Eligibility Rules, Okay

[EalingGreen]

This thread though is about our under 17s .Some of the players representing the North may represent us in the future and some of ours may represent other international sides in the future also that's the game. The rest of the philosophical nonsense just clogs up the thread and just rehashes what's been discussed previously in the eligibility thread or some similiar thread. Can't you just revive those thread s and post in it for this stuff and leave this thread to the actual football ?

I was merely responding to those of your fellow ROI fans who originally brought up the subject of an all-Ireland team on this thread, so why don't you address your plea to them?

For if they stop doing so, then I won't feel obliged to keep pointing out why their suggestion of unilaterally doing away with the team I have been supporting for over half a century, from Belfast to Belarus, Croatia to Kazakhstan, is so offensive to me and my fellow NI fans.

Or am I not permitted to respond? You know, as one of those people that they claim they want to unite [sic] with?

[Eirambler]

The only person bombarding us with lengthy posts about it is you. It's no harm at all to have a poster or two on here who has alternative views to the rest of the group, the equivalent forum for the north would benefit from it too if it was tolerated there. But maybe next time a friendly suggestion would be to not take the bait so easily on stuff like this.

[EalingGreen]

The only person bombarding us with lengthy posts about it is you. It's no harm at all to have a poster or two on here who has alternative views to the rest of the group, the equivalent forum for the north would benefit from it too if it was tolerated there. But maybe next time a friendly suggestion would be to not take the bait so easily on stuff like this.

There are two matters here.

1. Under FIFA Rules, letter and principle, it is simply impossible for them to permit one NT drawn from two separate, independent nation states. And even should Ireland become united (and I'm not holding my breath on that one), it is by no means guaranteed that the FAI and IFA would be forced to merge - as the continued existence of the Hong Kong and Macao NT's demonstrates.
Yet despite this, the same witless posters routinely bring up this tired old notion every time ROI loses a few games (though never while they're winning). Pathetic.

2. These self-same people seeking "unity" utterly fail to understand just how antagonising, therefore self-defeating, such calls are, since rather than a voluntary merger of equals, you just know that what they really mean is to keep essentially the same old FAI team, only with a couple of added Northerners. Which must mean the destruction of the same NI team (over 100 years old) plus the IFA, (144 years old), which I and so many others have followed all our lives. Cannot you/they not understand just how utterly unacceptable/offensive this is?
I mean, would you like your team, club or NT, to be taken away from you against your will?

Therefore so long as there are people in ROI periodically calling for an all-Ireland team in these circumstances, then NI fans will continue to push back. Get used to it.

[CraftyToePoke]

You will be assimilated.

The GFA & the de facto all Ireland team already in existence and all the yadda yadda about Hong Kong won't change that. There will be one resting point in this, an acceptable one to nationalist Ireland, the rest is just stages on that journey.

Quote whatever polls you like now there & demographics while you're at it.

You will be assimilated.

[Predator]

The "same witless posters", eh?

In the interests of parity of esteem, surely aspiration to - and therefore discussion of - a unified Ireland team is just as legitimate as wanting to keep a team for the IFA? Claiming it's "antagonistic" and "offensive" to simply want a united Ireland team in football is just another way to shut down the discussion. You might well mourn the end of an institution. Go ahead, change is tough. But the FAI, and team, as it was will change in this future too.

FIFA could suddenly make some changes (they have been chopping and changing a lot lately) but I don't think a unified team will come before political unity. When that happens, to bring it back somewhat on topic, it will be interesting to see if British nationality alone would permit a player to play for the unified team, for a period. Or if those 'marooned' in the new Ireland could opt to play for another British team...

[Olé Olé]

Come. On. The. EYE EFF EH, Come on the EYE EFF EH, Come on the EYE, Come on the EYE EFF EHHHHHHH.

[EalingGreen]

In the interests of parity of esteem, surely aspiration to - and therefore discussion of - a unified Ireland team is just as legitimate as wanting to keep a team for the IFA?

I could "aspire to" an 8 inch penis, but unless I'm going to have 2 inches cut off, it simply isn't going to happen.

Just as you can aspire to an all-Ireland team, but unless or until there is a single Irish state, then your aspiration for a single team simply cannot, and will not, happen. On which footballing point I don't know whether the "aspirers" simply do not understand how such things work in the game, or are wilfully ignoring it. Possibly both?

Claiming it's "antagonistic" and "offensive" to simply want a united Ireland team in football is just another way to shut down the discussion. You might well mourn the end of an institution. Go ahead, change is tough. But the FAI, and team, as it was will change in this future too.

There is no "discussion", at least where it counts i.e. in the offices of FIFA.

For while FIFA will permit a single Nation State to have eg four Member Associations (UK), three (eg China) or two (eg Denmark), they have never in their 120 year history* permitted two or more separate Nation States to merge their Associations into one, nor will they ever do so.

As for "offence", how would you like it if someone told you that Derry City must eg revert to membership of the Irish League, without your having any say in the matter? You'd be outraged too -understandably enough - despite your team at least continuing to exist, unlike the NI team under your aspiration.

While the FAI they may do whatever they like, for since they have NO power to realise your aspiration, that's no concern of mine.


* - In order to understand better how these things really work, you might want to read eg the history of the Saarland national football team, which was even permitted by FIFA to enter the 1954 World Cup Qualifiers, despite only being a Protectorate of France, not an integral part. Such that until France agreed that the territory could become part of the FRG, the Germans had no say in its status and could not incorporate it into the West German FA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saarland_national_football_team

FIFA could suddenly make some changes (they have been chopping and changing a lot lately) but I don't think a unified team will come before political unity. When that happens, to bring it back somewhat on topic, it will be interesting to see if British nationality alone would permit a player to play for the unified team, for a period. Or if those 'marooned' in the new Ireland could opt to play for another British team...

That which you've written in bold is meaningless verbiage, while the rest is, well, whatever you want it to be - good luck with it anyhow.

[EalingGreen]

You will be assimilated.

The GFA & the de facto all Ireland team already in existence and all the yadda yadda about Hong Kong won't change that. There will be one resting point in this, an acceptable one to nationalist Ireland, the rest is just stages on that journey.

Quote whatever polls you like now there & demographics while you're at it.

You will be assimilated.

Spoken like a love-struck teenage boy who's determined that the girl next door will go out with him, despite her not having the slightest bit interest* in him.

Or to quote the artiste Brooksie, popular I believe with the young people of today: "She's just not into you"


* - Something to do with the weedy physique, the greasy hair and the buck teeth)

[Fixer82]

Spoken like a love-struck teenage boy who's determined that the girl next door will go out with him, despite her not having the slightest bit interest* in him.

Or to quote the artiste Brooksie, popular I believe with the young people of today: "She's just not into you"


* - Something to do with the weedy physique, the greasy hair and the buck teeth)

While I ultimately disagree, this is a wonderful post

[elatedscum]

Did anyone see that tackle by Conor Bradley on Mbappe? **** it, time for a border poll. That’d be a better Sinn Fein slogan: Make Conor eligible again

We have an unbelievable way to lose transformational players, I know someone who has been a friend of Conor’s family since before Conor was born - he said to me years ago, it was just unbelievable how the FAI ****ed it up. We all joke about “ours to lose” but Bradley, a GAA playing gaelgeoir, who refused to stand for GSTQ as an u16, who’s been on amateurs radars since he was 14 - awful from the association. Right up there with Martin O’Neill’s handling of Rice and Grealish

[seanfhear]

Did anyone see that tackle by Conor Bradley on Mbappe? **** it, time for a border poll. That’d be a better Sinn Fein slogan: Make Conor eligible again

We have an unbelievable way to lose transformational players, I know someone who has been a friend of Conor’s family since before Conor was born - he said to me years ago, it was just unbelievable how the FAI ****ed it up. We all joke about “ours to lose” but Bradley, a GAA playing gaelgeoir, who refused to stand for GSTQ as an u16, who’s been on amateurs radars since he was 14 - awful from the association. Right up there with Martin O’Neill’s handling of Rice and Grealish

Worse than the Rice/ Grealish situations.

[nigel-harps1954]

Did anyone see that tackle by Conor Bradley on Mbappe? **** it, time for a border poll. That’d be a better Sinn Fein slogan: Make Conor eligible again

We have an unbelievable way to lose transformational players, I know someone who has been a friend of Conor’s family since before Conor was born - he said to me years ago, it was just unbelievable how the FAI ****ed it up. We all joke about “ours to lose” but Bradley, a GAA playing gaelgeoir, who refused to stand for GSTQ as an u16, who’s been on amateurs radars since he was 14 - awful from the association. Right up there with Martin O’Neill’s handling of Rice and Grealish

The difference is, Bradley was taken in by the north very young, and was never going to change allegiance. Fiercely loyal lad.

[Eirambler]

To be honest, in Bradley's case it's the player I feel sorry for more than anything. He'll probably win 100 caps and achieve nothing in his international career. Of course club success will matter much more to most players, and probably even more so to him, but there's a chance we could have a really strong international team in a couple of years time that he could have been a part of.

Playing for the north must feel like such a dead end, is it only one tournament qualification in about 40 years they've had? Where we've had six in the same time period, and have a big advantage in terms of 2028 ahead of us also?

I get it for the players on the nationalist side who recognise they won't be good enough to play for us, but Bradley will just end up spending his international career trying and most likely failing to carry his team to tournament finals, with even the short cut to Euro 2028 now taken off him. Maybe, if anything comes out of it, it will be a lesson for other northern nationalists to back themselves until such time as it becomes clear they're not at the level required. They can always do a Ronan Hale and switch to the north if and when that point comes, no need for them to be tying themselves to anyone as a teenager.

[seanfhear]

A United Ireland might save him

[John83]

Finally, a reason to vote for the Shinners.