Without such devoted fans Irish Club football would not be what it is today – No thanks to the FAI.

A lot of people are rightly angry over the revelations that have come out regarding John Delaney and the Football Association of Ireland, but us Irish club supporters - while also angry at latest developments - are not in the least bit surprised

I am endangered species around the Tallaght area in that despite being born and reared in Dublin 24, I am a huge fan of Bohemian Football Club.
My excuse is that back in 1996, when I finally decided I had enough of screaming at the television everytime then Liverpool Steve McManaman would dribble the ball to the corner flag, run out of room and yet again cede the ball to the opposition; I decided to support an Irish club instead.
Truth be told I initially said I supported Bohs just to really annoy my twin brother who had taken to supporting Shamrock Rovers, alongside his support for the Anfield Reds.
 But then he challenged me to put up or shut up, so I headed off one Sunday afternoon to see Bohs play St Francis in a Leinster Senior Cup match, alongside my late father, who was born and reared in Dundrum and used to go to Rovers games in Glenmalure Park in Milltown.

 I have made firm friends as a result of supporting the Gypsies, one group of them I first stumbled across when sitting on a 16 bus en-route to Santry Stadium, when one of them asked me if I knew how to get from Omni Shopping Centre to the ground.
Little did we know what we were about to witness, as Bohs came back from 4-1 down at half-time to win 6-4 in what has become known in folklore as the “Santry Siro Massacre.”

To be brutally honest, back then the standards of football played in the then Bord Gais and later Eircom League left a hell of a lot of be desired, with high balls galore and matches often resembling a Crystal Palace v Wimbledon fixture circa 1991.
Talk about having a creaky neck after 90 minutes!
Back then the only time you would see anyone high up from the FAI at any of the matches was at the presenting of trophies, and even at that it would not be surprising to hear the person concerned had only turned up with fifteen minutes of the match left to play and so forth. Yes while the league was officially a separate entity to the FAI (they did not merge until 2006), it was still rather telling how aloof and out of touch the association were to the needs and operations of the club game in it’s jurisdiction.

I can remember travelling to see Bohs play in Belarus in 2003 and the chatter amongst the fans on the plane turned to the trouble the club’s Secretaries had in trying to secure visa’s for the players to enter the country ahead of the match against Borisov Bate.
I’m not sure if it was the case on this trip, but I know on other occasions it was also a nightmare to try and secure a pitch for the squad to train on the day before the match and so forth.
A lot, if not all the preparations would have to be undertaken by the club itself, be it sourcing a hotel to stay in, transport during the trip, training facilities etc.
I contrast this with the opposition we often faced, and how they fared with regards their association and Levidia Tallinn, in particular is a club that springs to mind.
In this case, when they were coming over in 2007 to play their second-leg tie in Dalymount Park, the Estonian FA handled most if not all of the necessary details for their trip, with a fax being sent to the FAI detailing the teams list of requirements for their brief stay in the Irish capital.
Thus they did not have to worry about finding a pitch to train on, or a hotel to stay in as this would have all been sorted well in advance of the team stepping onto the plane at Lennart Meri International airport in Tallinn.

It would be remiss of me not to mention that trip to Belarus in 2003, given how hair raising at times it turned out to be.
A group of about 50 supporters flew to Minsk in Belarus via Paris, and the aircraft operated by the national carrier Belavia truly had seen better days, with holes in the, the seats, carpets and curtains on the windows that looked like something from a 70’s sitcom.
About an hour or so into our journey one of the older gentleman of our group roared “Here Mick, check out Number 3 on the English part of the safety leaflet”, which was soon met with uproarious laughter from a few other older gentlemen in his vicinity.
Curiosity led me too to check out the safety literature and I can still remember what was contained in point 3: “To inflate, pull hard on knob below the jacket”

Upon arrival at Minsk 2 International airport, we ere made wait for over three hours before they finally let us go through passport control and onto the coach.
The immigration control people claimed they had not got any confirmations from the Belarus Embassy in London (which also served as the consulate for Ireland) that we had successfully obtained our visa’s and were able to enter the country.
Even after showing them the completed visa documents the Embassy had faxed to the office in Dalymount Park, the officials would not budge an inch until we handed over more money.
(The same fate befell the squad and the press pack who had arrived via Shannon the day before)
Eventually after bartering them down we all gritted out teeth and handed over the amount per head asked of us and gave a deep sigh of relief as we finally set off.

I must say Minsk was (and from what I see online) and is a charming city, with wide boulevards, and buildings that resemble Moscow in the 1980’s and my god was it clean, I only ever saw one piece of litter on the street, an empty McDondalds fries container near one of it’s outlets.
The Borisov Arena is just over 70km from Minsk and ordinarily it would take out 65 minutes to get there, but we managed to get there far quicker thanks to our police escort.
firstly as we reached a sign that basically said we had reached Minsk City limits, we had to pull over as a senior policeman entered the bus and began chatting to our guide.
We were soon told that we had to hand over X amount each (If I recall I think it was the equivalent of €5 a head) before we would be allowed to proceed any further.

What followed was the scariest road trip I have ever had to take in my life;  Everytime the police car in front of us would come upon a vehicle in front of us on the highway as we hurtled along at breakneck speed, the sirens would go on.
All but one car pulled off the road into the dirt track to let us pass (including a yellow car that subsequently crashed into a tree and I can still clearly see the bonnet up and the steam rising from the vehicle!), the one car who are a period still ignored the siren call was eventually overtaken by police vehicle and rammed off the road I kid you not!.
We got soaked to the skin during the match (I have yet to come across rain like it since) which we lost 1-0 and our clothes were stuck to us like wallpaper as we boarded the coach back to the capital.
My last firm memory of that trip was when we were queuing up in the airport to board a Belavia flight back to Shannon airport (it was discontinued in 2007), when a border guard asked in broken English “You go Ruski now?” (another name people call Russia), when one of the group retorts “No no, ya see we’re from Dublin not Roscommon” (a county which contains the town of Rooskey!)

There was also the time in Leipája where we had travelled to see Bohs play in an Inter-Toto cup match; A very drunk group of locals mistakenly thought we were English and ran after us shouting their heads off.
Had myself and my companion not managed to flag down and get into a passing taxi when we did, I dread to think what could have happened to us!
Given European ties for Irish clubs usually take place just two to three weeks after the draw had been made, it can be a very expensive trip to watch them play away, especially if it is in Israel or Armenia, so a lot of fans who would love to go simply cannot due to the costs involved.
But it is testament to the devotion and dedication of Irish club supporters that so many do make the enormous financial sacrifices to fly from Dublin to the like of Frankfurt or Paris and then get on a lengthy flight to  Tel-Aviv or Yerevan.
It is these same people who are by and large the reason we have such an exciting and competitive top division league in this country, spending endless days and nights battling to save their respective clubs when they hit financial turbulence be it Shamrock Rovers supporters  in 2005, Cork City in 2010 or Limerick FC now.
Not forgetting the times it was the Professional Footballers Association of Ireland (PFAI) who had to step in on occasion when players wages at some clubs had not been paid.
So the FAI were unable on occasion to hand over €5-10,000 to ensure players could ensure their mortgage was paid, there was food on the table, but were able to find the money to pay their CEO’s enormous €30,000 a month salary, €3,000 a month  rent AND a near €40,000 credit card bill racked up in just six months (how much was racked up in the previous months since he was first given the card?)
Then there were the clubs that racked up huge debts in their Icarus-like pursuit of European glory such as Shelbourne and my own Bohemians, all under the watch of the FAI who did not undertake the due diligence they should have to put a stop to it,
(Note I am not excusing what went on with my club, rather I am using this example to highlight further incompetence by the FAI).
And again in both cases it was the tireless efforts of the fans from both teams who have worked tirelessly to ensure the Tolka and Dalymount Park clubs stayed afloat.

Sports and political commentators are expressing disquiet over the fact that so little is known as to what went on in the FAI, and that to date the association has remained very tight-lipped in regards it’s past affairs.
Many a fan of an Airtricity League fan, in particular the club’s secretary can empathise with them as they lose count of the many times their club was sanctioned by the FAI, but were unable to find out the exact reasons why they were penalised when they sought more information on the matter.

It is worth noting that there have been some positives amidst all the gloom, notably the creation of underage SSE Airtricity leagues, which sees the underage teams of Bohemians, Dundalk, Cork City etc do battle week in week out.
We are already seeing the fruits of this policy as a number of exciting young players make their first team debuts this season, but many fans are asking why the initiative took so long to be implemented.

 In conclusion I am cautiously optimistic for the future; there has been a noticeable rise in attendances at Airtricity League matches this season which is very welcome news and there is talk of  the entire FAI board being stood down.
The old guard being replaced by a new board that truly cares more about developing soccer in this country and less about the Mercs and perks would truly be the icing on the cake.