Things I’d say:
1) FIFA are wrong, if not legally then morally. A 15 year old child who has been lied to by the Luxembourg FA cannot make an informed decision.
In cases affecting underage internationals, Agreed. He's a child making a life-defining decision, without access to the full facts. Whether that is the fault of his parents or the Luxembourg FA or Bayern is irrelevant. Adults charged with doing right by him have f'd up, either deliberately or by accident.
2) If the FAI weren’t broke, they should be paying for CAS. This decision has plenty of knock ons. In the circumstances, Bayern should offer to pay his CAS case. It’s pennies to them.
Great shout. Also, to point out, that the Irish diplomatic service do incredible work. absolutely incredible, and the network is off the charts. While the FAI might be broke, bayern certainly are not, and I'm sure the FAI/Dept of Sport could speak with their colleagues in DFA and raise the subject with the Embassy in Berlin, and take it from there.
4) Really stresses the importance of insuring that Liam Delap, Louie Barry and CJ Reilly all have irish passports before March when they’ll be playing for England U17s. Once again, the FAI should really have someone employed to take care of this process for the kids and the parents.
This I don't agree with - the premise anyway. We need to have someone who has access to all the facts and legislation and how to do the process, but the decision and the process needs to be initiated by the Parents/individual him/herself. It is citizenship we're talking about here. Think of how hett up some folk at home get when non_nationals are given citizenship (rightly).
5) The best thing the FAI could do is lobby for a change to the rules. The rules were changed about 12 years ago because Algeria proposed a rule change and the majority of the nations agreed with it. A simple wording change to “eligible or entitled to eligibility” would be enough to solve this problem and wouldn’t really harm any other nations except perhaps Sweden re Johansson. (Perhaps a rule change that Delaney or Mooney could have swung? He joked)
Trust me, it's not that simple. In the work that I do, legislation gets delayed for weeks, months, over the differences between "may" and "shall". "Entitled to eligibility" sounds loose in my mind.
6) might be no harm for Stephen Kenny to have him training with his side in March. The family are giving the sense that they’re anxious not to lose out on him playing underage international football, well having the opportunity of working with Stephen Kenny would be a big and positive statement from the FAI and from Kenny.
You well know there is no way this can happen. If he's ineligible to play for us (at present) then insurance wouldn't cover any injury. WHile the sentiment would be good, and morally a great move, it's not practical
7) There’s definitely a feeling that his family are doing their best to get the story out as far and wide as possible that he wants to play for ireland. No harm considering the reaction the likes of Grealish and Rice have received. Good for a young man like him to avoid all the idiots online who would hammer him if he ended up playing for Sweden.
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