QuoteSo...FIFA's set up and says to the four associations..'oh..err yeah..you have to merge into one'
'fine..we won't join'
Another footballing "body" is set up which does allow the four UK sides and FIFA slips into history.
So???Originally Posted by boovidge
"Jacques Santini...will be greeted in every dugout of the country by "one-nil, one-nil" - Clive Tyldsley, 89th minute of France-England June 13, 2004.
"Ooooohhhh Nooooooo" Bobby Robson 91st minute.
So...FIFA's set up and says to the four associations..'oh..err yeah..you have to merge into one'
'fine..we won't join'
Another footballing "body" is set up which does allow the four UK sides and FIFA slips into history.
Boovidge,
FIFA are fools, but the pretext of preserving those 4 teams is hardly a reason to set up a rival organisation. And it would probably have less credibility than even FIFA!
In the early 20th century I'm not so sure.
I love the irony in that.That was the point way up thread I made to NB, way over his head, about London or Yorkshire or Cork starting their own teams....which are as logical as a certain other side!
Once upon a time, there was only one football Association on the island of Ireland - the Irish Football Association.
Then, there was a breakaway Association formed.
That breakaway Association didn't like the Irish Football Association continuing to play players from throughout the 32 Counties.
They huffed and they puffed, and cried "it's not fair" in order to get it stopped.
The breakaway Association asked for a "Gentleman's Agreement" - they got it.
Many years later, the breakaway Association decided it wanted to pick players throughout the island of Ireland - the "Gentleman's Agreement" with the founding Association on the island was in tatters.
Supporters of the founding Association on the island got a tad ****ed off at this, but took the punch, and are moving on.
Now, supporters of the breakaway Association wish to see the very destruction of the founding Association.
They wonder why supporters of the founding Association want fcuk all to do with a "united" team.
The Englishmen came over in the year 2005
But little did they know that we'd planned a wee surprise
Sir David scored the winner, and Windsor Park went wild
And this is what we sang...
Er, I mean there'd be fewer Irish teams involved (as I've made clear in most of my 27 earlier posts on the thread). Or put another way, the likelihood of me having a team to support in future would fall from 100% to zero.
Arguably indeed- although of course that wasn't my point. In the ****-taking spirit of the thread, I was suggesting that any fan supporting two or more of the Yugoslav successor countries now has up to six chances to see their teams progress. Before 1992, they didn't.Arguably, the Yugoslavia teams were stronger as one and the same could arguably be said for the Soviet Union teams
I've given you a real (if trite) example how it does- there are more teams from ex-Yugoslavia qualifying for competitions than there were from Yugoslavia. Doesn't your logic suggest that each of the successors would be weakened, and fall back to the level of smaller countries...like us?I still think our chances would be better as one, the 'reality' does not state otherwise
More seriously, the cyclical nature of football applies more to smaller countries. In the last 10 years, Northern Ireland have produced ONE player (Jonny Evans) of the highest quality, ie good enough to play regularly at the sharp end of the Champions' League. There's no guarantee that we'll even match that in the next decade. So any notional all-Ireland side just isn't necessarily going to be significantly stronger than you are at the moment, is it?
Hardly, you're likely to continue playing people from Glasgow, Birmingham, Preston and Retford, like you did last week.
As mentioned up-thread, William Hill have replied with odds for Scottish independence by 31.12.2012- 33/1 (ie, not happening anytime soon). There are constant serious questions about NI's future- inevitable when 42% vote for united Ireland parties. I take your point about support for the united Britain needing to be mutual, but in reality there hasn't been a single election here since 1921 in which kicking out NI was an issue- not even during 30+ years of the troublings.
Apart from the historical precedent, when FIFA were skint after WW2, we bailed them out (with a Britain v Rest of the World game, inter alia). Part of the deal agreed with Stanley Rous (big cheese in both the English FA and FIFA at the time) was four sepearate teams in perpetuity, and ex-officio jobs in the committee that regularly reviews the laws of the game. Of course such deals can be renegotiated, and FIFA keep making noises about excluding non-sovereign countries- mainly to please Spain who are worried about losing Catalunya, Euskal and er Gibraltar). But in practice there's no threat. Hardly anyone outside the South's support cares.
Of course, although I think you may be slightly understating the difficulty in getting approval from FIFA, particularly their top man in the USA, Chuck Blazer (is that really his name?).I live in Connecticut. If set up the CFA and get if approved by FIFA, can I create my Connecticut team to compete in Concacaf?
Alternatively, we could remain united to England and Wales, or (less likely) become independent, perhaps even with the border re-drawn. There are plenty of other European countries of similar size, some of which have suffered even more political violence and economic decay in recent years. And with all due respect to the Republic, your ruined economy isn't any more of a draw to us than your football team.
As NB says above, nationalist commentators have been saying that for decades. Most analyses I've read recently suggest the population identifying themselves and their children as Catholic will peak at about 46% in the next 10 years. Not all of those people vote nationalist at the moment, who's to say what the next generation will do after that?
If there ever is a 51% nationalist-voting majority, I imagine the border would be redrawn. That's what Northern Ireland has always been for, after all.
Nationalist parties got 41.3% of the poll, which means they were 17.4% behind non-nationalists (or about 124,000). You can't add up.In the 2007 assembly election Nationalists were only 42,000 votes off a majority
Last edited by Gather round; 25/11/2009 at 12:40 PM.
you know what I meant: regardless of whether they feel more associated with the Republic or the 6 counties....
Folding my way into the big money!!!
Off topic discussion moved here. If you want to discuss something other than football, do it in the appropriate forum please. I won't be moving any further OT posts as it takes too much time, they'll be deleted.
Thanks,
adam
Last edited by dahamsta; 25/11/2009 at 6:33 PM.
If I was a N.I. fan I would be far more concerned at the amount of players the Republic seem to attract. Not just lads in the North who decide to play for us, but also those in England with Irish parents and grandparents.
I have a mate who was born in the North, and I think he made over 50 under-age appearances for the Republic. He was never even contacted by the North, that pretty much sums it up.
Thanks for the concern, but I'm fairly relaxed about it for two reasons,
a) if Darren Gibson or whover has his heart set on playing for you, I'm comfortable with that (subject to the rule change which I keep suggesting, ie that playing for one national side after age 18 ties you to it thereafter)
b) I don't expect the number of players involved to be that high, for reasons previously detailed. Not least that any good schoolboy footballer's priority will probably be to get a professional contract, most likely in England. The best way to do that is to play for NI's repsresentative schools and then youth sides.
Although personally I prefer NI players to be from the country, rather than descended from local grandparents, the reality is that we (like you) will get far more players from England than we lose to each other.Not just lads in the North who decide to play for us, but also those in England with Irish parents and grandparents
I don't think it does- all it sums up is an opportunity lost with one player. Just out of curiosity, who is your mate- 50 youth and U-21 is a hell of a lot, I'm assuming he went to school in NI and played for our representative sides?I have a mate who was born in the North, and I think he made over 50 under-age appearances for the Republic. He was never even contacted by the North, that pretty much sums it up
Newryrep: I've sent you a PM as per Da Hamsta's posts above.
Last edited by Gather round; 25/11/2009 at 10:14 AM.
One United Ireland team.
Play in Dublin for next 2 campaigns (Euros and WC), play in belfast for the following campaign. ie Belfast gets every third campaign. Of course Belfast would have to build a decent stadium.
NI to develop an anthem and flag that is representative of the entire community.
When team play in dublin AnB played first followed by NI anthem.
When team play in belfast NI played followed by AnB.
Both flags flown in both cities.
Problem solved. Team will prob qualify for at least 2 WCs/euros per decade.
Don't quote me on this but I'm nearly certain his youth caps were for the Republic as I believe he was in England from around 15, I wouldn't be certain before talking to him. He's a lad who could still make it, although 26 years of age he's gone up 3 leagues this summer and was very close to becoming a regular in a championship side up until a week ago!
You've already got a united Ireland team, albeit with three Englishmen and a Scot included it's pretty much a glorified all-Britain select.
We're happy to renovate our existing stadium, thanks. Alas it will only ever be a fraction the size of your two with insufficient room for your support- but as we regularly manage to beat higher-ranked teams in it, we're happy enough.Of course Belfast would have to build a decent stadium
Ta. Got any suggestions?NI to develop an anthem and flag that is representative of the entire community
How can you be so sure that a series of teams who've qualified ONCE for the last eight tournaments between them will improve that record four- or five-fold? It's deluded.Problem solved. Team will prob qualify for at least 2 WCs/euros per decade
Tell you what, you tell us who he is and I'll tell you (from the FAI site and/ or googlepedia) how many youth caps he has.
My point was that 50 youth caps (or even youth and schools) is an impressive number. The highest I can think of off-hand is James Milner's 46 U-21 games in five years for the England side.
Last edited by Gather round; 25/11/2009 at 12:21 PM.
Has you read anything the Northern guys have been saying? It would hardly be "problem solved"
Tell Saul Deeney we were asking for him!!!
[QUOTE=Gather round;1282561]You've already got a united Ireland team, albeit with three Englishmen and a Scot included it's pretty much a glorified all-Britain select.
Don't confuse 2nd generation Irish with their country of birth
We're happy to renovate our existing stadium, thanks. Alas it will only ever be a fraction the size of your two with insufficient room for your support- but as we regularly manage to beat higher-ranked teams in it, we're happy enough.
Sad
Ta. Got any suggestions?
No, anything that the entire community can identify with. Dont see it happen. Unionist attitude is our way or no way.
How can you be so sure that a series of teams who've qualified ONCE for the last eight tournaments between them will improve that record four- or five-fold? It's deluded.
Think about it. Everytime Ireland dont qualify they come really close. I mean if say we had evans instead of mc shane that alone could of made all the difference. Its called synergy 2+2=5 so to speak
I haven't. All four I mentioned have grown up and spent their entire lives in Britain, have they not? As oft-repeated, I've no problem with them playing for the Republic, or anyone else they qualify for- but the point is you will presumably be able to continue playing them, and others like them, for the foreseeable future. You don't need Biggles McCartney to come on as a sub for Kilbane
Great comeback. And obviously wrong anyway. In the last two sets of qualifiers our results in our little stadium have been clearly better than yours. Size ain't everything.Sad
Not so, I don't see any unionists saying 'let's abolish the South's football team'.Unionist attitude is our way or no way
Are you on drugs? You failed to qualify for Euro 2008 by 10 points!Everytime Ireland dont qualify they come really close
Much as I admire Evans for both club and country, I suspect not. In our away game in Slovenia, he was at fault for both their goals in the last ten minutes, and still had time for a crude foul on their playmaker which might well have seen a red card. At home to Slovakia, he was run ragged by a man City reserve player who set up their first goal, having been one of the five senior players who broke curfew and went on the **** in Belfast before that game.I mean if say we had evans instead of mc shane that alone could of made all the difference
I mean, he's a good and potentially outstanding footballer. Just one. Not Cu Chulainn or Finn McCool
We've already established you can't manage basic arithmetic. I'd master that before waffling about synergies.Its called synergy 2+2=5 so to speak
[QUOTE=kingdomkerry;1282577]Evans is very proud to play for Northern Ireland, as will his kid brother be in the years to come.
Not surprisingly, that's because they're from Northern Ireland.
If Northern Ireland qualify for a major finals in the future - happy days.
If we don't - ah well.
Anyone from Northern Ireland who wants to take their chances of qualifying with the Republic Of Ireland - go right ahead.
The Englishmen came over in the year 2005
But little did they know that we'd planned a wee surprise
Sir David scored the winner, and Windsor Park went wild
And this is what we sang...
Uncalled for. They are Irish and have the passport to prove it (assuming they are not another Tony Cascarino).
If it works for other sports why can't it work for football?
( well riddickcule, don't you know footballs the hooligans game??)
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