by Declan Jordan
I have had to listen quite a lot to my father and other older Limerick FC supporters tell me down the years how the standard of football in the League of Ireland is not as good as it was. Andy McEvoy, a Limerick FC hero from the late 1960s and early 1970s, was the best player ever at the Markets Field according to my Dad and in his memory used to bang in goals for fun.
Of course memory can play tricks and there is always a danger of nostalgia colouring what we remember of past games and glory. Photos of historical football League of Ireland games show packed terraces which are no longer the case these days. Of course, those were different days without live football on television and easy and cheap access to English league games.
However, while putting together data for a journal article submission I noticed that maybe there was something to claims of glory days in the League of Ireland. The chart below shows the average number of goals per game in the League of Ireland Premier Division since 1953 (or Division A before 1986).
Of course memory can play tricks and there is always a danger of nostalgia colouring what we remember of past games and glory. Photos of historical football League of Ireland games show packed terraces which are no longer the case these days. Of course, those were different days without live football on television and easy and cheap access to English league games.
However, while putting together data for a journal article submission I noticed that maybe there was something to claims of glory days in the League of Ireland. The chart below shows the average number of goals per game in the League of Ireland Premier Division since 1953 (or Division A before 1986).
The downward trend in goals per game is very striking. This is an average measure. I also looked at the goals per game for each club from 1953 as it may be that some clubs are still scoring well. I sorted all of the clubs in descending order of goals per game and there are two times since the start of the 1990s that clubs appear in the top 100. Those are Derry City, runners-up in 1990 and scored 2.18 goals, and Sligo Rovers, also runners-up in 2011 who scored 2.028 goals. Including those only four times since the start of the 1990s has a team scored 2 or more goals per game (Shels and Bohs both scored 2 per game when winning the league in 2006 and 2001 respectively).
This is somewhat surprising given that the League switched to awarding 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw in 1994 and this should have incentivised more attacking play. Of course it could be that the quality of attackers has deteriorated and/or the quality of defending has improved.
From an economic perspective it's always interesting to look for changes in incentives and structural breaks. In 1977 the league switched from using average goals to using goal difference as the second criteria (after points) for deciding league position. It's interesting to note that since the 1977 season there has only been one season that has a higher average goals per game than in 1977. This was in 1982 which happens to be the year in which the league experimented with awarding 4 points for an away win, 3 for a home win, 2 for an away draw and 1 for a home draw. The goals per game that year was only marginally higher than the 1977 figure.
This is somewhat surprising given that the League switched to awarding 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw in 1994 and this should have incentivised more attacking play. Of course it could be that the quality of attackers has deteriorated and/or the quality of defending has improved.
From an economic perspective it's always interesting to look for changes in incentives and structural breaks. In 1977 the league switched from using average goals to using goal difference as the second criteria (after points) for deciding league position. It's interesting to note that since the 1977 season there has only been one season that has a higher average goals per game than in 1977. This was in 1982 which happens to be the year in which the league experimented with awarding 4 points for an away win, 3 for a home win, 2 for an away draw and 1 for a home draw. The goals per game that year was only marginally higher than the 1977 figure.
There was some hope of a return to the high-scoring days of the past as the League of Ireland switched to a summer season between March and October. There was a trough in the mid-2000s but last year and this year we have seen a small correction in the increase in goals per game. Let's hope it's just a pause and in many years to come I'll be reminding my children of the wonderful feasts of goals Limerick FC produced in their return to the Markets Field.
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