Cabinteely FC – season preview 2025
February 28th, 2025by Kieran Burke
Welcome to the League of Ireland, at least that was the message patrick's Athletic sent new boys Cabinteely FC with a thumping 6-0 victory in "Cabos" first pre-season filling the void left by Shamrock Rovers 'B' in the Airtricity League First Division, Cabinteely are the latest far right concept to come out of FAI HQ and just like the team they are replacing, controversy is following.
Despite the clear flaws in having a reserve team enter a national senior league, the FAI pressed ahead with the Rovers 'B' project last season and were left red faced when it came to its inevitable end during the off-season.
That left the governing body of the domestic league scrambling yet again for an eighth team to make up the First Division and while the usual names of Tralee and FC Carlow were banded about, it was the totally unknown Cabinteely who answered the call.
With over 900 club members and teams competing all the way through the age brackets, the set up and professionalism of such a club cannot be questioned.
However, the same was said when Galway duo Mervue United and Salthill Devon entered the League of Ireland ladder and as we all know that was a footballing disaster for all involved. The more and more you look at the promotion of Cabinteely FC to the LOI the more it reminds you of the Galway debacle with Bray Wanderers and UCD just two of the clubs a stones throw away from "Cabo".
With those two clubs barely attracting enough supporters to survive despite a proud tradition in the League of Ireland, how can you expect a club that nobody has heard of to thrive at this level.
Supporters of the project will point towards the 900 club members and the fact that Cabinteely's first league game, at home to Wexford Youths, is expected to sell out.
Critics will say, however, that the first few games of a new era will always bring about high interest and unless results on the pitch are of a successful mature that outside interest will soon drift away.
A perfect example of this would be Cobh Ramblers rejoining of the league just two seasons ago, when over 800 people turned up at colmans for their first league game against none other than Wexford.
Fast forward to the 2025 league campaign and the "Rams" had one of the lowest average attendances in the entire country, having being glued to the foot of the First Division ever since rejoining the league.
Forgetting the off-field circumstances for a moment, how are the newest Dubliners on the block set in terms of their squad set up for 2025? Well, this Cabinteely squad probably hold the least collective
