Eligibility proposal

[shaneker]

I haven't been on OWC, but are you sure you are right about them being banned? Northern Ireland supporters are rightly incensed that we can't rely on the ability to pick players from our own very small player pool.. I'm raging myself.. especially as I thought we had crossed that invisable barrier. Now, I'm not saying for one second I thought all young Nationalists all of a sudden thought that NI was all hunky dory.. but I though that political baggage had been left behind. Obviously not.

First of all, not being admin, I can't speak if they have actually been banned, but yes the threats are flying out for absolutely nothing inflammatory - stating opinions on that site that differ from their norm is clearly unacceptable.

If that site is (as I believe, although I do stand to be corrected on this) the biggest NI supporters site and is supposed to be a decent representation of your support, then you have about a million more years before 'that political baggage' is a thing of the past and you can genuinely claim to be supporters of a 'cross-community team' that OWC continually claims it is. I make no secret of my disgust with a very large number of posts on that site - compared to here, it really is sickening.

[geysir]

Are they going to allow Germany and France to share a common player pool on the basis of 'Germans' in Alsace?

As Alsace is not a country, you can't compare.
But let's pretend we could with a divided Germany,
with little Communist East Germany and big Democratic West Germany.
If West Germany gave automatic citizenship to all born in East Germany then an East German footballer could declare for West Germany according to Article 15 of the FIFA statutes without satisfying annex criteria.
Then say FIFA stepped in after East Germany objected and FIFA said that that was okay but a West German could also declare for East Germany if he so wished.
Not so bizzarre.

[backstothewall]

No offence mate, but you would be better off concentrating on trying to poach our 'Nationalist' players, for the rest is just a pipe dream.. there will never be a United Ireland team under the Irish tricolour in Dublin.. the same way some Nationalist players feel they can't play for us, there is no way we would go down there and support that. You will never get a Northern Ireland supporter to feel like that about the Republic of Ireland. Never. Remember, we have been to hell and back already with our National team, and will gladly do so again, because at least they are ours, and represent us. Nothing to do with sectarianism, or any particular 'hate' for the Republic.. it is just that you are you and we are we


Of course.. if you wanted to 'unsplit' and rejoin us, we would welcome you back with open arms though to be fair, you would be just swapping one set of inadequate suits for another..

"Our" nationalist players? I know unionism has had a pretty shabby record over the years over civil rights, but even i conceed slavery never happened. Irish nationalists are people, and if born in Ireland with the right to be considered Irish under international law. You do not have and have never had any right over anyone who doesn't want to play for "Ireland B".

And Northern Ireland have indeed come out of hell recently. Were you one of the 7916 souls there on 03/04/03 to see them play a European Championship qualifier against Greece?? Will there be any more there when your that bad again?? Thats gonna look prety bad in a 40,000 seat stadium?? Will that many people want to go to Lisburn??

In the end the players will decide, and when Northern Ireland are playing in front of 7000 in the maze, what choice will a talented Protestant kid from Antrim or Bangor make, when he is living with another lad from Tallaght and one from Cork in digs in England?? 50,000 in a bright shiny Dublin stadium, or a three quarters empty one in Lisburn?

I would suggest yesterdays ruling means there is now in fact a United Ireland team under the Irish tricolour in Dublin. There is another United Ireland team playing under a ba5tardised Ulster flag in Belfast. For the record i would suggest the FAI consider a new neutral flag as well to welcome unionists to Croke Park, and to further undermine the IFA's team and organisation.

The next step for the FAI is not to make the few thousand hardcore Northern Ireland fans feel for the Republic of Ireland what they do for NI, its to welcome the tens of tousands of decent unionists who were sickened by the Lennon affair, and are sickened by the secterianism of Irish League football to a friendly neutral Croke Park and Lansdowne, as many of them have been doing for years to watch the Rugby.

If you are happy to "have us back" wheres the issue. Merge the two organisations and lets go back to being Ireland and end all this cr*p. The alternative for the IFA is an irrelevant team playing in front of a paltry few thousand billy boys in a white elephant stadium in the middle of nowhere.

[lopez]

I would just love to get a look on that site. It must be going f*cking radio rental at the moment. .

Lionel Richie, do us a favour mate, take your tongue out of their arses and show us some of the quotes of week. I need cheering up badly.

[shaneker]

What are the rules on quoting from another site? I won't quote anything if there are rules against it but if its okay, I will post some choice selections from OWC.

[geysir]

There are no rules, go ahead. I´ll laugh myself to sleep.
This is almost as good as a gammy last minute winner at landsdowne.

[backstothewall]

That they brought it on themselves makes it all the funnier. Windsor House has managed to do what the best spin doctors money can buy failed to do last week, make Merrion Square look almost competent

[shaneker]

Right so, then! The ourweecountry.co.uk 'Best of the Best!'

The first thing to add is that there has been an absolute deluge of posters hinting at political interference on this. I think we should be worried - if they find out about the bugs that SF, FF and the IRA have on FIFA HQ, we could really struggle to pull this off again next time. They're onto us, boys...

Also, the number of ROI fans being threatened with bans is huge; in 165 pages of thread on this issue, I have not seen one post threatening to ban anyone who sided with NI's viewpoint, no matter what bile they came out with.

Finally, absolutely ANY opinion from a ROI fan is met with the term 'bigotry', and I do mean ANYTHING. We are all bigots, every one of us, for not supporting the NI point of view. So there.

This (from a ROI fan)...

'You people really think that the world revolves around OWC, don't you?
Do you really think that anyone in England, Scotland or Wales gives a toss about this? I think you'll find that the answer is no and neither do their respective Football Associations.
I think you'll find that the other 3 home nations don't care about this about this and certainly won't get involved.'

(there was more to this post, but it was all to the point and in no way inflammatory or offensive, but since this is a long post I didn't want to use more space than was necessary. If anyone wants the message posted in full, just ask)

was followed with this...

'Yet another bigot crawling out of the woodwork to gloat.... The players you are referring to that are not good enough to play for England, Scotland or Wales have already been selected to play for the Republic.... '

as well as...

'I predict a bigot... ' (both quoted in full, no qualification)

also there are these...

'I actually attended a ROI away match, as I happened to be in the area, with a few friends.....
Not only was it extremly anti-northern, singing "Billy Bingham is wxnker.", but pro IRA songs were song as well.....' (having been to far more away games than home games, I can confidently state this is 100% ********)

'just knew the bullsh*t was coming theyll all be gloating on the other side of their hypocritical bigotted faces whenever this proposal is rejected out of hand for the madness and political claptrap that it is the bigots will stoop to the lowest gutter levels to achieve their superficial political aims'

'Ive always supported all the anti sectarianism stuff but now I don’t give a F##K if we fly a King Billy flag over Windsor. Strange that these great Nationalist players all play in the great enemies English league and take their money with the Queens head on it.'(my personal favorite)

'Play them?? I wouldn't p*ss on these c*nts if they were on fire'

'The one post that I really admired on this topic - "At least if our team is comprised mainly of unionists we can go back to not hiding our Britishness by bringing union flags and bringing back the songs that represent us" At last - an honest comment from a true NI fan' (although this was hit with a smart one-liner along the lines of 'you're talking to yourself' from a Patron, no threat of a ban!)

also this - possibly the finest display of hypocrisy in internet history:

'Vote on BBC NI - Should soccer players born in Northern Ireland be allowed to opt to play for the Republic of Ireland.
Yes - all together now
61.48%
No - Norn Iron only
38.52%

257 Votes Cast

Results are indicative and may not reflect public opinion

If you want to vote more than once just delete your BBC cookie'

followed swiftly by this...

'The BBC poll count, there is definate vote rigging/mass voting going on.'; (absolutely - your forum just told NI fans how to do it - but still seems like you're losing)

This forum is a sick hotbed of racism, and the few intelligent posters on there seem to be making 0% effort to shut up those who see it as a forum for nationalist/ROI hatemail. Each and every man and woman in charge of it should be ashamed of themselves.

EDIT - all of the above comes from the past 36 hours of posting. There are 165 pages on this thread on OWC, going back to October 13, 2006.

[eelmonster]

Vote early, vote often - beggars of the world unite:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/default.stm

[osarusan]

[INDENT]
Ive got banned twice the second time i said nothing inflamatory and the first time i just told it as it is.

Really?

Here's a quote from Fear Beag, a member of footie, who was also on OWC.

Kingdom Kerry. No offence intended, but you were way our of your depth over there. Granted, you made a few valid points but you wrote some really stupid things as well.

And here's your reply.

I was only trying to rise them. I had my fun.

[geysir]

Kingdomkerry was out of line but that was ages ago.

'Vote on BBC NI - Should soccer players born in Northern Ireland be allowed to opt to play for the Republic of Ireland.
Yes - all together now
61.48%
No - Norn Iron only
38.52%

257 Votes Cast
Results are indicative and may not reflect public opinion
If you want to vote more than once just delete your BBC cookie'

Thats hilarious, I´ve just checked with an all together vote of course

64% yes 3340 votes cast.
Those owc ers must be seeing the ghosts of dead republicans everywhere, now it´s the BBC has fallen foul of the Fenian conspiracy.

[kingdom hoop]

Cheers for that Shane, hard to know whether to laugh or cry, frown is probably best. I'd agree with your favourite, what a retard. You know, for once I actually feel sorry for Ealing Green, gives a decent impression but then the we see some of the 'real fans'. Shame on the mods there too for leaving that kind of skulduggery go on unabated, says a lot about the general attitudes of our fellow islanders.

[FarBeag]

Its all kicking off over there allright. A bit scary to say the least. what about this Imbecile's viewpoint!!

QUOTE (danclancy @ Nov 7 2007, 11:24 PM)
I'll give it a go but personally I dont think it will make a blind bit of difference. FIFA were never going to overrule the Belfast Agreement?

At least if our team is comprised mainly of unionists we can go back to not hiding our Britishness by bringing union flags and bringing back the songs that represent us.

[shaneker]

Whilst he may annoy me, Ealing Green is one of the few posters who genuinely seems to base his arguments on his interpretation of the FIFA statues; whilst we would largely disagree with his interpretation, he deserves credit for not allowing his political beliefs to infringe on his arguments on that site.

Wow, praising EG on foot.ie. I feel wierd.

[shaneker]

Its all kicking off over there allright. A bit scary to say the least. what about this Imbecile's viewpoint!!

QUOTE (danclancy @ Nov 7 2007, 11:24 PM)
I'll give it a go but personally I dont think it will make a blind bit of difference. FIFA were never going to overrule the Belfast Agreement?

At least if our team is comprised mainly of unionists we can go back to not hiding our Britishness by bringing union flags and bringing back the songs that represent us.

If you are the same AFB as on OWC, I admire your restraint. The way they have patronised and pedantically picked at every word you have said on that thread is so bloody irritating. The guy that had a go at you because you didn't include a 'sarcasm smiley' - classic!

[kingdom hoop]

Wow, praising EG on foot.ie. I feel wierd.

Same here, many is the time he's exasperated me, but when you see the bile spouted by his (our?!) compatriots you do begin to appreciate his relative level-headedness. Then again, I suppose he wouldn't last a day here unless he was that way!

I wonder if it's because OWC is a private forum that the mods don't see the need to delete rancid posts and warn posters, or wait, no, it's probably because it would only be Ealing Green and one or two others left if they did, in which case we can welcome them down here.

If there're any more corkers lash them up please Shane, I like the psycho-analytical challenge they represent!

[shaneker]

I'll keep my eyes peeled...until they figure out who I am (I don't use the same username) and ban me, of course!

[Not Brazil]

If you were only interested in those that want to play for you, FIFA's decision means nothing. In fact it might increase the players that want to play for you. This statement of yours is pathetic. 'I'm not interested in players who don't want to play for NI. I just don't want them playing for anyone else if they're not interested in NI.' Pretty sad IMO.

If you can post where I have stated that I don't want players not wanting to play for Northern Ireland not playing for anyone else, I will gladly engage you.

Until then, please desist from misrepresenting my views on this issue.

ie. stop making things up.

[RogerMilla]

lads surely it is better not to have enything to do with that website ? let the decent lads come on foot.ie and debate with us here if they want to. nothing to be gained interacting with some of the jokers who made those posts above. throwing the name of "bigot" around has always been the action of the bigot in my experience.

[Not Brazil]

'The one post that I really admired on this topic - "At least if our team is comprised mainly of unionists we can go back to not hiding our Britishness by bringing union flags and bringing back the songs that represent us" At last - an honest comment from a true NI fan' (although this was hit with a smart one-liner along the lines of 'you're talking to yourself' from a Patron, no threat of a ban!)

I'm sure it is one of your favourites - now exposed as a comment by an ROI fan from Dublin who has a "split personality" on OWC - posting under two names.

The "talking to yourself" comment being 100% accurate.

What's that make him?

PS. Did you notice Michael O'Connor coming back to the fold yesterday?