Ireland. Two changes – one before and one after the season. Ireland decided to experiment with the point system this year, addressing, like England, the stagnation of the game. Away win was awarded with 4 points, a home win with 3 points, away tie – 2 points, home tie – 1 point. The experiment was almost meaningless because of the predicament of Irish football: whatever talent emerged continued to move to England as soon as possible as ever before. There was no way to make strong championship no matter what changes were introduced. The second change was reduction of the league after the end the season – Cork United went into bankruptcy and Thurles Town was not re-elected to play in the league. There was still no second division and direct promotion, so the league was reduced from 16 to 14 teams – no new teams were elected. Irish league was practically closed league, so nobody feared relegation and, apart from pride, final positions really mattered only at the top. Thurles Town was last this year, a hopeless outsider with 18 points – the 15th placed Galway Rovers finished with 29. Cork United ended 10th with 42 points.
The only interesting battle was at the top of the league, where the leading teams of recent years battled for the title.
Sligo Rovers was 5th with 62 points.
Athlone Town – 4th with 67 points.
Bohemians – 3rd with 72 points.
Shamrock Rovers – 2nd with 76 points, and
Dundalk won the championship with 80 points. The new champions did not excel in any department: Shamrock Rovers won most matches, Bohemians lost as few as Dundalk, Athlone Town had stronger strikers and Bohemians and Shamprock Rovers – better defense. Yet, Dundalk would have been number 1 even in the old point system – only the margin would have been a single point, not 4. So it was fair victory – and their 6th title altogether.
The League Cup final opposed Athlone Town to Shamrock Rovers and Athlone Town won 1-0. Outside Ireland this tournament was hardly noticed – it was purely domestic affair.
The Irish Cup final was another matter, since the winner represented the country in the Cup Winners Cup. Limerick United met Bohemians at the final was won 1-0.
A wonderful victory for… Kentucky Fried Chicken? Ireland just introduced shirt adds and the US fast food giant stepped in – a rather curious deal, since such huge company chose to put money in generally lowly Irish club. Well, perhaps one should look at entirely different sources of information to figure out why – KFC had some presence on the British Isles, but continental Europe was out of reach. Whatever it was, it had very little to do with football – what had to do with football was Limerick United’s victory. It was great and and it was their 2nd Cup, the first was won in 1971.