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Breaking out of garrisons may give hope to LOI in future years

Pick any given Sunday in the mid-to-late '90s and I know what I'm doing. There's a bit of Formula...



Breaking out of garrisons may...
Soccer

Breaking out of garrisons may give hope to LOI in future years

Pick any given Sunday in the mid-to-late '90s and I know what I'm doing. There's a bit of Formula 1 on the box and I've the fingers crossed that Michael Schumacher gets one over on his rivals.

A little after that there's a bit of Gaelic football flicking onto the screen and that's Mayo losing a couple of All-Ireland finals in a row.

And then there's Football Italia bringing pitch invasions, passion and the world's great players straight into my living room.

Coupled with following the English football club that I grew up following, like most people here, the mid-90s are the period where my sporting interests really took root.

On Tuesday, Roddy Collins and Stuey Byrne looked ahead to the upcoming season. Listen in here:

But conspicuous by its absence in those formative years was the League of Ireland. It did not figure on my radar at all and, from recollection, I'm pretty sure I had zero idea of the existence of the league nearest to me until I was almost out of primary school - which is quite damning on my part, I guess, but also an issue of marketing, which is another story entirely.

I had a chat with Oisin Langan about the issues facing the league on this week's Monday Rewind, and it got me thinking about one particular topic: the spread of clubs around the country.  

Long story, short, I'm from Leitrim - a county which has never had a League of Ireland club and is wedged between a couple of counties that do have a team each. Up north, Sligo Rovers rule the roost, whereas on the southern end, it's closer to the Longford Town catchment area. Both are based in towns I know very well.

Thanks to a childhood schoolfriend and neighbour who followed De Town, it was Longford which first brought the existence of the LOI to my consciousness. From there, you learn a bit about the clubs that Longford came against - not helped by the lax internet speeds of that time - as well as bits about the competitions like the league and FAI Cup.

I definitely had a soft spot for Longford Town FC and used to check their results on Teletext, but I never got to the point of being a real supporter i.e. attending matches or buying club merchandise. The same would apply to Sligo Rovers during their title-winning season.

And I suppose the sticking point has to be thinking in a county mindset. Leitrim, the county comes first in the shape of our inter-county Gaelic football team - and although you grow up appreciating the entire North-West region, the obsession does not quite reach the same pitch once you venture over the border to a neighbouring county.

Wexford Youths manager Mick Wallace and Derry City manager Stephen Kenny ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

It is not true of everyone, but counties - and to a slightly lesser degree, provinces (the latter of which is clearly visible in the success of rugby in this country) - are important marking points in Ireland. Personally, Leitrim is one of my key defining features after name, age and occupation.

It goes without saying that the GAA really highlights that, and it is an area where League of Ireland soccer sits in the shade with its town-based structure.

Consider that over half the counties in Ireland do not have a club in the Premier Division or second tier. Of course, that is ignoring the fact that the likes of Kilkenny, Monaghan and Kildare have hosted clubs. But currently none of those areas are represented.

Domestic soccer, when you look at it elsewhere, is based around towns and cities, whether that is in England, Spain or Italy. 

And the same is true to an extent over here as Wexford Youths founder Mick Wallace once said to me in an interview from 2011 about the way soccer developed in this country, many are based in old "garrison towns". 

"[Wexford Youths] got the licence in November 2006. There were six teams from Dublin and none from Wexford. It was in the FAI’s interest to bring us in. Historically, the League of Ireland has often been based in garrison towns like Waterford, Dublin, Sligo and Derry with a couple of exceptions," he said.

But as I've said, county is king rather than relatively small towns in my experience. Little can or needs to be done to feed into that through pre-existing League of Ireland clubs, but when we are looking at future expansions post-Cabinteely United - a greater spread of teams is necessary for reasons of inclusiveness - perhaps a 'Mayo FC' or 'Meath FC' representing county-based district leagues is the way to go. 

It taps into pre-existing feelings for your local region in a way that even towns do not do, and they can be used in terms of development, by adding a pathway for young players in the local district leagues.  

Of course, all this is a pipe dream and easier said than done but certainly, if someone decided that a Leitrim FC of some description needed to be founded, they would shoot right to the top of my all-time favourite teams alongside Leitrim GAA. Just because!

We kicked off this week's show with an in-depth interview with the face and voice of Gazzetta Football Italia

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