League of Ireland 2016 in review

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    The year is review is about Dundalk, Dundalk and more Dundalk. 1st Dundalk won 3^rd title in a row. This is a huge achievement since it is so hard to keep the same roster from they year before. They started out front and remained there all year.....very similar to the previous year. Cork chased them all year just like the previous year. They (Dundalk) also reached the FAI Cup final for the 2^nd year in a row. Cork City who placed 2^nd for 3 years in a row finally beat Dundalk F.C. in the 2016 FAI Cup final. The final had a huge turnout of 26,400 spectators. This was second best at the Aviva since it was built in 2010. (1^st FAI Cup Final in the Aviva).

            Cork City, Derry City and Shamrock Rovers will all be playing in the Europa League 2017-18. These teams will earn about half their budget playing international games so they all will be favorites to challenge for the League title in 2017.

Limerick FC won the First division and they will play in the premier division in 2017. Longford Town will be regulated to the First Division. Wexford Youths lost the playoff games to Drogheda United. Drogheda U will play in the Premier League to keep the League fresh will 2 new clubs.

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            Top scorers: The top scorer was Cork City’s  Sean Maguire. He was followed closely by Derry City’s Rory Patterson and Dundalk’s David McMillan. Not 
surprising all their clubs will be playing in Europe next year. 

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 Stephen Kenney phenomenal coaching Dundalk to their 3 consecutive Championships. He also guided them in 3 rounds of the Champions league and group stage of the Europa League. He turned Dundalk around in 2013 after a 4-8-18 in 2012 record. They were supposed to be regulated. Monaghan United withdrew from the league saving Dundalk Premier League status. Kenney led his players to a 2^nd place in 2013; thus qualifying them for Europe League games and money Dundalk spends wisely to acquire players.  

                 
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Player of the year: Daryl Hogan was named Player of the year. Stephen Kenney was named manager of the year. Other outstanding players who were nominated for POTY were Stephen O’Donnell (Dunalk), Sean Maguire(Cork), Greg Bolger (Cork) and Gerard Doherty GK (Derry City).

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European Success: Dundalk entered the Champions League and beat Iceland Champion. Third qualifying round they had to play Belarus Champion BATE Borisov. They beat them 3-1 aggregate. Dundalk then entered the Champions Route against Polish giant Legia Warsaw. This game was so big Dundalk had to play in Dublin’s Aviva stadium. 30,417 fans showed in the Aviva to cheer on Dundalk in Europe’s Champions League. Unfortunatly this is where Dundalk fairy tail play ended in the Champions League. The losers at this stage get placed in the group stage of the Europa League.

Dundalk was seeded into this formittable group. Zenit Saint Perersburg were a great team and their fans were as scary as their team. Many Russian Zenit fans followed thier team to Tallaght stadium and made quite a spectacle of themselves. Dundalk play very well against all this competition but the wear and tear finally caught Dundalk. This was the most spectatular season any LOI club ever had.

Money Earned: It is estimated Dundalk earned $5.4 Million in the Champions League. By enter into the group stage of the Europa League they earned 360,000 for their win and 120,000 for their tie. After astronomical expenses Dundalk will pocket 2.5 to 3 Million of the $5.4 Million earned. Their priority is to sort out the lease with the owner of Oriel Park. They will make no investment. The thought is the will but the Park from the owner, and place a new pitch before they invest in a new stand. They will invest in their youth development plan and try to keep Stephen Kenney who has guided this miraculous run since 2013.

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Finally a few stories in 2016 that did not involve Dundalk...

Stadium redevelopment: Tallaght Stadium just got the go ahead to add a 3^rd stand behind one of the goals. This will make Tallaght a UEFA category 4 stadium enabling any LOI club play European matches there if need be. When Dundalk played in the Europa Group stage against Russia, Netherlands and Isreal clubs Tallaght was near capacity. Maybe the council are hoping there can be a repeat each year for other LOI teams!?!?!?

Artist picture of Tallaght Stadium 3rd stand. to make Tallaght a UEFA Category 4 Stadium (8,128 capacity)

League Restructuring

Yes most of the talk about the League is about Dundalk FC. Dundalk 3 League Title in a row, the Champions League success, the Europe League group game win and tie and the money windfall from such progress.  There were a few other stories like being player of the year in Dundalk leaving for England. There was Corks City’s frustrating 3 years of chasing Dundalk and not catching them.

           There is also talk about contracting the Premier division going from 12 to 10 clubs and the first division increasing for 8 clubs to 10.  There is a huge push back from Premier Clubs resisting this change. Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk, Sligo Rovers and Derry City were in favor of reducing to 10 teams. I find it funny that 4 out of the 5 clubs that want to reduce to 10 are the ones playing in the European tournaments. As we all know they clubs boost up their roster since they will have more money for playing in the European tournaments. The teams that against dropping 3 out of the league at the end of this year are the clubs that are in jeopardy of failing to remain in the Premier division.

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Year	Avg Att
2007	1,715
2008	1,796
2009	2,032
2010	1,612
2011	1,613
2012	1,645
2013	1,546
2014	1,558
2015	1,685
2016	1,472

Attendance is also reached a 10 year low with average attendance at only 1,472 for the 2016 season. This is troubling at face value. There was a drop off with the league leaders and the lower teams. I believe 2017 will bounce back to 1,500 average. First the 2 lowest clubs were regulated. Limerick averaged attendance was above the premier league average in the first division so they will help immediately. Also Dundalk and Cork never seem to relinquish their old on the #1 and #2 spots. The almost repeat of the 2015 season got a little old for the followers and it stayed that way all year. This did not create excitement in other clubs when teams change position in the standings.

Outlook: Well I believe the teams who have the bigger budgets will get the better players. Since about 1/2 the budget can come from the Europa League and exponentially more from the Champions League--- look for Dundalk, Shamrock Rovers, Derry City and Cork City to be the favorites at the start of the season. Limerick F.C will be a nice addition back with just the City drawing more attention to the league. Drogheda United will bring back the Louth Derby. Doesnt sound to exciting but i dont care.... I like the LEaguie of Ireland...why ...well I am Irish. I dont care about the Premier League.... I like this League. I like the history behind it, I like the clubs that play in it and i Like the fans that support it.  I am hoping for another Club like Dundalk to make the 3rd round in the Champions League and pack the Aviva again.

Four games drawing my interest in the FAI Cup

Ok---it is about time I checked in on my favorite little league. Dundalk is still out in front, just like last year with Cork City FC nipping at their heels. Dundalk FC was just tied last week end to make matters interesting. So lets take a look at the FAI Cup 2015.

The Cup winner gets a Europa League spot and badly needed finances if they qualify, not to mention the only excitement many supporters feel, when they realize they are out of the league title race.

Round 3 is August 23 and lets take a look at a few matches.

Cork City FC vs Saint Patrick Athletic @ Turners Cross

The biggest match will be played at Turners Cross which pits 2^nd place Cork City against 3^rd place and current FAI Cup Champion; Saint Patrick’s Athletic. This game will get the most coverage because of the popularity of these famous Premier League clubs. Cork will rely on the trio of Billy Dennehy 9 Karl Sheppard 9 and Mark Sullivan 8 to score. City also has the best defense in the league conceding only 11 goals, lowest in the league. The Saints are in great form right now, best in the league. They are on a 5 game winning streak and the have scored 3 goals in each of their last 4 games. The Saints have Chris Forrester who has scored 11 goals, 3 short of League leader for the season. The Saints also can boast of 2014 Player of the year Christy Fagan, who has scored 5 goals this year.  Ohhhh when the Saints –come marching ing in –oh when the Saints come Marching in! The Saints should be feeling good since they just knocked off their Dublin Rival Shamrock Rovers at home.

  

Bohemians FC vs Bray Wanders @ Dalymount Park

                This pits the 5^th place club against the 6^th place club. Both are out of the League race at this point so the Cubs are the tournaments that matter. Bohemians FC are the surprise team for me.  They have one of the smallest budgets but yet find themselves in 5^th place behind their arch Rival Shamrock Rovers.  Both Bray and the Boh’s have good teams…they both know to  the FAI Cup is their realistic glory for 2015. Dalymount Park will host another big game to add to the history.

Derry City FC vs Drogheda United F.C @ Brandywell

                This game pits the 8^th place teams against each other. Derry just found their offence against Galway, scoring 4 goals. This game will be at the Brandywell which is always a bonus. Droghs need something this season and another Cup viscory would go a long way.

Dundalk FC v Galway FC

                This will pit the current league Champions and current League leaders Dundalk FC against Galway FC.  Dundalk can boast goal scoring leader Richie Towell who has 15 goals. Galway will counter with the young (23 year old) Enda Curran who currently leads Tommy Dunn’s Tribesmen with 10 goals himself. Galway as you know just beat Dundalk FC Aug 3^rd in the semi-finals of the League of Ireland Cup. This game went to a penalty shoot out. Dundalk will be looking for payback – however the fans at Edmond Deacy park will be ready to host another great event.

The Southern Clubs League of Ireland 2015 preview

     The Southern 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 Southern Clubs			Capacity	Avg Attendance 2014
1	Cork City FC	Turners Cross	7,485	3,777
2	Limerick FC	Markets Field	3,000	865
3	Galway United	Deacy Park	5,000	970
4	Longford Town	City Calling Stadium	6,850	693

           

Cork City FC has had fantastic attendance last year with an average of 3,777. They were also in the title hunt until the last game of the season. Many followers claim that Turners Cross is the “best” venue to take in a League of Ireland game.  They have a nice clean stadium that is the only all seater stadium in the League. The stadium has about 7,458 capacity. They also play on a beautiful grass pitch. Cory City is the second largest city located with in the Republic of Ireland. This year City’s faithful will enjoy the bonus money from the international competition (Europa tournament) this summer and welcome their opponent eagerly. I believe Cork will sign a healthy group of players they will need for the Europe League games and the season of 2015.

Limerick FC has finally returned to their spiritual home of Markets Field. Thomond Park was beautiful rugby stadium but average attendance of fewer than 1,000 . This made the Thomond Park (26,600) seem like every game it was empty. So for all of those who say “build it they will come”----your wrong. Limerick FC fans and players alike will enjoy playing in their true home field. Market’s field which has a capacity of 3,000 will be so much cozier to watch a game for Limerick’s faithful. Limerick FC will be looking forward to the big Munster derby against Cork City this year.

Galway United is finally back in the Premier League. Galway is one of the big 4 urban areas in the Republic of Ireland. It is important for the league to constantly have a presence in this city. Sligo has been flying the banner for county Connaught by itself. The entire county could the exposure from another club to represent Connaught. Galway United are owned by their supporters and have had a rough time organizing and agreeing on a single club. Galway had a great run at the end of the 2014 season and placed 3rd. They entered into a home/away playoff against perennial power Shelbourne. They shut them out 2-0 at home. Then traveled to Dublin and won again 2-1. This qualified them for a playoff against UCD. They again won both games 5-1 aggregate. This was a tremendous accomplishment for the club and supporters alike.                                                                                  Galway United will play at Eamonn Deacy Park  that usually has one of the best pitched in the entire League of Ireland. Galway last played in the Premier Division in

2011…so they have been absent for the last 3 years. Look for Galway to get their feet wet this first year back and play with a very young team. Look for First Division player of the year nominee Ryan Connolly to conduct the attack in the middle. Ryan is 5’10’’ will look to connect to top American FW Jack Keegan.

 Longford Town yes ..I know Longford is more North than all the Dublin Clubs. I just wanted to break my groups up into 4 team groups. I wanted to place Bray Wanders with the Dublin Clubs since of their close proximity…….SORRY!!!! Longford Town FC does have 2 FAI Cup. They won back to back titles in 2003 and 04. They did win the League of Ireland First Division and that was last year. Longford Town FC attendance and interest is the least in the league. Lets see if they can come close to the league average in attendance. That would be nice.

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.

           

Invest in stadiums Turners Cross

League of Ireland attendance




Turners Cross stadium



One of the main goals of the League of Ireland is attendance. Only once in the last 10 seasons has the average gone over 2,000. The club that leads attendance is Cork City. Cork City has always been above the League average. The Club has had the best attendance 6 out of 9 seasons. I do not have stats for 2009 or the 2002 season. The league should look at what Cork City is doing to attract fans. The first criteria is that the club has to have a decent team….meaning can not be the worst team in league that year. The next aspect I would look at is the stadium. Does the stadium have nice seating? Does the stadium have a roof to keep fans dry in wet weather? How are the other facilities like the bathrooms, buying food and beer? The most important is the atmosphere. Cork City plays at a stadium called Turners Cross in Cork. The seating capacity is 7,485 making it one of the few all-sweater stadiums in the League. The surface is a grass pitch. There have renovations over the years making it one of the nicest stadiums in the League.