Half-time, Eamonn Deacy Park, Bank Holiday Monday last: the sun is out, Galway United are 4-0 up and the mighty queue at the Chipalicious wagon is going down.
In a holiday atmosphere, young faces abound and when Galway score two more in the second half, they are 10 points clear of Waterford in the First Division and destined for promotion. This time next year it will be Shamrock Rovers, not Finn Harps, visiting Terryland.
Simultaneously, 200km east at Abbotstown, the FAI is putting the final touches to its “Facility investment, strategy and vision” document.
There is a literal and figurative distance between the queue for chips and a quest for infrastructure funding, but these two scenes are connected by the intangible of what we call a feelgood factor and the tangible of potential investment in domestic Irish football as proposed by the FAI – €863m across 15 years.
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In June 2023 those two have shaken hands, and about time. What happens next is what matters and as Galway manager John Caulfield says: “It’s action that’s required”.
It has been said the spurt of optimism in domestic Irish football is Dublin-centric, but two days in the West, in Galway and Sligo, challenges that notion, even if after Galway United 6-0 Finn Harps, Caulfield sits in a physio room and exudes caution.
Caulfield, 58, is a League of Ireland lifer. His optimism has been carried off on a stretcher too many times for him to be claiming this as a transformational moment.
But others feel that way. Paul O’Brien, member of the Galway United Supporters’ Trust (GUST), who have kept the club alive in various hours of need, says: “I’ve been going since the mid-80s. This moment is unlike any other.
“I’ve seen a lot before, like Limerick showing plans for a new stadium that never happened, clubs saying they’ll go full-time professional, then going bust. That’s what I’ve seen before. What I’ve not seen is crowds. That’s the difference.”
In Sligo, chairman Tommy Higgins says: “More people play soccer in the country than anything else. I smell this. But you need to grasp it.”
Whether a 23% rise in League of Ireland attendances, women’s football, Evan Ferguson, young players in Europe, Brexit meaning teenage talents stay at home longer, adds up to something larger, Caulfield does say: “I do think there is a feelgood factor, certainly after Covid people are back out. You see clubs gaining more young people and families.
“But personally I don’t get too carried away. I’ve been in this league nearly all my life and finance remains a huge problem for every club. Some of the stadiums are okay, but the League of Ireland – as a brand – has been neglected by the FAI for . . . well, forever. That’s not to criticise anyone in the FAI now, that’s just the way it’s been.
“So, hand on heart, do I believe there’ll be a massive change in the next five years? It’s hard for me to say that.”
Caulfield’s opinion matters. He first played in the league for Athlone Town in 1983; in 1993 he won it with Cork City; he was the League’s top scorer in 1992 and 1995; he won the FAI Cup in 1998. And yet he says the most he earned as a part-time player was £4,000 plus the odd bonus and he can recall the last day of 1990-91 when Cork and Dundalk’s players shared showers after what was effectively a play-off for the title.
Such lack of infrastructure and money meant Caulfield delayed his entry into full-time management to work for Diageo.
When he did take over at Cork in 2013, he repeated his playing success, but much of the game looked the same to him as it did in 1983. Ten years on, Caulfield is Galway United’s one full-time employee, although some players are on 52-week contracts.
Despite it all, Caulfield remains a passionate advocate of the league and he can sense positivity at Galway. The attendance for Finn Harps was 2,200, the lowest of the season. It has been double that, which is impressive given the club’s 21st century history – relegations, near oblivion, Nick Leeson, mysterious Saudi Arabians and GUST rescues.
Galway have not played Premier Division football since 2017, but O’Brien says there are plans already around coping with increased numbers in 2024. In March last year the wealthy Comer brothers – from Glenamaddy, based in Monaco – bought into the club.
“The Comers are Galway people, they’re not going to come and go,” Caulfield says, adding: “Philip O’Doherty at Derry, he’s going nowhere, Dermot Desmond at Rovers, he’s going nowhere. So that’s good, encouraging.
“The potential is here. The fact the Comers have come in and they want to invest gives us a massive opportunity. We’ve had crowds this year of 4,500; it’s getting them to come every week. There’s lots of positive stuff, I don’t want to be negative, but as a club we’ve to drive it ourselves.”
Caulfield’s last point is for him the nub of the issue – the absence of top-down leadership. As he says: “It’s very much up to the clubs and it’s ad hoc.
“There’s no overall business plan, there’s no football industry. That’s frustrating because I can see how simple it would be to have one here and how brilliant it could be. But you need leadership from the top.
“If you ask me, we could have a 12-team League, with full-time players, Academies, clubs with their own facilities and full-time manager, assistant manager, coaches – not on a massive wage or anything, but they can get a living. You could have a general manager, administration, maybe have 10-15 employees and sustain that. You would have a football industry.
“We have a few players at school, some part-time, a few full-time on contracts going from about €22K to €38K. They’re young lads, I say to them they’d earn more in a factory, but this can give you ten years of your life and you can go to the factory after.
“If you had a professional league here you’d have to pay €45K minimum. If you had that industry, people would think ‘fair enough’. Our league has always suffered from perception: ‘It’s shit, no one goes.’ But honest-to-God, it’s a brilliant league.”
Caulfield went to school in Sligo and manages Galway; John Russell was born in Galway, played for them and manages Sligo Rovers. Russell uses the same word as Caulfield – “perception”.
![John Russell, Sligo manager: “The league does feel different from then`[10 years ago]. But it’s mad, like, in terms of facilities and infrastructure, it hasn’t changed, which is hugely disappointing.' Photograph: Evan Logan/Inpho](https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/4NIVGPZGXNIO27UGP55D6FXG4U.jpg?auth=a20dac08f84d3cae148d6778c1b69c061f0eb6d984e9c16abecca3fcaffa2138&width=800&height=571)
Russell is 38. He is, like Caulfield, cautiously optimistic that 2023 could be a turning point. It needs to be, because Russell can remember this: “There were times in my career, when I was at Galway, where I’d have to sign on the dole after the contract ended.
“That was around 2009-10 when the recession hit. It was extremely frustrating, there was a sense of embarrassment. You’re walking into the dole office and they know you’re a player in the area. But that was the situation.”
Economic reality meant in 2013, having won the league with St Pat’s, Russell took a job in Sligo as an FAI Development Officer: “We’d just won the league, had Champions League qualifiers and I was 28. But in terms of getting mortgages and stuff, I thought I’d take the job, come back and sign for the club here part-time.”
He became player-coach in 2019, manager last year, then led Sligo to victory over Motherwell home and away in the Europa Conference League. Beneath Ben Bulben he gives a 10-year reflection.
“The league does feel different from then,” Russell says. “But it’s mad, like, in terms of facilities and infrastructure, it hasn’t changed, which is hugely disappointing. The optics . . .
“In terms of calibre of player and teams, it’s more competitive. It seems to be becoming more professional. There’s Academies, coaches have to have B Licenses, A Licenses, there’s a certain style being coached. There’s been a huge emphasis on coach education across the country.
“I think clubs in the UK are realising there’s real talent here. The league has got younger since I played in it – you’ve Adam Murphy (18) and Sam Curtis (17) at St Pat’s, there’s interest in both. James McManus (18) at Bohemians, a few at Shels. There’s others.
“Players like Evan Ferguson and Jason Knight have come through that system. The younger profile of player, under-age teams getting to elite stages of tournaments, the manager Stephen Kenny coming through the league, those are changes.”
There is on-the-pitch and there is off-the-pitch. Russell acknowledges increased community work from clubs such as Bohemians and his own, then returns to the optics.
“Back then the clubs weren’t embedded in the community. End of season, doors shut. They are now. It’s not just about the product on the pitch, it’s about a feeling of belonging. Our league offers that.
“But the facilities still aren’t good enough, nor is the match-day experience. There are only two or three grounds in the whole country you would say are fit for purpose – we’re sitting in a Portakabin. There’s still that mindset of volunteerism; we don’t have a culture of full-time coaches working.
“If we actually had the structures in place and staff thinking 24/7 about their players, their clubs, development, I think we’d create better players and a better league. We need investment from the Government for that.
“Within the FAI there’s been change. Obviously there’s been controversy in the past but I think the FAI are now knocking on the right doors.”
At The Showgrounds, chairman Higgins points to where two new stands are planned for a 6,000-capacity stadium with modern facilities which he hopes will be open for the club’s centenary in 2028.
“We have had no objections, everyone wants it and we have had three Ministers down here,” Higgins says. “We want this place going seven days a week. It’s an asset for the town. We own the ground, there’s 12 acres here. The council are totally behind us.”
Galway United do not own their ground; Sligo do. It was purchased via public subscription in 1968, an illustration of Sligo’s ‘soccer town’ status. The land means they run an academy – “We have a full-time academy head – Conor O’Grady – former player, doing a great job,” Higgins says.
“Our catchment area is an hour’s drive, so that brings in Castlebar, Enniskillen, Longford. Parents come twice a week from Westport and Castlebar with their children to train in the Academy. That catchment area is about 200,000 people. I’m convinced that once we put this up we will double our crowds.” (Attendances are up 22%.)
Higgins can remember the Albert Straka penalty (1955), so he knows Sligo and the league.
“I’ve long looked at Scandinavian countries with the same population as us and thought: ‘Why can’t we do that?’” he says. But the league has been grossly mismanaged for 40 years. We got caught up in the Jack Charlton euphoria and our domestic game was neglected.
“And the rugby and the GAA ate our lunch.”
Higgins is quick to applaud the GAA as “a wonderful social organisation – without the GAA Ireland wouldn’t be the place it is today”. But in terms of funding, he says “soccer has been on the hind tit”.
Higgins sounds confident, however, that Irish football is at last receiving the hearing from Irish governors that it has missed for decades.
-“I believe the new regime in the FAI, Mark Scanlon and Jonathan Hill, have been very good and they will help us deliver. If we can show what we can do out in the West of Ireland, that may prompt other clubs.”
Russell agrees, saying: “I feel the FAI are trying to do it the right way now. And it’s maybe become ‘cool’ to support a League of Ireland club – you see TDs attending games.”
All the men agreed that the rise of the women’s game, plus female attendance, has been central to the change of mood around the league. Russell’s sister is Irish international Julie-Ann.
“She’s due her first baby any day now,” Russell says, “but she’s been in the thick of it, played over 50 times for Ireland, played in the league here for Galway, Peamount, UCD. She played abroad with Doncaster Belles, in Australia in their A-League, when she was working there for Microsoft.
“The big moment when Julie-Ann was involved with the senior international team was when they went on strike [2017]. She was part of that, the controversy around training, gear, that was a big moment in women’s football.”
Is this a big moment for the League of Ireland?
John Caulfield will think so when he sees spades in the ground – lots of them. He has seen the Charlton era and Celtic Tiger bypass soccer. He has seen rugby, GAA, horse racing thrive.
Yet football is the global game and it is getting bigger. There is a countrywide appetite for Ireland to be part of that.
Back at Eamonn Deacy Park, the 6-0 victory was the 800th competitive fixture at the ground. In the match programme an editorial said: “We need to change the whole vision of young people . . . how can a big participatory sport not get the investment, so young players can live here, have an industry here, make a career here?”
