The SSE Airtricity League is set to welcome its newest team this week with confirmation in today's Irish Times that Cabinteely FC have applied for entry into the First Division for the 2015 season. The league is due to kick off on Friday, March 6th.
Why Cabinteely?
Essentially, because no other club wanted to make the step up. The league has had a fair amount of club turnover in the past 7/8 years with several clubs joining for short spells. The shortest of all was Shamrock Rovers B who competed last season before the Rovers board decided the money would be better spent elsewhere. The last time a non-established league club applied for admittance was Tralee Dynamos in 2012. They were a fair bit off achieving the licence.
Things have changed since then and facing the prospect of a 7 team division, the league must be delighted to welcome Cabinteely to the league despite their proximity to UCD and Bray Wanderers.
Who are Cabinteely FC?
Fans of junior and intermediate football, never mind League of Ireland fans, won't know much about Cabinteely as until this season their senior men's team played in the lowly Leinster Football League, having left the Leinster Senior League 2 years ago. Although around since the 1970s, Cabinteely FC are only known by that name since the mid 2000s, having previously been known as Cabinteely Boys for much of their history. Their most famous product is probably (Trapattoni favourite) Andy Keogh (now playing in Australia).
The club features teams from under 8s all the way to senior ranks with nearly 900 players registered as members. League of Ireland legend Eddie Gormley is involved with the club as Director of Football and is expected to be name manager of the LOI team. As the intermediate and junior seasons are in full flow, the exact make up of the squad won't be known for a while.
Where will they play?
Cabinteely, as you can probably guess, are based in the south Dublin suburb of the same name. Currently each of their teams play home games at Kilbogget Park. As there are no spectator facilities there, Cabinteely had to provide an alternative to league bosses. In the past they have used TEK United's ground, but eventually settled on Blackrock College RFC's Stradbrook venue (just around the corner from TEK). Cabinteely's first game there will be the first senior football game played at the venue.
Welcome to the wonderful world of League of Ireland football Cabinteely FC!
