic and Shelbourne are usually fighting at the end of the season for these spots. 
   Then there is the FAI Cup and the IFA Cup. The winner of this will also punch a ticket to the Euro League. These cups become quite interesting and usually become the focus of supporters when the league title is out of reach. 

           

The Europa League

   This also provides a huge potential to get clubs out of debt and help their balance sheet.

http://www.uefa.com/uefa/management/finance/news/newsid=1845777.html

“Each club figuring in the first and/or second and/or third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League will get €100,000 per round even if they qualify for the UEFA Europa League group stage. In addition, every side eliminated in the UEFA Europa League play-offs will be allocated €100,000.”

            The 2011-12 Europa League paid out 100,000 for each round the club participated in. The League of Ireland only gave out 100,000 for the league title.

Here is my example..

           So let say St. Patrick’s Athletic budget was about 550,000 for the year 2011. The Saints also won 2 rounds in the Europa League 2011-12 so they participated in 3 rounds. The European competition provided 100,000 for each round so the Saints received 300,000 of their yearly budget of 550,000. I know there are expenses involved in traveling to Iceland, Kazakstan and the Ukraine. I am just explaining there is no way on God’s green Ireland that any club or their owners, especially the ones owner by their supporters will want to eliminate a Champions League payout and 3 other spots in the Europa League just for the sake of expansion to Belfast. These European League games are massively important for the clubs budget. That is why the clubs will play so hard even if it not for the top spot in the league. These is great elation from their supporters (especially the ones that own the clubs) to qualify for these international tournamnets.

            I would be more financially prudent to break Ireland into 4 Provinces and get 4 champions League spots and 12 Europa League spots.  I am joking......

The only way i see expansion is if it financially beneficial to the majority of clubs in both the IFA and FAI. Wound attendanc jump up that much to make the move. The Sentanta cup has shown us that attendance is lower than league games.

           

FAI CUP

FAI CUP 2011

          Well with the league of Ireland title wrapped up my attentions turns to the second most prestigious tournament in Ireland (soccer wise) the FAI Cup. The titans of this tournament Shamrock Rovers-24 Cups titles) have already been knocked out. It is time to shine a little light on some of the other clubs in the league.

Sligo Rovers vs Bohemians
St Patrick Athletic vs Shelbourne

          The Sligo Rovers as I have said are the defending champions of the FAI Cup. They are the only club not from Dublin. The Sligo Rovers are the defending champions and will do their best to be repeat winners. The Rovers also look like they will finish second in the League of Ireland. Sligo will be up against the northside of Dublin club, Bohemians.
          The Bohemians last won the FAI Cup in 2008. Their fans are quite envious of their southern rival (Shamrock Rovers) getting most of the media attention this year. Bohemians have also had great teams winning the league of Ireland title in 2008 and 2009. They would like to get their hand on some more hardware.
    
          St Patrick Athletic is the other southern Dublin club who last won the league in 1999 and the FAI Cup way back in 1959 and 1961. That is 50 years ago. Ouch. Needless to say the Saints fans are starving for the FAI Cup. They have been in the Championship game as recently as 2006 and 2003 only to become runner ups. They always put of good teams but have had heartbreak trying to get some hardware.

          Shelbourne is the other Northern Dublin club in Ireland. Shelbourne won the league in 2006 and last won the FAI Cup in 2000. This proud club was relegated to the First Division after financial trouble. After toiling with First Division clubs this tournament is where they can show the big boys their quality too.

            I am pulling for St Patrick Athletic fans here just so their fans get a taste of victory.

League of Ireland - International update

Dean Kelly of Shamrock Rovers at home

The Shamrock Rover have done League of Ireland well to win in their first round. The Champion of Ireland beat the Champion of Estonia. This bodes well for the league. The Champions League is the most prestigious club for international competition and you want you representative to do well here. It reflect on your league.

Europa League

We have mixed results here. Bohemians were plaed in Round 2 and lose their first series so they are out. This will not help the leagues co-efficient. St Patrick’s Athletic was placed in Round 1 and beat Iceland’s top club IBV Vestmannaeyar. They then advanced to Round2 and beat Shakhter Karagandy of Kazakhstan. This advanced St Partick's Athletic to join the sligo Rovers in Round  3 of the Europa League.

This round will pit the League of Ireland against the Ukrainian Premier League. The Sligo Rover will play Vorskla Poltava of the Ukraine League, July 28 and Aug 4^th. The Sligo Rovers are in good form and are presently in first place with 46 points.

St Patrick's Athletic (the Saints)will go up against the other Ukrainian club Karpaty Lviv.

   The Ukrainian League places 4 clubs in this competition. This league is presently ranked 7^th in the European co-efficient while the league of Ireland is trailing and ranks 29th. The Ukranian League has a whopping 16 clubs to Irelands 10.

 Karparty placed 5^th in the Ukrainian League. This sould be a good match.