The 2007 League of Ireland Premier Division was the 23rd season of the League of Ireland Premier Division. The division was made up of 12 teams. Drogheda United were champions for the first time while St Patrick's Athletic finished as runners-up.
Club information Team Base Manager Main sponsor Kit supplier Stadium Capacity Bohemians Phibsborough Sean Connor Des Kelly Interiors Diadora Dalymount Park 8,500 Bray Wanderers Bray Eddie Gormley Hard Metal Umbro Carlisle Grounds 7,000 Cork City Cork Damien Richardson Beamish O'Neill's Turners Cross 8,000 Derry City Derry John Robertson MeteorElectrical.com Umbro Brandywell Stadium 7,700 Drogheda United Drogheda Paul Doolin Murphy Environmental Jako United Park 5,400 Galway United Galway Tony Cousins Harrmack Developments Umbro Terryland Park 4,500 Kildare County Newbridge John Ryan Swifts Umbro Station Road 2,500 Shamrock Rovers Drumcondra Pat Scully Woodie's DIY Umbro Tolka Park 12,000 Sligo Rovers Sligo Paul Cook Toher's Jako The Showgrounds 5,500 St Patrick's Athletic Inchicore John McDonnell Paddy Power Umbro Richmond Park 5,500 UCD Belfield Pete Mahon Budweiser O'Neills Belfield Park 2,500 Waterford United Waterford Gareth Cronin Perennial Freight Diadora Waterford Regional Sports Centre 8,000
Overview The close-period between the 2006 and 2007 seasons saw one of the biggest departures of senior talent from the League of Ireland and across the Irish Sea in recent times."Bargain-hunters ransack Ireland", Aidan Fitzmaurice, UEFA.com, 25 January 2007. The profile of the league had been improved by the recent successes of Derry City and Shelbourne in Europe. In addition former players such as Kevin Doyle, one of the top-scorers in the 2006–07 FA Premier League and once of Cork City, attracted attention from numerous managers in Scotland and England. Some of the top players to depart included David Forde and Jason Byrne, both of whom moved to Cardiff City. Cork City saw George O'Callaghan and Danny Murphy depart for Ipswich Town and Motherwell respectively. UCD players, Patrick Kavanagh and Gary Dicker both moved to Birmingham City. Others who made the journey across the water included Colin Hawkins, Trevor Molloy, Paul Keegan. League of Ireland managers also found themselves attracting interest with Stephen Kenny moving from Derry City to Dunfermline Athletic.
The league season kicked off on 9 March. Derry City were initially regarded as favourites to win the Premier Division by numerous bookmakers, closely followed by Drogheda United and Cork City. Despite this, Derry City made a poor start to the season losing to strong title-contenders St Patrick's Athletic and Drogheda United in their early-season encounters. They also lost 4–1 to Cork City at home in the fifth round of games."Four goal Cork heap pressure on Derry boss Fenlon ", Irish Football Online, 9 April 2007. Meanwhile, St Patrick's Athletic raced into an early-season lead at the top of the table, having won all of their first five fixtures. With a third of the season remaining Drogheda United had risen to the top of the Premier Division table and have since sealed the first league title in their history. On 18 October they beat Cork City 2–1 at United Park which guaranteed the title for them. It had looked like they might have possibly had to wait another week to wrap up the league but a strike from Guy Bates in the last minute gave Drogheda victory on the night which was enough to see them become league champions. The relegation battle was very tight. Longford Town were bottom for the majority of the season, having been deducted six points but going into the final day of the season, they were just three points behind Waterford United and had a far superior goal difference. Longford did what they had to do by beating Derry City 3–1 but Waterford got a point which meant that Longford were relegated. Waterford were still not safe, though, as they had to play in the relegation/promotion playoff where they beaten by Finn Harps which meant that they were still relegated.
Final table
Results Matches 1–22
Matches 23–33
Play-offs Promotion/Relegation Finn Harps and Dundalk who finished second and third in the First Division played off against Waterford United who finished eleventh in the Premier Division. First round
Finn Harps qualified for second round. Second round
Finn Harps win 6–3 on aggregate and are promoted to Premier Division.
Setanta Sports Cup After winning the First Division, Cobh Ramblers also qualified for the new Setanta Sports Cup play-off. Their opponents were Derry City, the winners of the 2007 League of Ireland Cup.
Derry City qualify for 2008 Setanta Sports Cup.
Awards Top goalscorers
GoalscorersGoalsTeam David Mooney19Longford Town Mark Quigley15St Patrick's Athletic Roy O'Donovan 14Cork CityRoy O'Donovan transferred to Sunderland in August 2007. Tadhg Purcell12Shamrock Rovers Fahrudin Kudozovic11Sligo Rovers Éamon Zayed11Drogheda United
Notes
Player of the Month MonthNameClubMarch Alan KirbySt Patrick's AthleticApril Brian ShelleyDrogheda UnitedMay Tadhg PurcellShamrock RoversJune Derek GlynnGalway UnitedJuly Matthew JudgeSligo RoversAugust Dave MooneyLongford TownSeptember Guy BatesDrogheda UnitedOctober Brian ShelleyDrogheda UnitedNovember Conor GethinsFinn HarpsConor Gethins was playing in First Division.
Notes
Off-field issues Prize funds Between the League of Ireland, FAI Cup, League of Ireland Cup and the Setanta Cup a prize fund in excess of €1 million will be available. The FAI will be investing a total of €803,000 for prize funds in 2007. The prize fund for the Premiership in 2007 will reach €450,000 with the winner being awarded €225,000. The First Division winner's prize fund in 2007 will be €50,000, with €100,000 available in total. The following table gives a more detailed breakdown of the prize funds."Prize Money Details Released ", derrycityfc.net, 29 July 2007. Retrieved 29 July 2007.
Position Premier Division First Division League Cup Fair Play 1 €225,000 €50,000 €10,000 €4,500 x 2 2 €100,000 €30,000 €5,000 €2,000 x 2 3 €50,000 €10,000 €2,500 4 €25,000 €6,000 €2,500 5 €15,000 €4,000 6 €12,000 7 €9,500 8 €7,500 9 €6,000 10 11 12 Totals €450,000 €100,000 €20,000 €13,000
Media coverage Broadcasting partners of the FAI - Setanta Sports, TG4 and RTÉ - agreed to televise over 50 live games in the 2007 season. The agreed games included League of Ireland games, as well as Setanta Cup matches and FAI Cup matches. TV3 also agreed to continue showing their highlights programme, eircom League Weekly, on a Monday night each week.
FIFA's two-club ruling A significant number of players, who had already played with two clubs within the year prior to the season's kick-off, were left ineligible to play for their clubs until July at the beginning of the season as FIFA's rules, or, in particular, Article 5.3 of FIFA's Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players, stated that no player could play for more than two different clubs between 1 July of one season and 30 June of the following year. The highest-profile members of the group of ten were the Irish internationally capped midfielders Gareth Farrelly and Colin Healy. Both players had agreed two-year deals with Cork City but their clearance failed to come through from FIFA due to the fact that they had each been registered to two other clubs since 1 July 2006. Among the other Premier Division players hit with the ruling were: Bray Wanderers midfielder Alan Cawley; Derry City striker Peter Hynes; and Ray Scully of Waterford United."Clubs hit with two-club ruling ", Eleven-a-side.ie, 9 March 2007.
The Football Association of Ireland argued to FIFA that, as they ran a league with an unconventional Summer season out of tandem with the calendar of most other European national leagues, around which the rule was based, such circumstances ought to be permissible for players playing in the League. However, with two weeks of the league season completed, the association had yet to come to an agreement with FIFA. As a result, in failing to ensure that the clubs under its jurisdiction would be able to field their full squads at the outset of the season, the FAI came in for criticism. Numerous fans of the league condemned what they viewed to be carelessly negligent short-sightedness on the part of the association.
By 23 March 2007, three of the group were cleared to play by FIFA. The players who were cleared to play were Gary Rogers of Galway United, Alan Cawley of Bray Wanderers and Shaun Holmes of Finn Harps, while decisions on the remainder were not expected for another week."", Irish Football Online, 23 March 2007. On 2 April, it was announced that Colin Healy and Gareth Farrelly both failed to gain clearance to play for Cork City."Farrelly and Healy fail to gain clearance", The Irish Times 3 April 2007. While the FAI had taken the cases forward to FIFA on behalf of most of the players, it was Cork City who decided to have their own legal team represent their two players.
It was announced on 5 April that Peter Hynes had received clearance by FIFA. This concluded the wait for decisions on all ten players as the remainder (bar the two Cork City players) were also given exemptions. The other players cleared were: John Brophy and Mark Leech of Shelbourne; Willie Doyle of Monaghan United; and Ray Scully."FIFA grant clearance to Hynes ", FAI eircom League, 5 April 2007. In the meantime, Cork City suggested that they would be appealing FIFA's decision not to grant their two players clearance on 18 April 2007 by 20 April deadline. The club made a 'strongly worded submission' to FIFA in relation to the issue asking FIFA to reconsider and were in consultation with people within the game, in legal circles and even those involved in politics."", Irish Football Online, 18 April 2007. FIFA rejected Cork City's appeal on 23 April but the club stated that they may take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport as a last resort."", Irish Football Online, 23 April 2007. When they did eventually take the case to this stage, it was once again decided against their favour, meaning that the two players had to wait to July until they could represent Cork City."Farrelly and Healy fail in court appeal", RTÉ Sport, 12 June 2007. Retrieved 15 June 2007.
The CityWeb affair