Sport

Kenny Archer: GAA will escape unscathed from Euro frenzy

Ireland fans celebrate the Euro 2016 play-off victory over Bosnia on Monday night<br />Picture: PA&nbsp;
Ireland fans celebrate the Euro 2016 play-off victory over Bosnia on Monday night
Picture: PA 
Ireland fans celebrate the Euro 2016 play-off victory over Bosnia on Monday night
Picture: PA 

AMONG the various divides on this island is this one: do you call the game of George Best and Liam Brady ‘soccer’ or ‘football’?

For most of this paper’s readers, it’s the former, with 'football’ meaning 'Gaelic football’, although some shorten that to 'Gaelic' or 'the Gaelic'. If they’re particularly dismissive of hurling, they might even refer to ‘football’ as 'GAA’, with the more uncouth saying 'Gah'.

'Soccer' is not a particularly popular term, especially not among many of its own fans. Still, the idea that it parodied rugby snobs talking about ‘rugger’, abbreviating 'association’, always tickled me. Besides, the most authoritative publication about the game is called World Soccer, so that’s good enough for me.

'Soccer' used to be almost spat out and still is only ever used in a disparaging tone by some Gaels. However, that great divide has been gradually disappearing, that process no doubt moved along immensely by the ending in 1971 of the GAA’s 'Ban’ on any involvement by its members in ‘foreign games'. 

Even before then, there was a widespread fondness in Ireland - north, south, east and west - for Celtic and also for leading English clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal and that has increased so that a high proportion of their Irish supporters are also GAA aficionados.

Soccer is certainly stronger in certain of the bigger cities, such as Belfast, Derry and Dublin, although the last-named clearly has a sizeable GAA base too. To an extent, that reflects another of the divides, between city and country in the GAA, although there’s still plenty of soccer-Gaelic crossover in all those places.

Yet all those 'dual supporters’ of those two codes mean there could be a hard choice for many next summer - between Gaelic football and Gallic football. That wouldn’t have been a major issue with only Northern Ireland going to Euro 2016, but now that the Republic will join them in France, there are going to be some tough calls to be made next June.

The GAA has been very good about promoting its games in recent seasons, but it might need to do more for that month - and more than it has done so far for the National Leagues. It almost smacked of the association ‘burying bad news’ when they released the confirmed National League fixtures for next year late on Monday afternoon.

By that stage, most people with an interest in sport were already fixated on forthcoming events in the Aviva Stadium, venue for the second leg of the Euro 2016 play-off between the Republic of Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The home win only increased the intensity of excitement about the soccer side.

Yet given that Euro 2016 will coincide with the height of the Championship season for many counties, might more Gaels be planning to get their football fix in the spring, not the summer?

There’s certainly much to savour in the leagues. Football kicks-off, sorry, throws-in with Dublin v Kerry AND an all-Ulster clash between Down and Donegal, both of them with the added glamour that floodlights bring. Ulster champions Monaghan are in the top flight too and will renew their recent rivalry for provincial top dog status with Donegal in Clones in what could be a crucial round seven encounter.

Division Two, aka the Almost-Ulster Championship, starts with Derry-Fermanagh and Tyrone-Cavan. Armagh are the fifth Ulster side there, which guarantees an all-Ulster game in every round. Somewhat disappointingly, neither Tyrone-Derry nor Tyrone-Armagh are among the final round of fixtures, but both should be crowd-pullers on March evenings at Healy Park.

Antrim, although languishing in Division Four, will expect hope to spring eternal for their supporters, especially with four games in Belfast, all at Corrigan Park.

Hurling, from an Ulster perspective, starts with Derry-Antrim and Armagh-Down, when there’ll be little love lost on St Valentine’s Day. Likewise, in the top flight, Waterford host Kilkenny that same day. With Galway, Tipperary, Cork and Dublin also in Division 1A, there’ll be plenty of big match-ups after that too.

Judging by my inability to get onto the Uefa website around 10pm on Monday night, there may well be quite a few holidays booked to France for next June. If social media is be believed in the slightest, half the country is heading to France, in terms of population that is. The player drop-out rate for the qualifiers could rise alarmingly, or attendance levels at training could drop off at the very least.

In truth, the GAA probably won’t have to worry too much. Once people discover the cost of flights, ferries and accommodation, many may decide that Euro 2016 will be best enjoyed via television. Another aspect is the sizeable contingent of teachers among the GAA’s players, managers and coaches. All their extra holidays won’t be much use to them in June - it’s all about flexibility, folks. Cue the creation of a lot of ‘necessary’ school trips to France…

In reality, GAA attendances shouldn’t be all that adversely affected by the Euros. In the Ulster SFC, the preliminary round and two of the quarter-finals will be over before the Euros kick off on June 10. The group stages in France conclude on June 22, although there’s a good chance that at least one of the two teams will progress to the ‘round of 16’ in the last week of June.

One of the Irish teams would need to reach the semi-finals to continue involvement into the second week of July though… Realistically, Irish involvement should end (well) before the semi-finals on July 6/7, a weekend which is probably the earliest that any GAA provincial finals will take place.

So most of next summer will still belong to the GAA. Before that, though, expect constant chat about flights, hotels and the chances of acquiring tickets for Euro 2016 - not that the lack of the latter will stop some people travelling.

Maybe it was a smart move after all for the GAA to release those league fixtures on Monday, getting at least some attention before the next six-plus months of football/soccer frenzy.