FORMER LEAGUE OF Ireland player and current coach of the national under-19 women’s team, Dave Connell, says he “wouldn’t rule out” the prospect of Sky buying the rights to League of Ireland games in the future.
The league’s financial struggles in recent years have been well documented and Connell believes an offer from Sky — as has already happened with GAA — could significantly ease these pressures.
“I would never rule anything out,” the ex-Shamrock Rovers player told TheScore.ie. “People would have been quite adamant that the GAA deal was never going to happen five years ago. If they identify a market and they’re happy with it, hopefully that would come in.
“If Sky came in with a barrel full of money, it would certainly be a huge bonus,” he added. “If you have truckloads of money to throw at it, you’d obviously have a higher standard of player coming in, though I think it’s a decent standard at the moment.”
Connell, who recently oversaw the Ireland under-19 women’s qualification for the European Championships, also defended himself and 42,000 others who went to see the Liverpool-Shamrock Rovers friendly at the Aviva Stadium in the wake of high-profile criticism of the supporters who turned up for the occasion.
“I went to that game, and I went with all my family, who are Liverpool supporters, and I left as a Shamrock Rovers supporter. I was shouting for Rovers, they were shouting for Liverpool.
“I grew up supporting Bohs. I was very lucky to play for Rovers where I played my best football. I’ve great feelings for both clubs and I’d be passionate about the game. I live in Longford and I go to the Longford games when I can, which is not often, because I’m restricted for time. My son goes up to see them play and he’s a Liverpool supporter as well. Resources are a big problem. But the FAI have put in measures as part of the license that certainly improves the standard of grounds compared to when I played.”
He also conceded that the league currently has its fair share of problems attracting substantial support.
“We played on a Sunday afternoon and didn’t have any competition from Sky [in the 80s and early 90s], so it’s a completely different landscape that we’re dealing with than when I played. But I feel for the League of Ireland clubs — they’re up against it.
“I played in games in the League of Ireland and semi-finals of FAI Cups, where Tolka Park was jammed to the brim. And Tolka Park was a far better stadium then than it is now.
“It’s about whether you can get people to buy into it. There are some very patriotic supporters within the League of Ireland. If I’m lucky enough to get up to Tallaght or Dalymount, I still see some people who supported me when I played. They’re obviously very committed and loyal to the teams. But you’re looking at a huge market within the Premier League — probably the biggest league in the world financially. And unfortunately, it’s a hundred miles away from us. We’re up against it. Our best players go to England, so we don’t have them on show.
“But I’m loyal to the League of Ireland — it was good to me and I’d like to think I gave it something.”
Our full interview with Connell will be published on the site later today.
The difference in Scotland is that they don’t have the GAA to compete with, can you imagine how many would go to LOI games if GAA didn’t exist?
Soccer is by far the biggest sport there for sure, look at the terrible crowds they get in the rugby.
Fed up with that lazy excuse “it cant compete with the GAA”
other countries in the eu with similar population to Irl have far more professional sports and manage to have healthy leagues! Netball, basketball, ice hockey, winter sports, handball!
Its the warped barstooler mentality, “oh my beloved Liverpool”.
Yet as that guy on soccer republic mentioned parachute them into Liverpool and they couldn’t find their way to anfield!
Couldn’t they just get a taxi? It’s a long walk from the city centre!!
Right enough that is the biggest challenge facing domestic football.
At the rate Sky are going they might have too as BT seem to beating them to a lot of the major competitions lately..
Because LoI would be a massive coup, real game changer…..I am a follower of Cork City and I dont mean to be narky, but come on
Sky show the Irish league up north and it’s 3 times less supported than our league. It’s the mentality of Irish people also to slag things off and moan.
Scotland is similar population to us and der league is far better supported hence better facilities and ability to but better players.
Funny thing is though scots league is very similar to ours football wise without old firm.
This is it tho, tg4′s LOI friday night games used to get a viewership of 20,000 – sky aren’t going to break the bank for figures like that.
Look at BT sport last year, came out of nowhere and bid for rights to show the Conference, a lower standard of football than LOI with similar low attendances and lots of financial problems.
No, Bt didn’t break the bank for a product that no one else wanted to show, but the exposure they’ve given these clubs has done wonders for the leagues public profile and attendances.
There’s no reason why sky or bt couldn’t do the same with LOI, there’s plenty of talent there, especially in the top group of teams, it just needs to reach a much wider audience.
It really doesn’t help the league’s exposure when even the damn highlights show “soccer republic” is now unavailable this season to viewers outside of ireland (another fine balls’up by rte and the fai! Well played lads!)
But that example is the conference going from no coverage to some coverage, which is bound to have a positive effect, the LOI would be far better off on terrestrial tv, if possible, it needs exposure to as many homes as possible.
I hear what you’re saying, but rte coverage is amateurish at times, no harm doing what gaa did and selling a few games to keep them on their toes and improve standards of production and broadcasting.
We all know how receptive irish sports fans are to a bit of sky/bt style hype and marketing.
Sure might be no harm, it’s not going to mean the league is flush with money all of a sudden, unfortunately.
People seem to think Sky will lash money at a sport. Its untrue. Sky aren’t just going to throw money at the league, if they are interested, and that’s a big if, they will just do enough to outbid the competition. Just like they did with tv3 for the GAA rights.