It can often feel like League of Ireland seasons start with a burst of enthusiasm, but later settle into the humdrum of Dublin derbies and irrational financial investment.
This year, though, might just be different.
“It’s set to be the best [season] ever,” proclaimed Mark Scanlon, the league’s normally cautious director.
Approaching 30,000 are set to attend the league clash between Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers this Sunday at the Aviva. Bohs took the opportunity to reveal that Guinness will sponsor their latest away jersey. Further proof that the Premier Division’s upward curve is undeniable.
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The obvious jumping off point is Virgin Media becoming the “exclusive” television broadcaster after agreeing a four-year deal, including 36 games per season, with the FAI that will have Brian Kerr holding court every Friday night.
RTÉ must also stomach Newstalk securing a minimum of 15 live radio games and LOITV being housed on the Premier Sports platform.
Some might say that RTÉ‘s exclusion was inevitable once Shamrock Rovers temporarily banned the national broadcaster’s cameras from Tallaght Stadium last year in an angry reaction to their historic, eight-match qualification run to the Uefa Conference League being ignored.
St Patrick’s Athletic also felt aggrieved that their game against Istanbul Başakşehir went untelevised last August.
Premier Sports showed Rovers in the Conference League group stages and last night’s playoff, first leg against Molde in Norway.
In footballing parlance, RTÉ were caught on their heels, while Virgin and Newstalk reacted most decisively.
On Friday night, on Virgin Media One, Shelbourne and Damien Duff against a remade Derry City under Tiernan Lynch goes up against Ospreys versus Leinster on TG4.
Come Sunday afternoon, as RTÉ show the 1978 classic Death on the Nile starring Angela Lansbury and TG4 cover three GAA national football league fixtures, Virgin will roll out Bohs v Rovers from an electric Aviva.
This uncomfortable situation for RTÉ can be salvaged by convincing Scanlon to give them the FAI Cup and by latching on to Shelbourne when Duff takes them into the Champions League.
The feelgood vibes around the league will be made tangible by the massive crowd that will attend the Aviva on Sunday – the kind of attendance that can keep pressure on the Government’s promise to fund club academies and create a football industry on the island, similar to how they prop up horse and greyhound racing.
Bohs have an ace in the hole with new signing Lys Mousset set to steal the headlines away from Mason Melia, with the Tottenham-bound wunderkind nursing a back injury.
Even if Mousset fails to revive his stalled career, since Sheffield United paid Bournemouth £10 million for him in 2019, the French striker’s presence on Sunday provides a fascinating subplot.
In 2021 Mousset was fined and disqualified from driving for crashing his £300,000 Lamborghini into two cars. There followed a slippery slope from Sheffield to middling clubs in Italy, Germany and France until fate brought him to a January trial at Dalymount Park. Despite not playing competitive football for almost 18 months, Bohs manager Alan Reynolds is likely to give him a chance on Sunday.
“Let’s go for a few high-profile players and supplement the first team with our academy,” as Matt Devaney, the Bohs chairman, recently told The Irish Times.
In case the Mousset gamble fails, Bohs also recruited Collie Whelan from Derry in the hope that the injury-prone, former Ireland under-21 forward might solve last season’s goalscoring issues.
Shelbourne appear to have avoided a similarly risky investment as the prodigal Mipo Odubeko scored in the President’s Cup defeat of Drogheda last Friday.
“Scary for the opposition, exciting for us,” said Duff. “Mipo is an athletic freak and he’s going to score goals, plain and simple.”
Duff enters season four at Tolka Park having recently shut down interest from an English club. The last Irish superstar to play in the Premier League is no longer motivated by money, and with his family settled in Kilmacanogue, he found his tribe in Drumcondra.
Shels co-owner Neil Doyle is holding the fort until Tomás “Mossy” Quinn moves up the road from the Dublin GAA to become the chief executive in April. As they strive to retain the title, Duff was busy in the transfer market with Ellis Chapman’s arrival from Sligo Rovers potentially as useful as Odubeko.
Stephen Kenny slipped back into the league last May after a five-year hiatus studying the ways of international football. His five-and-a-half year contract was only the start of some shrewd business by St Pat’s owner Garrett Kelleher, who brokered the sale of Melia to Spurs for €1.9 million before add-ons.
What’s more, Melia remains at St Pat’s until January 2026.
Shels, St Pat’s and Rovers are expected to contest the title, but what makes the league so attractive to foreign investors and a sprinkle of home-grown millionaires is how a €2 million-plus annual investment can yield comparatively quick access to Uefa’s lucrative competitions.
Rovers are approaching €7 million in Uefa prize money from their 2024/25 adventures.
FAI Cup holders Drogheda, under the control of the Alabama-based Trivela Group, have turned fully professional and signed 10 players so their manager Kevin Doherty can avoid relegation while having a cut off European opposition.
Derry City and Waterford watch on enviously while Cork City and Sligo Rovers will surely target cup runs, although it was Galway United manager John Caulfield who captured the current reality of the league.
“We’re realistic and aware that we’re not going to compete for players with the wages coming out of five or six clubs,” said Caulfield. “In the past you might have had two strong Dublin clubs and two not so strong, but the four are exceptionally so at the moment. Then you’ve Derry who are strong too.”
The Dublin clubs and Derry versus the rest is how the oldest manager on deck sees the evolution being televised.
