FAI Cup final must show the indifferent just what they're missing
There’s something about the League of Ireland which lends itself to a particularly trenchant brand of gallows humour, a wintry conviction widely shared among the cognoscenti that even when the glass is half-full, it’s really half-empty.
You could call it a kind of gritty realism born of a surfeit of painful experience.
There was a classic example in an article by ‘Spectator’ in the programme for the recent match against Bohemians at Oriel Park, the game which would see this magnificent Dundalk team seal their third title win on the trot.
Understandably, ‘Spectator’ was in upbeat mode to begin with.
“It’s been said before, and it’ll be said again for at least the next 50 years, but this has been one hell of a season for Dundalk.
“From the pleasant surprise of a league title challenge in 2013 we’ve taken gigantic strides forward each season since.”
And then this…
“Where will it end? Penniless in the First Division within a decade probably, so we’ll enjoy it while it lasts.”
Ah, the fatalistic attitude of the true LOI believer.
OK, there was a tongue firmly embedded in a cheek there but you only have to look at where Shamrock Rovers are at the end of this season — in a period of transition, to put it at its most charitable — to see that success does not automatically breed success, that even such stellar achievements as winning successive league titles and qualifying for the Europa League group stages, do not lead inevitably to unbroken domestic domination and bumper gates as a prelude to conquering the world.
Will it be different this time? Can the ‘New Firm’ of Dundalk and Cork City, who renew their rivalry in tomorrow’s FAI Cup Final, combine to create a rising tide which will lift all boats?
Speaking this week, City boss John Caulfield – always a passionate advocate for the League of Ireland – argued there has never been a better opportunity to maximise the appeal of the domestic game.
“It’s important for all the top managers, all the top clubs and the FAI, to get around a table and let’s move the thing forward, because it’s only waiting to happen,” he said.
“Collectively, if everyone goes and sets the high standard, it will take off. And this is the best opportunity we’ve ever had because the standard is there and the European results have shown that.
“And you start at the top, not at the bottom. Remember, we were liquidated, Shelbourne were liquidated, Derry were liquidated. We were down on our knees.
“There is only one way: you either fall away or you come back. Some clubs have come back, some haven’t. You don’t start with your standards low. You start with high standards. The clubs that want to do that will drive on. The clubs that don’t, won’t.
“And that’s the way it is.
“Obviously, you would probably think it would mean less teams. So be it. But you have to have a high standard for your national league. That’s how I feel about it and I’m very optimistic.”
The practicalities of how the League of Ireland might be improved — or, if you prefer, radically overhauled — have already consumed pages of reports and innumerable hours spent arguing in boardrooms, dressing rooms, studios and pubs.
Everyone is agreed on the need for restructuring, better facilities, better marketing, deeper roots in the community and, of crucial importance it seems to me, engaging the hearts and minds of those young ‘uns who are coming to football for the first time.
I was that kid solider back in the late 60s and early 70s and, with Milltown as my first place of pilgrimage, I underwent a conversion to the League of Ireland which persists to this day.
But before long, I could also see that, as a football fan, I was the exception rather than the rule in this country, something which was painfully underlined for those of us who used to gather on the terraces in those days by the drastically thinning effect on attendances brought about by ITV screening ‘The Big Match’ on Sunday afternoons, not to mention the rival attraction in Dublin of being able to sign up to the swelling ranks of ‘Heffo’s Army’ over in Croker.
That probably accounts for my own fatalistic attitude when it comes to the never-ending debate about what needs to be done to get more bums on seats in the League of Ireland.
In my more pessimistic moments, I’m prone to considering it a war which was lost nearly 50 years ago and which, in the face of the now saturation availability of Premier League football, makes it harder than ever to see how the club game here can truly thrive, from top to bottom.
One thing of which I’m certain, however, is that simply berating those who choose to watch Man United under-performing rather than Dundalk over-achieving in Europe is not only pointless but counter- productive.
Football fans are entitled to take their pleasures how and where and when they like, and trying to impose some sort of ‘compulsory Irish’ edict on them — as some of the more Taliban-esque elements around the domestic scene are prone to do — is a self- defeating case of preaching to the converted if ever there was one. If the game here is to prosper, it will only be because it attracts, not seeks to compel.
And, speaking of attraction, John Caulfield is right when he observes that, in setting the bar to new heights, Dundalk in particular but also Cork City as their closest rivals in recent years, have done more than most to generate the good publicity the very best of Irish club football deserves.
I can’t imagine that any first-timer who was in Turner’s Cross or Oriel Park for games between these two sides this season would have left not wanting to come back for more of the same, please.
Which is why tomorrow’s FAI Cup Final is such a perfect finale to the 2016 season, another chance in front of a large crowd and a wider television audience for the big two to reward the faithful for their enduring loyalty and, even more importantly, show the indifferent just what it is they’re missing right on their own doorstep.
Because, in the final analysis, it really is all in the game.
