The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
THE ease of using Shannon Airport wasn’t enough to impress North Macedonian soccer club Shkupi when they arrived there on Wednesday.
Their team were in Ireland to play a European tie against Shamrock Rovers and weren’t impressed at having to land in the Clare airport, rather than in Dublin.
We were delighted to welcome Macedonian side @fcshkupi1927 to Shannon this evening ahead of their @EuropaLeague qualifier match with @ShamrockRovers in Tallaght tomorrow night!#RoversInEurope #shannonairport #makingiteasy pic.twitter.com/859F4ohdcV
— Shannon Airport (@ShannonAirport) August 3, 2022
In a social media post, the club railed at having to come to Shannon. “Our team is being treated in such a disgraceful, fraudulent, manner. Despite our budget we were trying to keep our players comfortable by booking a charter plane and paying thousands of euros to make sure our players can arrive in good health, but the Irish government didn’t listen to UEFA, despite their intervention it landed us 300km away from Dublin and gave our team undeserved treatment on this trip.”
In the post it vowed their side would “respond as a team to the evil done”.
It warned that their players would be “like lions on the field” and said that “such cheap scams should have no place in football and should not go unpunished.”
The club claimed that a Spanish, German or English side would have been treated differently.
It was fighting talk from the club, but later that day Shamrock Rovers defeated them 3-1. The Hoops had a different perspective altogether on using Shannon.
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
