Nail on head PredatorOriginally Posted by Predator
Good to see young Devine finally joining the Ireland set-up, it's a bit overdue after attending the FAI u19 training camp early last year
I'd also suspect it's partly a manager's myopia about sound decisions that make their job more difficult and about life outside their football radar.
And partly it's the engrained planter mentality that can't adjust to the climate of abolition.
If rumours are to be believed then Ferguson is not declaring for you because he is an ROI fan but rather he is cheesed off at Worthington for repeatedly overlooking him (I would be cheesed off myself if I were in his situation).
Ferguson said as recently as January that he had no intention of joining the ROI and would rather fight for his spot in the NI senior squad, but what has happened between then is that he has been left out of a squad against Scotland whenever we had a LOT worse players than him playing for us and also Johnny Gorman got a cap in a competitive game against Serbia despite Ferguson playing at a higher level than Gorman.
He does happen to be an Ireland fan though, as far as I know. If he felt any sense of allegiance to NI, he would have put up with it, surely? Besides, he's more likely to say that as saying he'd rather play for Ireland because he's Irish would, no doubt, have him branded as "sectarian scum" by certain NI fans.
Well he has never come out and said he is a NI fan (despite claims to the contrary) but rather he has said he wants to play for us. I don't know though about putting up with it, if I was in his situation and Ireland was the team I supported and NI the team I played for I'd be seriously considering my position if I was continually overlooked by the manager and worse players were getting called up ahead of me.
The reason the Ferguson situation is different from all the others is that to date all of Ferguson's remarks have been of him saying he wants to play for NI and that he has no intention of joining the ROI. Something has obviously changed that opinion and in my book it's Nigel Worthington.
Fair enough. It does appear that Worthington is rapidly losing the faith of the NI support, if not considered a complete dud already.
Well, he lost my backing a long time ago. Our games are bordering on chores now.
Sure what are we all arguing about on here. The Queen loves us now just as much as you Northeners. Maybe now we can become one big happy family and put the little CAS thing behind us!
Steady on, old chap. I''m all for being one happy family and all that, but some of the media coverage of her visit would be enough to tip us back into the bosom of the Empire... We could end up being poached as a nation, with Worthington replacing Il Trap!
<Gulp> I think I finally understand what Paisley meant when he said nevurrh, nevurrh, nevurrrrrhhh...
To fans north and south an open question/statement on the day that the Queen of England visited the Republic.
It has to be said that with the troubles gone more or less, catholicism well, not what it once was south of the border, and passage between Dublin and Belfast easier than ever, are there any excuses anymore for not having an all ireland team?
How about the tens of thousands of people who support the Northern Ireland football team? An all-Ireland team would be nice but you have to understand why reasonable people (i.e. not OWC nuts) who support their team wouldn't want to give it up, since in effect an all-Ireland team would be an expansion of the Republic side.
Some will argue it will dilute their identity - which is a fair enough concern - but I would have thought it sits oddly when simultaneously accusing the FAI of supporting "Footballing Apartheid in Ireland" or when claiming to be just as Irish as anyone else on the island of Ireland.
As it happens, I don't think FIFA's rules would permit it anyway:
10. Admission
1. Any Association which is responsible for organising and supervising football in its country may become a Member of FIFA. In this context, the expression "country" shall refer to an independent state recognised by the international community.
Seconded, and is the only thing that matters.
Last edited by The Fly; 17/05/2011 at 11:41 PM.
I agree. Not that I was saying all NI fans engage in what appears to me as somewhat of a contradiction, nor would such apparent contradictions necessarily compromise their wish for a separate entity to represent an identity they clearly feel is in some way distinct from our own anyway. I wouldn't espouse a forced merging of the two associations even if it was permitted by FIFA - if they want a separate team, fair enough - nor do I suspect would the FAI, but the suspicion that the FAI are actively trying to dismantle the IFA bit by bit and force them into an all-Ireland association against their will isn't an all that uncommon one. In fact, I've read suggestions that there is no doubting that round-the-table discussions on what the best strategy would be to take in order to pursue this lofty aim frequently take place in the murky backrooms of FAI headquarters. Crazy but true.
An admirable sentiment. But what about the rather greater numbers forced into a country they didn't ever want to be part of....
Perhaps if their views had been suitably noted, we would never have arrived at the position of two teams on the same small island.
Worthington frustrated as two more starlets opt for Republic.
Nothing new really except for the off-topic footnote that the away game against Andorra in October is likely to be played in Barcelona.
They weren't forced into Northern Ireland for footballing reasons. The fact is that Northern Ireland exists, Northern Irish people make up a distinct nationality and the people of Northern Ireland have a football team that they've maintained for decades. That football team can only be dissolved with their consent and if they don't want to give up their football team then more power to them.
Except they don't have a 'distinct' nationality. They're either British or Irish by nationality. But I've a feeling we might just have covered that, 'ad nauseum'.
I accept they have a team, by an accident of history and the nuances of FIFA politics, but it's little to do with nationality.
Well, like you said, it's been covered ad nauseam.
I believe they added a new line to the British National Anthem up North - God Save the Queen - from Republicans!
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