World Cup draw is difficult



Croke Stadium, Dublin



They are placed in group C. The good news is they were not placed in Spains group. The Netherlands would have been tricky too

1.  Germany
2.  Sweden
3.  Republic of Ireland
4.  Austria
5.  Fareo Island
6.  Kazakhstan

The Bad

·        The Germans have been at every finals tournament since 1954.



·        They’ve won three of the 15 they’ve participated in

·         finished second twice and third three times

·       

The good :

• German game will fill Croke Park and this will add a nice profit in FAI.
•   Better TV revenue with Germany also.

  

Euro 2012

                     Presently Germany leads Group A with 7 wins and no loses. They have most goals for 22 and least against 3. I think only Spain would have been a worse draw than Germany. So it looks like the Boy’s in Green will battle Sweden for 2^nd spot and the playoff against. The playoff will be the 8 next best 2^nd place finishers. So it will be important to win ever game.



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.

Saint Patrick get the League off to a good start

Ian Daly of Saint Patrick celebrates a goal at home against Iceland representative

            Saint Patrick Athletic FC is the first Irish team to get a win in the 2011-12 international competitions. Saint Patrick defeated IBV Vestmannaeyar (Iceland) in the opening rounds of the Europa League. There are 3 clubs that the League of Ireland place in the Europa League. St Patrick, Boheminas and Sligo Rovers.  St Patrick had to play in the first round because of their 5^th  place finish.

            The Irish league(26) is better than Iceland’s (40)and also has a better co-efficient. The Saints have a very good team this year and I was expecting a win here. There are currently in second place in the League and are in fine form.                   

This is great for the Saints to get an international win. This helps the image of the club and the league overall. The Saints will now travel to Kazakhstan to play Shaktyor Karagandy in the second round. This Kazakhstan club placed 2^nd in their league last year. The Kazakhstan league also placed 3 clubs in the Europa League. Kazakhstan co-efficient (42) only trails Icelands(40) by 2 points but this club will be tougher competition for the Saints.

            The Bohemians were the League of Ireland 2^nd place team last year.  They will also be playing in the second round of the Europa League. Bohemians are currently in 5^th place but only 7 points shy of the top club. Bohemians will look for Anto Flood and Chris Fagan for their offense. The Bohemians will go up against Olimpija Ljubljana from Slovenia. The Slovenia co-efficient is 27 which is much better than the league of Ireland. This club is currently in 4^th place in the Slovenia top league. This will be a great test for Bohemians and the League of Ireland to test their skills against Slovenia.