Friendlies with big-brand British or Continental teams are a double-edged sword for Irish clubs. The games typically happen in the thick of the Irish summer season, and tend to distract from the real business.
But clubs have little choice: these circus events bring desperately-needed revenue, they give fans the chance to boast about scalps (Spurs, Ipswich); and, given the paucity of coverage of the game proper, they bring a year’s worth of publicity. ‘Oh look,’ say the sports editors, ‘Something interesting is happening in Tallaght.’
Even if it raises the spectacle of Irish ’supporters’ of Real or Liverpool outnumbering genuine fans of Irish football, no club is going to refuse massive-circulation coverage such as that accorded to Shamrock Rovers in yesterday’s British Sun (whose Irish edition doesn’t publish online).
Here’s Geoff Sweet on Shamrock’s Ian Bermingham:
THE first player to mark Cristiano Ronaldo following his £80million move to Real Madrid is on £300 a week and still lives at home with his mum.
And it costs just £650 to sponsor Shamrock Rovers’ Ian Bermingham for the season – but the part-timer has no fears about facing the £255,000-a-week Winker.
No doubt, the hoopla will die down when Real go back to Spain. Rovers will have had a publicity boost for their impressive club-building project, but many fans who value real competitive action will have mixed feelings about being put in the position of grateful minnows.
And the day-trippers and most Irish sports hacks will go back to their tellies.
RTÉ- Extratime
- loi.ie
- Eleven-a-side
- Soccer Republic
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- The Big O betting
July 10, 2009 at 12:37 am
To be fair, the Irish edition change mum to mammy… FACT!!
July 10, 2009 at 1:13 am
*changed
July 17, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Having been in to the RSC tonight for the first time in years (I got the ticket free), I’d say that the only good thing about these matches from an LoI team’s perspective is the money. No one would be tempted back on the basis of the rubbish I saw tonight that managed the remarkable feat of being utterly tame yet still see one team have their arse handed to them.