HOOPHORIA AN ALTERNATIVE
UNOFFICIAL SHAMROCK ROVERS WEBSITE
MARCH 2003 NEWS ARCHIVE
KERR’S OLD BOYS TO MAKE MARK IN EIRCOM
Source: Dublin Daily - Friday March 28th 2003 - Journalist:
Unknown
Keith Doyle lined up alongside Damien
Duff, Alan Quinn, Gary Doherty, Richard Dunne and Liam George for Brian Kerr’s
Ireland team of four years ago. But this Saturday he will watch those same
players, minus George in action again for Kerr while he prepares for the Eircom
season with Shamrock Rovers. But there is no remorse from Doyle, as he says
playing in Ireland is not how it used to be. “Liam George is over with St.
Pat’s now and I’m with Rovers but I’m very happy for the other lads, there’s no
jealousy. Playing in Ireland now is not an embarrassment as some used to say,
especially if you came back from England. You used to be called a failure but I
think Glen Crowe has proven that’s not the case. Ireland is now a
stepping-stone to returning to England as opposed to a dead end. The quality
here would surprise a lot of people.”
O’DOWD FACES BATTLE FOR NUMBER ONE SPOT
Source: Dublin Daily - Friday March 21st 2003 - Journalist:
Unknown
Tony O’Dowd faces a battle to keep hold
of the number one jersey at Rovers this year following the arrival of last
year’s Eircom ‘keeper of the year’, Barry Ryan from UCD. “Liam (Buckley) hasn’t
said anything to us yet but I’m not here to sit on the bench,” said the Clare
man. “It’s a big step-up for me from last year and I know there will be a lot
more pressure on me. If I make a mistake the fans will let me know I’m sure. I
met them last week and they’re mad! “But our goal this year has to be to win
the league and I reckon we’ll challenge for it. Alan Reynolds will add a bit of
nastiness in the midfield for us and Liam Kelly’s experience will be great for
the team.”
NO QUICK DECISIONS ON ‘SCULLY
Source: Dublin Daily - Thursday March 20th 2003 - Journalist:
Unknown
PFAI General Secretary Frank Gavin has
said he doesn’t expect a resolution to the Pat Scully row “any time soon.” A
meeting between the PFAI, the Eircom League and Shamrock Rovers took place on
Monday but according to Gavin he doesn’t expect a swift conclusion to the
discussions. Rovers however insisted that they have been good to the player.
Chairman Tony Maguire said his club couldn’t afford to pay Scully. “We
purchased the player for £20,000 and now he wants to leave and to accommodate
the player we are allowing him to leave for nothing. We couldn’t afford to pay
the player and we don’t hide that fact. We currently have things in order
except for a few bonuses and that will be sorted out soon.” However, Rovers are
expected to offer the player some settlement.
HOOPS SET TO ANNOUNCE NEW BRAZILIAN SIGNING
Source: Dublin Daily - Wednesday March 19th 2003 - Journalist:
Unknown
The phoney war of pre-season
speculation continues with news coming to the Dublin Daily sports desk of a
shock Brazilian signing for the Hoops. Not since Socrates smoked 15 at
half-time for UCD (or was it Shels or Pats) in the 1970’s has Irish soccer been
so exotic. Unfortunately it turns out the new ‘Tallaght Ronaldo’ was part of a
half-time soccer skills show at Rovers’ fun day at the Basketball Arena on
Sunday. The event was a great success by all accounts, and manager Liam Buckley
was present. “The event in Tallaght saw ourselves and Notre Dame (basketball
team) in a five-a-side game, with one half basketball and one half soccer. It
was a great success and everyone present enjoyed the day, including myself.”
Meanwhile Birr native Stephen Grant was spotted at his hometown’s hurling
victory in Croke Park at the weekend. Perhaps he was trying to borrow some new
stadium seats?
BUCKLEY WORRIES OVER PART-TIME STATUS
Source: Dublin Daily - Tuesday March 18th 2003 - Journalist:
Unknown
Liam Buckley is hoping that full-time
clubs don’t gain a huge advantage over part-time outfits such as Shamrock
Rovers this year. “Obviously it helps if you’re full time but we are getting on
as well as can be. It won’t happen overnight but when we move into the new
stadium we hope to go full-time. That is the aim,” he said. However, the Rovers
boss is happy with the squad he has at the moment and is continuing to scour
the country in search of more friendly matches. The Hoops beat Kildare County
3-1 in Newbridge at the weekend, with Buckley fielding two different teams in
each half. ”We just played our full squad and it was a good run-out but it was
really just a training game. We didn’t pick up any injuries and things are
going okay,” he said. I am also looking to play Athlone and Monaghan shortly
but finding a pitch is the problem at the moment.”
KEDDY ON TARGET
Source: Evening Herald - Monday March 17th 2003 - Journalist:
Unknown
Shamrock Rovers warmed up for the new
campaign by beating Kildare County 3-1 on Saturday. Barry Ryan and Alan
Reynolds made their debuts for the Hoops. Tony Grant and James Keddy (two) were
on target for them.
HOOPS STILL IN THE HUNT
Source: Dublin Daily - Thursday, March 13th 2003 - Journalists:
Ciaran O'Raghallaigh and Stephen Finn
'HE'S A FANTASTIC LAD WITH GREAT
ENTHUSIASM, BUT IF HE KEEPS GOING AS HE IS, BY THE TIME HE REACHES 21, I DOUBT
HE'LL BE AT DUNFERMLINE' – JIMMY CALDERWOOD
He's no longer with the club, but Noel
Hunt looks set to be the toast of Shamrock Rovers all over again. After three
more appearances for Dunfermline, Hunt will earn the Hoops a five-figure
windfall and that payment is likely to coincide with the first weekend of the
new eircom league season. When the Scottish Premier League team got their man
in January they could not pay the full fee Rovers wanted so they promised the
Dubliners a substantial payment when the player reached ten appearances. There
is also another payment due after twenty appearances. Dunfermline boss Jimmy
Calderwood insists that when the deal was signed he fully expected Hunt to make
ten appearances this season but not so soon. "I certainly won't be
dropping him so that we can save a few quid," he joked. "We just
didn't have the money at the time of the deal but if I'm honest I didn't expect
him to make ten appearances so soon." "He's a fantastic lad with
great enthusiasm albeit a little naïve at the moment, but he's only 19 now and
if he keeps going as he is, by the time he reaches 21, I doubt he'll be at
Dunfermline. That's more good news for Rovers who also benefit from any future
sale. Former Hoop Tony Ennis now working full-time at the club spoke of the
young player in glowing terms: "We travelled to Dunfermline to make a
video of Noel for the Player of the Year award (which Hunt won), and the taxi
drivers there were talking about him and even Charlie Nicholas said how
exciting he is. I think the fact that he has played so much speaks volumes for
his talent and how Calderwood rates him. Everyone here still raves about him
and this is great news for the club."
HOOPS IN LIMBO
Source: Evening Herald - Monday, March 10th 2003 - Journalist:
Paul Hyland
'MAKE OR BREAK YEAR FOR TALLAGHT
STADIUM' - TONY MAGUIRE
You’ve really got to feel sorry for
Shamrock Rovers fans. Homeless, confused and utterly frustrated by decades of
neglect, they must wonder whether Tallaght will ever become a reality. But many
of the Hardcore Hoops don’t know the full story behind the seemingly doomed
Tallaght project and after they read this who could blame them for believing
that their club has been reduced to a failed property development. Over the
years, various owners have come and gone. John McNamara put his heart and soul
into Rovers and was abused from a height for his efforts. Joe Colwell had a
passion for the club, but did not sustain his investment and now a group of
property developers appears to hold the whip hand on Shamrock Rovers’ future.
It’s a complicated story, with all sorts of legal and political complications,
but the bottom line for Shamrock Rovers FC is that the club, as an entity, does
not own the planning permission for the site in Tallaght and unless a
sugardaddy drops from the sky with four or five million euro in a suitcase, the
bare bones of the new stand will remain in place like the carcass of a beached
whale for the foreseeable future. There is the ongoing speculation about a
publican, reported to be Hugh O’Regan, who is prepared to give Rovers €300,000
a year for the next 25 years to help them fund Phase One of the Tallaght
project in return for the franchise to run food and drink outlets on the site
for 21 years. Others close to the club believe that there at least two
interested parties prepared to buy the whole Hoops package, but have been put
off by various legal matters. To understand the series of events which left a
company called Mulden International in control of the lease for the 12-acre
site across the road from Tallaght Town Centre, you would need a forensic brain
and a lawyer on call but we’ll try and explain the process without attracting a
couple of legal grenades ourselves.
PROPOSAL
Our sources and research tell us that
back in 1996, a group of businessmen was introduced to South Dublin County
Council by a well-known name in National Football management. A proposal was
tabled that in return for a land grant the businessmen and the manager would
bring a League of Ireland club to Tallaght, an area starved of facilities and
resources at the time. Ostensibly, it looked as if the businessmen wanted to
make some money from development and in return, would bankroll a new stadium
and enough moneymaking facilities to run a football club. Not a bad model and
once increasingly being used to fund new venues in England, Scotland and the
Scandinavian countries. In 1996, the Premier Computing Group, announced with great
fanfare that they were investing serious money in St. James’s Gate FC. The
amounts mentioned ranged between £200k and £500k and all over Ireland, National
Ireland veterans scratched their heads and wondered at ‘The Gates’ luck. Within
a few years though, the relationship went badly wrong. In the midst of
accusations and counter-accusations, the gardaí were called in and St. James’s
Gate ended up on the National Ireland scrap heap with significant debts and a
deep residual anger towards the FAI and the Premier Group. The last meeting
held between St. James’s Gate and the Premier Group put a new notion on the
agenda – a move to Tallaght was suggested, a last gasp offer which was
rejected. Then the Premier Group showed up again as the new owners of Shamrock
Rovers and once again relocation was in the air. The Hoops were the ideal club
for Tallaght; fertile ground for a big club with the traditions of Shamrock
Rovers and it wasn’t long before the first hints of stadium development hit the
headlines. At long last, we thought, Rovers have found the level of investment
they need to finally end their wandering once and for all, with a new home in a
football heartland. Subsequently, it emerged that the South Dublin County
Council was on board and that a site had been identified. When it became
obvious that the SDCC were not going to charge Rovers for the land they needed,
optimism was justifiably high. Then came the planning process, resisted all the
way by Tallaght Community School, which borders the Rovers site, and a number
of resident’s associations. At this point, the water becomes muddy. Branvard
Ltd, at the time, was the company name use by Rovers to trade but at least two
other companies – Sloanpark and Mulden International – had an interest in the
planning application on behalf of Shamrock Rovers.
BATTLE
After a prolonged battle, An Bord
Pleanála granted planning permission with a variety of conditions. Although it
was not an ideal situation, at least Rovers had the green light to start work.
As we all know, work stalled amid problems with cash flow and, as of now, there
has been little or no work done in the last 18 months. In the last few months
the possibility that the Dublin County Board would step in and co-develop the
site as a centre of excellence for hurling was mooted by attracted opposition
from within Rovers – no surprise there. Now the whole project is in limbo and
nobody really knows what happens next.
TONY: 'I’M CONVINCED THAT WE
WILL BE ALRIGHT'
Hoops
Chairman Tony Maguire believes that Shamrock Rovers “will be in a very
difficult position” if the Tallaght Stadium project is not completed by the end
of the year. But the man who took over from Joe Colwell believes that he has
never been closer to securing the funding he needs to complete Phase 1 and
begin the process of building Shamrock Rovers’ future. “There’s no doubt that
we would be in a very difficult position if it’s not don this year. It would be
fair to say that this is the make-or-break year,” he said. “I’m not saying
Rovers would go out of business, that can never happen, but we would fall
behind all the other clubs that are pushing on with plans for full-time
football and facilities. There’s also the problem of meeting the criteria for
the UEFA Club licensing scheme,” he added. “I’m more convinced now than I have
been since the start of this that we’ll be alright. We’re talking to a variety
of people. In one instance, we’ve drawn up a lease on the commercial elements
of the proposal and sent them to an investor who is prepared to get involved.”
When he took over from Joe Colwell, Maguire was surprised when he found that
the “top lease” was owned by Mulden International and not Shamrock Rovers. The
fact that Rovers do not own the lease on the entire 12-acre site is one of the
main reasons why the stadium project has stalled and prospective investors are
wary of investment. But Maguire can only make a stab at the reason why the SDCC
did not hand the land over to the football club. “Perhaps they didn’t think we
would have the wherewithal to finish the job on our own and perhaps they were
right,” he said. “When I did the numbers on the situation, it didn’t make
business sense for anyone to develop a stadium on it’s own.
IMPASSE
Maguire believes that he now has a
realistic route out of the current impasse. “I don’t doubt that once the
stadium is finished the issue regarding Mulden will be resolved to everyone’s
satisfaction,” he said. “I’m also quite happy that the overall fat of the site
is dictated by the fact that Shamrock Rovers is fully protected by the nature
of the lease granted by South Dublin County Council which specifically refers
to Shamrock Rovers as the key player.”