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Association soccer
While soccer is not as popular as GAA, nor taught in so many Irish schools, it has recently gained much popularity due to the national teams succcess in recent world and European competitions. The Football Association of Ireland govern the game in the south and run various leagues. You may see games in Dublin at the following grounds:
Most Irish soccer professionals play in the English leagues and Irish soccer fans usually support an English team. The most popular amongst Dubs are Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Leeds. In Scotland Celtic is also a favourite.
| But soccer is a British game...? So why are so many Irish people interested in a British game? Well, that's not too easy to answer. Many Irish enthusiastically support an English team as well as the national team (who have brilliantly qualified for the World cup). Since the English game is quite rich, most young Irish talent is scouted by the English clubs. Ask any Irish person to name five Irish players in the English divisions and they would probably have no difficulty. As them to name five players from the native teams and you'd be lucky to get two. I hope the construction of a national stadium will help to redress the game in Ireland which has some excellent pro-am teams | |||||
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