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Saw this on anfearrua.com. You have to laugh

From 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.

http://www.sportsfile.com/fotoweb/Preview.fwx?position=6&archiveType=ImageFolder&sorting=ModifiedTimeAsc&search=(IPTC103%20contains%20D0612069)&fileId=4C3ABA64E9D5C430719D19E637E06F040B41EBD67AFD4DB45349769D3DA29DA5FC788D58B16C1545D9DFF19DCC0CAFF51CD2FE7937D6917B79067955277EE5C3B83B1F4CEDA56EED42A9C3496C6675AB3A8A964CCB143568E1C7D0A3ABB9B2BFC5D2ECA3E4F4459DE628917FE8CC6F282798614AA13BF1656CD00FAEA13873F2

So where are teams off to this year?

I heard Kerry were going to Oz and Longford to Mexico. Not sure what has been arranged for the Mayo lads?

Accoring to hill16.ie the following are the Dubs fixtures, so the rest should follow later in the day

Dublin NFL 2007 schedule



DUBLIN'S 2007 NFL SCHEDULE
SAT, FEB 3
Dublin v Tyrone

SUN, FEB 11
Limerick v Dublin

SUN, FEB 25
Donegal v Dublin

SAT, MARCH 10
Dublin v Cork

SAT, MARCH 24
Dublin v Fermanagh

SUN, APRIL 1
Mayo v Dublin

SAT, APRIL 7
Dublin v Kerry

So it basically is the same schedule as last year but home/away reversed, Limerick swopped for Monaghan, Donegal in for Offaly.

At a Division 3 club game!! Taken from the Mayo News.

Edwin McGreal
Exclusive

A ROUTINE Minor League Division 3 final in Parke last Sunday was the setting for the first ever recorded instance of streaking at a football match in Mayo.
The game was heading for an inevitable outcome of an Aghamore win over Crossmolina with 20 minutes remaining when the pitch was invaded dramatically by a teenage streaker.
Starting out from beside the 'top' goal – wearing nothing but a pair of runners and a black balaclava – he ran diagonally across the pitch, out the gate, into the car park and into a waiting car where a change of clothes awaited.
Conditions in Parke were not conducive to football on the day so, needless to say, streaking was not recommended. The streaker, who is believed to be from the Ballyhaunis area, was tracked down by The Mayo News last night. He admits the cold nearly got the better of him, especially waiting, minus his clothes, for the opportune moment to do his thing.
"It was freezing," he said. "I was perched above behind the goal with no clothes on from near the start of the second half. I was ten minutes waiting for the call to go and it wasn't the weather for that! I said I'd wait for the ball to go out of play. We had it organised perfectly. Three of us were working on it, one in the stand gave the shout to go and another was waiting in the car. It was complicated enough," he recalled with a laugh.
Castlebar's Jimmy Feeney was the referee on Sunday and admits that he was certainly caught off guard. "The crowd started roaring and I looked around, not sure what was going on. I thought it might have been a fight happening off the ball and next thing I saw your man running right up the pitch. He ran by me.
"It livened up a dull enough affair. The only thing I regret is that I didn't think quickly because I should have taken the red card out and shown it to him. The crowd were in hysterics and they would have loved that," he added.
Enda Lavelle, a member of the Crossmolina management, was another eye-witness. "He was the fastest person on the field all day," he chuckled. "He was a lunatic. It was a cold day, we were perishing with clothes on us! It was fierce funny and entertaining, but it was a strange game to do it at. There weren't 50 people there."
But the streaker is no novice, this is the second time he has struck. Sunday's incident is the first reported case but he made his streaking debut during a minor league game involving Aghamore away to Ballyhaunis in the summer of 2005.
"I did it the first time for money but this time I just did it for the craic," he explained. "I got €400 for it first time, loads of people threw in tenners and fivers. There's good money in this crack, you could make a living out of it! I ran the length of the pitch, that was the condition of the bet, if I didn't do it it was no deal.
"There was rakes of people at the first match, at least 300 if not 500. I'd say most people came to see me streak because a lot of people knew about it. It was a Bank Holiday Monday and I'd no job so I was strapped for cash. It was a handy way of making money, beats a lot of other jobs," he smiled.
And as for anymore escapades, well the price has to be right for Mayo's first ever streaker. "You never know I might be tempted to do it again. The pay conditions would have to be good though. Maybe The Mayo News might pay me if I put their logo on my back?"