Mid-season Friendlies 'essential' - Casey
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Shelbourne Chairman Joe Casey welcomes Leeds United to Tolka Park on Tuesday night - followed by Millwall next week - in fixtures which he feels are ‘essential’ to the financial stability of clubs in Shelbourne’s position.
Casey, a life-long Leeds fan, is aware of League of Ireland supporters’ disdain towards mid-season friendlies; however, he feels without the income generated by these fixtures, clubs may not survive.
“Some fans complain about these fixtures but they are absolutely essential – we must do them. Leeds have been over for the last few years for friendlies. We made three weeks wages from last year’s game. I don’t expect it to go as well as that, because attendances are down this year, but hopefully we get two weeks wages out of the game.”
“I was the one who got this game going. I am a season ticket holder at Elland Road for 20 years now and I have built up a lot of contacts over there. Dermot [Keely] has friends at Millwall, so that game is costing us almost nothing. Whatever we make at that game is pretty much ours.”
High profile clubs are regular instalments in the summer fixture list throughout the League of Ireland, with Newcastle United and Real Madrid two marquee examples of revenue raising friendlies at Shamrock Rovers’ new Tallaght Stadium this month.
“We had the option to host Newcastle United, but we turned the opportunity down,” said Casey. “We looked at the fixture list at the start of the season and we saw that we were playing UCD, Leeds and then Sporting Fingal. And Newcastle wanted to play in between the UCD and Leeds game so Dermot categorically decided against that game,” he added.
Shelbourne will be looking to play a few new faces tomorrow, with only four regulars likely to start the game. New signing Andrei Georgescu will feature along with the brothers of regular first teamer's Mark O'Brien and Anto 'Bisto' Flood. With Kevin Doherty and David Cassidy both suspended for Friday's critical game against Sporting Fingal, they may join Vinnie Whelan and David Crawley as the few regulars who will start the game according to Casey.
Casey, a life-long Leeds fan, is aware of League of Ireland supporters’ disdain towards mid-season friendlies; however, he feels without the income generated by these fixtures, clubs may not survive.
“Some fans complain about these fixtures but they are absolutely essential – we must do them. Leeds have been over for the last few years for friendlies. We made three weeks wages from last year’s game. I don’t expect it to go as well as that, because attendances are down this year, but hopefully we get two weeks wages out of the game.”
“I was the one who got this game going. I am a season ticket holder at Elland Road for 20 years now and I have built up a lot of contacts over there. Dermot [Keely] has friends at Millwall, so that game is costing us almost nothing. Whatever we make at that game is pretty much ours.”
High profile clubs are regular instalments in the summer fixture list throughout the League of Ireland, with Newcastle United and Real Madrid two marquee examples of revenue raising friendlies at Shamrock Rovers’ new Tallaght Stadium this month.
“We had the option to host Newcastle United, but we turned the opportunity down,” said Casey. “We looked at the fixture list at the start of the season and we saw that we were playing UCD, Leeds and then Sporting Fingal. And Newcastle wanted to play in between the UCD and Leeds game so Dermot categorically decided against that game,” he added.
Shelbourne will be looking to play a few new faces tomorrow, with only four regulars likely to start the game. New signing Andrei Georgescu will feature along with the brothers of regular first teamer's Mark O'Brien and Anto 'Bisto' Flood. With Kevin Doherty and David Cassidy both suspended for Friday's critical game against Sporting Fingal, they may join Vinnie Whelan and David Crawley as the few regulars who will start the game according to Casey.
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