by Jeremiah Allen
The Setanta Cup is coming to a close and despite the quality of Monday's semi-final and the 4,000 attendance I think the tournament is in trouble.
The reason is simple. The gulf in quality between the Irish League and the League of Ireland is so big it is starting to get boring. With the exception of Linfield the Ulster sides have really struggled to compete with their southern neighbours.
Between them they managed just four victories, with three of these being achieved by Linfield. Granted the Windsor Park side have every chance of going on to win the title for the second time but Portadown, Glentoran and Dungannon were simply unable to compete with eircom league sides.
Even Glentoran's victory over Derry was a hollow one in that the Candystripes completely dominated the clash and should have ran out comfortable winners...a habit that is haunting Pat Fenlon's charges this term.
Some quick figures to bolster the point. Northern Irish sides conceeded 45 goals and scored 21 in this year's competition compared to 18 conceeded and 42 scored by the eircom league clubs. Not even these figures tell the real story when you consider that Cork put 11 goals past Portadown, a team fourth in the Carnagie Premier League, in two games.
The competition is becoming rather stale. Despite the fact that the cup is just three years old it is already in danger of boring the socks of many of its target audience. In reality there are only four or five teams capable of winning the trophy. Added to this, fans of Northern sides are eventually going to tire of seeing their teams dismantaled by clubs from the South.
The top eircom league sides have a distinct advantage in that they are professional. The chief benefits of this are two-fold. Firstly the manager can work on a full time basis and has more time to work on other aspect of the game. Secondly with full time work on offer it is easier for clubs from the south to attract players home from their stints in the UK.
Speaking in the Belfast Telegraph last week the Linfield Chairman David Crawford said that the Setanta Cup needs a revamp and suggested introducing English, Welsh and Scottish clubs.
I would strongly agree. This is a must if the tournament is to remain a fixture on the soccer callander. Even a soccer version of rugby's Celtic Nation Magners League would have a broad appeal as trying to get the English clubs involved might prove difficult. Although once a four nation yournament is up and running it would be easier to convince Championship or League One sides to consider it.
Outside the Old Firm Irish clubs should have no problem competing with their Scottish counterparts. Irish players have taken like ducks to water in the Scottish league this seasos, indeed an Irish manager is not doing too bad up there either. I'm sure Swansea and Cardiff would jump at the chance to play in such a competition. It would certainly be very attractive to Irish clubs both sides of the border.
The above said credit to Linfield. David Jeffreys side have proved every bit as good as their Southern counterparts and have every chance of claiming the title for a second time. Cork City will find it very difficult to come away from Belfast with the win.
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What is the story with Thomas Davis and the GAA? It is time to see some sense and end this embarrasing episode.
Apparently the Southside GAA club are now looking to make Tallaght Stadium an election issue. They have already commented that they woud be the "last man standing" in any bout with Rovers. Maybe they are in the wrong code and should be arguing with Boxing Union of Ireland about the use of the National Stadium.
Shamrock Rovers need a home. They have already invested large sums of money (despite claims from GAA sources) and energy in the Tallaght project.
I don't thnk it is unreasonable for Shamrock Rovers to demand that the capacity is not reduced from the present proposed 6,000. The average attendance at any eircom league premier division game is around 1,500 - 2,000. Bigger clubs such as Cork City and Derry City regularly attract double that. Rovers have the potential to be Dublin's largest supported club...although many already believe they are. Tallaght has a population of over 100,000 people and it would not be off the wall to suggest that Rovers could expect attendaces of 3,000 plus for home games.
Will Thomas Davis regularly attract anything close to that number for any of their league or championship games. I don't think so. So why are they insisting on having a Parnell Park type stadium on the Southside?
The Rovers board have consistantly maintined that they have no problems with other codes being played at the stadium once such an outcome does not substantially affect or delay the project. This seems very reasonable indeed.
Further Fianna Fail TD Connor Lenihan, who has been banned from Thomas Davis' clubhouse, revealed that the GAA club have already recieved €600,000 in donations from the Sports Capital Programme.
Could it be that Thomas Davis' actions over the Tallaght Stadium are nothing more that a cinical ploy to prevent Ireland's most famous soccer club from gaining a foot hold in their back garden. Let us not forget that both codes often find themselves competing for our best sporting sons.
I'm afraid that this colum has come to the above conclusion and call on the rational thinking members of that great club to stand down in this "bout".