The League Of Ireland Argument

The Last Word by Brendan White

(first published in the May 2010 Mervue United match programme)

The League of Ireland is not a well supported League in comparison to others. Shamrock Rovers have the most supporters at every home game, in Tallaght Stadium. Derry City come behind Rovers with Bohs and Cork next up. But are our fans really different to those across the water and abroad?

Some fans are nice, some fans are not nice, that’s part and parcel of the game and accepted. Some fans want to watch matches in peace, week in week out, while some want to cause trouble and will generally succeed. But the one thing that struck me recently was the inability of our fans to have a general talk about the League of Ireland, and about League of Ireland teams.

Two weeks ago, three of us had a discussion about Cristiano Ronaldo and the money that Real Madrid paid for him, and whether they got a bargain from Man United. We made our arguments and in the end I think I won!

Sometime later I had another similar argument about the League of Ireland. Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers had just played out a 1-1 draw in Dalymount Park and we were talking about the two teams and the merits of their squads.

I soon realised that many arguments I’ve had about the League of Ireland usually ended in the same way. League of Ireland supporters cannot argue League of Ireland. They will usually end with a ‘shur Bohs are Sh1te’ or ‘feck off, Rovers are ****’. We don’t know how to do it. In a League that is more of a community, or a very big family, our inability to be able to argue is a bit mad, and more often than not it’s frustrating.

Arguing about what team is better, who the best player is, what ground is the best or what ground is the worst are what make us interested in the game. Fans, pundits, everybody across the water can do it, why can’t we?

Why must we engage in abuse rather than the merits of the argument? As a LoI supporter, the next argument you have about the League of Ireland, try to argue without abusing.

We need to create a League where people can engage with other supporters. Of course the slagging will always be there, be it with your closest rivals, or the team you almost always beat every year. But why can’t we argue on the merits of the conversation? On the quality of the manager? The quality of the club in the last few years? The quality of the players they have at their disposal? The young players at the club? The youth setup the clubs have in place?

We often have discussions with other fans of our team after matches. We talk about the goals, the red cards, the referee, the players and the manager’s decisions. Everybody is entitled to their point of view after a game, we can’t write somebody off because you don’t like them, because they haven’t been to as many games as you and various other reasons.

League of Ireland fans need to listen to people opinions, if you disagree then argue away, but argue on the merits of it, and stop the unnecessary abuse.