Basque Country v Ireland, 1979

[Mayo Red]

A little obscure I know, but does anyone know anything about this match involving the Basque Country in Spain and Ireland which was played in San Mamés on 16th August 1979. I just stumbled across this on the internet and all I know is that Ireland lost 4-1 and it was the first match the Basque Country had played in over 40 years due to Franco's rule of Spain.

Because of this it must have been a big deal at the time. Does anyone know the Irish team for this match, and although I doubt it, if caps were awarded for it?

Not much to go on here:
http://www.geocities.com/euskal_selekzioa/

[Dodge]

caps definitely weren't awarded. Interesting stuff though, I'll look into it a bit more, certainly

[Yard of Pace]

Very interesing, I'd love to know more. Perhaps get on to the FAI? Is there an official historian or anything like that in this country?

[RiffRaff]

No recollection of this match and I would suggest it must have been a LOI select - not the first time that selection would have been miatakenly billed as the national team.

[Joseph McSweene]

Will post this on ccfcforum as there's a fella on there who might know about it. Will let you know if he does.

Cheers,
Joseph.

[geysir]

Got a serious mention as an answer in a SoccerC thread here, where he had all of us stumped for days trying to figure out an "international" game in 1979 involving Ireland managed by Dunphy, where caps were awarded.

[Joseph McSweene]

Can confirm its a LOI Selection for this game anyway-someone posted this on the ccfcforum.

"It was a LOI B select team. Ronnie Whelan got the goal for Ireland, he was playing for home farm at the time."

Will try to get you more info in terms of managers/teams hopefully!

[lopez]

Always thought this was a Junior international. I think League of Ireland 'B' is misleading, because wasn't/isn't there a League of Ireland 'B' as in the League of Ireland's then second tier before they brought in the two divisions in the mid eighties? And that this team was drawn from that tier rather than a second team of the League of Ireland side. However Whelan was playing in the League of Ireland when he played in two olympic qualifying games against Norway in 1979, so if he did play in this game as a LOI player then, apologies, I'm talking b*ll*cks.

According to AFS book of Inter League games (1984), the League of Ireland only played Argentina in 1978 in Buenos Aires, New Zealand at Tolka in 1979, and in 1908 the Scottish League (Dublin) and Argentina (again in Buenos Aires, losing just 1-0).

[EalingGreen]

Always thought this was a Junior international. I think League of Ireland 'B' is misleading, because wasn't/isn't there a League of Ireland 'B' as in the League of Ireland's then second tier before they brought in the two divisions in the mid eighties?

It cannot be classified as a "Junior International", since the Basque Country does not have international recognition by FIFA.
Not can it be termed an "Inter-League" game, since the Basque Country is a regional team picked on ethnic grounds, not one selected to represent a particular League.
I guess the status of the ROI game was merely that of a "Friendly Challenge" (or somesuch).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_..._football_team
http://www.rsssf.com/tablesb/bask-intres.html

[Joseph McSweene]

16.08.1979

Basque XI 4:1 League of Ireland ‘B’
Bilbao Tournament, San Mamés Stadium, Bilbao
Scorers (Basque XI): Dani (2), Zamora, Satrustegui
Scorer (LOI ‘B’): Whelan 42

Team: Alan Patterson (Sligo Rovers), Pat Nolan (Limerick), XXXX Brady, Tommy McConville (Dundalk), Joe Burke (Bohemians), Johnny Fullam (Athlone Town), Ronnie Whelan (Home Farm), XXXX Byrne (Shamrock Rovers), Paddy Joyce (Bohemians), John Delamere (Shelbourne) and Terry Eviston (Bohemians)

 Manager: Billy Young
 Designated as ‘B’ selection as League of Ireland v Liverpool played same week
 Peter Thomas (Waterford), Pierce O’Leary (Shamrock Rovers), Richie Bayly (Shamrock Rovers), Johnny Walsh (Limerick) and Jerome Clarke (Drogheda United) also travelled
 Brady not included in travelling squad but appears in line-up – Austin Brady of Bohemians? Byrne = Eddie Byrne?
 LOI ‘B’ played two other games that week, at least one of which was in Seville

If any one has info on the other 2 games, or can positvely ID Brady + Byrne, I'd be grateful.

Donie

Some info on the game from the ccfcforum. Knew this fella would be likely to have info!

Cheers,
Joseph

[lopez]

It cannot be classified as a "Junior International"...
I guess the status of the ROI game was merely that of a "Friendly Challenge" (or somesuch).

Thinking more along the lines of the level of the Irish team. Obviously any game that any Spanish autonomous team play in is not an 'international' in the sense of FIFA recognition, but countries that play against the likes of Euskadi, Catalonia and Galicia do recognise them as games that count as additions to international appearances for their players.

Some info on the game from the ccfcforum. Knew this fella would be likely to have info!

Cheers,
Joseph

Nice one! So it was clearly a LOI 'B' team rather than a team from the LOI B division.

BTW, Euskadi are currently not playing as there was a revolt over the name that the team play under, by their players. Apparently they want to play as Euskal Herri (or something like that) and the Basque FA are refusing to acknowledge this, keeping the old 'Euskadi' instead. If my memory serves me, their game with Iran at christmas was called off at the last minute and the Iranians played Galicia instead.