Foot.ie

[dublinfella]

No, but they are furious over the Tallaght thing and see the FAI as funding the GAA going to court to stop soccers capital grants. There are always nutters, but a lot of very resonable soccer guys are taking about boycotting soccer in CP over it.

I don't know how how a 'reasonable' person could trace a path between money paid to the GAA for the use of Croke Park to Thomas Davis' case. It's akin to someone saying their tax pounds / euros built Croke Park so they should be allowed free use of it, ha ha!

Oh . . .

as may be, but there has been a clear deterioration in relations between the blazers in both codes and Tallaght isnt far from the surface. Whatever happened to the formal complaint the GAA made to the Dept over an FAI blazers comments at an xmas function?

[LilyWhiteAllright]

"the largest participation sport in Ireland"   

[J70]

Ah here...

Some eegit just said

there are far more Association football clubs than GAA clubs

That's hilarious

Is it not true? There are literally hundreds of soccer clubs in Dublin. Many of them amount to a bunch of lads meeting up on a Saturday for a league match on a council pitch, with a game of midweek indoor thrown in in lieu of training. They're still clubs though.

In Armagh City there are two Gaelic Football Clubs, and off the top of my head in and around ten soccer clubs. The two Gaelic Football Clubs would have in the region of twenty five teams - I would guess the soccer clubs would have less than twenty teams. The gaelic teams mostly would have squads of 20-25 in number, the soccer teams mostly 14-17. There might be a discrepancy of clubs in the region of 10:2, but there's no doubt there are a lot more Gaelic players.

Out of curiosity, does the average soccer head in the South have that much anitpathy to the GAA - I'm used to it in the North from the OWC contingent, but I'm a bit taken aback by the level of animosity shown there!

From my experience, it depends where you are. In Donegal, no. Its mostly the same people playing and watching both sports.

I also lived for many years on the south side of Dublin. Most of the lads I knew either played or watched soccer or both, but had little interest in GAA. I never got involved in any GAA club in Dublin, but I still met a fairly representative cross-section of Dublin life through college and work. Never saw much actual antipathy though.

Fair point about the number of teams per club. There are some massive soccer clubs though too.

[deiseach]

as may be, but there has been a clear deterioration in relations between the blazers in both codes and Tallaght isnt far from the surface. Whatever happened to the formal complaint the GAA made to the Dept over an FAI blazers comments at an xmas function?

Just because there has been a deterioration in relations does not mean the reasons are, well, reasonable. To make a connection between the rent on Croke Park and the funding for Thomas Davis' case is deranged.

[tayto]

Ah here...

Some eegit just said

there are far more Association football clubs than GAA clubs

That's hilarious

Is it not true? There are literally hundreds of soccer clubs in Dublin. Many of them amount to a bunch of lads meeting up on a Saturday for a league match on a council pitch, with a game of midweek indoor thrown in in lieu of training. They're still clubs though.

i don't know about the number of clubs but if club membership figures are anything to go by then the GAA is significantly bigger then organised soccer.

From a recent article ....

"40pc of those who volunteer for sports do so for the GAA. Soccer comes in a distant second, with 17pc.

Hurling and Gaelic football are also by far the most popular sports in terms of numbers attending matches in a given year.

Almost half of Irish people attend a sporting event of some kind per year and of those, 57pc attend either a GAA football match or a hurling match. Again, soccer is a distant second, with 16pc, and rugby trails in third place with 8pc.

SOCIETY BENEFITS

Men are more likely to be involved in sports than women, and are twice as likely to be a member of a sports club.

In terms of club membership, the GAA again comes out on top - 29pc of all those who belong to a sports club belong to the GAA."

the figure of soccer club membership??? 9% miles behind.

Yes soccer has more people who "play" it from time to time, possibly during their lunchtime in a recreational manner, it's biggest strength is all you need is a ball and two jumpers, a toddler can kick a ball along the ground and enjoy itself, so it's easy to join in. in terms of actual club membership and structured playing ofa sport, volinteering to help out and attendances then there's quite a huge gap between soccer and the GAA.

[GalwayBayBoy]

the figure of soccer club membership??? 9% miles behind.

I don't think membership of a club can be used to estimate the amount of numbers playing though. Membership of a GAA club is a tradition in Ireland. Much less so in soccer. I play in a soccer league of about 14 teams and I don't think any of them have official memberships per se. It's just lads getting together and playing.

[dublinfella]

Ah here...

Some eegit just said

there are far more Association football clubs than GAA clubs

That's hilarious

Is it not true? There are literally hundreds of soccer clubs in Dublin. Many of them amount to a bunch of lads meeting up on a Saturday for a league match on a council pitch, with a game of midweek indoor thrown in in lieu of training. They're still clubs though.

i don't know about the number of clubs but if club membership figures are anything to go by then the GAA is significantly bigger then organised soccer.

From a recent article ....

"40pc of those who volunteer for sports do so for the GAA. Soccer comes in a distant second, with 17pc.

Hurling and Gaelic football are also by far the most popular sports in terms of numbers attending matches in a given year.

Almost half of Irish people attend a sporting event of some kind per year and of those, 57pc attend either a GAA football match or a hurling match. Again, soccer is a distant second, with 16pc, and rugby trails in third place with 8pc.

SOCIETY BENEFITS

Men are more likely to be involved in sports than women, and are twice as likely to be a member of a sports club.

In terms of club membership, the GAA again comes out on top - 29pc of all those who belong to a sports club belong to the GAA."

the figure of soccer club membership??? 9% miles behind.

Yes soccer has more people who "play" it from time to time, possibly during their lunchtime in a recreational manner, it's biggest strength is all you need is a ball and two jumpers, a toddler can kick a ball along the ground and enjoy itself, so it's easy to join in. in terms of actual club membership and structured playing ofa sport, volinteering to help out and attendances then there's quite a huge gap between soccer and the GAA.

tayto, within the 29% of the GAA there are footballers, hurlers, ladies footballers, camogie players, handballers and rounders. within the 20% of the FAI there is just soccer. so yes, the GAA is the biggest organisation, but soccer outnumbers each individual Gaelic game. and thats taking an unsourced article.

as may be, but there has been a clear deterioration in relations between the blazers in both codes and Tallaght isnt far from the surface. Whatever happened to the formal complaint the GAA made to the Dept over an FAI blazers comments at an xmas function?

Just because there has been a deterioration in relations does not mean the reasons are, well, reasonable. To make a connection between the rent on Croke Park and the funding for Thomas Davis' case is deranged.

is it? the FAI give the GAA money, the GAA give money to TD who use it to stop the FAI getting money. I have heard worse reasons for boycotts.

[deiseach]

is it? the FAI give the GAA money, the GAA give money to TD who use it to stop the FAI getting money. I have heard worse reasons for boycotts.

It is. If people want to boycott Croke Park because of disgust at the whole Tallaght affair, fine, it's a free country. But even if Croke Park were empty, it wouldn't make one jot of difference to the case ("sorry, TD, we didn't get enough money from renting out Croker so your court case will have to go") so it would only be 'reasonable' in the same way that cutting off your nose to spite your face is reasonable. Who would be the biggest losers if such a boycott were to be successful? Hint: it wouldn't be the GAA.

[dublinfella]

is it? the FAI give the GAA money, the GAA give money to TD who use it to stop the FAI getting money. I have heard worse reasons for boycotts.

It is. If people want to boycott Croke Park because of disgust at the whole Tallaght affair, fine, it's a free country. But even if Croke Park were empty, it wouldn't make one jot of difference to the case ("sorry, TD, we didn't get enough money from renting out Croker so your court case will have to go") so it would only be 'reasonable' in the same way that cutting off your nose to spite your face is reasonable. Who would be the biggest losers if such a boycott were to be successful? Hint: it wouldn't be the GAA.

Its a boycott Deiseach, its done on principle. The principle for some soccer guys is that sitting in CP is tacit agreement with the TD stance.

Anyway, im sure staunton will do more to empty seats than narked off EL heads.

[deiseach]

Its a boycott Deiseach, its done on principle. The principle for some soccer guys is that sitting in CP is tacit agreement with the TD stance.

Anyway, im sure staunton will do more to empty seats than narked off EL heads.

As principles go, it's akin to saying that people who take an aspirin are in tacit agreement with the Holocaust. And if the FAI are relying in EL heads to fill Croker . . . 

[Rufus T Firefly]

Ah here...

Some eegit just said

there are far more Association football clubs than GAA clubs

That's hilarious

Is it not true? There are literally hundreds of soccer clubs in Dublin. Many of them amount to a bunch of lads meeting up on a Saturday for a league match on a council pitch, with a game of midweek indoor thrown in in lieu of training. They're still clubs though.

In Armagh City there are two Gaelic Football Clubs, and off the top of my head in and around ten soccer clubs. The two Gaelic Football Clubs would have in the region of twenty five teams - I would guess the soccer clubs would have less than twenty teams. The gaelic teams mostly would have squads of 20-25 in number, the soccer teams mostly 14-17. There might be a discrepancy of clubs in the region of 10:2, but there's no doubt there are a lot more Gaelic players.

Out of curiosity, does the average soccer head in the South have that much anitpathy to the GAA - I'm used to it in the North from the OWC contingent, but I'm a bit taken aback by the level of animosity shown there!

From my experience, it depends where you are. In Donegal, no. Its mostly the same people playing and watching both sports.

I also lived for many years on the south side of Dublin. Most of the lads I knew either played or watched soccer or both, but had little interest in GAA. I never got involved in any GAA club in Dublin, but I still met a fairly representative cross-section of Dublin life through college and work. Never saw much actual antipathy though.

Fair point about the number of teams per club. There are some massive soccer clubs though too.

Sorry - should have added J70 that many of the soccer clubs, particularly those pub based clubs with one team, would be made up of GAA players and there would be little or no contest as to where their loyalties lie, i.e. GAA.

[Gnevin]

Wiki says it all

The GAA is the largest amateur sports association in Ireland. It has more than 2,500 member clubs and runs about 500 grounds throughout the country. [4] The Gaelic Games of hurling and football are also the most popular spectator sports in Ireland ,1,962,769 people attended GAA games in 2003 [5]

[dublinfella]

Wiki says it all

The GAA is the largest amateur sports association in Ireland. It has more than 2,500 member clubs and runs about 500 grounds throughout the country. [4] The Gaelic Games of hurling and football are also the most popular spectator sports in Ireland ,1,962,769 people attended GAA games in 2003 [5]

I dont think anyone doubted any of that. We are talking about participation, not comparing the GAA to other amatuer sports, whatever other ones there are.

[Gnevin]

Wiki says it all

The GAA is the largest amateur sports association in Ireland. It has more than 2,500 member clubs and runs about 500 grounds throughout the country. [4] The Gaelic Games of hurling and football are also the most popular spectator sports in Ireland ,1,962,769 people attended GAA games in 2003 [5]

I dont think anyone doubted any of that. We are talking about participation, not comparing the GAA to other amateur sports, whatever other ones there are.

Its also the largest sporting association in Ireland .
What does participation mean ? Kids playing ball on the street? Me and my friends playing 5 a side in tallaght every couple of months ?
Sports like GAA and Rugby arent really pick up games 

[magpie seanie]

I think its a laugh them quoting shit like "largest participation sport in the country". It shows how big the chip on their shoulder is. They're so needy!

If they want to solve it for once and for all why not switch to summer soccer for all leagues and we'd see what would happen.

I also hope that as many soccer fans as possible boycott Croker as it would mean a greater % cash take for the GAA. Our minimum fee is guaranteed!