[loz]

Reading this report
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Gaelic David sizes up football giant

made me ponder why are there no big clubs in Ireland (north and south)
There are some reasonable sized towns.
And they have produced some outstanding footballers, but they have all found fame abroad. And also some notable appearances on the international stage.

If Scotland can produce a Celtic and a Rangers, why can't Ireland support for example Dublin and Belfast teams of similar stature?

[mossym]

becuase for years soccer trailed behind the gaa in terms of number of players. if you played gaa in a lot of towns you weren't allowed play soccer, at any level. so soccer was always the poor relation. most towns in ireland have a very nice gaa pitch, but soccer clubs had to borrow farmers field for a soccer pitch.

you have to remember, in scotland, soccer is probably the biggest sport for kids i would reckon. however in ireland it falls way behind the gaa, and now rugby is streaming ahead as well. also very hard for someone to set up a professional team in ireland when the english clubs being richer can come in and buy any players they want.

[Dony]

Ireland will always produce good players, but the ambition is always to play in England, which is why no club here will ever grow to the stature of clubs like the Old Firm.

There are some very good football clubs here who concentrate on the youth structure rather than the senior teams. My son plays both GAA and soccer, but the facilities, training and competition at his soccer club is of a much greater standard than his GAA training.

(PS..I'm only calling it soccer to differentiate between it and gaelic football )

[mossym]

Originally Posted by Dony

There are some very good football clubs here who concentrate on the youth structure rather than the senior teams. My son plays both GAA and soccer, but the facilities, training and competition at his soccer club is of a much greater standard than his GAA training.

different story down soutn i'm afraid. locl gaa club has a pitch on the edge of town, witha proper clubhouse and all weather training area.

one of the soccer pitches we had for a season when i was 16 if you stood on one goals and looked at the far end all you could see was the crossbar of the other goals, the hill in the middle of the pitch was so high. We had to leave the u16 league as we couldn't find an adult to manage us and no minibus company would take us to away matches without an adult. most people i know avidly follow an english soccer team, but won't give the time to get involved locally. i fully intend getting involed in the local club when i have kids and they are at an age to start playing

[Dony]

It's the opposite for me in terms of facilities. The local GAA pitch at the end of our road is decent enough, (floodlit pitch and training pitch) and will be better when enough funds are raised to build the new clubhouse. But without the help of parents to taxi the children to and from games, and do all the other voluntary work, there wouldn't be a club. Admittedly, I live in a small parish, and we are surrounded by some very big GAA teams.

I'm lucky to be local to a very progressive soccer club. They have teams from under 9 upwards, as well as a Soccer Saturday camp for all age groups. Each of the coaches have the relevant IFA/UEFA coaching badges, and the training they give the children is great to watch (no favouritism or teams being picked in the clubhouse bar here ). Building work is currently under way for a massive new training area that will include all weather pitches and "a skills pitch". Looking forward to see what that is!

[mossym]

Originally Posted by Dony

I'm lucky to be local to a very progressive soccer club. They have teams from under 9 upwards, as well as a Soccer Saturday camp for all age groups. Each of the coaches have the relevant IFA/UEFA coaching badges, and the training they give the children is great to watch (no favouritism or teams being picked in the clubhouse bar here ). Building work is currently under way for a massive new training area that will include all weather pitches and "a skills pitch". Looking forward to see what that is!

count your blessings..the only time we ever had more than one adult show up for one of our games was when we were playing away and a bunch of the younger fathers showed up, we thought we had finally generated some interest. They only wanted to go on a drinking session in the town we were going to and figured as we were going there anyway they would even have to pay for the minibus. it was a disgrace. we had to sit around for 2 hours after the game while they were still drinking.

tbh mate, i have been fanatical about soccer since i was a kid, i was playing u16, u18 and for two junior teams at the same time when i was 16, even when i moved to the states i played on 5 different teams in different leagues during the week. i would have loved, absolutely loved a setup like you described, where we were actually trained properly, coached, thought the right way of doing things. i'm glad, very glad to see that at least for some kids(yours as mentioned) they get the attention in sports while young that they deserve

it might come across as sour grapes on my part, but it has been one of my pet peeves for a long time that down around me parents will not put in teh time for their kids sports. They're willing to drop them off and hope someone else will take care of them. It's a disgrace. count your blessings for the local setup that you have