Talk:Association football in Northern Ireland

Suggest moving to Association football in the Northern Ireland
I suggest moving to Association football in the Northern Ireland, to keep it inline with Association football in the Republic of Ireland. This page will then become a dab Gnevin (talk) 08:43, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Straw Poll - on the change to Association football in Northern Ireland
The Republic of Ireland football article has recently been changed to Association football in the Republic of Ireland. The attending voters had a chance to use the common Irish-media-used 'disambiguator' of "Soccer" (ROI of course has Gaelic football too), but instead they chose "Association". It was pushed through on an "over 60% percent consensus". There is a vote going on now to change the article to "Football (soccer) in the Republic of Ireland". But even now "Association" is winning out - and the most common reason given to keep it is that the 'main article' is called Association football - and so other articles must keep in line.

But for this 'conformity' to make proper sense, it would mean that the other national team would have to fall into line too. Some voters have openly expressed a desire for this to happen. Where will it end - with the national teams? It as already happened here with the "Football in" article.

I think people should be alerted to the tide of change that was first started with the move to Association football, and that a collection of UK nation 'straw polls' would be an interesting barometer for us all. (I have straw-polled this at England, Wales and Scotland too).

Note on "canvassing"

Supporters of the word "Association" are very critical of "WP:CANVASSING on this subject, and it is my opinion that they prefer their votes to be tight and guarded: and I can see no bias involved in informing all the UK nations at all. I am risking this accusation as I believe this vote is of major importance to all national team articles: I have given valid reasons for this above - so please restore this poll if it changed or removed, and explain why it is important in your edit note. --Matt Lewis (talk) 17:01, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Straw Poll

'''Were you pleased with this article being changed to Association football in Northern Ireland? Or would you like another title?'''

Please vote "Association" (for keeping Association) or "No to Association" (for a change) in bold, and sign.


 * No to Association. --Matt Lewis (talk) 17:01, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Their is no need for a separate discussion here, if you oppose/support the title here. Then vote at Association football in the Republic of Ireland as this page is effect by the title of the ROI article and vice versa, Once again you are WP:CANVASSING, note my informing WP:IE is how it can be done with out breeching WP:CANVASSING, it was simple,basic and WP:NPOV , this is loaded towards a pro move side Gnevin (talk) 17:09, 29 May 2008 (UTC)


 * It is possible to believe that "association football" is appropriate for the NI article and "soccer" for the RoI article, which suggests separate polls are justified.  My own belief is that "association football" is definitely better than "soccer" for the NI article, and that "soccer" is slightly better than "association football"  for the RoI article.  In neither case is "football" appropriate, because of gaelic football: gaelic is certainly called "football" less often in NI than RoI, but still often enough to merit a less ambiguous title for NI as for RoI. jnestorius(talk) 09:22, 30 May 2008 (UTC)
 * What do you think of the curent "Football (soccer)" proposal at ROI? It addresses the concerns you raise, and avoids the offense caused by the perceived bias inherent in both adding "Association" and in isolating "soccer" (both of which can be used to demote 'footy' in ROI). --Matt Lewis (talk) 13:28, 30 May 2008 (UTC)
 * My opinion is what applies to the ROI applies to the NI maybe even more so as the Rugby is very strong up north. Having the two pages at separate titles would look terrible Gnevin (talk) 09:40, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

My own opinion is that all similar articles across the globe should be changed to Association Football in... for clarity reasons, but try telling that to my fellow Canadians, or to the Americans. Slightly off the subject, has anyone considered writing a Gaelic Football in Northern Ireland as it could cover the popularity and history of the game, without explaining the rules and other stuff, as the current Gaelic Football article does. Just a thought. Lord Cornwallis (talk) 23:25, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Most popular live spectator sport in Northern Ireland
This statement is supported by a dead link and, as a Northern Irish sports fan I think that the statement is very misleading. Association Football is certainly the most popular sport in Northern Ireland but the support base for the game can be divided into three areas. 1: The traditional support for the two major Glasgow clubs, which dominated Soccer support in the latter part of the 20th Century but has seen marked and steady decline in the last twenty years among wider society living outside the confines of the more strongly working class and strongly Republican or Loyalist influenced housing estates and inner city areas. 2: The more common and widespread support of English clubs, which has seen the majority o Football fans in the Province/Country/Region affiliate to and state a desire to watch an English team. While support for English clubs now dwarfes that of the two Scottish clubs, the latter's political pull still ensures that both clubs draw a large core of spectators to their games over the much more expensive English Premier League excursionists. As a whole however it would be difficult to call if more fans travel to Scotland or England on any given weekend to watch a game in the modern era. 3; Comes the local game, which has lost support rapidly ever since the local fan was given the chance to watch Football on TV from England. Club games in Northern Ireland rarely attract more than a few hundred which pails in comparison to attendance figures at GAA games, Ulster Rugby fixtures and Belfast Giants Hockey games. While the National team compares favourably with all of these, I would argue that using the National team attendances is not a suitable barometer of measuring attendance figures against club teams in other sports. I would argue that Association Football is probably only the fourth best attended sport in Northern Ireland after Rugby Union, GAA and Ice Hockey. Captainbeecher (talk) 08:30, 23 July 2016 (UTC)