IRELAND 2020 www.liberoguide.com IRELAND 2020 www.liberoguide.com INTRO areas otherwise bereft of any rail connection. Tickets can be purchased Tallaght Stadium in advance, online. Sister company Dublin Bus Dublin’s national Aviva Stadium hosts in 2011. All the same, the ten-team won since the last-gasp FAI Cup win (dublinbus.ie) covers the Irish capital, four games as part of Euro 2020, a top division features four clubs from of 2013. complemented by the LUAS light rail huge boost for soccer in Ireland. The the capital, venerable Shelbourne FC and the DART coastal train, operated domestic game, however, has long gaining promotion in 2019. For the intrepid groundhopper, by state-owned Irish Rail, Iarnród pivoted away from the capital. Ireland is the perfect destination, Éireann (irishrail.ie). Plans now call for Shels to share with affordable, pay-on-the-day Dundalk will be looking to add a third Dalymount Park with age-old rivals admission, bars at many grounds and Station to stadium Rail travel is generally dearer and straight crown to the back-to-back ones Bohemians, probably around 2023. an easy-going atmosphere at most There are half-a-dozen airports in less extensive around Ireland, though won in 2018 and 2019. Since Ireland’s matches. And while some facilities Ireland with links to the UK and regular this is changing. The journey between switch to summer soccer in 2003, 16 Renamed after influential club may need improving, the game here bus connections to surrounding towns. Dublin and Cork is now a comfortable titles have been divided equally with the captain Ryan McBride, who passed isn’t a sanitised product played Direct services from Dublin Airport experience and online ticket deals can provinces, but it was back in 2013 when away suddenly in 2017, Derry out for the profit of some offshore also run to most cities and main towns. be attractive. Southsiders St Patrick’s Athletic last City’s Brandywell Stadium is also oligarch. This is football at its most raised the trophy in Dublin. redeveloped, with an impressive main raw and, possibly, romantic – what State-owned Bus Éireann (buseireann. Motorways connect Dublin with all stand and a 3G artificial pitch. Local other reason could there be to visit ie) has the most comprehensive and major towns. Distances are given in Shamrock Rovers may be record support is equally passionate in Sligo, Ballybofey, home of the once mighty competitively priced public-transport kilometres and toll charges are paid champions – but their last title was though major silverware has not been Finn Harps? network around Ireland, reaching in cash. liberoguide.com 1 IRELAND 2020 www.liberoguide.com INTRO DERRY BALLYBOFEY SLIGO Shelbourne FC DUNDALK three regional leagues compete in their own knock-out tournament, the FAI Intermediate Cup, previously known as DUBLIN the FAI Qualifying Cup. The 16 that reached the Fourth Round Cork City in the previous season’s competition go into the First Round of the senior Tables & trophies 22. Teams finishing second and third FAI Cup. They are joined by the four The League of Ireland consists of two enter the first qualifying round of the semi-finalists from the FAI Junior Cup, divisions, Premier and First, of ten clubs Europa League for the same season. a wide-reaching amateur tournament in each. Teams play each other four The winners of the FAI Cup join them involving some 600 teams. times in a 36-game season. – or the fourth-placed side nips in if the trophy goes to a team finishing WATERFORD Of these 20 clubs, four receive byes At senior level, at the end of the above it. Ireland’s main knock-out to the Second Round of the FAI Cup. season, the team bottom of the tournament, currently sponsored by The final of the FAI Intermediate Cup Premier swaps places with the the Irish Daily Mail, was most recently and FAI Junior Cup are now both CORK winners of the First. Runners-up play decided by a penalty shoot-out won played at the Aviva Stadium. off with ninth-placed finishers from by Shamrock Rovers over Dundalk the Premier Games are over two in front of a 30,000-plus crowd at ties, including the semi-finals, with The three main regional leagues of There is one more knock-out trophy, legs, home and away. Extra-time and Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. replays from the quarter-final stage Leinster, Munster and Ulster form involving the 20 senior teams and four penalties decide if aggregate scores onwards, extra time and penalties a de facto third tier but there is no invited from the lower leagues. The are level. FAI Cup holders and LoI champions in earlier rounds. The 20 League of direct promotion or relegation with League of Ireland Cup, aka EA Sports traditionally meet at the curtain- Ireland clubs enter at the Second the League of Ireland, whose reserve Cup, with its four-pool regional The 2020 Premier Division champions raising President’s Cup a week before Round stage, plus four teams from sides compete at this level. The Ulster structure earlier on, is decided over gain access to the first qualifying the regular league season. Ireland’s lower leagues, given a bye as Senior League mainly features sides a one-leg final. The winners do not round of the Champions League 2021- The FAI Cup is decided over one-leg the draw is made. from County Donegal. Teams from these qualify for Europe. liberoguide.com 2 IRELAND 2020 www.liberoguide.com Shamrock Rovers INTRO Au Celtique Shamrock Rovers, St Patrick’s CONTENTS Athletic, Dundalk, Cork, Derry and 4-6 Dublin Waterford offer advance sales for 7 Aviva Stadium individual matches, either online or 8 Bohemians from the ticket office/club shop. 9 St Patrick’s Athletic Availability is rarely a problem and 10 Shamrock Rovers Aviva Stadium pay-on-the-day is the norm. Visiting 11 Shelbourne FC supporters usually have their own 12 Ballybofey turnstile and area of the ground. 13 Finn Harps 14 Cork Season’s dealings Friday night football is now firmly occasional Saturday night fixture. Welcome to liberoguide.com! 15 Cork City Ireland introduced summer football established, games usually kicking Longford Town prefer 7.30pm, Cobh Using only original photos and first- 16 Derry in 2003. The 2020 season kicks off off at 7.45pm. One evening fixture is Ramblers 7pm. hand research, liberoguide.com 17 Derry City on Friday, February 14 and runs until often reserved for Saturday, while enhances every football weekend and 18 Dundalk the third week of October, bookended four midweek rounds are scheduled, Entry level Euro night experience. From airport to 19 Dundalk FC by the FAI Cup final on November 1. given the Euro 2020 break. At most grounds, admission is cash- arena, downtown sports bar to hotel, 20 Sligo With Euro 2020 in Dublin, the only at the turnstiles, prices around liberoguide.com enables you to get the 21 Sligo Rovers domestic season will break for two Kick-off times in the First Division €15, €10 for seniors and students, €5 best out of your visit to football’s furthest 22 Waterford weeks in the middle of June. are also Friday 7.45pm, with the for children. corners and showcase stadiums. 23 Waterford FC liberoguide.com 3 IRELAND 2020 Dublin www.liberoguide.com/dublin Blooms Hotel DUBLIN the Dublin monopoly on the domestic a new stadium in Tallaght, south-west league from the 1930s onwards, the Dublin, stalled. national side has only played four home games outside Dublin since the first in Making up Dublin’s Big Four, St 1924. Patrick’s Athletic share southside loyalties with Shamrock Rovers. Irish In a seminal decision, temporary champions in 2013, FAI Cup winners permission was granted for soccer to in 2014, never-relegated St Pat’s are be played at Gaelic football stronghold based at Richmond Park, Inchicore, Croke Park. in south-west Dublin, bringing tifo colour and choreography to Dublin Across town, another stadium saga had derby games. These same fans were The Back Page long been unfolding in south Dublin. the first to protest when a potential While the Bohs had been formed groundshare with Shamrock Rovers at near the North Circular Road in 1890, Tallaght was mooted in 1996. popularity of England’s Premier League internationals after the national side Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers Dublin and dominance of Gaelic football. It had gained mass support from the hailed from southside Ringsend. This Construction started on Tallaght wasn’t until 1971 that Ireland’s national late 1980s onwards, the Dalymount simple north v south dynamic was Stadium in 2008. Set near the Dublin is where 50,000 gather to roar team started to share Lansdowne Road was abandoned to its remit of hosting skewed when the former Ringsend terminus of the light rail line from on Ireland’s national side in a modern with its rugby counterparts. Bohemians. residents were forced to groundshare town (and direct from St Pat’s, arena chosen to co-host Euro 2020. northside Tolka Park from the late prompting the term ‘LUAS derby’), Across town from the Aviva, half-a- Until then, Dalymount Park had With no Dalymount, no Lansdowne 1980s onwards. For Rovers, it followed the new arena witnessed Cristiano dozen clubs, four a century or more old, been the home of the round-ball Road after its demolition in 2007, and the controversial sale of their revered Ronaldo’s debut for Real Madrid in a strive to attract 3,000-plus crowds in a game, hosting its first match in 1901 the Aviva three years away from being Glenmalure Park in southside Milltown.