Yesterday marked seven years since Brendan Rodgers first brought his side to Dublin in a 3-1 friendly loss to Barcelona.
Seven years later and Saturday was only the second time in as many years Celtic had travelled across the water to play in front of their maiden Irish Celtic supporters.
For a club as we all know enriched in Irish heritage, this stat is worrying for the future of Celtics fanbase in Ireland.
There will always be a healthy number of Celtic fans in Ireland, regardless of the effort the club makes to grow the fanbase across the water. But since the turn of the millennium, the growth of the English Premier League has somewhat overtaken Irish interest in Celtic and football in the East End of Glasgow.
One only has to look at Ireland’s premier sports media outlet Off The Ball to back up this claim, where the English Premier League dominates discussion on the popular Irish radio show. Who could blame Irish football interest shifting to the Premier League when Celtic don’t bother to come across the water and even attempt to spark more Irish interest in the club.
Five years ago, Chelsea played Arsenal in front of 46,000 Irish spectators at the Aviva Stadium, just 28,000 watched Celtic’s 1-1 draw with Wolves on Saturday.
Celtic fans will always be prevalent in Ireland, but an annual pre-season trip to the Emerald Isles is a necessity if the club wishes to compete with Premier League interest.
Celtic have played in Dublin twice between the games against Barcelona and Wolves; both against Shamrock Rovers. With global marketing reponsibilities including Asia and Australia, four times in seven years is not exactly neglect.
My mistake. Both games played at Tallaght Stadium which is why I didn’t recall. An 8,000 capacity stadium isn’t exactly accommodating Irish Celtic fans either though. 24,000 at the Wolves game at the weekend, with very little notice shows the appetite for Celtic games in Dublin is their, a friendly at 8,000 capacity in Tallaght Stadium really isn’t the answer to be honest.
Didn’t post my pertinent comment because of the error in yours. Big of you.
Comments are approved by myself Euguene and there’s been a backlog of doing that today as I had my (first) day off this year. Both comments are up now. The delay was certainly nothing to do with the writer.
Apologies. Unnecessary and unwarranted sarcasm on my part. Must have been in a rather negative frame of mind. Thank for your civilised response.
Good man!