We’d certainly have a better chance of having a meaningful tournament once in a whileOriginally Posted by Eirambler
Goes to school in Omagh. Came through underage setup at Finn Harps initially before deciding to play for Sligo. Left them halfway through the season to sign for Derry and has largely played under-20s there. Potential to be a decent player but another who lets others make his choices for him. Don't see him being anything more than a decent LOI centre half.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Makes no apologies for it either. A great lad with a super attitude.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
If you're prepared to admit your original mistake back in the day and ask to be re-admitted to the IFA - "Original and (George) Best" - we might consider it.
But you'd have to ask nicely.
And prepare to be disappointed.
Yes, Conor Bradley would fix all our problems
He’d fix one problem anyway
If you're prepared to admit your original mistake back in the day and ask to be re-admitted to the IFA - "Original and (George) Best" - we might consider it.
But you'd have to ask nicely.
And prepare to be disappointed.
Nah, but we'd play the odd friendly at Windsor to keep you sweet. Maybe a women's game or two as well. Similar to the IRFU and Ravenhill!
In your dreams.
Anyhow, what is it with you lot? Surely the whole thing about being a supporter [sic] is that you support your team through thick and thin? Or thin and thinner, as is often the case with OWC. Or are you really so fickle that after a few defeats*, you want to scrap your team and follow some other makey-uppy effort?
I mean, with Bohs going through a hard time just now, is anyone suggesting they merge eg with Shams? Or Dundalk with Drogs?
Anyhow, as far as we're concerned, being a fan is summed up by our favourite song: "We're not Brazil we're Northern Ireland, but it's all the same to me!"
* - Funny how we never hear any of this unity talk after you've strung together a few wins. Embarrassing.
" So, you're saying there's a chance "
I preface this by saying its not intended to be as goading as it first reads, but us all coming through an education system which regards the north itself as the makey uppy thing which should not have existed has an influence on that probably.
And it was, y'know, makey uppy ta fcuk. Gerrymandering masterclass.
I have no more interest in your personal politics than you (presumably) have in mine, for to do so would sorely miss the point.
For as I frequently feel forced to point out*, these national football teams do not represent "countries", however you care to define the latter, rather they (former) represent National Associations, in your case the FAI, in mine the IFA.
And as such, I am perfectly happy to carry on supporting my team, whether we win, draw or lose, with no more interest in following an all-Ireland team than an all-UK one.
Now if your education causes you to mix politics and sport (imo unnecessarily and unhelpfully), and so demand an all-Ireland team, then knock yourself out. For not only is it pretty pointless after 103 years(!), but the irony is that due to your government's (if I may say so) idiosyncratic and irridentist take on nationality etc, you are entitled to exploit FIFA's eligibility rules and construct a de facto all-Ireland team anyhow!
So that if our players aren't good enough for your team, then what is the problem? While if they are good enough, but you cannot persuade them to play for you, then that decidedly is your problem, not ours!
Either way, your advocacy of an all-Ireland team would deny the likes of Conor Bradley a choice as to who he represents, whereas I accept and respect his right to choose. So which of us is the "gerrymanderer" there, eh?
* - See eg post #5: https://foot.ie/threads/295930-UEFA-...ualifiers-2024
Isn't there a thread about eligibility that's been ruined by all this nonsense could rhe 17s thread be left to football?
Actually, it's not about eligibility per se, it's about an all-Ireland team.
Which subject was first brought up and perpetuated by some of your fellow ROI fans, who were looking at NI's U-17's and speculating on their possibly representing ROI etc - see posts #11, 13, 15, 16, 22, 23, 25 and 28.
So that if they didn't keep bringing this up after every run of poor results etc, maybe you could just get on with following your team, while I could follow mine?
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?
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.
Last edited by EalingGreen; 02/11/2024 at 7:21 PM.
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.
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...
End Apartheid Now! One Team in Ireland!
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