It's election day and if you're still undecided on whom you should give your vote to, we may have something you need. Here to help avid football fans but not so avid political pundits through the day, we match up the Irish political parties with a foreign football team.
Fine Gael - Arsenal
They have a reputation for old world fustiness and relative prudence in a world dominated by spendthrifts. Historically, they have been regarded as 'boring'. Despite their current lofty status, their numero uno is still a target for consistent abuse.
Fianna Fail - Rangers
A once powerful entity brought low by financial mismanagement. It's a slow road back to the top but there are signs of incremental progress.
Sinn Féin - Chelsea
We have eschewed the obvious here. This selection may look odd considering that Chelsea have long been a favourite of both working class National Front skinheads and privately educated 'Tory boy' MPs.
Between the late 1960s and early 1990s, Chelsea were a team populated by ruthless hard men who weren't afraid to go through you in pursuit of their objectives.
From the mid-90s onwards, they have rebranded themselves as a slick, uber modern outfit. With foreign money behind them, there has been a pervasive sense that world domination is at hand for awhile now.
Labour - Aston Villa
They've flirted with joining the top table but kept crashing their head off the ceiling just below the elite. They've been around since God was a boy. At the end of 1992, they looked primed to become top dogs but their momentum drifted away again.
After a good spell prior to the turn of the decade, they've dipped alarmingly thanks to bad strategic decisions in recent years. Things look bleak presently.
Greens - Fulham
A charming, twee but highly middle class outfit which flirted with the big time in the noughties only to get burned. Now back in the doldrums.
RENUA - Milton Keynes Dons
Emblematic of right, wing capitalist values, they are thoroughly despised by partisans other organisations and folk of a left-wing slant. New on the block but not welcomed by their neighbours.
AAA-PBP - Livorno
We had to leave the loadsamoney world of English football to find a suitable comparison with the Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit alliance.
Livorno, currently in Serie B, are famed for their ultra-left wing fanbase who are unafraid of employing extra-parliamentary methods in disputes with rival supporters.
Their beloved former striker Christian Lucarelli, a local boy made good on the field of play, used to celebrate goals with a dual clenched fist salute.
The Labour party no longer have any use for the Red Flag but this is not true of Lucarelli who even used the theme as his ringtone.
Shane Ross's Independent Alliance - Manchester City
Just a gang of individuals, some of them high profile, thrown together. Not a team really. Likely to do well in the current climate in any event.
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