Location, Location, Location

Today brings the first Cup final of the 2011 season as Shamrock Rovers take on Dundalk at Tallaght Stadium for the right to hoist the Setanta Cup into the air. Both of these sides have had fairly impressive runs to the final and should be applauded for overcoming the general air of apathy that has attached itself to the competition over the past couple of years.

Dundalk fans may still be smarting about having to travel to Tallaght for this evening's game although, on the night, the venue shouldn't be decisive. Three straight wins away from home in the league should offer encouragement to the travelling Lilywhites, along with their recent 1-1 draw against the champions at Oriel Park.

Of course, unrest over the venues for neutral games is nothing new, nor is it by any means a problem exclusive to the Irish game. Alex Ferguson recently bemoaned the fact that supporters of Manchester United and Manchester City had to make the journey to Wembley for their FA Cup semi-final. Sir Alex's principle concern seemed to be the cost of the petrol which isn't nearly as ridiculous as it first sounds. I wonder how many LOI fans have decided not to go to an away game this season purely because of petrol costs?

Of course, back in the days of steam, long distance journeys were even more of an issue than they are now and the early days of the World Cup were plagued with arguments about where they would be held. The very first tournament, held in Uruguay in 1930, only attracted four European entries, despite the fact that the Uruguayan FA offered to pay for travel costs.

Even with their passage paid and their accommodation covered, European nations were not enamoured by the prospect of a trip to Montevideo. For a start the journey took three weeks, which meant a total of six weeks at sea for prospective entrants. Football was also still an amateur sport, nominally at least, which meant the players and staff would need two months off work. I suppose it puts the need for LOI players to get a half day on Fridays into perspective. All things considered you might wonder why any European teams travelled at all.

Well, Belgium were pressured into going by their own man, Rodolphe Seerdrayers, who also happened to be a FIFA vice president. France also made the trip, again, politically motivated to do so by Jules Rimet. The other two intrepid voyagers were Yugoslavia and Romania, who only went because King Carol told them to. He also forced the player's bosses to give them the necessary time off, and picked the team, all of which rather puts Prince William's recent efforts on behalf of England into the shade.

And speaking of future World Cups we should probably prepare ourselves for more venue rows in 2022 when that hot bed of footballing tradition Qatar take a spin on the FIFA merry-go-round. There are plenty of reasons why Qatar should not be hosting a World Cups finals, but the fact that they enjoy midday temperatures of up to 46 degrees is one of the main ones.

I wonder how many countries would have to say, "That's just mad, we're out", before FIFA decided on a re-think. The money at stake makes that unlikely, which is a shame. It would be nice to think that football could make something other than money the priority. Just once.

It will be a shame to see the world's greatest football event reduced to dehydrated zombies staggering about looking for a square foot of shade. But, unless there's a sea change in the priorities among the game's leadership, that is probably what we will get. It's hard to imagine that even King Carol could have got his players to go and play football in the dessert during high summer.

Whatever the hazards at Tallaght this evening I would guess that sunstroke will not be one of them. Nor should it take anyone three weeks to get home, although, given there will be at least one set of fans celebrating a bit of silverware, you never know.