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Bad news for Cork City as journalists tip them for the title

The 2015 SSE Airtricity League season was launched today at the Aviva Stadium.

CORK CITY WILL be aiming to go one step further in this season’s SSE Airtricity League Premier Division campaign by clinching their first title in 10 years.

However, the Leesiders’ hopes suffered a major setback at this afternoon’s launch, when they received the dreaded seal of approval from the large number of journalists present — ourselves included.

The 2015 SSE Airtricity League season, which officially begins next Friday, was launched today at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin by Fran Gavin, the FAI’s Competitions Director.

There was a strong media presence, with each individual asked for their picks for Premier Division and First Division champions, as well as Player of the Season.

The results revealed that only 10% of journalists fancy Dundalk to retain their Premier Division title — good news for the champions — while there was an equal split of 20% of the votes each for St Patrick’s Athletic and Shamrock Rovers.

Having finished second to Dundalk last season after a title race that went down to the wire, Cork City are leading the charge for success in 2015 in the eyes of Ireland’s football reporters, with John Caulfield’s side receiving 30% of the votes.

With the 36% of the votes, Shelbourne were tipped for First Division honours ahead of Athlone Town (20%) and UCD (14%), while Keith Fahey (39%) got the nod for Player of the Season over Ronan Finn (22%) and Liam Miller (20%).

SSE Airtricity / YouTube

Fran Gavin reported today that there was a 3% increase in overall SSE Airtricity League attendances last season, and the number of people watching RTE’s Soccer Republic programme went up by an impressive 34%.

Gavin also revealed that the FAI are currently in talks with a new sponsor for the league — in addition to title sponsor SSE Airtricity — which it’s hoped will lead to an increase in prize money and funds available for club and community projects.

Who’s your tip for the top in the SSE Airtricity League this year?

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Paul Dollery
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