| Derry Boss wants one League in Ireland
By Graham Clifford
 There
have been renewed calls for an all-Ireland league — this time from
Derry City chief executive Jim Roddy.
The Candystripes top man has called on football federations on both sides
of the border to “do the right thing” and unify the leagues.
Roddy believes that Ireland is simply not big enough to sustain too many
top-level clubs.
He said: “We need to do the right thing for Irish football and the
right thing to do in my opinion is to create a single league and put resources
into making the stadia attractive for people to come to.
“There are 16 senior clubs in Northern Ireland and 22 in the Eircom
League which is too many on and island of this size. If we streamline
that then the quality of the product on offer becomes better.”
Derry City only joined the League of Ireland in 1985 having been members
of the Irish Football League before that. Problems arose with rival sides
as the Brandywell ground was located in a staunchly Catholic area of the
city.
In 1971 the Royal Ulster Constabulary ruled that it was unsafe for matches
to take place there.
As a result Derry were given the intolerable alternative of playing their
home games in the majority Unionist town of Coleraine some 30 miles away.
After failing to get approval for a return to the Brandywell Derry City
resigned from the league in 1972.
Over the next decade Derry attempted to rejoin the league but were constantly
turned down over the Brandywell issue.
In 1985 FIFA and Uefa with the consent of the Irish League agreed that
the Foylesiders could become part of the League of Ireland.
Terry Kelly who captained Derry City in their first year in the southern
league was the first footballer in the world to play for the same club
in two different national leagues.
The call of Jim Roddy echoes similar calls by other football figures in
the country but an all-Ireland league seems highly unlikely in the near
future.
The situation isn’t aided by the fact that the IFA and FAI were
at loggerheads during the year after a number of players decided to declare
for the Republic of Ireland despite having played underage for Northern
Ireland. |
