Student Till I Graduate ; A chat with Declan Hughes

                                                       Every club has an historian. A fact finder. A go to man that can reel off the most unique or obscure statistic. A know-it-all for the ages! Recently I caught up with the fountain of knowledge that is Declan Hughes and his specialized subject, UCD.

1. Declan Hughes. Club historian. Passionate Fan. League of Ireland lover!

As a UCD supporter you are aware crowds are small at the Bowl, yet the club itself is very sustainable despite this. With 25,000 students on campus does it annoy you that more don't check out the action right on their weekly doorstep?

Brian, I've been watching the team from the end of the second season 1980/81 and at no time during my tenure as a supporter has the club enjoyed significant support from the Student Body. Back then the Student population was only around 11,000 but the crowds attending regularly were around 20% on average higher than they are at present. Some of our fan base left when we changed our home venue from Belfield Park which was on the N11 ( Stillorgan Road) side of the campus to UCD Bowl which is on the Clonskeagh side of the campus. There are many factors playing into this issue.  Firstly a lot of students are from outside the city and county of Dublin and go “home " for the weekend which means they are not there on Friday nights when the games take place and hadn't gotten back to Dublin yet when we played on Sunday afternoons. Secondly a lot of students fall into three other camps GAA fans, rugby fans and LOI is shite fraternity.

Thirdly the percentage of supporters who already are turned on by the League of Ireland are already fans of other existing League of Ireland clubs when they get here.  Fourthly when we played on Sunday afternoons and the other teams moved to Friday nights we became a lot of fans “second " team  as they came to Belfield on Sundays to supplement their football fix each weekend.  We had a number of regular fans of Bohs and Shamrock Rovers in particular whom I got to know personally over the years and became firm friends with. They still come out to the occasional game but as we play on the same night as a lot of other teams they are no longer free to indulge their passion for their “second" team and that too has had an effect on our attendance figures.

 2. Every first trophy, or only trophy, at any club is special. For some it's something they do annually, for other clubs it's a moment in time to savour. Tell me your most vivid memories of the '84 cup run & eventual victory.

  Brian, firstly we won the Leinster Senior Cup in 1980/81 season on St. Stephen's Day. Not big news anywhere else very important in establishing the club as a League of Ireland rather than just an intervarsities entity.  To go to the Cup run firstly the outstanding memory is that we got drawn away from home in every single round! First round drawn away to Sligo losing 3-1 with 10 minutes left in the game and scrambled a 3-3 draw. The replay which we won 5-0 midweek on an afternoon because we had no floodlights was the only game of that Cup run which took place in Belfield Park. In the Quarter-Final draw we ended up away to Home Farm. When we beat them we got drawn against your team at Tolka Park. Because the two strongest teams , left in the last four got drawn against each other in the other semi-final , namely Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne, who were enjoying a respectable season in the League in 1983/84, people reckoned we had a shot at making the final but Waterford United we the bookies favourites to win that tie. Another thing we did on the way to the final was we had the good sense to lose a League game at home to Rovers 0-2 in April which lulled them into a false sense of security lol!  On the day of the original match which incidentally was very sunny day, the club had asked O’Neill’s to make up some scarves in the Dublin colours to sell at the game. UCD were boosted by the temporary support lent to us for the occasion, by St. Pat’s, Shelbourne and Bohemians as we took on Shamrock Rovers at Dalymount Park. We kept the most prolific League goalscoring partnership of the season, Alan Campbell and Liam Buckley scoreless in a 0-0 draw. The replay played before a much smaller crowd on the following Friday night. The Player of The Year night the following Tuesday was a great occasion and was the time I got to know that team particularly well and I was a regular season ticket holder in the 1984/85 campaign, despite being unemployed all year... got a Student ticket which I earned by compiling a quiz for a giveaway during Freshers week in 1984.

3. Some readers may not be aware that when Shamrock Rovers played in Milltown, UCD were actually the closest club logistically. This led to several players making the trip to the Hoops from Belfield. Did it leave a sour taste in fans mouths or did they expect it as some kind of inevitable progression for their players?

As a lot of the people for whom we were their second team were actually Shamrock Rovers fans they had no problem with it. You realise the nature of the role of your club when you are a Home Farm type club or a University club in our case, because winning the League is not a realistic option for us 99 times out of 100. So the players themselves who are ambitious and talented look to move on to what is perceived to be a bigger club. Over the years Gary O'Sullivan, Paul Cullen, Paul Kavanagh, Jason Colwell all left UCD for Shamrock Rovers in the early 1990's and later on were followed by Terry Palmer and then there were a number of years when for some reason we didn't lose many players at all and even fewer to Shamrock Rovers. Now they are firmly ensconced in Tallaght after decades of nomadic existence, the flow seems to be happening again.  In fairness to Shamrock Rovers, and I don't use that phrase often, the traffic hasn't been all one way.

In 1983 we got Alan O'Neill and Robbie Gaffney from Shamrock Rovers who were pivotal in us winning the FAI Cup and coming fourth the following season.

 We currently have two or three players who began their careers with Shamrock Rovers either as schoolboys or at best their Under 19's. Mark Langtry is one example of this. But if you look at the current Shamrock Rovers side they have Patrick Sullivan, Daniel Ledwith, Ronan Finn and they have farmed Ciaran Kilduff out on loan. UCD was the making of Ciaran Kilduff a young North Kildare lad who joined Shamrock Rovers. They loaned him to Kildare County during the Thoroughbreds final season in the League. He came to UCD on a 2 year scholarship and scored 29 League goals in two seasons which was a remarkable strike rate for a UCD player. For a variety of reasons not least of which was a major injury in 2011 it hasn't worked out for him at Shamrock Rovers he's becoming a firm favourite on Leeside. This is currently Kilduff's third spell at Shamrock Rovers and I am not sure he will ever make it there. But he has the talent to be a Premier Division League of Ireland striker of the highest calibre somewhere else.

 

4. We've often had chats about Summer Soccer, the in's & out’s, pros & cons. I remain confident it was the right move for the league but I know you had  reasonable reasons for this not being the case (stating the clubs still folded in summer soccer - Sporting Fingal etc) Do you still feel the same and what change would reverting to Sept-April footy be? 

While I am convinced summer football has been disastrous from an attendances standpoint I do understand why that is the case.

1) Holidays , schoolchildren are off between June and September in the case of secondary schools and late June and late August in the case of primary schools and families go on their annual summer holidays during this period smack in the middle of the season.

2) GAA, we lose that clash of cultures with the vast majority of cases and the amateur association gets the Entertainment Euros ahead of the FAI when it comes to making a choice.

3) The weather reason offered doesn't hold water in Ireland. Most of our summers hold a lot of water and in fact 2013 has been only the second one with what you would call decent weather since the switch to summer soccer. Now admittedly it is slightly warmer in the summer but not significantly drier. And as the season starts in March these days and includes September and October the number of warmer months is actually only half of the so called summer season.

4) When the weather does appear decent families find other things to do with their time such as go to the beach and other summer related activities rather than go to football games.

5) We lost a club a year between 2007 and 2011 Kildare County, Kilkenny City , Cobh Ramblers, Sporting Fingal  and Galway United most of whom went to the wall. From 1977 to 2003 only Thurles Town, Cork Celtic,  Cork United, Newcastlewest, St Francis and St.James's Gate and in the case of the latter three they just dropped into lower Leagues so we actually only saw three League of Ireland clubs go to the wall in 26 years.

6) Media coverage, especially in the newspapers,  goes down when you are up against the GAA and the attitude of some national broadcasters( yes I mean you Newstalk) that somehow League of Ireland doesn't merit regular coverage on their one hour nightly Football Show  but gets a miserable 19 minutes a week instead.

5. I long for the days of fanzines, and every LOI club should have at least one. Tell me of your involvement with the excellent 'Student Till I Graduate' the UCD fanzine of days gone by.

Well quite frankly I have written for the Match programme off and on since around 1985. I've edited, co-edited the programme and even in the days when it was merely a team sheet I was the one responsible for compiling the opposition's squad. But there were occasions when the powers that be wanted a different style of programme and my services were not called upon. On those occasions I contributed either to opposition programmes writing about UCD or in some cases their women's teams. I also contributed to general fanzines that took a look at the League as a whole and for a while was a regular contributor of articles to  a Bray Wanderers fanzine.  In the 2000's we had a fanzine called”Student Till I Graduate" and they asked me to contribute to their issues. Eventually all of us were subsumed into the programme again and eventually the fanzine bit the dust. 

6. Dr Tony O'Neill is embedded into the history of UCD, and so many ex-players I interviewed for the book had such warmth for the man, which came across in their interviews. Personally what did he mean to you & the club?

I was in a politics tutorial with my good friend Charlie McCormick , who was a player in the Superleague and eventually became the Secretary of that and thus became a committee member. Charlie also played for every UCD representative team including making 3 League appearance and 4 in the Shield during the 1986/87 season shortly before he emigrated to Germany.

 He introduced me to Theo Dunne who would be en route to a League of Ireland B game on Saturdays when I was coming out of a morning lecture that day, and Dr. Tony O'Neill who would inevitably be accompanying him. I was introduced to Keith Dignam, Aidan Reynolds, Joe Hanrahan and Ken O'Doherty over the first couple of seasons before I attended my first game which was a friendly against Vancouver Whitecaps in March 1981. There is no doubt he was a remarkable man and a fantastic sports administrator. He served as General Secretary of the FAI from 1988 to 1990 his tenure ended shortly after Italia 90. It was his idea to introduce the football scholarship programme which expanded to all the sports played in UCD and went from 1 a year in its inception season to over 100 athletes now benefitting from the programme. People as diverse as Trevor Giles, David Gillick and Brian O'Driscoll have all been products of the UCD Sports Scholarships Scheme. Over the years I got to know Dr. O'Neill well in a football context. He asked me shortly before he died to take over the running of the match programme with the proviso I wasn't to lose money. I sourced the printer, ( he was a guy based in Kildare that also did the Waterford United programme at the time), and ran it for over two years and was part of the matchday fundraising committee. I was the first person in the club to organise the sale of replica shirts. Now we have a whole range of football shirts, polo shirts and sweatshirts etc for sale. At the time of his death he was on a UEFA committee overseeing the Grounds being constructed in both Belgium and Holland in advance of EURO 2000.

Shortly after I began going to games, we were short a turnstile operator for a game at home to Bohemians. Dr. O'Neill asked Tony Sheridan to get me to man a turnstile which I duly did. It was the first of many tasks I have willingly undertaken for the club. I am still involved with the club some 14 years after the Doc died and I doubt I would be still there or indeed so many of the committee who are also still there 14 years later either.  

7. Naturally I look out for the 'Students' results each week from the graveyard that is First Division football, with Waterford United. Recent years the club have had a canny knack of doing just enough to avoid any relegation despite finishing in the lower half of the table. What are your & the fans realistic expectations at the start of each season?

 Realistic aspirations are mid-table obscurity and maybe another Leinster Senior Cup or a first League Cup win. Anything other than those is pie in the sky stuff that would require DA Hughes winning the Euromillions. And I have to win enough to partially bale out Red Star Belgrade too!

 

8. Finally, I've given you a magic wand and granted you three wishes to improve the League. Off you go.....................................

 Ok we execute the barstoolers and start again with the Irish population lol!  Nuke the entire EPL and the SPL for good measure. Joking aside, while all of these would actually help they are not going to happen so let's try and be realistic.

 I would wish that the mind set of people of this country whereby League's are not taken seriously in any code of sport by the supporters would disappear. Without this fundamental philosophical change of mind, the League of Ireland cannot prosper. The All Ireland Rugby League cannot prosper and the GAA National Leagues will always be the poor relation in comparison to the “Championship”. It's a mindset from the GAA which has polluted the outlook of supporters of every sport in this country and I believe is the main difference between this country and some others. That and the moronic obsession with the English Premier League, the technical level of which is poor compared to Spain, Germany and Italy, and I believe is a remnant of colonialism. I think showing all League of Ireland matches on TG 4, with commentary as Gaeilge, for about 100 years is the only way of curing the image of Soccer as a "foreign game" in some quarters! We need a substantial investment along the lines of what the Russian oligarchs are doing over there and in other Eastern European countries.

 Business men could turn any of the LOI clubs into the new Rosenberg for a fraction of the money wasted on Septic (Scottish Shamrock Rovers impersonators) and the consortium spent on Sunderland.  Unfortunately this is a country of event junkies. There were 25,000 people to watch Shelbourne against Deportivo in 2004. Less than 10% of that number were at the Reds next home game.  We played Liverpool in a friendly at the end of 1994/95 season and there were 23,700 at the game. Unfortunately 23,000 of them were up for Liverpool and the other 700 were made up of dyed in the wool League of Ireland fans lending us their support for the night.

*Pic above (left- to right) Declan Hughes, Brian Kennedy & Bartley Ramsey *author of 'The Finn Harps Story'

                                 
                                                 FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE..............

In a perfect world every League of Ireland club would have a book written about them. When you think of the history and longevity of many clubs that have graced the League of Ireland there’s a case for a couple of books, let alone one penned effort, such is the love of the club by their respected fans.

There is that old chestnut about everybody should write a book but trust me, that’s bollocks – especially if you are dealing with the hallowed history of a club that has been around before your grandfather, or your grandfather’s father!

In doing JUST FOLLOW THE FLOODLIGHTS I had to actively seek out the men behind the pen of those books dedicated to a club, to A) Get a better feel of the club and its history and B) getting those valuable little statistics to make people think ‘Jesus, I didn’t know he scored the 4^th goal in the 5-0 win over Drumcomdra back in 1968’.

In my acknowledgements I thanked just over a dozen authors for their knowledge which made compiling the book easier. Yet still there are a few clubs that’s definitive history remains unwritten.

In trying to piece that information together I tried my level best not to leave out any team, though to the best of my knowledge Bohemians, Galway United, Longford Town and Monaghan United’s tome remains unwritten whilst I can’t be sure about St Patricks Athletic and presume Wexford Youths haven’t, though it’s still rather an embryonic stage for Mick Wallace’s men. If I’m wrong please forgive me.

However I can endorse the following:

‘The Hoops’ by Robert Goggins & Paul Doolan

Absolutely superb publications from the lads. Robert helped with the Rovers stats which went hand in hand with the clubs success. Winning titles & cups were fine but getting the names to various triumphs was crucial. His knowledge of the very early years of the club was commendable. Produced another ‘Hoops history book in March of this year.

‘We are Rovers – an Oral history of Shamrock Rovers’ by Eoghan Rice

A novel way of putting his publication together (and getting a publisher to boot), Eoghan’s book is made up almost completely of quotes from a multitude of Shamrock Rovers players past and present. The style might not be everyone’s cup of tea... fortunately for me I liked it, and the amount of work it took, getting so many people involved in the first place.

‘Drogheda United – The Story So Far’  by Tom O’Reilly

Tom was generous to a fault, always willing to lend a hand, and indeed some of his info and pictures are included in the book (one priceless effort of the very first LOI meeting between Drogheda & the clubs would be arch nemesis Dundalk FC.)

‘DUFC – A Claret and Blue History’ by Brian Whelan

Lovely sheen to the book, some great stats, stories, and the better of the two publications on the Drogs. What helps author Brian Whelan is the rollercoaster ride that the Boynesiders went on in more recent times (around 2005-2009) which really produces a story of ecstasy then agony, then a little bit of joy again. Brian again gave me an insight to the book and some very valuable answers to my host of questions.

‘A Century of Cork Soccer Memories’ by Plunkett Carter

Plunkett is an amazing man. Truly amazing. His knowledge of any Cork side to have represented the Rebel County, from Fordson’s to Foras, is unequalled. I could actually have written a book on Cork football myself with the wonderful antidotes and archival bits and pieces he gave me. His century of soccer moments from Cork is a must buy (if you can still get it) for any fans of football on the Leeside.

‘The Bass Book of Irish Soccer’ by Sean Ryan & Noel Dunne

One of the older publications on the market that’s very hard to find. That’s a pity because the Bass book is a dual effort from Noel Dunne & Sean Ryan (or Mr. Statistic as I call him) which should be on your shelf. Great info. Ryan went on to produce the more recent ‘Official Book of The FAI Cup’ which stands alone as a tome to the Blue Riband, every game, every goal covered and a few stories thrown in for good measure.

‘The Irish Football Handbooks’ (Various editions) by Gerry Desmond & Dave Galvin

Running Plunkett Carter extremely close for the ‘fountain of knowledge leeside’ is Gerry Desmond. Along with co-author Dave Galvin, the handbook was the bible for League of Ireland fans back in the day. Again a publication that’s thin on the ground, mainly because it would sell out so fast, getting your hands on one of the publications which certainly enrich your knowledge of the league.

‘The Finn Harps Story’ by Bartley Ramsey

Has the look and feel of a high class publication churned out by a publisher which is even more reason to credit Bartley Ramsey on his self-published tome to Finn Harps. It’s a near 300 page history of the Ballybofey outfit and their sudden rise to fame in the early seventies after decades of being in the doldrums. The pictures (and quality) are stunning and backed up by just the right amount of info. A book to be proud of.

Getting Joe’s mobile number proved elusive at first but when I did, and finally meet the man, his knowledge was so important. The Bit O’Red has a history dating way back to 1928 so there was a lot to cover. Jimmy Surgeoner, Harry Litherland, Paul Magee, Chris Rutherford, Tony Fagan, Willie McStay and a gentleman named William Ralph ‘Dixie Dean’. Amazingly the one fact I couldn’t get for a complete 100% definite, was the highest attendance at The Showgrounds, though it once played host to a Eucharistic prayer meeting of 60,000 people ;)

‘The End of an Era - A History of Limerick Senior Soccer at the Markets Field 1937-84’’ by Aidan Corr & Bernard Spain

Two fabulous League of Ireland football men with a knowledge of the Shannonside club simply like no other man alive. To have one involved was great, to pin down two men and pick their brains – a sheer delight. Bernard’s antidotes were rivalled at every turn by Aidan with both men having an astonishing knowledge for facts and figures. With the rise in Limerick Fc it might be worth re-issuing the book as it has the one ingredient that is missing from the current clubs position....Markets Field. When you think and talk about Dalymount, Milltown or such, Markets Field was always talked about in the same breath, making it all the more reason to have this book.

‘A History of Sligo Rovers’ by Joe Molloy

Getting Joe’s mobile number proved elusive at first but when I did, and finally meet the man, his knowledge was so important. The Bit O’Red has a history dating way back to 1928 so there was a lot to cover. Jimmy Surgeoner, Harry Litherland, Paul Magee, Chris Rutherford, Tony Fagan, Willie McStay and a gentleman named William Ralph ‘Dixie Dean’. Amazingly the one fact I couldn’t get for a complete 100% definite, was the highest attendance at The Showgrounds, though it once played host to a Eucharistic prayer meeting of 60,000 people ;)

  

 ‘The History of Mervue United AFC 1960-2010” by William Henry

Though Mervue are still relative newcomers to the League, they do have a 50 year plus history which is well dug into in this book. Fair dues to William Henry and the lads at the club who helped fill me in with details which included a famous floodlight failure and a pesky monregel that could have scuppered United ever coming into the League.

‘Gods Vs Mortals’ by Paul Keane

A book like no other in that it takes a chunk of League of Ireland clubs who travelled into Europe to take on the continents finest. Okay it didn’t lead to many victories and there’s a fair few hammerings recited inside Paul’s book, but it’s still an absolute joy to read. 10 games are covered in all – Shamrock Rovers, Waterford, Athlone Town, Limerick United, Dundalk, Bohemians, Galway United, Derry City & 2 from Shelbourne. A great read with some wonderful quotes.

‘The History of Dundalk FC – The First 100 Years’ by Jim Murphy

Quite possibly the best of all the publications. The depth of knowledge that runs throughout the 485 pages is staggering. Jim Murphy has produced a book for the ages that simply won’t be topped by any other publication on the Oriel Park outfit. Even better, the Dundalk man breaks the book down season by season, adding a mesmerising amount of stats, from goalscorers, subs, sending’s off along with some truly glorious pictures. If you are a Lilywhite’s fan you simply have to have this book.

Believe me there are a whole host of League of Ireland books past & present out there to be discovered. Other favourites include MUD, SWEAT & JEERS, from Kilkenny City’s owner Jim Rhatigan, ‘WHO NEEDS CANTONA WE’VE GOT ROD DE KHORS’ on the mercurial man who had a multitude of spells with Athlone Town becoming a cult hero!

‘STRING OF MY HARPS’ a no holds barred effort from former Finn Harps manager Patsy McGowan, once the darling of Ballybofey, still a much talked about figure among fans of Harps and Sligo Rovers. Eamon McSweeney’s personal tale of footy in the North West who's name escapes me at the moment (4 brandys into this piece ;)  and you will also find more recent history books on BRAY WANDERERS, UCD along with an effort from Tolka Park in ‘ SHELBOURNE CULT HEROES’

Last but not least.....To keep things as up to date as possible ,TALLAGHT TIME , an ode to Shamrock Rovers dealing with the Hoops long awaited move to their new home in south Dublin, and the recent success that followed it, was released recently. Although not the first book on Rovers, it is the only publication that deals extensively with a period that included two back to back titles, Micheal O' Neill , Gary Twigg and the small matter of qualifying for the Europa League. By mostly bypassing the well covered overall history it gives the book a different edge, whilst appealing to a younger generation (not that it won't be bought by the old heads as well.)

I Know I’m probably forgetting a few so forgive me!

Here Comes The Bribe

                                                          HERE COMES THE BRIBE

It’s probably as old as the game itself, but fixing, bribes and betting scandals have been around forever and a day. With the beautiful game the means of fixing a result are many, with opportunities available for players and referees alike. Be it a result, number of goals or dubious sending-off, most decisions seem annoying but innocent however some have a sinister undercurrent.

A worldwide game, often with a worldwide problem. Were there’s greed and avarice among officials or those  susceptible to a bribe they will always be cheating.       

There are a lot of things outsiders say about League of Ireland Football, but bribery (I think or should I say hope) is not one of them.

Now don't get me wrong, there have been some referee's throughout the ages in this league that have stunned me with their level of ineptitude or bias towards some teams but you put it down to the guy not being good enough to officiate at that level.

                            However George Washington once wrote ‘Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder’ and as long as there are weak sportspersons within the game of football, or any sport, there will always be cheating of one form or another - check out the infamous 'penalty' for Anderlecht v Nottingham Forest from '84 that was well documented in the ref taking a bribe.

                                             In India and the sub continent billions of rupees are bet on the game. It seems the main source of corruption in soccer is South-East Asia, and particularly Singapore. The Asian obsession with European and especially English soccer is startling: The entire population of the British Isles is easily dwarfed by the numbers in China watching any Manchester United game, even though a 7:45 pm kick-off at Old Trafford is 3:45 am in Shanghai, and the club has one fanzine selling 35,000 copies a month—in Thailand.

So here are a few cases off bribes that might raise an eyebrow or two!

 FUR CRAZY

In 1996 officials from Dynamo Kiev offered Spanish referee Antonio Lopez Nieto a selection of fur coats worth over £20,000 to swing a Champions League tie v Panathinaikos which Kiev eventually won 1-0. The club of course denied the allegations but it fell on deaf ears. In an historic case, the Russians were found guilty and thrown out of the competition for three years. Several appeals later UEFA gave in and reduced the ban to just one season. Lopez Nieto is now retired but rumour has it he still wears his matching furs with his wife whilst going for the morning papers each day.

LOVE FOR SALE

In 1994 Italian club Torino were accused of supplying three prostitutes to a Belgian referee and linesman before the second leg of a Uefa Cup tie match against AEK Athens. The first leg was a draw with Torino winning the second leg. The Italian team claimed the three women were “interpreters” and believe it or not UEFA believed it and cleared Torino of any wrong doing. I know a few of my friends travelling to Amsterdam looking for “interpreters” to help them with the language next week!

TICKET TO BRIBE

In 1996, Fernando Barata, the former chairman of Portuguese club Farnese accused Porto chairman Jorge Pinto Da Costa of paying for a £3,000 holiday for a referee and his family. Da Costa was also accused of offering to bribe a Romanian ref with £30,000 for a 1984 Cup Winners Cup tie against Aberdeen (which Porto won.) Da Costa called the claims “ridiculous and absurd” and said the paid holiday was “simply an accounting error”. With some strong evidence of the table to convict the Porto chairman of bribery –UEFA stepped in, and guess what...... yep...all charges were dropped.

FILL YOUR BOOTS

In 1989 former Newcastle player Tommy Cassidy told the Sunday People that when he was manager of APEOL in Cyprus, the club officials rigged a home leg of a 1986 European cup tie against HJK Helsinki. He said “Our club openly entertained the Bulgarian referee and his linesmen the night before the game. They were each given a free meal, drinks and we also supplied ladies for all three officials.” And boy did it work. In the match the Bulgarian referee disallowed two perfectly good Helsinki goals and gave APOEL, in Cassidy’s words “The most diabolical penalty ever seen in the history of the game. So much so it made me sick to my stomach when I found out after”. Of course Tommy kept his mouth shut; the Bulgarians went home happy whilst poor Helsinki went out of the European Cup!

FANCY A SAUSAGE SON?

In 1999 a Romanian football team demanded a refund after apparently having bought a player for a transfer fee of 15 kilos of pork sausages. Defender Marius Cioara retired a day later saying he could not face any more sausage related taunts at his expense. Cioara, who played for second division team UT Arad, was apparently sold to fourth division Regal Hornia for the sausage meat. However Cioara said this was simply a bribe offered to him at first and was actually sold for 4,300 Leu (Romania’s currency), the equivalent of 1000 British pounds.

However a spokesman for Regal Hornia confirmed, 'We haven’t that sort of money. We gave up the team's sausage allowance for a week to secure him, and we were confident it would be worth it. 'However, a day after the deal was leaked to the media, Cioara announced he was giving up football and had decided to flee the country.

Ananova the News agency reports that he said, 'The sausage taunts all got too much. They were joking but I would have got more from the Germans and making sausage jokes was a huge insult. I have decided to go to Spain where I have got a job on a farm.'

This Old House..

                                                      THIS OLD HOUSE......

Sometimes we League of Ireland supporters feel the most set-upon group of fans. Where other organisations seem to have their branding spanking new house in order, we’re out with the Polyfilla frantically covering over the cracks. This point was rammed home by Pat Dolan on MNS with a scathing attack on the League. Love him or hate him the man makes a good argument. None more so then the shameful fact the Aviva Stadium sold out in a matter of minutes for the upcoming Celtic v Liverpool match.

                          Sorry but that’s a kick in the stones with a steel toecap. A full force smack in the face for League of Ireland football. We defend it as much we can. Point at the barstoolers and beat our chest in pride or kiss the crest to spite them, but the battle seems futile. We are a group of several thousand defending our clubs, our league whilst all around nobody cares.

                        Does a Kilkenny hurling fan give a toss about a club from Buckley Park who cease to exist after 40 odd years for a paltry €45,000? Why should he?

Does a devout Deise GAA supporter care that Waterford United almost went to the wall this week? No.

Does any of our hardcore Republic fans lose sleep over the fact we are one of the best supported football nations yet shockingly neglected by the same people when it comes to our national league?

I’ve talked to people from England who just doesn’t believe me! I unfortunately had to drive the point home by bringing them to a Waterford United game recently, watched by less than 500. Even they were scratching their heads. Sure the standard of football wasn’t great, but it was the summer..it was a fine stadium and it was €10.

2013 represented the first time since 1997 that no League of Ireland side has won a game in Europe. That statistic is worrying.

Yes opposition was hard, but hey guess what? Bar a few lucky dip draws against smaller nations we will always be up against it in Europe. Now it seems the event of summer soccer (which in fairness did help at first) coupled with poor crowds, and stadia being neglected along with a return of our inferior complex seems to have pushed us, and more importantly or co-efficiency ranking back (currently 33)

We always had morale victories back in the day. The close but no cigar to lament about. For Dundalk v Celtic in ’79 see Bohemians v Rangers in ’84. Derry City got through some rounds to face Paris St Germain. Drogheda almost ousted Dynamo Kiev. Shelbourne tried the impossible against Deportivo.

But there were beatings. Plenty of them.

Finn Harps, Dundalk, Athlone Town all took hammerings abroad. Ditto Waterford and Shamrock Rovers.

Football in the country can only really exist on a part-time basis. Feet on the ground, staring at the sky. Thinking big, however grandiose, has led to the downfall of many League of Ireland teams. But how we’ve got ourselves in a situation of a club almost going to the wall every other year is totally insane. There surely can’t be a league existing anywhere in Europe with the same amount of teams that have almost gone to the wall in recent times?

It reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of ‘Oh No!’ Cork City reforming with FORAS. The Candystripes of Derry. Finn Harps needing 50K to survive. Continuing money problems at Dalymount. Athlone Town, Drogheda, Limerick, Shelbourne and now Waterford.

That’s not counting Kilkenny City, St Francis, Sporting Fingal, Kildare County, Galway United and Monaghan who have gone to the wall.

That’s not a history lesson for the ages....That’s the last f***** five years!

Dolan is right when he says we’ve got no plan...no industry and (for those outside our small confines) no self-respect.

We have thousands who flock to a foreign side in Glasgow, playing in effectively a one-team league which many see as sub-standard, not only by European but British standards.

Even Celtic’s biggest rivals don’t even play in the same Division. Happy slugging it out with the might of East Stirling and Alloa Athletic.

BUT......The Scottish League is, per head of population, one of the best supported Leagues in Europe!

So what in the name of Christ as our Caledonian friends doing right that we do wrong?

                                     What do we do to change it? Ask Mr Delaney? A radical overhaul of the system has been long overdue. 16 team league or not it needs to be part-time so we can work within our confines. 35 years ago we had journeymen coming to the league for a big pay packet and a piss-take. George Best, Bobby Charlton, Geoff Hurst. For Banks see Brooking.

A telling quote Finbar Flood gave in JFTF was;

“I remember before the Deportivo match, chatting to Ollie about the prize-money for getting to the Champions’ League group stages. We thought it was £10 million, which we’d get pretty quick. Ollie said we’d need 3 players extra to compete. I asked how much that would cost, Ollie said ‘About £25 million” That’s great I said. We qualify for £10 million and spend £25 mill!”

Yes we can laugh about it. It never would have happened, but it was sad to see a club like Shels’ who represented us so well, fall to its knees in 2007 – a handful of years later. What should have set them up to dominate for the ages became their undoing.

I know many Bohemians fans whose lifelong support of their club has seen them through good and bad, but nothing as to the despair of this season. Nothing.

Commendable as it was to have Kildare County and Kilkenny City give LOI a shot it was as sad and possibly predictable to seem their demise.

In Kildare’s case the fans had to club together the money just so the team could play it’s final ever game at Station Road (a 5-1 defeat to Shelbourne) after the management had all resigned and walked away. Can you imagine the humiliation for their poor fans?

We got a long awaited glimpse of light with Rovers in the Europa League. Like Pat Dolan, love the Hoops or hate them, it gave us something to shut the barstoolers up.

Favourite moment of their campaign? Rovers fans singing ‘Does your TV know you’re here?” to Tottenham Hotspur fans.

A rage against the dying of a light moment – probably.

Funny – undoubtively!

Alas there seems no back-up plan. No look at the manual for Plan B. We just go on as we do. Clicking the turnstile, buying the programme, supporting a half-time draw or maybe a cup of tea.

At very least it still ours and for as long as we really really want it, it should always be.

“Our Greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall”

Confucius

Hungry Like The Wolves

                                                      HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLVES

            Someone once said "American Football is a wonderful way of getting rid of your aggression without going to jail for it!" Harsh...yes, but for sheer strength, endeavour and yes, aggression, the game which first emerged in 1869 an evolved thereafter is among one of the tougher physical sports on the planet.

A sport confined to the ‘Land of the free and home of the brave’, American Football's insular outlook wasn't meant to be spread globally at first, though that has changed (the EFAF -European Federation of American Football is currently a success story) and though the sport has branched out you just couldn't see time-outs, tight ends & tight clothing in the Emerald Isle!

After all weren't we raised on the more global game of rugby? Well not really. Rugby used to be a rich man's game and had an elitist tag for many years, now of course times have changed.

Be that as it may, selling American Football to a foreign public either sceptical of the game or not fully aware of its rules, would always be tough.

The first introduction we had of the Stateside game came in the MTV driven mid-eighties when Channel 4 started showing the stellar showpiece of American football – The Superbowl.

One of the earliest finals shown live, Superbowl XX, made an instant trans-Atlantic star of William ‘The Refrigerator’ Perry, Chicago Bears Defensive Tackle, full back that was part of a side that stream rolled the New England Patriots 46-10 in the final.

For there the game took off. A couple of years previous I thought John Elway was an American ride-on lawn-mower, now he was the star quarterback of a Denver Broncos side he would lead to five Superbowls (winning two.) We found out New York hosted the Giants and the Jets and that the Green Bay Packers wasn’t some meat factory that played on the weekends on their day off.

Unbeknownst to the Waterford public that actually sparked a friend of mine, Trevor, to actively put together a local American football team! At the time the game was just starting to develop (it helped that several collegiate teams came to play in Lansdowne Road once a year to sell-out crowds) and for four months he actively held several fund-raising events to try pull off the most unlikely of scenarios – The Waterford Panthers .He did manage to pull together almost £1500 but I accidentally broke his family’s massive fish tank with a wayward golf ball which meant the fund took a bit of a kicking!

Thankfully almost 25 years later Waterford finally has its very own American football team and it’s been fantastic to see the way the Waterford Wolves have integrated themselves into the city both on and off the field. When they’re not topping the table (courtesy of 5 wins from 6 at present) they’re are helping out in Heart Screening, bag-packing for Simon, family fun in Fenor or just spreading the gospel of

I recently had a chat with Chairman/Coach Eoin Reinhardt about past, present and future for his hungry pack of Blue & White wolves.

                                                                                   

Who had the vision to bring an American Football team to Waterford, knowing the Waterford public might not be that knowledgeable about the sport?

 The original idea came from a guy called Michael Kavanagh about 7 years ago and we started a flag football team called the South East Strongbows. The original plan was for us to play flag for a couple of years and move to full contact thereafter.

We had a coach on board by the name of Dave Collins who was an ex player. Nothing came of it though, none of us were doing anything to advertise or grow the team so it fell by the wayside. A couple of years back I decided that I would like to play full contact football and started asking the league for advice on where to start. I got in touch with the lads from the flag team, they were all interested in doing something and it just went from there.

My brother Cian and I put up some posters around town and held our first training session at Villa FC in November 2011 and had 9 or 10 guys training. The following week we had 25 or 30 guys and we've not looked back since then. I got in touch with Dave Collins again and he was happy to come on board because he saw we were taking things more serious this time round, sadly Dave passed away early in 2012 and it set us back in a big way, but his influence on us was huge, because of him the Strongbows would not have lasted as long as they did and because of that we would not have The Wolves today, that is the reason you see 'DC' on the front of the wolves helmet, as an homage to everything Dave has done to help us out when we were starting.

 Were there any initial obstacles in setting up the side (recruiting players, funding kit) or was it plain sailing and helping hands everywhere.

             We never had a problem recruiting players. Purchasing the kit however required some shopping around, and only for the work of John McGrath I think it's safe to say The Wolves would probably be still un-kitted to this day, the work he has done and still does is incredible. The cost of the kit was something that scared off a few guys but in fairness to all our current players they put in a lot of effort to help raise enough to get a nice few bob off the price and it helped big time. I think the biggest challenge we faced and one I am still overcoming is the coaching side of it. It's different from other sports in that tactics are more important than natural ability. We've had a lot of help from other coaches, and are lucky to have Steve Collins on board as well as coach Rob Wills coming on board later in the year. Experience is key in coaching a sport like this, we are all still learning our trade but with the guys behind us and coach Wills coming on board we have a bright future. 

            Bringing such a sport Suirside would have meant more than a few doubters. Do you think you've managed to win them over...is it a slow but sure process, or are you happy with the fans who know the game and can work with that following?

 Plenty of doubters to be sure, but nobody (so far) has been opposed to us trying to do what we are doing. I know we've managed to win over some people but there are still some people who do not know we exist and we hope we can change that. We don't want to give Waterford an American Football team, we want to give Waterford a winning American Football team. The people of Waterford are great supporters and will get behind a team when they see them playing with heart. We're hoping we can give Waterford something else to be proud of and a winning team that the county and people deserve. 

More than any other sport, battling against Football, GAA & Rugby, probably means that the camaraderie among the Wolves is that bit more special. Describe how you felt as you lined up for you very first game.

Everyone involved with the team has at some point made comment of how close the players are with each other. We made a point at the start at the year to make sure that you are giving 100% on every play, make sure you don't let the person beside you down and the guys really took it to heart. When going out for such a physically demanding sport you have to trust the guys around you and we all trust each other. Off the field is just the same, everybody gets along with everybody else

There are no cliques or groups.

 On nights out, at meetings, on the bus to games or stopping for food, I can sit next to any of the players have a chat and joke and not feel uncomfortable, it's quite refreshing. Lining up for the first game was not too bad, we all had the butterflies but with all the work we had put in at training, we knew if we performed at our best we would get the win and we did. After the game was emotional to say the least, looking around at our guys who were overcome with joy, and the supporters who braced the bitter cold until the very end would have brought a tear to a glass eye. I gave my brother a hug told him I loved him, got a hug from John McGrath and he said 'We did it brother' and it made me think of where we came from to get to that point in just over a year and it is really something. 

Having made the initial breakthrough, got a team on the field and started winning what does the rest on the season hold for Waterford Wolves?

Our goal this year is to get some experience under our belts and be competitive in the league. We've won a couple of games and it felt good, so we'll be hoping to win a couple more. In this league any team can beat anybody else, so we don't have to fear anybody here. We go into every game with the knowledge that if we perform, we'll win. 

When The Cats Had The Cream...

WHEN THE CATS HAD THE CREAM....

There have been so many League of Ireland clubs that have gone bust over the years that I’m sure everyone at some point can remember the sad departure of at least one of those sides.

Drumcondra’s demise in the early seventies became one of the highest profiles. The first non-league winners of the FAI Cup, the first Irish team to win a tie in Europe, a club that’s boasted a huge array of talent and honours throughout the years which included 5 LOI titles, 5 FAI Cups and 4 LOI Shield’s. But for every trophy-laden cabinet at a Drumcondra, Cork United or St James’ Gate there was always a handful more of minnows whose very existence in the league proved their reward.

One such team was Kilkenny City.

I always had a soft spot for the ‘Cats’. Not from a logistical point of view ( just up the road from Waterford and therefore our nearest local derby), but the fact it’s owner and co-founder Jim Rhatigan had survived in a pond, threading water in the face of a humongous fish that swallowed up everything, everyone or every sport around it.

Bringing football to the folk of Kilkenny? An English sport surviving in the most nationalist of games in the home of hurling?

Possibly the most one-side battle since a young Israelite named David took on a Philistine giant measuring over nine feet tall and emerged victor by using merely a handful of stones.

And for a while it actually worked. There was a point in Kilkenny City’s existence, during the mid-nineties mainly, that locals went to Buckley Park to see what the commotion was about. A commotion that was cemented by silverware in the shape of the 1996/97 First Division Title. What made the victory even more astonishing was the fact that 2 years previous City finished rock bottom with 25 defeats from 27. Not a club anywhere in the world have made such a transition from chumps to champions in such a short space of time.

Though not a League of Ireland club until 1985, a bunch of Leaving Cert students formed the club during a free class in a Christian Brother school in 1966.

Originally called EMFA (the EM for Emmett Place and the FA for Fatima Place where co-founder Jim Rhatigan grew up) the club played locally until gaining entry into the inaugural First Division in 1985.

 Stationed at Buckley Park, EMFA played their first league game at home to Derry City on the 20^th October 1985. Jim Leahy would have the honour of scoring the clubs first league goal in that 1-1 draw.

That first season proved a harsh introduction to League of Ireland football. One win in 18 games meant “the Black Cats” finished bottom on 8 points, however just a season later the club picked up its first piece of top flight silverware. In possibly the most unlikely of victories, EMFA beat Finn Harps 4-2 to take the 1986/87 First Division League of Ireland Shield under manager Joe McGrath. The club changed their name to Kilkenny City in 1989 and went on an FAI Cup run two years later which brought them to the Semi-Finals. An astonishing 6,500 piled into Buckley Park to watch the Cats narrowly lose out to a Derek Swan goal for Shamrock Rovers.

Although still a minority sport in city & county, the fact the all-conquering hurlers were anything but all-conquering at this point began to help Rhatigan’s side. Between 1985-1991 and 1994-1999 Kilkenny failed to return from Croke Park with the Liam McCarthy Cup. In fact between 1983-1999 the cup only returned three times during a sixteen year period.

It’s not that die-hard patrons of Nolan Park renounced their idols, tore up their tickets and headed for Buckley Park on the outskirts of town, but it did make sure the turnstiles clicked a little more excessively. A fact helped by a local derby forged with Waterford United a mere 40 minutes down the road.

And there were a few spicy encounters, made more venomous when City became a haven for ex-Waterford United players. Though the Blues had the upper-hand on most occasions, the Cats crowning glory of the duelling duo came when City beat United in the 1999/2000 promotion/relegation play-off with a smattering of ex-Waterford players and a Suirsider (Paul Power) in charge of Kilkenny.

Though the Premier Division never agreed with the Cats (relegation always followed just as quickly as promotion) in terms of matchday experiences Buckley Park was loveable. This quaint little ground in the middle of nowhere that Rhatigan helped build on his own money and with the support of sponsorship deals with local companies like TC Tyres. A stand behind the south-end goal added to the main stand and at its zenith Buckley Park had 1850 seats in a 6,000 capacity stadium and a field that was always a lush surface to play on. A ground both for a mere £16,000.

But inevitably there was good with bad. Failure to field a team against Finn Harps in the 1998/99 FAI Cup quarter-final caused embarrassment, tacked on with a hefty fine.

Attendances dwindled during the new millennium and the resurgence of their hurling counterparts and the club found it harder and harder to balance the books.

Sadly Kilkenny City went under in 2012 for a mere €50,000 that nobody involved with the club could afford.

50K...what a waste.

A wise man once said ‘May the dreams of your past be the reality of your future’.

It will be a nice one if it that future involves Kilkenny City again.