Round 2 of the 2025 LOI season is in the books, and despite not having a record-breaking game with over 33.000 spectators this time, the excitement for Irish football finally being back is omnipresent. This statement could sound slightly exaggerated, but it implies a certain amount of truth when considering that the writer of these lines stands for an international audience being more and more interested in LOI football.
In my case, it wasn’t until some years ago that the League of Ireland was really on the radar. Of course, you might have heard of a club here and there, and the national team with its enthusiastic fans has always had the reputation of a likeable outfit. However, Irish club football wasn’t the greatest of all deals for me. At least for a long time.
As a guy from Germany, you normally grow up watching Bundesliga football and maybe some of the other so-called bigger leagues like La Liga in Spain, Premier League in England, Serie A in Italy and so on. For me, it kind of changed in September 2022 when I visited Ireland for the first time. Believe it or not, the plan wasn’t necessarily to watch a football game, although it’s an activity I normally always consider when being on vacation.
It was more a coincidence when I realised that during my stay in Dublin, Shamrock Rovers would have a Europa Conference League clash with Swedish side Djurgårdens IF at Tallaght Stadium. In retrospect, it just had to happen. Instantly, I bought a ticket and tried to gather as much knowledge as possible on the Rovers and the League of Ireland in general.
By the way, the game itself was a rather unspectacular goalless draw. Still, the crowd at Tallaght made some good noise, and the overall experience gave me the feeling that there was something going on in Irish football. Since then, my interest has grown steadily.
In April 2024, I visited my second game, with later champions Shelbourne losing 2:1 against Dublin rivals Bohemians at Tolka Park. Again, I was absolutely fascinated by the atmosphere and the excitement created by the people before, during and after the 90 minutes of football.
And that’s also where it becomes interesting. While in some leagues the attendance figures and the quality might be higher, watching a game in Ireland appears to be more approachable compared to other countries where the sport has possibly reached a questionable point of commercialisation. It can be interpreted as a glorified take, but football in Ireland still feels a little bit more like the people’s game.
When we come back to the international audience, the fascination doesn’t go unnoticed. Partly as a reaction to the record-breaking game at Lansdowne Road between Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers, the well-known German football magazine “11 Freunde” (“11 friends”) published an article called “Irish Spring” in which it describes the positive development of the league.
In some weeks, I will have a longer stay in Ireland, also with the goal to even watch some more games and collect some more stadiums. Based on my experience so far, I’m pretty optimistic that Irish football won’t disappoint me…