The Train to Lille was never confused with the Road to Damascus, but it was on this journey that Stephen McGuinness tried to understand how to convert Ireland fans to League of Ireland apostles.
Sitting beside two supporters he’d never met before, the Player’s Union chief quickly noticed how difficult it was to even begin to build a stereotype of ‘The Ireland Fan’.
“Those following Ireland are the GAA guy, the bandwagoner and not League of Ireland fans — getting them to come will be difficultStephen McGuinness
One fan was from North Kerry (a soccer county in the same way Crossmaglen is a cricketing town), and a St Patrick’s Athletic season ticket holder.
The other, a Dub wearing a rugby shirt, is a coach of the Belvedere College u-16s and was on his way to a soccer match for the first time. Ever.
“He was going to probably one of the best Ireland games ever as it turned out, because he wanted to see the atmosphere,” McGuiness smiles.
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“Ulick from Kerry became interested many years ago in understanding why players left Ireland to play in England, and he then started to get involved with his local club, which is now Pat’s, and go to games. They’re the types of people that are at Ireland games.”
It got worse.
McGuinness saw fans in GAA shirts outnumber those in League of Ireland shirts by over ten to one during the course of his two weeks in France.
“Looking at the people who follow the Ireland team, it’s not League of Ireland fans, it’s the GAA guy, the rugby guy, it’s the bandwagoner. To get them to suddenly twist their head and come to the League, it’s something that’s going to be very difficult,” he says.
Today is a day where the disconnect really hits home.
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Dundalk FC, the country’s Champions League representatives, are in Iceland for the second leg of their second qualifying round tie with FH Hafnarfjordur.
On one hand, it’s a meeting of two minnows of European club soccer, on the other hand, it’s a meeting of clubs from two nations whose supporters stole the show at the European Championships.
But that gap between the support for Ireland and the support for its domestic clubs will never be as clearly evident.
Icelandic TV might be hoping to witness the raucous support that stole French hearts, but they won’t see them in Iceland. If they came to Ireland they wouldn’t see them here either.
Few bars will show Dundalk’s game live tonight and few offices will be buzzing with chat about the game tomorrow morning.
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The Ireland fans awarded a medal by the mayor of Paris may as well have handed in their ‘football supporter’ credentials as they flashed their passport when passing through customs at Dublin Airport.
“I met one lad in a Limerick GAA shirt — you found a lot of them because they’re green,” said McGuinness, “but when I chatted to him he couldn’t name a Limerick FC player; and they’re top of the league, winning by a record amount, and may go unbeaten - and he couldn’t name one player.
“He’d know the Ireland team inside out, and maybe every Irish player in England, but not anybody here and that’s the ultimate thing - our proximity to England makes it very tough.”
Paying to experience a major tournament every four years is one thing, shelling out to fly to England every fortnight quite another, but many of those same fans are happy to do so, while eschewing local teams.
Clearly there is superior fare on show in the Premier League, but there’s also an element of ignorance when assessing the talent closer to home.
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“I think a lot of the fans are very stubborn, they don’t understand that what they saw on the pitch in France, a lot of it was developed in this league,” said Stephen Bradley, the Shamrock Rovers interim manager.
“A lot of them go and watch games but they don’t look at them. Instead of really looking at the quality there, they’ll pick out 10-15 minutes of poor play and say ‘it’s crap’. Instead they’ll pay €400 to watch a team in England, it’s madness.”
Creating a more direct bond between the League’s best players and the national team is something Bradley, among others, would strongly encourage.
“I think some of the players should be training with the national team, and showing the quality they have,” he said.
“I think making it mandatory is something we should look at. It’d break down barriers, and the national staff would see the quality in the league.”
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Dundalk could earn over €1million if they finish the job off against FH in Iceland tonight.
Why is it that such a potential return, so relatively easily achieved, has not attracted major investment?
Why has a Denis O’Brien contributed to the Ireland assistant manager’s wages instead of creating a club that could tap into the 80,000 fans desperate for a sporting identity?
Unfortunately, McGuinness argues, the League might only have itself to blame.
“I think the brand is so damaged that people are afraid,” he said. “For every Dundalk story, we have players in Waterford owed eight week’s wages, and players in Athlone owed seven weeks.
“The potential damage to being associated with the league is part of the problem, and that’s why the league needs to tidy itself up and be better run.
“ If we could trust everyone to do their business right, then we’d have a great product, but we can’t.”
Would a ‘tidy’ league, with a club punching above its weight in Europe bring the ‘bandwagoners’ to local grounds? It might be time for another train journey to Lille.