Can Irish football compete with Scottish Football?

What has been a footballing league overlooked due to British and European dominance of the spot, Ireland’s domestic league is beginning to assert its own identity.

Although it has done it in the shadows, the League of Ireland is producing a heightened quality in the game itself as well as an increase in attendance and investment.

With an improved infrastructure, the question is to be asked: can the League of Ireland rival the Scottish Premiership?

Investing In The League

Rather than being known for its quality of football, the League of Ireland has been defined heavily by its terrible business model leading to financial instability. One of the most successful sides in the league's history, Dundalk, boasted terrible losses in 2022 and 2023 as the club almost folded amid their money problems.

🗣️ "The next 24 hours is a critical time"

Dundalk, one of Ireland's most successful clubs faces a critical day in it's future as it tries to secure investment to stop it from going out of business ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/wy0SkH9kzW

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 16, 2024

With two stints in the Europa League in 2016/2017 and 2020/21, Dundalk were one of the teams that was putting Irish football on the map. With the likes of them and Shamrock Rovers competing on the European stage consistently, the money has slowly increased.

Completely flipping the script, Dundalk have been in talks since 2022 about a new development to their beloved Oriel Park, increasing the capacity from 4,500 to 6,000 on top of brand-new facilities for all supporters. Within the realms of 25 million euros, Dundalk are hopeful the project will sell itself with the increasing demand for tickets for the ground.

And this is not the only stadium set to undergo new work.

Dalymount Park, home of Bohemians FC, is set to undergo a 24.7-million-euro redevelopment that will knock the existing structure down and put a whole new stadium in its place. With a current capacity of 4,227, the new development rockets that number up to 8,000 with almost 7,000 being seated areas.

Great news today for Dalymount Park, which has been allocated €24m+ for redevelopment by Govt. This is great news for football, for @bfcdublin, for the northside of Dublin and for Phibsborough and signals the Govt’s commitment to this really important project. pic.twitter.com/F3ermLwHLG

— Paschal Donohoe (@Paschald) November 4, 2024

As well as stadiums, the League of Ireland is expecting a huge funding increase. Ireland have produced young talent which have gone to Europe and performed at a higher level, most notably the likes of Roy Keane and Paul McGrath.

Teams are hoping that a new 8 million euro annually for the next 11 years can help boost the team’s academy and produce more Irish talent to face off against higher skilled competition.

The Celtic-Rangers Predicament

The Old Firm Derby attracts millions of football hungry fans to every meeting in arguably the fiercest and most competitive rivalry that has been going on for over 130 years.

While that one game played a few times over the course of a season provides entertainment and excitement, the season as a whole is less than desirable.

Celtic have managed victory of the title the previous three seasons and have done it convincingly on all these occasions, with the closest finish being in 2021-2022 with a four-point difference. Rangers have fallen into second place in on all these occasions.

The current season has just capped off its first phase and would you be surprised that Celtic are top yet again. Rangers are following behind in second again however, the gap is a bit dearer this time round, separated by 15 points.

Original Source: Sky Sports

The Irish League has seen some sheer dominance in recent seasons, with Shamrock Rovers winning the league in convincing form in four of the last five seasons. However, the most recent season had a more intense script with Shelbourne ripping the title of Shamrock Rovers by two points.

This would be Shelbourne’s first League of Ireland Premier Division Title since 2006.

Already ten games into the new season and the competition is heating up, with only a three-point difference between fifth and first. Droghead United are currently at the top, closely followed by St Patricks Athletic and Shamrock Rovers, who drew yesterday night to each other following a 90th minute goal from St Pats Joe Redmond ending the game 2-2.

A dramatic injury time equaliser from Joe Redmond tonight. Great cross by Jake Mulraney too. Terrific fight back from the lads #StPatsFC | @kavanaghspubd8 pic.twitter.com/gw6BEGV0Kc

— St Patrick's Athletic FC (@stpatsfc) April 18, 2025

Can It Compete?

There is a still a huge way to go to consider this an even playing field, with the Scottish Premiership trumping the League of Ireland in many areas such as broadcast deals, stadium sizes and European pedigree.

However, the League of Ireland has a positive trajectory and is moving in the right direction in building its own unique appeal to bring in a higher amount of engagement for the fans.