Saw this on anfearrua.com (http://anfearrua.com). You have to laugh
QuoteFrom today's Star, some soccer perspective!
GAA WANTS NOTHING MORE THAN TO SEE RIVAL SPORT DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY
Stadium shambles leaves soccer in an almighty lurch
Cathal Dervan - The Star
It is the time of year to spare a thought for the homeless — so let's wish the FAI well as the world gangs up against them yet again in their search for a new home for Irish soccer. Let's face it folks, those of us in the Irish football family are facing into another spell as the nomads of the nation's sporting community. From the Lansdowne Road residents to the Michael Guiney suits in Drumcondra and on to the Tallaghtban of the West Dublin GAA, no one likes us - but we do care. We care so much that the FAI really should cut their losses, move the Wales game in March to Tolka Park and tell the begrudgers to stick their Fainne badges where the sun don't shine.
It is time for a reality check and a wake up call as the implications of all those decades when previous FAI regimes brushed the stadium issue under the Merrion Square carpet come home to roost.
Truth Number One - the GAA don't want us at Croke Park. They're not brave enough to stand up and admit it in Irish or English, but the Pioneer Pin brigade in Croker would be quite happy if soccer just disappeared off their agenda altogether. They'd rather welcome a 32 county rugby team to their North Dublin headquarters, some of whom won't sing the national anthem and all of whom will openly stand to attention in February as they play God Save The Queen for their English visitors.
The GAA can't even let the soccer team train on their patch. They would rather have Donnacha O'Callaghan's red underpants on the sacred ground than Damien Duff's silky skills. And they're not alone.
Truth Number Two - their GAA brethren out in Tallaght want to prolong the suffering of Shamrock Rovers fans everywhere and delay their arrival in the satellite town as long as possible. The Thomas Davis Club are seriously worried that the presence of the Hoops in their catchment area will undermine their attractiveness as an outlet for the youth of Tallaght. Well lads, the behaviour of your GAA bosses in Croke Park towards Tallaght's finest Robbie Keane and Richard Dunne isn't doing you much good on that score. And just in case you haven't noticed, soccer long ago passed gaelic football and hurling as the biggest participation sport for the youth of this country.
Truth Number Three - many of the residents in and around Lansdowne Road aren't all that keen on the idea of a super stadium literally springing up over their doorsteps as their deliveries at this week's oral hearings would seem to suggest. The FAI and the IRFU still believe in the Lansdowne Road project. They still believe the GAA's rent boys will take their money in 2007 and in 2008, even if the price goes up year on year.
Shamrock Rovers and Thomas Davis, if they are truthful, know that the new Glenmalure Park will open as a soccer only ground as soon as the barristers stop earning handsome fees on the back of it.
They all believe in Lansdowne, Croker and Tallaght because they have to. Those of us who don't subscribe to the manifesto though are allowed think otherwise and we should. Why are we building a new Lansdowne when there are green field sites all over Dublin county that could easily accommodate a national stadium with transport links and car parks that don't come complete with the clampers? Why does the national stadium have to be built in traffic jam Dublin? Why does everything in this country have to centre on a capital city that is now a nightmare to get in and out of? And why didn't the FAI solve their own problems when they had the chance to build eircom Park almost a decade ago?
The sad reality here is that Bertie Ahern's interference stopped eircom Park in its tracks, the same eircom Park that would be up and running now but for the bullying acts of the government of the day. All Bertie succeeded in doing when he stopped eircom Park was splitting the FAI down the middle and leaving us hanging onto this hope of a new Ale Lansdowne when really he wants Irish soccer to move elsewhere.
The amazing reality is that the Bertie Bowl site out in Abbotstown is still untouched by human hand. They are in the process of building all around it but have yet to build anything on it.
I'll bet they're waiting for the Lansdowne Road project to collapse and the GAA to finally come clean and admit they don't want soccer on their Holy Ground though they're quite happy to accept €3.5m from the soccer-playing tax-payers for their floodlights. When all that falls into place Bertie will tell us he told us so and build his bowl. Five years from now we'll all be watching the Ireland team in Abbotstown — remember where you read it first.
Yes it's everybody elses fault bar the FAI's.
Well here is my two pence for what it's worth - go and f**k yerselves yis bundle of win'gen c***ts. Even your hero Roy Keane thinks ye's are a bundle of assholes.
What a big girl's blouse.
Whine whine whine, whinge whinge. Give us this.
Ara, it's not worth worrying about a tube like that anyway.
The Pioneer Pin brigade :) From a lad that probably castigates them for Guiness sponsorship as well.
Laughable and bitter!
And they say Croke park is built on bigotry yet suggest the playing of God Save the Queen at the Rugby would be a bad thing?
I thought it was us that was against everything English? ::)
I have nothing but contempt for the FAI at this stage and will not watch the Irish soccer team in action again.
Previously I watched most games.
dear god that's just utterly pathetic, moan moan moan moan poor little us, no body likes us.
Maybe Stan the gaffer Staunton really is one of the sharper soccer minds in the country.
It certainly seems so if that's what passes for soccer journalism, feeding the bias of the likes of dublinfella and his paranoid-narrowminded mates on foot.ie
Cathal Dervan - is there a more slimy journalist in the Irish media, muppet!
Truth Number 4
The FAI are the poorest, worst run Sporting Organisation in Ireland. Where is all the Italian 90, USA 94' Japan 02 money gone, those 12 year years were the glory days of Irish soccer and they have nothing to show for it except debacle after debacle.
"feeding the bias of the likes of dublinfella and his paranoid-narrowminded mates on foot.ie"
Haha, thats the gobshite on gaaboard too isnt it!
Despite the fact that his column is a pile of horse dung, this comment is telling
QuoteThey all believe in Lansdowne, Croker and Tallaght because they have to. Those of us who don't subscribe to the manifesto though are allowed think otherwise and we should. Why are we building a new Lansdowne when there are green field sites all over Dublin county that could easily accommodate a national stadium with transport links and car parks that don't come complete with the clampers? Why does the national stadium have to be built in traffic jam Dublin? Why does everything in this country have to centre on a capital city that is now a nightmare to get in and out of? And why didn't the FAI solve their own problems when they had the chance to build eircom Park almost a decade ago?
I have heard before, from a few sources that there is a plan in action at the moment.
That plan is as follows.
Close Lansdowne, and lodge Planning.
Receive deluge of objections.
Play away at Croker in 2007.
High Court injunctions etc delay building work.
Play in Croker in 2008.
After 'repeated and lengthy efforts' the IRFU have to throw in the towel at Lansdowne Road, and sell it to developers for an absolute mint. They continue to play the big games in Croker because they have now become accepted. They pocket the cash, and the government builds the FAI abbottstown.
I'm not intending to be a scare monger, because I am in favour of charging the FAI and IRFU to use Croker, but I have a feeling there are plans afoot.
What a bollix,
Quote
Truth Number One - the GAA don’t want us at Croke Park. They’re not brave enough to stand up and admit it in Irish or English, but the Pioneer Pin brigade in Croker would be quite happy if soccer just disappeared off their agenda altogether. quote]
I love this quote esp. the text in the bold!! ??? ???
We've being saying it for over 100 year you F*'kin tube >:(
If the GAA had said we didnt want them in you can bet he'd be whinging about that. We'd have bigots this and bigots that.
Gutter press, as bad as the english tabloid media.
There was another article in the Indo on Sunday which ended with the words
" I, for one, can't wait to see John Delaney doing for domestic soccer what he's done for the international team. The GAA must be quaking in its boots."
I don't think the we should panic!
Quote from: dubnut on December 19, 2006, 03:52:15 PM
"feeding the bias of the likes of dublinfella and his paranoid-narrowminded mates on foot.ie"
Haha, thats the gobshite on gaaboard too isnt it!
Forgot which site I was on, Tayto appears on 2 I know of! :-[
He is a gobshite though!
This, presumably, is the same Cathal Dervan who, some years ago, exhorted "the greatest fans in the world" (if they do say so themselves) to boo one of their own players on his next appearance for "De Repubbalick". I submit that this is as much as we need to know in evaluating that ... er ... commentator's opinions.
Interestly he mentioned the "32 county" rugby team as if this was in some way a bad thing.
Can anyone give a logical reason why he would even mention this or is the guy just pure mental?
Exactly Hardy. That is the measure of the creature you are dealing with.
The fact that he is so obviously seething gives me great joy.
Ireland's Shitest Daily The Star.
all they want are papers to sell so they will write what the soccer heads want to hear and thats the culchies in the gaa hate soccer and dont want them playing in croker.
nicky brennan to be fair is playing this well and he is not getting in the papers near as much as the fai. meanwhile the irfu are good as gold and will reap benefits if any delays occur with lansdowne.
as i posted before the fai i heard wanted to play in glasgow as it would make them more money re corporate packages. they are stirrin it up so they can go off and say the 'bigots' in the gaa were impossible to deal with.
BTW - how much is the rent for a day's training?
Quotethey are stirrin it up so they can go off and say the 'bigots' in the gaa were impossible to deal with.
As I predicted a long time back. Brennan is handling it skillfully though, more power to him.
QuoteBTW - how much is the rent for a day's training?
Same rent per day seems fair to me.
all this fuss about nothing. The stadium has to be changed over after the dublin v tyrone match to be ready for the rugby match, presumably the rugby team have been given access for training puropses in the run up to their match. GET OVER IT! ... "nobody like us whinge whinge" JESUS WEPT constantly acting like victims. Can youimagine if the rugby team turned up to train the week before a soccer match, the FAI would go running to the media no doubt.
Dervan is a wingnut and if he told me 1+1 was 2 I'd get me calculator out.
It always amazes me that we never get GAA journalists letting loose a barrage of poorly thought out points about soccer like we have above, yet there is a constant stream of abuse aimed at the GAA from so called soccer fans. Why is that exactly?
Dervan's an arsehole.thats pathetic.the fai have created this shambles for themselves through years of mismanagement.
Articles like that bug me. Ill-informed attempts at populism.
Feeding on silly prejudices.
Any soccer fans I know have no time for Dervan by the way, so lets not get too worried.
He was the offical FAI mouthpiece when they took a hammering over Saipan and is obviously being fed this story as well.
Dunphy was right about one thing..."scurvy little pup".
I'm not sure if he ever directly asked Irish fans to boo Roy Keane, but that was probably down to him never having the imagination to think of it.
Here is another sample of his work.
Quality, intelligent, erudite journalism for the discerning punter. ;D
==
Keane - An 'Immaculate' Loser
I am sitting here, on Tuesday night, inside Mick McCarthy's
tent, wondering exactly what I should tell you, the good
Irish people about Roy Keane.
Keano, as he likes to be known, is currently outside peeing
in with the force of a typhoon. He is attempting to drown the
tent and all inside it as he pees venom and vitriol in all
our directions. Those inside are faced with a dilemma. Mick,
wise man that he is, is keeping his counsel as the pee hits
the fan. The rest of us have to make up our own minds, me included.
Should I now stay faithful to my old friend, the lord of the
tent, and tell you that Keano is the biggest spoiled brat to
come out of Ireland since your man out of Boyzone? Should I
tell you how half the country is laughing at Roy, and the
other half feels sorry for the poor wee fellow from Cork who
is more sinned against than sinning? Should I quote my other
mate Jack Charlton about how the easiest thing in the world
right now is to sit back and laugh as we watch Roy Keane dig
a hole, a very big hole, outside the tent?
Well, folks, I have decided to take a surprising stand. I
have a favor to ask of all of you, a little request to make
from me to you, good people. I want you to go out next month
and spend some hard earned money. I want you all to buy a
soccer book. No, I don't want you to buy my forthcoming book
on Mick McCarthy. Not unless you absolutely want to. No, if
you only buy one book from home in time for this Christmas, I
want you all to make sure it's the Roy Keane biography.
In fact, if you only buy one soccer book in your lifetime,
please ensure it is Eamon Dunphy's wonderful new account of
life as Roy Keane. Heck, if you can't even read, buy it and
get someone else to engage you with the wonderful prose, the
hard hitting truths and the lurid self-depreciation of one of
the world's greatest players.
And then, when you're finished digesting the greatest sports
book of all time about the greatest footballer of all time
and written by the greatest journalist of all time, give me a
call. And I'll let you in on a few secrets that aren't
contained inside the pages of Eamon and Roy's vendetta
catalogue, otherwise known as The Autobiography - Keane.
When you make that call, I'll tell you what it's really like
to know the two sides of Roy Keane, national icon and
international treasure, according to the radio muppet Dunphy.
I'll let you know exactly how hysterical it is to listen to
Eamo on his own radio show describe Roy Keane as an
"immaculate" human being, the same Roy who has brawled his
way across England and Ireland and ended up in a Cork court
after calling a neighbor's child a whore.
I'll tell you what it feels like to be Alf Inge Haaland, the
Manchester City midfielder whose career now hangs on a thread
because Keane deliberately, as he reveals in his book,
butchered him in a derby game two seasons ago. I'll let you
know how several young Irish players were so intimidated by
Keane's presence in the international squad that they dreaded
his arrival at the Dublin Airport hotel, how they hated his
very presence on the team bus.
I'll tell you how he refused a request from Sunderland
football club - not from me, by the way - to cooperate with
Niall Quinn's testimonial program because he severely
dislikes loveable Niall. I'll tell you how jealous he is of
Steve Staunton that he deliberately set out to castigate
Ireland's real World Cup captain before the tournament began.
Maybe I'll explain, to you and Eamon, that it was Richard
Dunne who sat beside Niall Quinn on a flight to Barcelona
from Cyprus, and not Derek Dunne as stated in Tuesday's
serialization in London's Times. As an aside, the only Derek
Dunne I know who played football was also a drug dealer and
was killed in Amsterdam a couple of years back.
And, if you're really lucky, I'll even tell you what it's
like to pick Roy Keane out of his own puke in a Manchester
Airport hotel bar, as I did some years back only days before
his first European Cup appearance for United. Now, to be
honest, I regret I didn't leave him to drown in his own
vomit, though he is making rather a good stab at that himself
as we speak.
I have to come clean here. Of course, folks, I am "bitter and
twisted," according to some. when it comes to Roy Keane. I am
even cast as "Mick's mate" in Keane's book, literally, and
that is akin to dancing with the devil in the eyes of the man
who can now do absolutely no wrong in any regard. So don't
believe anything I tell you about Roy Keane unless you want to.
And if you want to, let me explain a few facts about our Roy,
the man who is so perfect now at everything he does. In his
time, as he admits in his book, Roy was king of the thugs.
That's why the aforementioned Alf Inge Haaland has barely
kicked a ball in the 18 months since Roy exacted revenge for
a previous encounter at Elland Road. As Haaland lay on the
ground, Keane reveals, he looked at him and he said, "Take
that you c***." Rôle model stuff, indeed.
He likes his language, does our Roy. Saved some of the best
of it for Saipan when he branded Mick McCarthy everything
from an "effing c***" to an "effing w****r" in the course of
an eight minute tirade of abuse. Why? Was it because Mick
accused Keane of feigning injury ahead of Ireland's game
against Iran, as Keano and his muppeteer Dunphy would have
you believe?
Was it heck. There were 32 other people in that room that
night, and not one of them heard Mick accuse Keane of
feigning injury. That is definitely a Roy Keane/Eamon Dunphy
exclusive. So is their use of vulgar language. The only foul
and abusive language in Mick McCarthy's book comes when he
quotes Keane in that Saipan meeting. Yes, Mick has been known
to curse from time to time. He lives in a rough man's world
where such language is common. But he is also a man of great dignity.
He knows his book will be read by children, the very people
that Dunphy claims Keane is a rôle model for. And he knows,
in his heart and soul, that only one man has let his country
down when it mattered in recent years. Roy Keane did not want
to play for Jack Charlton or Mick McCarthy, that is clearly
evident as he assassinates both men in his Dunphyite words.
He didn't even want to play in the game that decided
Ireland's World Cup fate in Iran last November, walking out
of the team hotel without as much as a word to his teammates
as they went off to training and he left for the airport. His
apologists forget that.
They also forget that in Saipan, two nights before he was
thrown out of the World Cup, Keane quit international
football not once but three times. He told McCarthy he was
retiring after the 2002 finals, no matter what happened in
Japan or Korea. Now he is claiming that he will play for
Ireland again, but only if Mick gets the sack. What about
that retirement announcement in the Irish Times, Roy?
Keane even goes so far as to call Mick a comedian in his
brilliant book. Well, I have a question for the Roy wonder.
Who dressed up in a stupid looking Leprechaun suit to make a
television advert for Walkers crisps? Was it Mick McCarthy or
Roy Keane? Yes, you guessed right - Roy Keane, the biggest
joke of all. Happy reading!
By Cathal Dervan - Irish Voice, 14th Aug 2002.
he's one bitter little bollox that's for sure. ??? ::) ::)
Quote from: dubnut on December 19, 2006, 04:24:58 PM
Interestly he mentioned the "32 county" rugby team as if this was in some way a bad thing.
Can anyone give a logical reason why he would even mention this or is the guy just pure mental?
dubnut, the guy is just pure mental.
doesnt tom humphries 50 reasons gaa is better than soccer get posted every few months to great amusement? Same shite, different foot.
Dervin is a stain, but he has his finger on the pulse. Relations are low between CP and the FAI at the moment (as witnessed by a flare up between respective blazers at a function last week) and the soccer boys may well decide on Cardiff after all. The Tallaght thing is seen as one insult too far and Delaney is under pressure to be seen to defend his own.
Interesting times.
I thought Delany was saying only last week there were no problems between him and the GAA?
As for the training requests - surely in any sane organisation the Team manager(Staunton) would ask the Chief Official(Delaney) to approach his counterpart in the GAA(Liam or Nicky) and request particular dates.
But not with our wonderful FAI !! No it has to be Staunton asking via the media and letting the media know the answer.
Tossers the most of them >:(
Quote from: Rossfan on December 19, 2006, 07:53:12 PM
I thought Delany was saying only last week there were no problems between him and the GAA?
As for the training requests - surely in any sane organisation the Team manager(Staunton) would ask the Chief Official(Delaney) to approach his counterpart in the GAA(Liam or Nicky) and request particular dates.
But not with our wonderful FAI !! No it has to be Staunton asking via the media and letting the media know the answer.
Tossers the most of them >:(
its called picking a fight.....
QuoteAnd just in case you haven't noticed, soccer long ago passed gaelic football and hurling as the biggest participation sport for the youth of this country.
when did this happen? not in my lifetime anyway
Quote from: neilthemac on December 19, 2006, 08:41:58 PM
QuoteAnd just in case you haven't noticed, soccer long ago passed gaelic football and hurling as the biggest participation sport for the youth of this country.
when did this happen? not in my lifetime anyway
more play soccer than any individual gaelic game apparently. the GAA still has the most members and players in total
Cathal Dervan gets away with writing this shite because there is a market for his brand of verbal muck. Every soccer loving, GAA hater out there with a big chip on their shoulder has a life size picture of Cathal on the wall of their bedroom ya know. Cathal doesn't really want the GAA and FAI to be buddies either cos his livelyhood depends on him being able to write this type of crap about the evil GAA that stole everything from the poor FAI. It just isn't fair.....
Boo f**king Hoo.
Quote from: neilthemac on December 19, 2006, 08:41:58 PM
QuoteAnd just in case you haven't noticed, soccer long ago passed gaelic football and hurling as the biggest participation sport for the youth of this country.
Im also more than a little confused with that statement alright. I dont see the p***k rushing to quote specific numbers, a fairly general staement by anyones standards.
The guy is an asshole.even his fellow journalists think so. Always plays to the gallery- sticks up for his buddies in the FAI to protact his sources who in turn leak various titbits like Staunton becoming manager before anyone else hears about it. Basically Delaney's mouthpiece. Dervan belongs and resides in the gutter along with his cheerleading brand of journalism which only your average jimmy five bellies irish premiership fan would read.
Quote from: Josey Whales on December 19, 2006, 11:13:07 PM
The guy is an asshole.even his fellow journalists think so. Always plays to the gallery- sticks up for his buddies in the FAI to protact his sources who in turn leak various titbits like Staunton becoming manager before anyone else hears about it. Basically Delaney's mouthpiece. Dervan belongs and resides in the gutter along with his cheerleading brand of journalism which only your average jimmy five bellies irish premiership fan would read.
i think you have hit the nail on thehead there. a mouthpiece, so watch what comes out of his mouth with interest.
you are right with the last bit, his credibility amongst real soccer fans seems to be zero
if the truth was told we don't want the toerags to play in croker!
he sums up what these soccer fans are west brits!!!
let them go to tolka!
Quote from: thegael on December 19, 2006, 11:25:38 PM
if the truth was told we don't want the toerags to play in croker!
he sums up what these soccer fans are west brits!!!
let them go to tolka!
and you sum up why he uses the word bigot.....
Quote from: dublinfella on December 20, 2006, 12:03:18 AM
and you sum up why he uses the word bigot.....
Dervan is an equal bigot
i have never posted on this forum outside the down section,but this is a subject i feel strongly enough to do so.i read this article in the star(which i buy to read some of the articles written by former players such as mchugh,liston etc and happen to be insightful and interesting).this man dervan seems to write just to provoke gaa people,so we come off with anti soccer/rugby statements which justify the kind of opinions he has.
I wont get into the fact that the irfu and the fai are homeless of their own fault,because as it stands that cannot be changed,and we as a country have to deal with the situation we are in.if an international game had to be played in britain it would be disastrous.however,it is not the gaa who made this situation arise.so why are we the ones who have to rectify the problems of others, who have then went on to abuse the hospitality our organisation has offered them.the problem lies in what we as an association do from here.if we let the deal to use headquarters continue into 2008,then we open ourselves to digging our competitors out of their own mess forever more.i believe we should allow the current arrangement run its course,find out what the irfu/fai have done to further their own development of match facilities,and if it is inadequate,let them play in britain.it is not our job/obligation as an amatuer association to help two other professional organisations promote games in direct competition to our own.it is not their tax that paid for our stadium,for contrary to one previous post,gaelic games are by far the most played,most participated,and most watched in this island.and these people pay the tax that funded PART of our stadium,the rest paid for by our own association.
Lads, this PLEB CD does not talk for all the 'Soccer' Community. Most of the 'Soccer' people i know are delighted that Croke Park has been offered as a temporary(?) residence to play home games and are looking forward to returning to Landsdowne when it is completed. CD is in the journalistic silly season where the premiership is a two horse race and Rep Ireland do not have a game untill well into next year. For me CD was always one of those people who Jumped on the Bandwagon when Rep Ireland were doing well playing shite football under Charlton and the purists (who he called begrudgers) just looked on in agony. Look he is a Pleb who does not know what he is talking about and does not reflect the views of the vast majority.
Pleb = A nobody whose view really means nothing!
I loved the one about Soccer having suprassed Gaelic and Hurling as the biggest participation sport in Ireland I think he should definitely check that before he goes pulling stats like that out of his ass. Sure half the lads playin soccer are the Gaa boys tryin to stay fit.
I think one of our esteemed posters has the best description of how to deal with fellas like Cathal Dervan
Never argue with a fool, he'll bring you down to his level and beat you with experience
"The Tallaght thing is seen as one insult too far"
Dublinfella, can you clarify what all the other "insults" were please?
Quote from: GallBoss on December 20, 2006, 08:18:33 AM
I loved the one about Soccer having suprassed Gaelic and Hurling as the biggest participation sport in Ireland I think he should definitely check that before he goes pulling stats like that out of his ass. Sure half the lads playin soccer are the Gaa boys tryin to stay fit.
If you count kickabouts at lunchtime it has done. In terms of clubs and membership figures [organised sport] soccer is miles behind.
Typical FAI leak to lacky journalists (although Martin Breheny in the Indo is as guilty when it come to the GAA)
Consider this:
They've had the income from
3 World Cups
and
1 European Championship
the qualifiers for same, full houses for friendlies and a healty profit from merchandise and sponsorship.
And they still don't have a ground for the national team to play in, despite claiming to be a bigger participant sport than GAA, which has an 85,000 state of the art stadium.
When former FAI President, Pat Quigley, tried to build Eircom Park, Bertie Ahern shafted him by saying a national stadium was on the cards. Where is it?
That was nearly 10 years ago and now the man who signed blank cheques for Europe's most politically corrupt Prime Minister of modern times is putting it about he still wants the national stadium built despite being in office for 10 years and having already spent €100 million of tax payers money on a project which never got off the ground.
The GAA should have told the FAI where to go when it sought Croke Park. Opening it to these idiots is among the biggest mistakes it has ever made.
soccer may have lots of people playing it at lunchtime but that dosent mean they give a damn about the FAI or soccer.
Playing competitive sport is a more accurate reflection of real participation and to get an idea of the breakdown of real participation the stats are as follows.
29% of all adults who are members of sports clubs are GAA members, compared to soccer 9%
Out of the people who Volunteer to help out in sport GAA 40% - Soccer 17%
source: http://www.esri.ie/publications/search_for_a_publication/search_results/view/index.xml?id=1969
Not trying to defend the tube, but I think he said 'among the youth of the country'.
Is there figures to support/reject this?
I believe there was an ESRI survey that said as much, yes, schoolboy participation is a couple of percent ahead of football.
John Delaney dosent bother with that little detail when he's making claims to having the highest participation.
In fairness when they feel the need to constantly mention they are the biggest participation sport in the country, it kind of makes them look a little desperate.
dervan has got to be the worst journalist ever.he was the idiot who defended michelle smith saying that she never used steriods .his only proof wasthat he asked her did she use them and she said that she did not.great investigative journalism at its best.he did ask the irish supporters to boo roy keane which was keanes reason for not particapating in niall quinns testimonial as dervan was one of the organisers of the match progam.he is forever referring to various top soccer people as his mates especially mick mccarthy which drives me nuts.the sad thing is that he will probably enjoy all this adverse publicity as he is to stupid to realize that he is the laughing stock of journalism
I dont think there are too many among the GAA Hierarchy who will care much about the ramblings of Cathal Dervan. Among the Irish Sporting Fraternity, the FAI has little competition for the title of the most inept organisation in the country. It will be interesting how they will get on trying to run the domestic League on a professional basis when it is plain for all to see that the money is just not there to support such a structure.
Someone said earlier that a Pleb is someone low in rank with an opinion that does not matter (or something like that). I would suggest that the GAA is in fact built on the opinions of all the "Pleb" members, and has often shown tremendous examples of active democracy in how the views of the lowest levels (i.e. the clubs) are fed up to the Congress floor and rules are changed accordingly.
Can anyone make a similar case for democracy among the structures of the FAI? The Genesis Report after the Saipan Fiasco certainly could not. Have any or all of its recommendations been implemented yet? I wonder could Mr.Dervan answer that, or would that require a level of thinking that might be beyond his abilities?
QuoteI dont think there are too many among the GAA Hierarchy who will care much about the ramblings of Cathal Dervan.
I'm sure you'll all be interested to know that the GAA have refused Mr Dervan a press pass for Croker to cover the soccer internationals so they must be more sensitive than you think Biff.
Quote from: Declan on January 02, 2007, 07:06:20 AM
QuoteI dont think there are too many among the GAA Hierarchy who will care much about the ramblings of Cathal Dervan.
I'm sure you'll all be interested to know that the GAA have refused Mr Dervan a press pass for Croker to cover the soccer internationals so they must be more sensitive than you think Biff.
Ha ha.
At least the martyr angle will appeal to Dervan's target audience when he starts complaining of his treatment!
can't wait to see what he writes about that!
Quote from: Declan on January 02, 2007, 07:06:20 AM
QuoteI dont think there are too many among the GAA Hierarchy who will care much about the ramblings of Cathal Dervan.
I'm sure you'll all be interested to know that the GAA have refused Mr Dervan a press pass for Croker to cover the soccer internationals so they must be more sensitive than you think Biff.
Another GAA own goal. Let him in I say, then sit back and enjoy the further mayhem he will surely create for himself and the FAI. ;D
Why Croke Park for internationals when even Shelbourne or Bohemians stadia can do just as well.....The FAI are a farce when they have it in a GAA stadium? the two sports should be kept seperate in my opinion!!
What an expense!! and leave Tallaght alone with their ground, there will alyways been someone there
"Why Croke Park for internationals when even Shelbourne or Bohemians stadia can do just as well"
What do you mean can do just as well? Surely its about demand, if the FAI thought they would only get 8 thousand at the games then ok, but that statement has bamboozled me!
"What an expense!!"
Expense to who?
"and leave Tallaght alone with their ground, there will alyways been someone there"
I dont even know what that means!
the question I suppose is - if shamrock rovers get the money to fund this stadium (paid for by the gov - I know , yes and it is alongside grants already given out to soccer , GAA and rugby in Ireland)
can Rovers fund the running of this stadium?
from their side a rovers only stadium would be great for their club, but given the financial problems in their past and the embezzling culture within LOI & FAI circles, going in with other tenants would make most financial sense - rather than have the gov bail them out time and time again in the not too distant future!
Beggars being choosers and all that.
Having sen the size of Thomas Davis underage GAA scene, I very much doubt that they are too worried about Shamrock rovers joining the area. Theres plenty of kids to supply even more clubs/sports in that area...
Quote from: lynchbhoy on January 02, 2007, 03:30:22 PM
the question I suppose is - if shamrock rovers get the money to fund this stadium (paid for by the gov - I know , yes and it is alongside grants already given out to soccer , GAA and rugby in Ireland)
can Rovers fund the running of this stadium?
from their side a rovers only stadium would be great for their club, but given the financial problems in their past and the embezzling culture within LOI & FAI circles, going in with other tenants would make most financial sense - rather than have the gov bail them out time and time again in the not too distant future!
Beggars being choosers and all that.
Having sen the size of Thomas Davis underage GAA scene, I very much doubt that they are too worried about Shamrock rovers joining the area. Theres plenty of kids to supply even more clubs/sports in that area...
Technically its not Rovers stadium, the trade off is that they give back the land in return for a long term lease on the SDCC's soccer stadium. Much like the continentals the SDCC will take rent and a cut of the gate. The theory is that the FAI will play underage internationals and cup finals there while the schools in the area get to use Rovers training facilities.
My understanding of the new FAI league is that there will be no more excuses for the sort of financial nonsense that has happened before. Above board or out which is aa it should be.
As for CD, can the GAA exclude him from the press box at the soccer games? Surely thats a FAI/UEFA call?
Quote from: dublinfella on January 02, 2007, 06:41:52 PM
Technically its not Rovers stadium, the trade off is that they give back the land in return for a long term lease on the SDCC's soccer stadium. Much like the continentals the SDCC will take rent and a cut of the gate. The theory is that the FAI will play underage internationals and cup finals there while the schools in the area get to use Rovers training facilities.
My understanding of the new FAI league is that there will be no more excuses for the sort of financial nonsense that has happened before. Above board or out which is aa it should be.
As for CD, can the GAA exclude him from the press box at the soccer games? Surely thats a FAI/UEFA call?
I would like to think there has been a wholesale eradication of the jobs for the boys/embezzlement culture in fai etc - but remain sceptical given that nothing seems to have been done to remove the status quo that dogged Irish soccer for so long. Maybe they did it behind closed doors.
I would like to see a municipal stadium so that soccer , GAA AND Rugby can play in Tallaght.
the IRFU are putting huge resources into rugby out there and if they had a decent place with which to play , it would help garner players. Otherwise they are really up against it.
I dont see why Gov funding cannot be spent and all sports benefit (if more than soccer/rugby and Gaelic games want to use the venue).
A running athletics track would surely be useful out there also.
as for cathal dervan. If memory serves me correctly , he used to write in the 'Irish' star in the early 90's.
He along with that other amadan roy curtis displayed a talent for having no clue about soccer or Gaelic football which began my scepticism of 'sports reporters'.
Not only would I ban dervan from Croker, I'd ban him and his ilk from every sporting venue in the land - such is their level of inaccurate and rubbish cliche layden columns.
Plus that most of the papers take generic game reports from all English/Scots and Irish games - more often than not bearing no similarities to the game I may have seen live myself.
Plaguarists and cowboys most of them are. Then there are a few who are more poet-esque than sports writer....they bore the fcking erse off me also
hardly a decent journo out there imo.
rant over..