Is an Eircom League club a good buy?

Husker, the last few seasons, especially the carry on at the top of the club, would go against Dundalk being allowed into a new top flight. Around the time of the co-op changeover, the club had were approached by a pair of investors from Germany who were heavily involved with Eintracht Frankfurt. They proposed putting 1million punts into the club and to get this windfall the strings were that they would put in place 4 professionals to run the club (they were buying the marketing and development rights basically). But it was rejected, despite letters of guarantee from banks in Germany, the sticking point was that the club refused to open the books to show where monies were coming and going.

I do have faith in a pyramid system, it would give a chance to ambitious small clubs and more of an incentive to hang onto good young lads. But why would anyone bother investing in a league club (or smaller intrmediate or senior club) when there is no movement in it.

I know a lot of what went on, and I think the co-op did untold damage.
Will we be punished for it for ever........

I was 50/50 in Dundalk and Germany at the time and was involved with hurling in the town, and the nonsense that went on soured a lot of good people, and then the County Board (by accident) fell into success on the back of a League win and lots of gear sales. It's sad to compare standing on the terrace watching Dundalk struggle against a bunch of Limerick schoolboys while "fans" argued with the Dundalk goalkeeper at the town end, and a night when they replayed Sligo in the cup and the place was packed with people from as far away as Reaghstown!

dont know long you have been away for almo but basically the shed on the far side has been demolished, the terrace move about 20 yards closer to the pitch , carrick road end is now just that - a road- and theres a new bunch of supporters who gather where the shed used to be. this bunch of supporers sing and chant their way through most of the game. hard to believe I know. even in the pouring rain against Waterford. anyway back to the premier. 12 teams. some points allocated for past 4 years performances but this was originally to be 5 years, but Kildare are not in the league 5 years so the Fai changed the criteria to 4 years. which is bad for Dundalk as 5 years ago they were in the premier and won the cup. but that year no longer counts. back to the 12 teams. Rovers will make up for Dublin City. that leaves a straight decision. will Waterford ( and Bray and both be relegated and Dundalk and Galway be promoted) be replaced by either Dundalk or Galway. I wouldn't be surprised if the Fai went around Dundalk and promoted Galway.thats the rumour on the mill anyway. But if that is the case why did Dundalk and Waterford have to play off?
must be getting old Huskerdu. chip falls off on a regular basis but its easy to put back.

Shels have a long term lease on Tolka, but have sold an option on the purchase to Ozzie Kilkenny, Ivano Cafolla and Jerry O'Reilly (Coneforth Ltd), they've been keeping the club going through its recent travails.

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Cuchulainn, I was there (on the outside) in October but have seen photos. The ground could be a real work of art, and it has to have improved from the broken windows and tarmac banks of old, and the shed was always fun to look at, or even walk by. The club does have terrific potential, but I wouldn't see Galway go up at it's expense (unless the runours are true) as the Galway public are dreadful for sports (even GAA). They have a really decent rugby side but they struggle to get a meagre 4,000 crowd, their soccer team can do things but there is a poor attitude from the local council - like when they pulled down all the rugby posters because it was clashing with a Macnas do, very sad.

I couldn't see many Irish millionaires buying a club for their own good, MacAnthony bought Peterborough (to make them a force in English and European football), but weren't Carlisle to have been the same.......I would always hark at the European multi-sport model, but since they're all self-serving it's no point.

are Reading owned by Madejski? and Wigan owe a lot to Whelan. Hence the Madekski and JJB stadiums.

almo said:

I remembered Ollie Byrne saying that if someone walked in with a million euros the club was theirs. But what are Eircom League clubs worth?

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Sounds interesting, only a million! You wouldn't be long getting that back. Now let me see, say fifty people (that paid in) at the average game at a tenner apiece....

thats Monaghan you'r talking about, though I did hear complains about Shels attendances this year. would say the average attendance for dundalk's last 5 games was around 2,500 certainly over the 2,000 mark for the rovers, athlone,kilkenny,limerick and waterford matches. still wouldn't be enough to break even without the bars, lotto, sponsorship etc.

So the rumours (rampant since around June) that both Shams and Galway were going to get the two places have been confirmed. I know there was supposed to be a process but the dogs on the streets knew that Galway had been pencilled in from a long way back. Didn't matter where Dundalk came, those two places were already decided. why the play off with waterford united? hoping Dundalk would lose and that would make the fai look good. so the fact that Dundalk finished two places higher than Galway this year counted for nothing. the fact that waterford lost just gave the fai an excuse to relegate them but not promote the club that beat them. in theory the last 4 years results counted . in those 4 years Galway have played all 4 years in division 1 and waterford most ( if not all in the premier) that fact that waterford lost to dundalk still placed them 1 place above galway this year. no matter which way you look at it it's pretty obvious that galway were the fai's choice from a long way back. the process was just a sham.
nothing else to be expected of the fai of course.

apparantly there is some guy outside FAI HQ at the moment protesting and threatening to set himself on fire because Dundalk are not going to be promoted, Merrion Square is full of police, fire brigade and ambulances......

john gill, lordy, can you imagine jose mourinho if they dont get into the champs league next year!!! .
They said it was a can of petrol, although if he came down from dundalk, maybe it was red diesel(is that inflammatory?).

edit: Rumour JG to be on the late late this friday. Should be good, he tells it like it is, although all the clubs were forewarned what the criteria was gonna be, if the Dundalk comm. couldnt get their house in order, why should that be galways fault who obviously did.

It was John Gill! Holy god, I;m shocked, I haven't reda that anywhere!

The FAI were eager to try spread the game out, no point in having 2 teams from a small county in the top flight, better to have someone from a "new" market on board, ie Galway. But maybe it's only me, but isn't Galway a wasteland for sport? Or at least sport that involves activity other than hiding stashes or fiddling for tourists (very biased I know). That Rovers would go up was a given, but Galway, even with Connacht working wonders on and off the field, the local council are determined to kill them off.

Dundalk don't deserve to go up, at present, and it would be better if they had another year to build up a stronger following and financial base. The whole nonsense over "Gerry Matthews has put a lot of his money into this club" was the same that I heard when they were getting rid of the McQuillans and others who ove the years had spent and made money on the club.

Thank goodness for Ollie that he had a good boss and players, otherwise Shels might be doing a Dundalk and playing in Europe when in the second level domestically!

Okay, saw the pic and read the article, is there any way to get someone of that, well, "girth" to maybe wrap up in a nice concealing club anorak? What a coward, why didn't he do the deed, and hang onto a couple of board members and John Delaney when doing so!

almo said:

It was John Gill! Holy god, I;m shocked, I haven't reda that anywhere!

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JG was called in as negotiator by the cops. He wasn't the one threatening self immolation.

Okay, it was cold this morning, I was tired, my english is suffering, I misunderstood. I read that he was raced by Garda escort from Portlaoise to Merrion Sq, which make me wonder, if I take a spin over to the US, douse myself in petrol and say I'm going to make a nice Irish b-b-q unless Nicole Kidman comes for a cuppa, will they get her or will I be gunned down?

so there we have it( joe duffy today) Shels are bankrupt. Shams have no ground of their own. yet both qualified for a 'premier' league uefa licence. mickey mouse wouldn't get a look in at the fai.

But Shams are a "glamour" side, Shels the european cup run "heroes".

It was interesting to read that Finbarr Flood-plain is in with a group to take over. And it's even more interesting to read that good old Ollie will sell for the right price and to the right seller. So I guess it's suppose to make Shels fans more secure that he's using certain hacks from the Indo to tout for business.

The EL is getting more of a joke by the day. Why isn't there just one league? Surely 22clubs playing each other twice with 2 feeder leagues (north-south Dublin-Galway line) each sending 2-4 new clubs up each year?

Ollie was on rte the other day and what he was suggesting wasn't a million miles away from the rumours in dundalk a few months ago. ie dublin corpo own tolka but shels have a 99 year lease from 1962 (or thereabouts). tolka is valued at €40m. so ollie will relinquish the tenancy if he shares the €40m with dublin corpo 50:50. a few months ago I heard a rumour that if Dundalk relinquished their tenancy on oriel then it might be possible to come to a settlement wherby dundalkfc would be able to set up on a greenfield site somewhere else. Don't think this is a runner as Gerry Matthews appears to developing the ground with new plans for an indoor centre of some sort on the Ardee Road end of the ground., and he has installed new floodlights, putting in new dressing rooms and that new indoor centre on the Ardee Road of the ground. Hardly the signs that they are thinking of leaving. anybody who knows Dundalk knows that Oriel is in the absolute number 1 locality for location, location, location. ( field of about 1km further on from oriel on the other side of the carrick road sold two years ago for many millions of euro. now a housing development needless to say. anyway we now appear resigned to the first division. but still don't understand how a club who are bankrupt can obtain a premier uefa licence. then again why should it surprise me, after all Shels owed the taxman a small fortune last year and they still got the licence. and by the way during the Shamrock Rovers- Limerick game near the end of the season a Limerick player was hurt and had to be removed from the pitch at Tolka. but there was no stretchers available, so after a long delay they took out a pool table and carried him off on that. and they still got a premier licence? how many dublin based papers reported that? and they still got a premier licence. no ground. no stretchers. its a joke.