Your ultimate
guide to Dublin professional football
By Stephen Finn
IRISH football enters an exciting new phase
this year with the arrival of the first-ever
summer soccer season. The new campaign will
kick-off on the weekend of 12 April.
There are many reasons why soccer fans in this
country have no affinity with the professional
game that takes place in Ireland. However, if
you’ve only ever heard negative words about the
standards, don’t take this advice on its merits
without seeing the game for yourself.
The vast majority of nay-sayers that criticise
the Eircom League have little or no knowledge of
the game over here.
It is understandable that in the past many
people have been put off Irish football because of
disappointing facilities and over-negative
mentalities amongst the coaches of the teams, but
these issues are slowly being eradicated.
The quality of football produced by one or two
of the clubs in recent years could be the envy
anything seen in the majority of high-standard
football countries.
Results prove we are competitive. The current
champions, Bohemians, have made excellent strides
in recent times.
The fact that they beat Premiership side
Tottenham Hotspur recently shouldn’t be dismissed
as a fluke. Stephen Kenny’s side won 3-1 and
produced a brilliant display of high-tempo passing
and created three great goals.
Their recent record in Europe is something
they are rightly very proud of. The Gypsies
eliminated Scottish side Aberdeen and beat
Bundesliga star Kaiserslautern away in the UEFA
Cup 2000. The following year they beat Latvians
Levida Maardu in the Champions League qualifiers.
In 1983, Bohs recorded one of the great Irish
victories in Europe, beating Rangers 3-2 in a
pulsating clash at Dalymount Park.
Their home ground is one of Irish football’s
historic venues and situated right behind
Phibsboro Shopping Centre. Their first home game
of the new campaign is against UCD on Friday 11
April.
UCD is the only university football club
playing in a top-flight division in Europe.
They’re home games are played in Belfield Park, in
Stillorgan. They’ll be playing their first home
encounter against Cork City on Friday 18 April.
Cork City will be in the headlines in the
opening round of fixtures as Pat Dolan now manages
them and his first competitive match with his new
charges is at home to his former club, St
Patrick’s Athletic.
St Pats have also produced some amazing
results in Europe in recent years, drawing 0-0
with Celtic in 1998. Last year in the Inter-Toto
Cup they beat Croatian club HNK Rijecka over two
legs and then went out on away goals to Belgian
club Ghent.
Eamonn Collins is the new manager of the
Inchicore side and their first home game is
against the Shamrock Rovers on Friday 18 April.
Rovers currently share grounds with St Pats at
Richmond Park.
Managed by Liam Buckley, Rovers are in the
Inter-Toto Cup this year and they meet Drogheda
United in Inchicore on Friday 11 April, in their
first home fixture.
Shelbourne are away to newly promoted
Waterford United in the first round of fixtures,
before welcoming Derry City to Tolka Park on 18
April for their opening home fixture.
Shels, whose home ground is in Drumcondra,
will compete in the UEFA Cup this year and their
recent record in Europe includes a 1-1 draw away
to Norwegian stars Rosenborg. They also beat
Macedonian club Sloga that year.
Pat Fenlon’s side are one of the most exciting
outfits in the country and will be in serious
contention for the title. Like Bohemians and St
Patrick’s Athletic, they are a fully professional
outfit with no part-time players.
Finally, if you find your appetite for Irish
football becomes an obsession, Dublin City will be
able to keep you entertained on Monday nights as
they will be playing their First Division fixtures
on those evenings in Whitehall.
Managed by former Kildare County and Kilkenny
City assistant John Gill, many observers will be
interested to see how the Vikings progress this
season, starting with their first game on Monday
21 April, against Dundalk.
So there you have it: a map of Dublin
professional football. Feel free to sample it, you
may be pleasantly surprised.
Stephen Finn appears in metro
eireann courtesy of Dublin Daily News
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