The Rise and Fall of Cobh Ramblers
The year 2008 will not be looked back upon with fond memories for anyone connected to Cobh Ramblers of Ireland’s Premier Division. The club famous for producing past and present Premier League players Roy Keane and Stephen Ireland capped a magnificent 2007 by winning the Irish First Division on the last day of the season in November and gaining promotion to the Premier League. Hundreds of fans made the four hour trip north to watch the title decider and the Ramblers didn’t disappoint, taking the title with a 1-0 win.
Last season was a season of records for the club: their first piece of major silverware, a record number of games unbeaten (27), and a record number of points in the first division (77). The club also saw its old stadium revamped with new seats put in the stands.
This season, however, anything and everything has gone wrong for the seaside club. With 23 games of the season gone, Cobh sit bottom of the table with only 12 points and and abysmal -28 goal difference. They are currently six points from safety and have only scored 12 goals over the entire season. Ramblers were also dumped out of Ireland’s domestic cup, falling at the first hurdle to a team in the first division.
The joy the club’s players and fans experienced last season has turned sour with a number of controversial and comical incidents both on and off the pitch. One example of bad luck occurred during a crucial away match to fellow strugglers UCD a month ago. Ramblers took the lead from the penalty spot and looked set to take all three points, yet were robbed by the UCD goalkeeper, who headed home a 94thminute free kick to the dismay of the 20+ traveling away fans.
The problems on the pitch, however, have not come close to the problems the club is having off it. Last month the club’s directors held a board meeting whose outcome could have meant that Cobh Ramblers would drop out of the Irish Premier Division and instead play intermediate football in the Munster Senior League (Ramblers last played in that league 23 years ago before being inducted into the Irish League). The board meeting ended with chairman Barry Walsh remaining in power after a 4:1 majority vote in his favor. The meeting brought further embarrassment and confusion to the club with manager Stephen Henderson publicly stating that he would have left the club if Walsh had been removed from his post.
With the board meeting out of the way, it looked like everyone at the club could now concentrate on keeping the club in the Premier Division. Yet more off the field distractions were just around the corner. The club’s rising debts forced the chairman to take the ludicrous measure of asking the players to take out 2000 euro each in personal loans to help the club’s debt. The players laughed off the proposal, reminding everyone that most of the players are on one year contracts meaning many of the players would soon be paying back a loan for a club they used to play for. The players did agree to help the club out by taking at 30% wage cut.
Further embarrassment followed when a board member leaked documents to Ireland’s national newspaper The Independent revealing the club’s massive debts. The Chairman admitted that the club is now about 150,000 euro in debt, even after a recent friendly with Sunderland reportedly raised over 100,000 euro.
Ramblers next match was away against fellow relegation strugglers Finn Harps in Donegal, the longest away trip of the season. The club told the players that they could only afford a bus for the match, meaning the players would have to make the long journey to the other end of the island on the day of the game. In a gracious gesture the players offered to drive up from Cobh the day before the game if the club would pay for a hotel. The club agreed to this, and the extra rest seemed to help the players who came from two goals down to draw 2-2 in the last minute.
The last gasp equalizer has been a rare happy moment for the club so far this campaign. 2007 was widely considered to be the best season in the clubs 86 years of existence, but 2008 will be remembered as perhaps the worst.
Tweet
Terrible season for Cobh, its just one team after another falling into financial chaos below the border.
Sad to see more teams in financial trouble.
What’s happened to Pitch Invasion?
There’s been no updates in what seems like ages
Now that the global credit markets are freezing up, the teams will get in more financial trouble. Like a small business not being able to access it’s revolving credit. Means higher ticket prices for all of us, less fans going to the game, leading to only the top teams being able to survive (worse case scenario)
@John – Small clubs have survived worse financial problems than this, historically when unemployment has gone up small clubs haven’t suffered as badly as the big clubs. Its the big clubs with big wage bills who should be worried if anyone:-)
Yes I agree as money gets tighter and tighter all the clubs are going to start suffering especially the bigger clubs all over the world with huge pay checks to manage and less and less money coming in the doors.
Totally the opposite in my FIFA 09 manager mode XD.
Well, it sucks to see that. How terrible that the board didn’t like paying their players. Pathetic actually.
Ramblers next match was away against fellow relegation strugglers Finn Harps in Donegal, the longest away trip of the season
I hear that the Cobh Ramblers were named after that drunk lad out side of Mimo’s
Here I was being all glad kids play soccor instead of football and it’s all about drunks and losers and what’s the upside. I love the game of soccor where no one pounces on the other one with the intent of get the ball or die.
Yea soccer is a fine game as long nobody get hurts. Concerning Cogh Ramblers – really terrible this season …
great post, since a come from Togo it resonates
http://liberta-togo.com/
http://www.xenbet.com
Its not just below the border where they are struggling, teams all over the place seem to be incapable of managing their finances.
Ste
The biggest problem for football in Ireland remains that Irish people are not generally interested in the domestic league. Instead people tend to support English sides. As long as this is the fact the prospect of a strong (both financially and sportswise) Irish league is very much in doubt…
Greeting from the U.S.
Do you think clubs like Man City with there new owners are causing less well off clubs to get into trouble.
I have often thought that there should be some sort of regulation of player wages and transfer fees. At the moment I think the game is far to monopolist. It is much more enjoyable when you never know who is going to win.
Some in sport is not all time rising, falling, without this difference is not interesting…
I don’t want to bad-mouth the Cobh Ramblers, but DAAYUM (ie, damn) would I like to see a new story at the head of this website.
Wither Tom Dunsmore?
Yeah I feel sorry for the man and i glad i ain’t him, but I would like to see another story too…
number 21
The team had more to loose as they had earned a lot. Troubles seem to be cascading themselves into the year 2008. No players in the world would have been asked to pay to ensure the survival of the team they represent. Its really sad and its gong to be a tough fight to regain the lost glory.
Emo ve emolar hakkında her türlü bilgiye ulaşabileceğiniz bir blog sitesi
Yet another team in a financial mess. The rich get richer. the poor get poorer.
wish them all the best
The global economy is really effecting everyone and every business across the world. It is sad to see teams like these in such financial trouble, after watching Manchester City’s new owner spending countless pounds on star players.
Who is Cobh Ramblers ?
Mike – Only time will tell, but maybe this will force clubs to reign in the exhorbitant amounts their stars make.
thanks you
Sad to see more teams in financial trouble.
Chairman Barry Walsh is a good addition to the club! Jesus is King of Kings!
This has been the trouble for most of the clubs. They struggle to keep up the good performance after a good season. Look at Reading in EPL, they were so good in the first season but failed to sustain that in the next season. The expectations laid upon these clubs also doesn’t help their cause.
Who is Cobh Ramblers ? non ?
What’s happened to Pitch Invasion?
There’s been no updates in what seems like ages
We will be relaunching by April 1st! Please stay tuned.
güzel paylaşım
Football needs a financial re-shape – it’s ok if your Man Utd or Liverpool but the grassroots is totally screwed.
Very sad story that continues across a whole range of levels and also other football codes. There must be an obligation of the Premier Leagues in each country to be the upholders of the code. Private ownership will be the death of sports at lower levels and junior sport will continue to suffer. I think I am a communist when it comes to sport, it should be for the people by the people and pay the top players very well.
Tim
Tim has got it right here, all the TV money these codes get must be channeled into development right up and down the leagues otherwise the talent will go elsewhere. Some sports have got it right and others just don’t get it.
Unfortunately I think the talent has already started to go elsewhere. Why cant people at the top seem to see what is going on?!