February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Sean Creedon
There is no longer huge interest in domestic soccer. But on Friday night major attention will focus on Dublin’s Tolka Park for the Eircom League meeting of Shelbourne and St. Patrick’s Athletic.
This league game is being billed as a grudge game because Shels objected the _1,000 fine imposed on St. Pat’s by the Eircom League earlier in the season for using an improperly registered player — Paul Marney — in their first three games. The FAI upheld Shels’ appeal and deducted nine points from St. Pat’s, but the points were restored to the Saints last week by an arbitrator and they are now back on top of the premier division table, two points clear of Shels.
Various incidents have soured relations between the clubs in recent seasons, but after the Marney affair there is a palpable coolness. Both managers are high-profile and not slow to have a go at one another in print. Pat Dolan, the Saints boss, writes a weekly column for The Star newspaper, while Shels boss Dermot Keely is a columnist with the Irish Sun.
The row started last August when Marney’s registration was posted to the
League’s offices by a St. Pat’s employee by regular post rather than by registered mail. The rule states that the club will be deducted points if a player is not properly registered, but there have been big problems with rules in the domestic League down the years. And we wonder why most Irish people are only interested in Premiership football.
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The League should have spotted the error when checking the team sheets after the first series of games and Pat’s would probably have been happy to get back six points. Getting all nine back certainly aggravated Shels and some of the other clubs and Shels are threatening to take the case to UEFA or FIFA. The priority for Eircom League Commissioner Roy Dooney is to rewrite a loophole-free rulebook this summer.
U.S. fort Lansdowne
The U.S. has been confirmed as The Republic of Ireland’s friendly opponents at
Lansdowne Road on April 17. The U.S. stepped in when negotiations broke down with World Cup favorites Argentina. It will be the seventh meeting between the countries. The first was at Dalymount Park in October 1979 when the home side won 3-2 and the last at Foxboro in May 2000 ended in a 1-1 draw. So now Mick McCarthy has finalized his World Cup run-in. All four internationals are in Dublin. The first game is on Feb. 13 against Russia, then on March 27 Denmark visit Lansdowne Road. After the U.S.’s visit in April, the World Cup farewell game is against Nigeria on May 17.
O Se new Kerry captain
Daire O Se, nephew of manager Paidi, has been named as Kerry captain for the coming year. O Se, who gets the role thanks to An Gaeltacht’s first-ever county championship win, replaces Eoin Brosnan of Dr. Crokes, who controversially replaced Seamus Moynihan as Kerry skipper 24 hours before their All-Ireland semifinal defeat by Meath last September. The Glenflesk man led Kerry until Brosnan broke into the team.
Limerick mum to press
There’s a new trend in the GAA where county managers don’t like their players talking to the media. The impression seems to be that young lads could get a big head if they talk to a journalist and then see themselves quoted the next day on the back pages. To ensure that players are not continually annoyed in the buildup to big games, press nights were arranged where all the players on the team would be available for interview. That worked in some counties, but in a few counties the players avoided the press or just carried on training and ignored the reporters. Now comes news that Limerick manager Eamon Cregan has banned all his players, except
captain Mark Foley, from talking to the press. The ban will be in force for
the upcoming League and Championship campaign.
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