Ding Ding as Drogheda United take on Meath Co Council

Vincent Hoey has started a campaign. But it's a bullying campaign. He wants to blackmail Meath County Councillors into doing what he, and his shady financial backers, ask. No questions asked, no delays, just do it.

He wants them to ignore the fact that the plans he is trying to force through are not just for the amazing stadium and sporting facilities that he has predicted will be built. He wants to bury the rest of the plans in what he seems to think is an offer Meath Co Co cannot refuse.

How grateful I am that the Councillors appear to be standing firm against this tirade!

It is very public knowledge that the plan for the stadium is a trojan horse. The developers see this as a loss leader. What price a stadium of any size in exchange for 5,000 homes in one of Dublin's biggest suburbs and commuter belts. I'm sure that they are seeing euro signs having witnessed the success of other such developments around the country.

This development, in itself, may not be such a bad thing. Building double Meath's planned new developments in one roll of the dice may not spell disaster by itself. However, the plans are to build a small town without any regard for the provision of water supply, sewage treatment, schools, shopping facilities or any of the other necessities of living. Somehow I don't think the luxury item that is a sports centre will make up for the lack of essentials.

This is not something that Meath Co Co should consider for even one moment in its current format. I am sure that they are also aware that similar pressure was previously put on Louth Co Co, who refused to bow to a slightly less public campaign.

This time though it's worse. This time the Chairman of a "well run" football club - a club labelled the blueprint of how football clubs in this country should be run - has taken what many see as a step too far. In a desperate plea to avoid losing the financial backing that this club would now perish without, he is asking Drogheda fans to persecute Meath Co Councillors using a contact list that he has compiled for them. His accusation, which he hopes fans will repeat on his behalf, is that if permission is not given for these plans to go ahead then the newly dubbed Meath football team will not survive. Funny that this club's self appointed title until recently was "the pride of County Louth"! This was also quite a claim for a club who have one major trophy to their name in their entire history!

What makes Vincent Hoey think that he has the right to ride roughshod over the planning laws of this country?
Does he not realise that he is doing a hell of a lot of dirty work for his club's investors? Is the return really worth it?
He seems very willing to gloss over the unsavoury aspects of this entire affair, but he needs to be confronted on them.

Drogheda went full time with the backing of these investors. The club boasted about how they were going to have a new stadium built for them by these "money men". A number of years back, when Drogheda United faced bankruptcy, the FAI bailed them out by buying United Park. The club continued to have free use of the ground, and the ground continued to increase in value as property boomed in this country and in particular in Dublin suburbs. When these investors got on board, the FAI then sold the ground back to the club at the same price they had paid for it, despite the fact that the ground was now worth many times more.

Interestingly, the return of the ground to the club coincided rather neatly with the arrival of the money men. But what could property developers possibly want with United Park - a prime development location with easy access to Drogheda town and also to the M1 link to Dundalk, Dublin and Belfast?

The deal was then made - the developers would build Drogheda Utd a new stadium outside the town in exchange for United Park. Hardly a new scenario, this has happened elsewhere in the country before now. The trouble seems to be when greed developed. Instead of building a new stadium for the club, why not a massive complex with other money making facilities also available? The bigger the better, the more fuss that could be made about this facility then the less attention would be given to the housing development being smuggled in behind.

Drogheda United FC made a huge miscalculation.
They thought that they could bank on investors, ignoring the fact that the investors had their own agenda and that a LOI football club is not a way to make a fast buck.
They thought that they could bank on increased income through increased gates, merchandising and revenue, ignoring the fact that in football these are things that can never be banked on.
They thought that they could bank on the sway of an eircom League soccer club in one of Ireland's biggest GAA heartlands, ignoring the fact that Meath people do not have short enough memories to forget that Drogheda claimed to be a Louth club until they were seeking permission to build in Meath.
And the biggest error in judgement of all?
They thought that they could pull the wool over all of our eyes, and are now reacting in the most immature of ways since their bluff has been called.

Good on the Meath County Councillors. The vast majority of LOI fans in this country are behind you and want you to do the right thing. Stand firm, and show Vincent Hoey and the rest of Drogheda Utd FC that bullying does not pay!

Dundalk scrape 3-2 win against Harps

The first game of the season was a hard fought win at Oriel Park against Harps. It wasn't pretty, but it was effective. The lilywhites did what they had to do to get 3 points. Performances will need to improve from here if promotion is to be won at the end of the year, but this team makes it look as though that is highly likely to happen. Players are still finding their feet, and when things start to settle then Dundalk FC will be a force to be reckoned with.

Results elsewhere were not exactly as we would have expected, which means two things.
One - everybody will probably beat everybody else, which means teams will drop points and that means that if we win our games our destiny is in our own control.
Two - This is going to be a very competitive league, ie there are going to be no runaway winners as there have been in previous years.

It is going to be a battle to the end, but then again that is the kind of battle that Dundalk FC seems to relish!