Sir, – While I share Noel Coogan’s frustration that the League of Ireland is not better supported, it should be recognised that Irish football is a broad church, the league being just one member. Huge numbers participate in football in Ireland at many levels and in many ways. All are valid stakeholders in our game, as are the many ex-pats who travelled to Poland, and are entitled to support our national team without attracting criticism.
In December 2011, The Irish Times cited a survey showing football to be the country’s most popular sport. But unlike rugby, where the Irish can watch Europe’s best players and teams on their doorsteps, the structure and economics of European football dictate against anything like this being possible and conspire against the League of Ireland being more popular. As far as the higher levels of the professional game are involved, the Irish are usually on the outside of the party looking in, so on those rare occasions when we get an invitation, we gladly accept. Unfortunately we left this one early. – Yours, etc,