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Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Limerick FC re-instated to LOI Academy after U-turn
Limerick FC's two National League sides have been re-instated to their respective League of Ireland Academy Leagues for the remainder of the season. The Irish Examiner has learned that fixtures have been communicated to Klub Kildare and Kerry FC ahead of action in the U15 and U17 competitions this weekend. Earlier on Thursday, this paper reported how the clubs President Pat O'Sullivan had informed the FAI of the decision of the club to remove its last two teams in the competition. However, following displeasure expressed on Shannonside, it appears that an agreement with the FAI has been reached. At the time of writing, this paper has yet to receive a reply from the club or the FAI, however, it is understood that fixtures were communicated to the clubs as well as match officials on Thursday afternoon. Last weekend, the Men's U15 League of Ireland Tier 2 South commenced, with Wexford's home clash with Limerick removed. The Mid-West club were also removed from the League table on the FAI Connect App, leaving seven teams in the division. A similar story applied to the U17s, who were also due to face Wexford. Last month, Pro Football Soccer Enterprise claimed, via LinkedIn, to now 'own 49% of Limerick FC' and that they would, 'have the right to buy another 46% in 15 months bringing us to 95%'. Pro Football Soccer Enterprise also has ties to Tampa Bay Mutiny FC in the United States and claims full ownership of Anargiroi FC, in Cyprus. To date, this group has secured $111,639 from investors online in a bid to help fund this multi-club ownership model, which highlights 'following in the footsteps of groups such as Manchester City, Red Bull and Chelsea FC' as a main target.. The CEO of this group is Dennis Lukens, who was last July, appointed the Director of Football with Limerick FC. The American has a plethora of previous roles in the sport, including being the Head Coach of FC Krystal Kherson, in Ukraine, back in 2012/2013. Limerick continues to field teams in the local Limerick District Schoolboy/girl league, having lost their U13M, U17W, U19M and their senior Men's and Women's team ahead of the 2020 season.
Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Anger as Limerick FC remove underage teams from LOI Academy
There was shock and anger at the decision by Limerick FC owner Pat O'Sullivan to remove the remaining two League of Ireland teams under the clubs name last weekend. It is understood that Mr. O'Sullivan, who is now Club President, sent correspondence to the FAI that the club would no longer participate in the national leagues with immediate effect. The Men's U15 and U17 teams had been gearing up for a tilt at Phase 2 of the League of Ireland Academy. On May 24th, the club gave a walkover to Dundalk in the U15 League of Ireland Academy fixture. This despite victories over Kerry and Waterford earlier in the month. The same weekend at U17 level, the side were defeated 10-0 by Shamrock Rovers, in Charleville. That looks to be the last of 11 defeats for the team with any U-turn with the FAI to re-introduce the team, so far falling on deaf ears. The club had advertised Academy Trials for both sides on May 13thand again on June 9th, via their official Facebook page. Playing home games at North Cork base in Charleville, the team has also trained in Seanchoill Sports Complex, Co. Clare. As reported in the Limerick Leader, upwards of 30 members of the combined squads gathered to hold signs stating 'Let Us Play' earlier this week, showing their unified displeasure at the decision. There is a swell of movement to try and reverse the decision, which includes parents, coaches and other members of the club. Limerick City North Councillor Frankie Daly, who is the Head Coach of the U15 side, is among the cohort who are attempting to get the team re-instated to allow the youngsters to continue to play on this platform. The club last fielded a Men's team in the 2019 First Division have lost their female teams as well as the Men's U20 (formerly U19) teams. Their women's team also ceased at the end of that season. In 2019, the senior side placed sixth in the second tier but were deducted 26 points post season, moving them to tenth, bottom. This was due to an examiner being appointed the club late in that season. It was another challenge for the club who'd gone through a most challenging period financially which included the club launching High Court Proceedings against the FAI. Limerick FC have yet to reply to requests for comment. Read More Aston Villa forward Charlie Lutz joins Cork City on loan
Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Sporting Lisbon's Estádio José Alvalade to host Ireland's World Cup qualifier against Portugal
Sporting Lisbon's Estádio José Alvalade will host the Republic of Ireland's 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification tie away to Portugal on October 11. Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal were confirmed as the top seeds in Ireland's group, alongside Hungary and Armenia last March. The fixture will kick-off at 7.45pm Irish time, with the FAI noting ticket details will follow in due course. Heimir Hallgrimsson's men will begin their campaign with the visit of Dominik Szoboszlai's Hungary to the Aviva Stadium on September 6. The winner of the group will qualify automatically for next year's World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico, while the runner-up will need to navigate their way through the play-off route next year. Fixtures: September 6 – Ireland v Hungary, Aviva Stadium, 7.45pm September 9 – Armenia v Ireland, Republic Stadium, 5pm (Irish Time) October 11 – Portugal v Ireland, Estádio José Alvalade 7.45pm (Irish Time) October 14 – Ireland v Armenia, Aviva Stadium, 7.45pm November 13 – Ireland v Portugal, Aviva Stadium, 7.45pm November 16 – Hungary v Ireland, TBC, 2pm (Irish Time)
The 42
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The 42
Duff's Shels era went as nobody would have believed and ended as anyone would have predicted
WHICH IS YOUR stand-out, Duffer-you're-not-in-Kansas-anymore moment? This column's is from Shels' league game at the UCD Bowl during his first season, when a sprinkler went rogue and stalled proceedings for eight minutes until it was quelled by an upturned wheelbarrow. This was one episode in the general fascination with his time in the League of Ireland. How would Duff adapt from performing on Broadway to directing on local arts venue stages? Ultimately it went as nobody would have believed and ended as anyone would have predicted. Duff proved to be loveable and maddening; tactical and impulsive; angry and empathetic; hilarious and austere and just generally magnificent. He has been likened to his old boss Jose Mourinho but there are vital differences. Mourinho always cuts an air of cynicism and calculation; with Jose, he always felt slightly separate to that in which he was involved, and so his stunts and rows were always refracted through cool self-interest. Duff was nowhere near as haughty or calculating: he was all-in, standing not above his players but among them. He did not give the impression of a Machiavellian schemer, whose heart and head are kept in strict segregation. No, Duff's were integrated to the point of appearing irretrievably tangled. Hence you never knew whether any of his actions were driven by chilled rationality or raw emotion. Advertisement Around Duff, no ironies or cynicisms could survive, and this is what made the whole show so compelling. Here was a manager who was liable to say anything without ever giving you the impression he didn't firmly believe in that which he had just said. This is a very rare quality: Roy Keane and Eamon Dunphy have been as unpredictable on camera, but they often wore a slight wry smile to allow the audience know it's all just showbiz at the end of the day. Not Duff. This column sometimes wonders if the intensity of Duff's involvement in it all was a slight over-compensation, as he arrived into the job aware that he was a Football Man, but not a League of Ireland man. That there is such a distinction is of course the original sin of Irish football, but it is a reality. The most encouraging fact of the last few years is the chipping away at these divides, with the country and then the FAI waking up to the fact that the health of the national team is symbiotic with the health of the national professional league. The Brexit impact on player development along with the national team's low ebb have played a big part in dissolving these idiotic past boundaries, but Duff played his own role. That a man this successful and famous would be so absorbed within the League of Ireland conferred the league with a certain legitimacy in the eyes of the Floating Voter. It's a hell of a legacy to leave. While Duff is not solely responsible for the league's recent boom, no single person has done more to launch that boom. The trajectory of his Shels team, meanwhile, was irresistible: Cup final in his first year, European qualification in his second, and league title in his third. That league triumph will live in the memory as one of the most improbable Irish sporting triumphs of the century. There is no sporting competition more difficult to win as an outsider than a professional football league, and there is no competition in Irish sport more attritional than the 36-game League of Ireland Premier Division. It was an absurd achievement, really, with a group of players who even in their manager's abrasive final days could acknowledge had their lives changed. A good manager fulfils his players' potential, where a great manager awakens his players to their potential before then fulfilling it. Shels' league triumph will be remembered forever because Duff did the latter. But maintaining that trajectory's peak was beyond him. Duff began grumbling about his players' standards and motivations as early as pre-season, which culminated in those extraordinary comments last Friday night, in which he said he was on his knees trying to provide spark and motivation where his players steadfastly refused. This was the predictable ending, as Duff appears to be another great footballer worn out by his intolerance for the lower standards around him. For all his inconsistencies, Duff's entire Shelbourne career was a war on low standards, both among his squad and around the league. Pitches, referees, facilities, academies, Friday-Monday turnarounds, Abbotstown, mid-season breaks, even the picture him on Dalymount's grassy knoll: all have been attacked at some point for being unbecoming of Irish football. He has appeared to have walked from Shelbourne because he felt his players were incapable of meeting his standards once again. You might argue that Duff is a man of unreasonable demands, but he is a man of unreasonable accomplishments. A 100-cap senior international, a World Cup goalscorer and a key part of one of the best Premier Leagues sides of all time: nobody achieves any of this without a wild and unstinting commitment. (Some footballers write an autobiography to reveal the truth of their playing days – Duff instead became manager of Shelbourne.) The ending, though, is only a small part of the story. Duff is a man of multitudes, and he dedicated them all to Shelbourne and the League of Ireland. He should be forgiven for feeling exhausted. Our golden days have suddenly dimmed.
Irish Independent
2 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Damian Stack: Damien Duff's account still in surplus despite sudden departure
Against the FAI. Against rival managers (did somebody say Stephen Bradley?). And, eventually, against his own players. He gave them both barrels on Friday evening, by inference questioning both their commitment and professionalism. Those comments went almost beyond the point of no return for a manager in a dressing room. Given all he'd done for them, the heights to which they'd climbed under his leadership, it may have been just about possible for Duff to win the players back round. Evidently, though, the former Chelsea winger was no longer interested in any of that, preferring instead to burn bridges behind him in a manner reminiscent of that meme from The Simpsons. There's always been a certain spikiness to Duff since he's come into the league, nevertheless it's been a bizarre heel-turn. To go from the guy who said literally just a couple of months ago that he'd die for his players, to this. It's less even what he said, and more what he's done. Walking out on his squad mere weeks from the biggest game in their careers, a Champions League play-off tie with Irish League side Linfield. Truly, it's hard to fathom how he could do that. We'll grant you it's a tough gig, and Duff has given body and soul to it for the last three and-a-half years. Probably it was always unsustainable the intensity Duff brought to the role, a relentless emotional rollercoaster. Burn-out is real and it may be simply the case that Duff, as he's reported to have said, brought this bunch of Shels players are far as he could. There's a real sense that he's overachieved in time at Tolka Park. Even if you consider this sudden departure something of a blot on his copybook (assuming, as we must at this juncture, that it's purely a sporting decision), Duff's ledger is still very much in surplus. What he's done for that club and those players, for the League itself is incalculable and invaluable. He raised Shels to heights not seen in decades. He helped put the League on the map. There's part of us that wants to say he owes them nothing, but we really do think he owed it to these players to stick around at least for this forthcoming European campaign. What's more we think he owed it to himself and to his career. ADVERTISEMENT Learn more A European campaign – one that stood a good chance of progressing to a group phase – would have provided invaluable experience, and money. That money wouldn't have motivated Duff on a personal level, but for the club (and squad) it could be transformative. Duff, though, has walked away from it all and not for the first time. That pattern of sudden exits from roles, probably won't stop him getting another, and another after that again, but it will raise questions. If the 'when the going gets tough the Duff gets going' line stings it's became it contains a grain of truth. More than anything else, though, it's just a shame that such a brilliant story, such a brilliant collaboration should end on such a bum note. This Limerick team have been a real joy to behold Limerick aren't the story. They're not. This was Dublin's day. Their greatest day after carrying off the greatest coup in, perhaps, the history of the All-Ireland hurling championship. The Sky Blues deserve all the credit, all the attention. We get that, we do, we really do. Our thoughts, though, keep drifting back to Limerick. The single greatest hurling side we've ever seen in our life-time and arguably the best the game as ever seen. Few sides have given us greater pleasure and satisfaction to watch in full flow. The power, the pace, the precision, the iconoclasm, the refusal to be bound by convention, by tradition, by the established order. They never looked to us a side burdened by what had gone before, forging instead their own path. Only on very rare occasions did they betray any semblance of self-doubt. John Kiely's declaration after winning the 2018 All-Ireland semi-final that he would 'shut down the whole thing' in relation to media coverage if any outlet sought to directly contact a player, about the only evidence for insecurity we can think of. Besides that was early days, relatively speaking. Kiely learned better how to handle the press since then – even by then the chances of a reporter directly contacting a footballer or hurler in the lead up to an All-Ireland final were pretty much nil – as he and his team grew in confidence. Kiely's role in the whole thing has been fairly fascinating. Sure, he happened upon the most gifted generation of hurlers any county has ever produced, but he's kept the show on the road. He's seems to have an almost old-school disposition, a man not to be trifled with. At the same time, though, he's very much a man of his time. As much delegator as disciplinarian, building one of the most formidable back-room teams the game has ever seen. Kiely's partnership with Paul Kinnerk is up there with Brian Clough and Peter Taylor in its effectiveness as Limerick stormed to five All-Ireland titles in a six-year spell. That level of success – nay dominance – hasn't always endeared them to the rest of the hurling community. Coming from Kerry, though, maybe we were better able to look past that (dare we say?) jealousy than people from hurling counties? Or maybe it's that we live in a village that sees an influx of Limerick folk in the summer months? Limerick-on-sea, with oftentimes more green and white flags on view than green and gold. A form of Stockholm syndrome, perhaps? We don't rule it out. More likely, though, is simply that they were a joy to watch in their pomp, epitomised by the finesse of Cian Lynch, the defiance of Seán Finn, the brilliance of Gearóid Hegarty, the Rolls Royce engine possessed of Kyle Hayes. They had it all, they really did. Whether we should be talking about them in the past tense, though, is another question and, on balance, we think it's fair enough. Not all those players are done (Hayes is just 26, Lynch 29, Hegarty 30), but that iteration of Limerick is done. What follows is going to be fascinating to watch. Can Kiely and Kinnerk go again? Can they regenerate the squad? Can they rethink their project? Do they have the desire? The energy? The will? Whether they do or don't, what's already been achieved will stand the test of time. Siege mentality driving Donegal This time, Donegal have a point. A good one. A very good one. It's hardly fair that the last team in action last weekend, should be the first team out this weekend. It means that Donegal will have just a six-day turnaround from their victory over Louth last weekend to prepare for their last-eight clash with Monaghan in Croke Park this Saturday evening, while Kerry will have eight days to prepare for their game with Armagh. Something doesn't add up there. Okay there are other considerations – a balanced TV package, what blend of teams provides the best chance of selling out the stadium – but surely the primary one should be competitive fairness. Instead of eight days for Kerry and six for Donegal, why not seven each? Little wonder the Donegal county board have felt compelled to speak out. They have right to feel aggrieved. We do wonder, though, if it provides at least a certain amount of grist to Jim McGuinness' mill. It's twice in a week Donegal have expressed their displeasure with fixture arrangements. Donegal and McGuinness must know what speaking out will have little effect on the mandarins in Croke Park, which isn't to say it doesn't serve a purpose all of its own: to create a siege mentality.
