Easier and cheaper to be part of the beautiful game

CORK’S Liverpool FC supporters’ club secretary John O’Sullivan knows why more people are crossing the Irish Sea to watch his beloved team play their iconic style of football.

Mon, 11 Jun, 2007 - 01:00

Paul Kelly, Consumer Correspondent

“Flights are more accessible these days and have opened up the Premiership to more people,” he said.

With relatively cheap flights from Ireland to England, supporters are no longer faced with a massive hike to Dublin Port or Dún Laoghaire to get the boat to Holyhead where they then have to catch a train to England’s principal footballing cities.

A journey of six hours or more has been replaced with a quick one-hour flight from Dublin and Cork with services also running from Ireland’s provincial airports.

For instance, Ryanair serves Manchester, Liverpool, London and Birmingham, and is well placed to cash in on the Roy Keane boom at Sunderland with its flights to Newcastle and nearby Durham Tees Valley.

Good public transport links at airports like Birmingham, London Heathrow and Manchester mean fans are in easy reach of most of the 20 Premiership stadiums.

Fans arriving at Newcastle International Airport can walk to the metro station within the complex and get a 50-minute train ride direct to Sunderland AFC’s Stadium of Light stop.

Ryanair spokeswoman Lorna Farren said passenger numbers jumped on weekends with English and Scottish Premiership fixtures.

“Looking at our traffic figures for last season, flights to Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow remain the most popular for football fans,” she said.

“We had a 20% increase in day returns during match weekends and there was also a noticeable ‘Keane effect’ last season, with increased traffic to Newcastle and Durham airports on Sunderland match days.”

Staff at Cork Airport also noted Keane’s effect on their traffic as passenger numbers to East Midlands, Manchester, Glasgow and Newcastle rose over the years as the star moved from Notting- ham Forest to Manchester United to Celtic and finally to Sunderland.

“You can tell the Manchester and Liverpool routes are particularly busy just by judging the number of people wearing the club shirts,” said airport spokesman Kevin Cullinane.

Season ticket average prices

* Arsenal: €1,995

* Tottenham: €1,570

* Chelsea: €1,325

* West Ham: €1,065

* Liverpool: €995

* Newcastle: €975

* Man Utd: €965

* Portsmouth: €915

* Sunderland: €910

* Fulham: €880

* Reading: €840