Potentially eligible players thread

[CraftyToePoke]

Francis Turley, 18 midfielder. Long term contract at Celtic after an impressive pre season & off the bench today late on v St Mirren for his debut. This should be achievable & we should be on it.

[Olé Olé]

Francis Turley, 18 midfielder. Long term contract at Celtic after an impressive pre season & off the bench today late on v St Mirren for his debut. This should be achievable & we should be on it.

I dunno.

I would imagine Brendan Rodgers would have influence and that probably doesn't help.

On top of that, he's played in the 19s Euros for NI. He's probably well settled there.

I don't think the vast, vast majority these lads are keen to switch at all and few have, if you think about how many lads from Nationalist backgrounds or areas are in the NI squads.

Sykes' situation is quite unique given his background. I don't know enough about Sean Moore but I don't think he was well ingrained into the IFA system before his switch?

I could be well off here but are the Hale brothers and Stephen Mallon the only other young lads from Belfast/Antrim that have switched in the last 6/8/10 years? Daniel Kearns, Daniel Devine and a couple more came on the back of Marc Wilson's senior caps in the early 2010s. Other than that it's been Derry lads and the odd rumour of a flirt.

[Eirambler]

The other thing is that if he switches and plays for us at underage level there is no going back.

Realistically what are the odds that an 18 year old who has just got 5 minutes off the bench for Celtic against St Mirren when they're 3-0 up is going to end up being senior international quality for us? 1 in 10, 1 in 20? Celtic seem to produce maybe one to two genuinely international quality players from their youth teams per decade, the odds are that he won't be one of them. Whereas the north are short enough on full time professional players that they could probably cap him before the year is out.

I don't know anything about this lad, but unless he is rated as some kind of exceptional talent it's probably not in his longer term interest to rush into a switch at the first sign of interest from the FAI.

[CraftyToePoke]

I don't know anything about this lad, but unless he is rated as some kind of exceptional talent it's probably not in his longer term interest to rush into a switch at the first sign of interest from the FAI.

Went over from IL, Glentoran maybe, year & a bit ago. Got taken on pre season & a new improved four year deal came from that a few weeks ago. Now, he's made his debut. Now we often talk about Celtic & youth opportunities on here & this lad looks like he'll get a chance that Lawal / Connell didn't so that's interesting. What is also interesting is he's a midfielder & we could do with one or three of those. From the little I know, he's likely to be open to having the conversation at least.

No he shouldn't probably use his one switch but neither should we let our northern brothers cap him in the next ten minutes, which they will look to do. Talk to him, he didn't grow up dreaming of playing at Windsor.

[tetsujin1979]

Conor Gallagher signed for Atletico this week under an Irish passport to get around the non euro player rules. I wonder will agents advise dual eligible players to get the Irish passport early in case of a move to the continent, which might work in our favor the odd time

It could work the other way as well. Promising Irish players who are eligible to claim a UK passport to move over there before they turn 18

[Jolly Red Giant]

It could work the other way as well. Promising Irish players who are eligible to claim a UK passport to move over there before they turn 18

Wasn't that how Ferguson ended up with Brighton - his mother is English

[tetsujin1979]

Wasn't that how Ferguson ended up with Brighton - his mother is English

Yeah, he claimed a UK passport when he was 16 before he went over

[EalingGreen]

Francis speaking ahead of the Euro U-19 Finals, held in NI earlier in the summer:
https://www.facebook.com/northernire...12UEA5kSZrHXlW

[Joxerbrowne]

Francis speaking ahead of the Euro U-19 Finals, held in NI earlier in the summer:
https://www.facebook.com/northernire...12UEA5kSZrHXlW

This is the same lad who pulled out of the Euros squad on the eve of the competition even though he wasnt injured yeah ?

[EalingGreen]

This is the same lad who pulled out of the Euros squad on the eve of the competition even though he wasnt injured yeah ?

Yep, same lad:

"Francis Turley is a late withdrawal from Northern Ireland's UEFA U19 Championship squad .
The Belfast native has stayed with his club after being included in Brendan Rodgers first team squad for the Hoops pre-season trip to America. It marks an incredible few days for the teenager after he made a goal scoring debut for Celtic coming off the bench to score in their friendly win over Queen's Park last week.
Whilst NI U19 boss Gareth McAuley is disappointed to lose the services of the talented teen, he is delighted to see Turley get his opportunity to impress at club level. “It’s great for Fra to be part of the Celtic first team, however it’s disappointing for us as he was coming to the fore to be a key player for us," said McAuley.
"But it’s all about the development of the players and we wish Fra all the best, and we’ll see him further down the line.”
https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/sport/...-late-29543349

Hardly the most difficult of choices for the lad.

[JR89]

U19 Euros are outside of FIFA windows so even if he wanted to go it's up to his clubs. The year we qualified with our 2000 age group we had to bring our B team because clubs wouldn't release players.

That's the year Joe Hodge played and impressed with Afolabi getting into the team of the tournament.

[Paddy Garcia]

I dunno.

I would imagine Brendan Rodgers would have influence and that probably doesn't help.

Curious why Rodgers would not be a help? I think his son played underage for us and would have had a choice.

[EalingGreen]

Curious why Rodgers would not be a help? I think his son played underage for us and would have had a choice.

BR in 2011:
"[My son playing for ROI] is not something that can't be rectified," said Rodgers. "I spoke with Gerry Armstrong recently as I'm a big advocate of Northern Ireland.
"I want to see Northern Ireland boys play for Northern Ireland and the reason my son is playing for the Republic is simple - they asked him while he was never asked to play for Northern Ireland."
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/s.../28661623.html

While he's also said this:
"I would love to [manage Northern Ireland] at some point in my career"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/16094882

And as a youngster, he himself played under-age football for NI:


Brendan (incidentally Nigel Worthington's cousin) has always been very supportive of NI teams and players.

[Eirambler]

Not directly Ireland related but I see Scotland have lost Elliot Anderson to a nationality switch today, he's gone to England to play Under 21s and once he plays for England Under 21s he won't be eligible for Scotland again.

Just shows how hard it is, Scotland who have actually been qualifying for tournaments in recent years can't keep hold of a player who would easily be in their senior squad as he'd rather play Under 21 for England than playing for Scotland's senior team - or even keep his options open by avoiding international football for a year or two.

[CraftyToePoke]

I think they managed to rescue that situation from as far gone as Elliot being named in a senior squad who were bound for the finals in the summer.

Their squad for the upcoming games also has Valentino Francisco Livramento, Scottish mother, Portuguese father who is now 21 and that looks like a cap tie scenario to me but he's happy to go along.

[Eirambler]

Omari Hutchinson is another very interesting one in the England under 21 squad.

He played a competitive game for England Under 19s in 2021.

Then appeared to use his "one time switch" to declare for Jamaica, winning two senior caps for them in friendlies just last year.

Now he's in the England Under 21 squad.

Although he switched it appears Jamaica never tied him as he only played friendlies for them. Shows again that it's competitive games that count when it comes to tying players, friendlies alone are no good (eg Cannon and Azaz are not tied to us despite their friendly caps, some mistakenly think they are).

Nothing to stop him playing for England this month and switching back to Jamaica again afterwards either, as far as I can tell.

[Eirambler]

I would worry that both Liam Delap and Louie Barry might fall into that category of lads who didn’t have a passport / weren’t on the foreign births register when they played underage for England first.

Obviously Ryan Johansson got around it eventually - but it might not be straightforward for either.

Same with CJ Egan O’Reilly, Michael Golding etc.


Often lads with irish parents, grandparents etc play for the u16s without getting a passport sorted because it’s not competitive.

And until the Luxembourg FA put a protest in, no one knew it was an issue

Liam Delap in particular could become ineligible if he plays another game for their U21s if his citizenship situation isn't sorted.

As you can maybe tell from my previous posts on this thread today I've fallen down a bit of a hole this afternoon in terms of looking into quirks of the eligibility rules.

But probably the most interesting thing I have found is the cases of Nedim Bajrami and Maarten Paes, and how they might impact on the eligibility of granny rulers to play for Ireland going forward.

Both played competitive international Under 21 football after their 21st birthdays (Bajrami for Switzerland and Paes for Netherlands).

Both then sought to switch nations, despite not formally holding the nationality of the country they were switching to previously (basically both are granny rulers, Bajrami wanted to switch to Albania and Paes to Indonesia).

Both requests were turned down by FIFA but those decisions were overturned by our old friends at CAS. The detail of the Paes one is yet to be released, but the Bajrami one has been and is very interesting from an Irish perspective. The CAS ruling is that not having gone through a paperwork exercise to formally gain citizenship is not enough of a reason to deny a switch, provided the appropriate lineage can be shown. Basically, the player doesn't need to have had citizenship, they just need to have had a grandparent born in the country they want to represent.

Long story short, it looks like CAS have bombed out the issue raised initially by the Luxembourg FA which caused all the problems for Ryan Johansson, and was thought to potentially create problems for any future Louie Barry/Liam Delap switch. My reading of it now is that, following the CAS decision for Bajrami, Barry and Delap will remain Ireland eligible until such time as England cap them in a competitive game for their senior team.

[liamoo11]

As you can maybe tell from my previous posts on this thread today I've fallen down a bit of a hole this afternoon in terms of looking into quirks of the eligibility rules.

But probably the most interesting thing I have found is the cases of Nedim Bajrami and Maarten Paes, and how they might impact on the eligibility of granny rulers to play for Ireland going forward.

Both played competitive international Under 21 football after their 21st birthdays (Bajrami for Switzerland and Paes for Netherlands).

Both then sought to switch nations, despite not formally holding the nationality of the country they were switching to previously (basically both are granny rulers, Bajrami wanted to switch to Albania and Paes to Indonesia).

Both requests were turned down by FIFA but those decisions were overturned by our old friends at CAS. The detail of the Paes one is yet to be released, but the Bajrami one has been and is very interesting from an Irish perspective. The CAS ruling is that not having gone through a paperwork exercise to formally gain citizenship is not enough of a reason to deny a switch, provided the appropriate lineage can be shown. Basically, the player doesn't need to have had citizenship, they just need to have had a grandparent born in the country they want to represent.

Long story short, it looks like CAS have bombed out the issue raised initially by the Luxembourg FA which caused all the problems for Ryan Johansson, and was thought to potentially create problems for any future Louie Barry/Liam Delap switch. My reading of it now is that, following the CAS decision for Bajrami, Barry and Delap will remain Ireland eligible until such time as England cap them in a competitive game for their senior team.

That would be great, seems fairer

[ColourfulPeanut]

The U21 cap after the age of 21 is a ridiculous rule anyway. The cap doesn't become more meaningful soon as you turn 21, it's the same as your previous cap. It's still youth football no matter what way they paint it. Should be soon as you play a single minute of senior football after 21, you're done. I have no clue why they brought in the stupid U21 rule.

In the current setup you can have lads who have played 3 senior qualifiers being allowed to switch when a player who has a single U21 cap isn't

[Olé Olé]

Jacob Devaney has been called up to the 19s.