Sports Desk: Setanta aims to unite soccer hearts, minds

When I was a young lad we dreamed of success and often picked All-Ireland teams that we thought could take on the best in the world. Then the North went into rapid decline while Jack Charlton turned around the Republic’s fortunes. But still the two leagues continue to play their weekend games before meager attendances.
In an effort to attract the well-off Celtic cubs, the Eircom League vary their games between Thursday and the traditional Sunday, while the North stick with their Saturday afternoon kickoff. There have been various attempts down through the decades to organize North-South competitions, with little success.
The Troubles, which began in 1968, certainly didn’t help. There has always been an underlying current of fear when teams like Linfield came south; and a small group of Dublin gurriers always latched on to Shamrock Rovers whenever the Hoops were successful. We have had the Blaxnit Cup, the Texaco Cup and Tyler Cup. Now comes the Setanta Cup, which kicks off next Tuesday when Glentoran take on Longford Town at the Oval, Belfast. The other team in this group is Linfield, while group two comprises Cork City, Shelbourne and Portadown. Setanta will televise most of the games and I hope it’s the start of something positive. Gerry Adams recently issued a green paper on his views for a United Ireland. I wonder where did soccer fit in?

EIRCOM GOES LIVE
Eircom league clubs are guaranteed a substantial payout from a new television deal that will see 30 games being televised live this season. The League and FAI Cup games will be shown on three different stations: RTE, TG4 and Setanta.
“This ground-breaking deal will see unprecedented exposure of the game on television,” Interim FAI CEO John Delaney said. “I have always held the view that television rights hold the key to investing in our domestic game.”
The first game to be televised live will be the meeting of Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers on March 18, which will be shown on RTE. A week later, TG4, which showed Spanish soccer when they first went on air a few years back, will broadcast their first Eircom League game when they visit Inchicore for the meeting of St. Patrick’s Athletic and Bohemians.
In GAA, RTE radio and television have secured exclusive rights to the All-Ireland hurling and football championships until 2007. TG4 will show National League games, which are played on Sundays, plus the semifinals and finals of the Leagues. Setanta will get a slice of the action for the first time as they will have a highlights program. Setanta can also show League games on Fridays and Saturdays plus club games on Saturdays.
Also, the FAI insisted last week that the World Cup game against Israel will go ahead in Tel Aviv on Easter Saturday. There was speculation the game may be in doubt following two recent suicide bombs in Tel Aviv. But following talks between Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern and the Israeli ambassador, the FAI said they are happy that it’s safe for the game to go ahead.

KICKING KING
HOPES DASHED
Hopes of another Cheltenham Gold Cup triumph associated with the famous Taaffe name receded for this year at least, when Kicking King was last week ruled out of this year’s race. The Tom Taaffe-trained horse was found to have a virus when scoped last Tuesday.
Kicking King, who is trained in Kildare by the son of the legendary Pat Taaffe, won the King George VI Chase at Kempton on St. Stephen’s Day and was quoted at 7-1 for the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Kicking King is now on medication and provided he recovers in plenty of time will run again at the Punchestown National Hunt Festival at the end of April.
Meanwhile, Irish punters going to Cheltenham have been warned that they could find themselves arrested if they are found drinking alcohol on the street. Cheltenham’s street-drinking ban, first introduced in 1994, has been extended to cover many more areas of the town.

O’SULLIVAN FALLS
SHORT IN JAPAN
Sonia O’Sullivan’s long track career could be coming to an end. The 35-year-old Cobh-born runner recently turned down the offer to join the Irish team for this month’s World Cross Country Championship in St. Etienne, France. Originally, O’Sullivan had opted to use the championships as part of her preparation for the London Marathon on April 17, but her recent form has forced a rethink. She has been warm-weather training in Australia, but a 13th place finish in a cross country race in Japan fell well short of expectations when she found herself dropped from the leading group after just two of the six-kilometers race. So unless her form improves significantly over the coming weeks, her participation in London must be in doubt.

CORK CITY FIRE DOLAN
I think it was former Irish soccer manager Eoin Hand who said that one of the few certainties in life was that managers are sacked. Cork City’s pre-season preparation were thrown into turmoil last week when chairman Brian Lennox sacked Pat Dolan after just two seasons in charge at Turner’s Cross. Cork City came with a great run at the end of last season and almost caught eventual champions Shelbourne. But there had been rumbling for a few weeks after Dolan and his players were not happy with the training facilities provided.
Damien Richardson, who was manager of Cork in 1993-94, returns to Leeside, while Dolan is reported to be ready to move to Limerick as commercial manager.

WHELAHAN, HUNT QUIT
In GAA, two hurling managers have quit.
John Hunt was not sacked by Meath, but the Clare native walked after the Royals hurlers were beaten by DIT College in the Kehoe Cup and by London in the opening game of the National Hurling League. Hunt had been in charge for just a year, having taken over from former Offaly star Michael Duignan.
In Limerick, Pat Joe Whelahan quit last week after seeing his Limerick side lose their two opening games in the National League. There was a big problem in Limerick with dual players and in the end it looked like some of more experienced players had opted out. Whelahan had great success at club level in his native Offaly with Birr and it will take more than a manager to lift Limerick right now.

SMYTH TIPPED
AS RYDER NO. 2
Which Irishman will Ian Woosnam pick as his Ryder Cup vice-captain? That’s the question everybody is asking after the Welshman confirmed last week that he would announce an Irishman as his right-hand man at the Smurfit European Open in June. The speculation is that Woosnam will opt for Des Smyth to be his number two. Woosnam was the favorite for the job all along, but the European Tour took the unusual step of also announcing their captain for the Ryder Cup in 2008, England’s Nick Faldo.

BRAY STAR GIVES
U.S. THUMBS DOWN
Eamon Zayed is back home and looking forward to playing in the Eircom premier division with Bray Wanderers after a brief spell with the Metrostars. The former Irish under 21 trained with the Metrostars at their Florida training camp. He said the U.S. team were happy with him, but he was not impressed with their slow build up style of play. “Their style of play didn’t really suit me,” Zayed said. “I had expectations going out, but I didn’t really like the way they played, the standard of football or the money involved. I played a few games and scored a few goals, but the games were a bit frustrating. It is totally different the way they play soccer in the U.S. It is very textbook: they like to pass it around midfield without getting it forward. I enjoyed the training but not the games.”
But Zayad was very impressed with D.C. United’s promising 15-year-old Freddy Adu. “D.C. United are a good team and Adu really looks the part,” he said. “He didn’t play like he was a 15-year-old.”

FIVE TO CONSIDER
SHORTLIST OF 12
Dublin City manager John Fitzgerald has been appointed by the government to chair the five-person committee charged with finding a chief executive for the FAI. The highly respected public servant joins FAI President Milo Corcoran, FAI Secretary Michael Cody and representatives of the Irish Sports Council and Department of Sport on the committee who will begin interviews later this month.
Interim CEO John Delaney remains the favorite for the post, but, of course, we don’t know the caliber of the people on the short list, which is believed contain 12 names.

MULLINS BOWS OUT
Veteran horse-trainer Paddy Mullins retired recently. Mullins, who trained at Goresbridge in County Kilkenny, will be remembered as the trainer of the legendary Dawn Run, the only horse to win both the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup at Cheltenham. After 52 years in the job, he has handed over the reins to his son Tom.

PREZ RACE
HEATS UP
With the debate on the GAA’s Rule 42 heating up, all eyes are turning to the two presidential candidates, Nicky Brennan and Christy Cooney, to see which way they will lean. Cooney, a former Munster Council Chairman, said he is against opening up Croker. Brennan, meanwhile, in his last speech as Leinster chairman, said he favored giving control to the GAA’s Central Council, which is more or less a “yes.”

Set hed:
D’Arcy set to make return

Shane Horgan is out of the Irish team for Saturday’s RBS Six Nations game against France at Lansdowne Road. The lanky center injured his thumb in the win over England on Feb. 27 but could be back for the final game of the championship against Wales in Cardiff on March 19.
But the good news for Irish coach Eddie O’Sullivan is that Gordon D’Arcy will be fit and should slot into Horgan’s place in the three-quarters line. D’Arcy injured his hamstring in the opening game of the campaign against Italy and missed the wins over Scotland and England.
Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that Munster will lose their Australian-born coach, Alan Gaffney, at the end of the season. Gaffney is returning home to become number two to Aussie National Coach Eddie Jones. I suppose it’s best that the news comes out now well in advance of Munster’s Heineken Cup quarterfinal against Biarritz on April 3. Michael Bradley, a former Munster player, now coaching Connacht, has already been installed as favorite to take over from Gaffney.