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Post by llannerch on May 24, 2016 21:10:50 GMT
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Post by luke on May 25, 2016 10:08:20 GMT
Nice find. Always interesting to remember that the Belfast based FA is called the Irish Football Association, not 'northern Irish'. I always thought the Belfast based IFA claimed to represent the whole of Ireland, but ended up as Northern Ireland's FA due to war/politics etc. Will listen later on!
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Post by BA Baracus on May 25, 2016 10:39:32 GMT
As I understand it, The Northern Irish FA (IFA) is the original association for the island of Ireland. The FAI was set-up around the time of separation.
Interesting to note, football is just about the only sport where Ireland has the two separate teams.
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Post by jbt95 on May 25, 2016 14:54:15 GMT
Interesting to note, football is just about the only sport where Ireland has the two separate teams. I guess it's the only big non Gaelic sport that both countries like? I assume rugby is more popular in ROI than NI too? |
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Post by territorial on Jun 2, 2016 14:27:09 GMT
Afternoon all.
NI fan in peace here, just browsing to see how your preparations for the Euros are going etc, when I spotted this thread.
Anyhow, the simple answer to the question "Why is there not an all-Ireland football team" is because after partition in 1921, when the Irish Free State (as was) broke away from the United Kingdom, the Free State's Leinster FA (later the FAI) broke away from the IFA, which was the original all-Ireland body administering the game throughout Ireland since its formation in 1880. The IFA was headquartered in Belfast, where the game had first been introduced to Ireland in the 1870's. And Belfast/the North was long the heartland of the game in Ireland.
Therefore had the South not broken away, there could still be one team representing the whole of the island yet, ironically, it is people in the South (Republic) who are the ones complaining about the lack thereof.
In fact, if you think about it, the real question should really be: "Why should there be only one international Irish football team?"
For whilst FIFA sometimes permits a single unitary state to have more than one international football team (UK, obviously, also Denmark/Faroes, China/Hong Kong etc), there is neither provision nor precedent for their allowing two separate political jurisdictions to merge their football teams into one. Indeed that would be entirely contrary to the whole spirit of international football whereby every recognised Association, whether Gibraltar or Brazil, is entitled to its own team. And as the 4th oldest Association in the world, even pre-dating FIFA itself, then the IFA's claim is greater than most.
Meanwhile, if FIFA were to re-align teams in some such manner, it would make much more sense, logically and politically, to devise an all-United Kingdom team.
And speaking as someone who has supported NI ever since he can remember, I don't want that any more than I want an all-Ireland team.
Which is something with which I suspect you Welsh fans can sympathise.... lol
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Post by llannerch on Jun 2, 2016 15:20:10 GMT
I'm a sucker for this sort of history and politics in football. The link I originally posted is from the Republic, not that I point this out due to any bias. Like anything there's always different perspectives to such matters so your NI one is helpful.
The podcast refers to several instances when merger was seriously on the cards. NI's success in the early to mid 1980s and RoI's subsequent success undermined the desire to merge. So if there is a lesson it is that individual success of a home nation inhibits talk of merger/unification. NI and Wales's success, should it be sustained, will help dilute demands elsewhere for a GB team.
#NoTeamGB
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Post by cadno on Mar 17, 2023 12:41:58 GMT
An interesting video on ROI’s future stars, they seem to have some serious talent coming through. They’re bound to overtake us over the next decade, as will Scotland IMO. If ROI and Northern Ireland become one then obviously they’ll be even stronger! Haha. youtu.be/RLk4Hko8jr0 |
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Post by territorial on Mar 17, 2023 13:32:41 GMT
Unless you're a "football factory" which consistently produces top quality players, year-in, year-out (eg Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina etc), then lesser countries like Wales, Scotland, NI and ROI will usually see these things happen in waves i.e. a decade where the team is strong, followed by another decade or more where it is weak.
Re the two Irish teams, it may well be that ROI is about to enter a strong phase with a better-than-usual set of youngsters coming through, while I fear that my own team (NI) is currently at a low ebb, talent-wise.
But as for how this might affect the chances of a single team, if anything, it diminishes them, rather than strengthens them, as follows. For imo, while the average (emphasise) ROI fan may be at least theorietically in favour of a single Irish team, I suspect that in practice, and after 100 years of separation, he/she doesn't really think about it very much. This is all the more so while the FAI may now select whoever it wants/can persuade from NI for their own team (but not the reverse).
While some of the "Blazers" in the FAI might welcome an expansion to their "territory" and resources etc, I'm suspect some others might worry for their own places, at least should there be a genuine merger with the IFA, rather than a takeover.
In which context, you invariably only hear the call for a single Irish team from the ROI fans, and then only when their team is struggling*. While such calls invariably cease when the ROI team is doing well.
As for the "other side of the coin" (border), as I've said before, NI fans have no more desire for a single Irish international team than we have for a single UK team! For we follow Our Wee Country through thick, thin and (usually) thinner again without distinction, with the frequent bad times making the rare good times all the sweeter. Which is reflected in our favourite song: "We're not Brazil, we're Northern Ireland - but it's all the same to me!"
Besides which, under FIFA's rules and procedures etc, the only way we could ever see a single Irish team would be after we saw a single Irish unitary state**. And even then it is not guaranteed, as the continuing existence of eg the Hong Kong and Macao international teams years after re-unification with the PRC demonstrates.
* - Which Counsel of Despair always bring to mind Father Dougal Maguire asking Father Ted: "Do you think there's anything to be said for another Mass, Ted?" 
** - For the sake of brevity, cordiality and sanity etc, I'll leave it to others to debate the likelihood of that happening!
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