New U21 Qualification rules

From FAI Website:

Change in FIFA rules means U21 team must go its own way

Several of Ireland’s top under-age players will be afforded another season at U21 level as a result of a change in the FIFA rules governing their World Cup competition.

Don Givens, manager of Ireland’s U21 team, said the decision of FIFA to separate the U21 World Cup from the senior qualification competition meant that players like Darren Potter (Liverpool), John Fitzgerald (Bury), Kevin Foley (Luton Town), Jay Tabb Brentford) and Glen Whelan (Sheffield Wednesday) will be eligible for another season.

Until now FIFA have run the qualification series for the U21 World Cup on a parallel axis to the senior competition. Qualification groupings in the under-age competition were set according to the draw for the senior World Cup.

He said: “The belief is that FIFA want to separate the two competitions in an effort to give the U21 competition more prominence.

“Until now the senior World Cup draw dictated everything and ratings at U21 level were decided by the senior results but three months ago we were told that is about to change.

Now U21 teams will be rated according to the results they achieve themselves, we will not be automatically given the same rating as the senior team. And changing the dates of the qualification series will mean a few of our older players will have another season.”

Givens said the change was not necessarily a good thing. One of the drawbacks could be the financial consequences.

Until now the U21 squad always travelled in tandem with the senior squad to fulfil championship fixtures. Now the U21 team might have to fly abroad to Azerbaijan or some other distant opponent while the senior team played at home.

Givens also suggested that an extra year at U21 level might not always be of benefit to a player.

“It could mean” he said, “that a player had reached a plateau in his development. Ideally it would be better for players to move on to the senior squad — Stephen Elliott is eligible for U21 fcotball but I’ve lost him because he’s earned promotion. The more of my players do that the better I’d like it.”

Givens dismissed the suggestion that Ireland’s U21 team might have to place more emphasis upon results in the future in order to achieve as high a rating as possible ahead of championship draws.

“Of course results are important and I was very disappointed after we had achieved a run of 13 games unbeaten to see it finished during the World Cup qualifiers” he said.

“But playing at U21 level is all about player development. If I tell the team to go out and keep ten players behind the ball in an effort to scrape a result against the likes of France it is not going to do much for the players’ development.”

Ireland play France on Tuesday, September 6, in a World Cup qualifier at U21 level at Turner’s Cross, Cork, with qualification for the finals outside their reach.

But Givens is looking forward to the game — “If I had my way we would play all of our under-age matches in Cork where the support is so enthusiastic.

“I’m looking forward to the team playing before a full house at Turner’s Cross to see how they and the French handle the pressure. It can be a little intimidating for visiting teams to face a big home following and hopefully the Cork fan s will turn up again in numbers as they did when we played Denmark here and Germany here in recent years.

“Cork’s Joe Gamble scored the winner against Denmark and another Cork player, Liam Miller of Manchester United, scored a late equaliser for us in a 2-2 draw with Germany. I would be very pleased if another Cork player played a hero’s role for us against France and I’d love to have a full house of fans there to salute it.”