Back to the future for Irish football

ON a day when you could almost hear the sound of jaws dropping all over the place as people were stuck dumb by their first proper look inside the new Aviva Stadium, perhaps it was the old dog for the (Lansdowne) Road who found the best words to sum it all up.

“The words that come to mind are quality, world-class, inspirational and emotional,” said Packie Bonner. “I must say that when I was in the dressing rooms and walking onto the pitch, I had a lump in my throat.

“We have our memories but this is about the future now.”

Still, his former team mate Ray Houghton couldn’t help but feel a touch nostalgic for the hallowed ground which, in a moment of disarming candour, another Irish player once famously described as “a bit of a kip – but it’s our kip.”

Said Houghton with a grin: “Let’s get the negatives out of the way first – the grass is not long enough and the media lads will miss the rain coming through the roof like they used to get in Lansdowne Road.”

Then putting on his serious face, the man who put the ball in English net, said of the new home of Irish football: “It’s unique, it’s first class and it’s a place where the players will be proud to bring any opposition. When teams came to the old stadium and first looked around, it maybe worked to our advantage because they went, ‘Oh my goodness, I don’t think I fancy this.’ Whereas all the teams that come here will relish it. For fans, the view will be sensational and all I hope now is that we get the same atmosphere that we used to have.

“All us old players would love to tog out one more time to play in that stadium.”

Perhaps the football man entitled to wear the broadest smile yesterday was FAI chief executive John Delaney who has never been far from the Dublin 4 coalface since that evening in March 2007 when planning permission was granted to replace the old with the new.

Two months later, the wrecking balls were in and, now, just three years on, the new stadium at Lansdowne Road is open for business.

“If you didn’t look forward to today I don’t know what you’d look forward to,” said Delaney. “It’s a fantastic day and a proud day. I think Irish football has waited 90 years for something like today. It’s been seven years of my life and it’s an exceptional day. It’s been a long journey and certainly worth the wait.”

Once more parrying questions about the on-going sale of the Vantage Club Premium seats – 10,000 of which account for one-fifth of total capacity – the FAI boss opted instead to strike a defiant tone as he forecast a future for the stadium which, he insisted, would provide a continuing financial boost to the game in this country.

“Along the way, people said his stadium wouldn’t be built, they said the funding wouldn’t be available to it – and, as we said we would, we’ve jumped all those hurdles,” Delaney pointed out. “Unfortunately, one or two people didn’t believe it at the time – or maybe they didn’t want to believe it. But today is the evidence that it’s done and dusted.

“And I have no doubt that over 50 years of a useful life of this stadium will bring revenues to both rugby and soccer that they never had before. And that is because of the quality of the stadium and the ability to sell corporate packages and get the grassroots fans in as well. And also the ability to attract competitions which we were never able to do before – be it the Four Associations tournament, the Europa League final or bringing Man United in.”

But what of the prospects, he was asked, of that long-awaited game against England? “We’d have saved some money if we’d brought them for the demolition contract, instead of McNamara’s,” Delaney quipped, referring to the night in 1995 when the ‘Combat 18’ crew forced the abandonment of an Ireland-England friendly at the old Lansdowne Road. “Seriously,” Delaney continued, “they promised us a game and I know at some stage that will happen. But it’s a new stadium and I felt it was appropriate that we bring countries like Argentina first. Definitely, you will see England here at some stage. But even from a concert point of view I thought (Michael) Buble was the right tone as the first concert here, for the residents.”

So Motorhead will just have to wait their turn, it seems. Although, who knows, Diego Maradona might provide his own brand of pyrotechnics, assuming he’s still in charge of Argentina when the South Americans provide the opposition for the first senior international at the new venue on August 11. Before that, an Airtricity League XI and Man United will set the round ball rolling on August 4.

Then, fast-forward to September 7, and little Andorra will have the honour of being the visitors to the new stadium for the first-ever competitive football match there, as Giovanni Trapattoni’s men get their home qualifiers in the 2012 European Championships up and running.

It might have been a long road to get this far but the real journey has yet to begin.