“WHY illuminate bogs?”
That was the question posed by the late, great Ray Treacy in the early 1990s when the League of Ireland was getting floodlights.
Sky Sports broadcasting the newly-created Premier League every Sunday had posed a problem for Irish football. And we had an Irish solution.
The FAI could have blocked Sky from showing games, similar to the 3pm TV blackout in the UK, because LOI fixtures were played on Sundays at the time.
The broadcaster sought a compromise and a committee led by Michael Hyland brokered a deal for floodlights.
Only Bohemians — with their huge, old floodlights — Shelbourne, Dundalk and UCD already had them and were playing Thursday and Friday night games.
The idea that Friday Night Lights could work for the League of Ireland was already there and Sky Sports effectively funded it.
Yet not everyone thought it was a great leap forward, a point articulated by Shamrock Rovers boss Treacy, who stated that the playing surfaces were c**p.
For a public used to watching the national team’s footballers play on a rugby pitch, there was a collective shrug.
Besides, the disconnect between Ireland and its domestic league was even greater then than now.
So the bogs were lit up and summer football saw them replaced by dust bowls, unless a manager pushed for a better pitch.
The switch to summer football meant praying for a mild, sunny winter so that the pitches would be OK for the season kick-off.
There is nothing certain in life except death, taxes and complaints about pitches in February and March.
Shelbourne’s Tolka Park has already received its annual dose of criticism, while the dual-purpose UCD Bowl — serving rugby and football — means the sod is bad now, but will be great come May.
The kick-off of the Women’s Premier Division in eight days means there is a real danger of overuse of the nine grass pitches that also host men’s LOI games.
And that is before you factor in that Galway FA and Munster FA own Eamonn Deacy Park and Turner’s Cross respectively, and both host local fixtures.
Tallaght is one of the best surfaces around but even that cut up last Friday during the Ireland game that was played just 24 hours after Shamrock Rovers’ clash with Molde.
Sunday’s match with Cork City could not go ahead after heavy rain, which may be no bad thing to protect the pitch.
DON’T COME LIGHTLY
Stephen Bradley admitted: “If we played, I’d imagine it would have been really poor for a number of weeks with no growth.
“I don’t think there’s any ground in the country, other than maybe the Aviva, that has the lights that can help grow the grass.”
Those are the portable LED lights you see at the top stadia around the world that help grass grow when the sun does not shine.
They do not come cheap — estimates range from €50,000 to €500,000 per light!
Pitch maintenance is expensive, though not always something clubs invest heavily in.
The FAI’s facilities proposal calls for new pitches for LOI grounds and highlights the problem across the board.
Of the 1,094 clubs and leagues surveyed in 2023, 46 per cent said their pitch quality was moderate or poor and cited lack of funds.
Just five clubs and leagues spent more than €50,000 on pitch maintenance and another eight between €25,000 and €50,000.
For context, the minimum wage for one player for a year is €22,360.
But now that the league is more popular than ever — and getting regular TV exposure with Virgin Media — good pitches is crucial to let the players shine.
While Graham Burke would probably still play on a cabbage-patch field, it would be better if we never have to find out!
