Cork City F.C - gone

D

Deiseblue

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City join Celtic,Hibs,Albert Rovers,Evergreen and Fordsons in Cork's football graveyard.
What is it about Cork and it's inability to hang on to it's football teams ?
 
The last time I was in Cork was the time of the furore over having no bus to bring them to a match.
I saw people wearing Man Utd, Liverpool, Celtic Chelsea jerseys but not one Cork City jerseys despite there being a Cork City club shop in the city centre.

They paid average players big money and just did not have the support to justify it.
 
They paid below average players big money. The standard of football in the LOI is rubbish. And let's be honest, the grounds are rubbish also. It costs too much for a bad product.
 
VOR said:
They paid below average players big money. The standard of football in the LOI is rubbish. And let's be honest, the grounds are rubbish also. It costs too much for a bad product.
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True, but isn't it a vicious circle? If there was greater support in merchandising and attendence then there would be more money to afford the better wages and retain some of the talent.

LOI will never compete with the Premiership or other "big leagues", but there is a huge soccer following in this country and the lack of general interest in the LOI means even semi-decent talent cannot be retained.

The OTT wages paid by the LOI was a gamble to try and keep or attract decent players. It didn't work, the public interest just wasn't there.

The LOI set the bar too high in that I think it exepected to draw huge crowds and stop all talent going to a bigger league. While ambition is creditable, realistic ambition is more worthy of credit.

It's a tough world at the moment for sponsorship of clubs and the League, TV rights aren't what they were promised to be and all that promised money was used to fund a dream. Hmmm, that sounds vaguely familiar...

Anyway, I've heard more people complaining about this and the "shame" than I've ever heard discussing attending a game or even watching a game on television. Everyone agrees it's a shame, everyone thinks everyone else should have done more to help the LOI and Cork.
 
I must say that I always found the standard to be quite good and Bohs,Drogheda,Pats and Shels have competed well in European games in recent years.
I was privileged to see some extremely talented players over the years in the LOI including Paul McGrath,Jim Beglin,Gerry Daly,Kevin Doyle , Pat Bryne and Daryl Murphy - all of whom went on to play for Ireland and that's only scratching the surface !
The areas of administration and ground standard ,as you say,are dreadful!
 
Deiseblue said:
I must say that I always found the standard to be quite good and Bohs,Drogheda,Pats and Shels have competed well in European games in recent years.
I was privileged to see some extremely talented players over the years in the LOI including Paul McGrath,Jim Beglin,Gerry Daly,Kevin Doyle , Pat Bryne and Daryl Murphy - all of whom went on to play for Ireland and that's only scratching the surface !
The areas of administration and ground standard ,as you say,are dreadful!
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As usual, Derry City are forgotten by you lot down south !!;)

Having said that, we went bust too. But at least we are back in the 1st Division and planning for the future by living within a proper budget.

As for below average players getting paid too much money, have you watched some of the brock footballers getting tens of thousands in the utopia that is the EPL? I think some people just believe the hype that Sky sells them. For me the EPL has been awful to watch this season (and indeed last as well) and its getting worse.

I would much rather support my local team, buy a season ticket and merchandise and cheer on local players. Thats real football.

Anybody who thinks that you are going to see high standard of football ability in the League of Ireland is being stupid. Its all relative. Its not the 'best league in the world' you know.
 
LOI soccer must be one of the worst run sports ever - its very sad because it has loads of potential - all wasted because most of those running teams and the league itself seem to be totally oblivious to the basics of sports administration.

I believe that a small bit of basic admin skills in each club coupled with getting rid of the chancers and Arthur Daley types that the league seems to attract like flies to excrement would do wonders for the LOI.
 
^ what it says here,

plus it will always suffer from the fact that so many Irish people are obsessed with English (and Scottish) football teams.

Irish people seem to be very patriotic about most things except when it comes to buying trashy British tabloids and pumping money into British football PLCs.
 
VOR said:
They paid below average players big money. The standard of football in the LOI is rubbish. And let's be honest, the grounds are rubbish also. It costs too much for a bad product.
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The standard in the LOI has improved immeasurably over the last decade and a bit. Actually it is measurable, as the LOI's UEFA co-efficient has steadily improved. Sadly prejudices such as the above continue to exist among the Irish "footballing" public with their obsession of watching the English Premiership and deriding their own league at every given opportunity.

Turner's Cross is an excellent ground by the way, although I agree that clubs in general wasted the opportunity to improve their grounds and gambled on paying inflated wages in the hope of European success.

Hopefully Cork can get their act together finally and build a proper community based club that will be back in the Premier playing to full houses shortly.
 
I have to point out that I am not local to Cork and I don't have a local team to support. The nearest LOI team to me is either Limerick or Galway. I am not travelling to watch either as I just don't enjoy it, either division.

I spent years going to matches. In college, I would go to watch UCD. In later years, I had friends playing with Pats, Bohs and Bray so I would go to games after work. I never really thought the quality was good enough though.

In fairness I will agree that Turners Cross is a good spot. But you really have to wonder what is wrong when they couldn't even sell the Celtic game a few months back. And that was to pay off debts so the city should have supported.

I suppose I am just disillusioned with seeing conference/league 2 level players. I agree the standard has improved but I just don't believe it has improved enough to justify my money and traveling. So I opted out. The last game I went to was in Galway the year before last.

If I had kids of a match going age I would take them though, but it would be to the Clare League! They might as well get used to watching rubbish early!
 
VOR said:
I have to point out that I am not local to Cork and I don't have a local team to support. The nearest LOI team to me is either Limerick or Galway. I am not travelling to watch either as I just don't enjoy it, either division.

I spent years going to matches. In college, I would go to watch UCD. In later years, I had friends playing with Pats, Bohs and Bray so I would go to games after work. I never really thought the quality was good enough though.

In fairness I will agree that Turners Cross is a good spot. But you really have to wonder what is wrong when they couldn't even sell the Celtic game a few months back. And that was to pay off debts so the city should have supported.

I suppose I am just disillusioned with seeing conference/league 2 level players. I agree the standard has improved but I just don't believe it has improved enough to justify my money and traveling. So I opted out. The last game I went to was in Galway the year before last.

If I had kids of a match going age I would take them though, but it would be to the Clare League! They might as well get used to watching rubbish early!
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Hi VOR. That Celtic match was a joke. Scotland were playing that week and Celtic sent over a third string outfit. Nobody ever heard of any of them.

Chairmen's egos have had a lot to do with LoI soccer problems in Cork over the years. Parc de Plonk is a monument to that fact.

I was a huge City fan from around the time the Club was formed. In the 70's, I went to all Hibs' home games and disliked Celtic with a passion! :D About 5 years ago I became very disillusioned by the whole set up at City. I couldn't get over the wages they were paying and it gradually dawned on me that I was a supporter of a company, and not a Club. It's a pity they're gone but they've been a laughing stock over the last few years.

For those of you who don't know, City don't own the Turner's Cross grounds. They're owned by the Munster Football Association and, credit where it's due, they've turned it into one of the finest soccer grounds in the country...... [broken link removed]
 
Rovers1901 said:
The standard in the LOI has improved immeasurably over the last decade and a bit. Actually it is measurable, as the LOI's UEFA co-efficient has steadily improved. Sadly prejudices such as the above continue to exist among the Irish "footballing" public with their obsession of watching the English Premiership and deriding their own league at every given opportunity.

Turner's Cross is an excellent ground by the way, although I agree that clubs in general wasted the opportunity to improve their grounds and gambled on paying inflated wages in the hope of European success.

Hopefully Cork can get their act together finally and build a proper community based club that will be back in the Premier playing to full houses shortly.
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A much appreciated comment from a Rovers supporter. Fair play! That's the only way forward now!
 
Jeez! You're early. Did the Long Valley run out of Beamish? :confused:
 
I have been involved with Cork City FC as a supporter since their inception in 1984 and more specifically I am a member of FORAS (Friends Of the Rebel Army Society) www.forastrust.ie since it was founded over two years ago. FORAS now own and run Cork City FC albeit in the First Division rather than the Premier Division.

The history of Cork teams in League of Ireland soccer is second to none in relation to trophies won but where clubs have fallen down is on the financial side. The history of soccer in Cork is littered with the names of clubs that have gone to the wall due to financial mismanagement, greedy owners or downright incompetence. Some teams you might remember (or your parents & grandparents will) would be Cork Hibs, Cork Celtic, Evergreen Utd, Cork Athletic and Cork Utd. All of these folded and the aim of FORAS is to ensure that Cork City FC does not go the same way.

FORAS now operate Cork City FC having been awarded the licence by the FAI and we plan on running the club using financial prudence. While success may elude us on the pitch for a few years it is important that we put solid foundations in place to ensure that we do not go the way of other clubs previously mentioned and continue to have a team representing Cork in the League of Ireland.

We have named the club Cork City Foras Co-operative as this will always be abbreviated to Cork City FC or CCFC and once the liquidator starts selling off assets we will (hopefully) buy the name Cork City Football Club.
 
Fair play to you, Banker. Well done. Hope all goes well. I might even start going back to The Box, myself.

And, lest Purple gets the wrong idea, Turner's Cross pitch was known as The Box in the good old days, in Cork........ Come to think of it, all days in Cork are good days! ;)
 
Good to see another Cork side replacing City.
Will be good to see the Munster derby against Munster's most succesful team ever - Waterford !
 
Deiseblue said:
Good to see another Cork side replacing City.
Will be good to see the Munster derby against Munster's most succesful team ever - Waterford !
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And we'll turn the clock back a few years and drink a few pint bottles of Phoenix with ye next door in The Horseshoe, Deise! ;)
 
Absolutely Lex.
Always enjoyed visiting Turner's Cross and the much missed Flower Lodge .
 
Ah, The Lodge.............. David O' Leary once said that it had the best playing surface in Europe.

I was there the day ye beat us 3-2 to win the League in '72. Amazing end to the game. (I think there were 25,000 at it). Hibs 2-0 up late on and still lost. It took me a few days to get over that one. :( Still, we had a big bounce back courtesy of Miah Dennehy the following Sunday in the FAI Cup Final.
 
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