Slumdog Millionaires!

Have Sporting Fingal literally fallen into a big pot of money?

This may be only Sporting Fingals second year in existence but they have been installed as hot favourites to win the Eircom First Division, which is Irelands Second Tier club league for the unacquainted. They finished a very respectable 3rd in their first season of competitive soccer, and have a number of heavy backers (including the ill-fated Anglo Irish Bank) behind them as they continue their push for success.

Looking through their squad, as well as their new signings there are plenty of relatively famous names, the like of Eamonn Zayed, Garry O’Neill, Stephen Paisley, Alan Kirby, Robbie Doyle and Robert Bayly are all capable of performing in their Eircom League to a high standard, and to me this team looks like in could dominate the First Division in the way the Harlem Globe Trotters dominate exhibition basketball. They recently gained a 1-1 draw with Derry City in a pre-season friendly, which indicates that they would give a lot of teams in the Premier Division a run for their money. Surely it is only a matter of time before this theory is tested.

Shelbourne manager and part time hand-model Dermot Keely however, thinks that they could struggle in the First Division against some of the lesser lights:

“This league is a culture shock.”

“My lads know what it’s like to graft, to go down to Kildare and Limerick. I think we will have the edge because we know the league.”

But he went on to state that he would also like to have the financial clout that Fingal manager Liam Buckley has at his disposal.

It seems to me that Keely is clutching at straws, I think going on holidays to Rwanda would be a culture shock, not going 30 miles down the road. Mind you Kildare and Limerick are both pretty horrific places.

Also very interestingly Sporting Fingal have set themselves up as a feeder club for Portsmouth of all teams. So if there’s any young wonderkid reading this in the Fingal area, and there almost certainly is, don’t give up the dream of playing with Glen Little and Asmir Begovic just yet! Also expect to see sales of Portsmouth jersey sky rocket in the North Dublin area, and riots around O’Connell Street as they new Pompey Army fights the notoriously hard core Southampton Ultras of Blackrock.

I’m not sure on the other hand if there are any links with Sporting Lisbon

At any rate these are very exciting times for the legions of fans that Sporting Fingal can claim to have. Well they can claim to have legions of fans but they’d be lying. Its more like a few hundred really. But if they can keep progressing at their current rate there is no reason why they won’t be challenging for domestic honours in a few years. Lets just hope their wealth is secure.