When we talk about soccer in Ireland, we are talking about the Gaelic version. The goals look like in rugby, with these long poles at the top. The difference is that there is a net at the bottom and a goalkeeper standing in it. He has an extremely interesting job. Most of the goals go in above the crossbar, and you get a point for that. That is considered an easy point like you can get when playing at the crazy time live.
At the bottom, where the goalkeeper stands, there are three points, but that rarely happens. Association football, as we play it, is considered a marginal phenomenon in Ireland. It’s completely un-Irish, i.e. English, football. That’s why the GAA (Gaelic Football Association) forbids its players from even watching the other version, let alone playing it themselves. The ban is abolished in 1971. It had worked well for more than 70 years because it effectively prevented the spread of “normal” soccer. But not that anyone thinks Gaelic football is the most brutal, fastest and most intense sport in the world. No. This is hurling. Gaelic football with sticks and a small, hard ball that makes a real boo-boo when you get it in the face. And then there are the bats. If someone hits it in the wrong place. Big ouch. But helmets or protective armor are not for the Irish. They only wear gloves because of the ball control. Incidentally, Ireland is unbeatable at both Gaelic sports. They are not played anywhere else in the world. Ireland has exported a lot over the centuries. Especially emigrants. But not the Gaelic sports. The finals are played on two consecutive weekends in Croke Park in Dublin. The 80,000 or so tickets are sold out months in advance.
In contrast, just 4,000 people attend “normal” soccer league matches. But anyone who thinks that the Irish Football League can be ignored is very much mistaken. The permanent crisis has its good sides. The stadiums are quaint, the people are fine, the pubs are great and the atmosphere could hardly be better, but more on that later. First of all, the ongoing crisis. Because of Gaelic football and hurling, soccer has never had an Irish reputation. So it’s a politically difficult sport. Go away with the kingdom and all its varieties. That’s why you hardly know Irish clubs and if you do, it’s from the first round of the European Cups, for example Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk FC, Finn Harps, or Shelbourne FC. But in the second round, they were always out of the picture. Anyone who can play well in Ireland is scouted away by the English at youth level. What remains is something like an ambitious regional league. Nothing more.
Only the national team suddenly becomes popular. The magical game takes place in Stuttgart, at the 1988 European Championships, with Ireland beating England 1:0 – hard to believe. The Irish team even includes two former GAA players, Pat Bonner and Kevin Moran. Suddenly, traditional soccer is also Irish. But only the national team. Club soccer remains subterranean. Derry City almost goes bankrupt in 2000. In 2005, the iconic Shamrock Rovers are relegated to the second division. In 2006, the ambitious soccer project called Dublin City – barely founded – goes down the drain. In 2007, champions Shelbourne were denied a license for the European Cup. As the league and its clubs stabilize, the national association takes over the headlines. “I’m not saying that”. Like a toddler, John Delaney answers the questions of the committee of inquiry. Delaney was managing director of the national association for almost 15 years. Annual salary: around 360,000 euros. Debt mountain of the association at the end of 2019: 62 million euros. How this could have happened: “I won’t say.” To be honest, you have to add that the public let him do it. There is definitely something to some Irish clichés.
