The football folks north of the border still aren’t accepting the FIFA ruling that players born in Northern Ireland can turn out for the Republic. The Unionists even wanted to pass a motion in Stormont condemming FIFA’s proposal! *yawn*
Why can’t an Irish citizen born in the North play for their national team?
Was Maik Taylor (NI keeper) born in Northern Ireland? Actually, what link does he have with Northern Ireland anyway? He was born in Germany, his mother is German and father is English! The IFA being fucking hypocrits in my opinion.
Give the players some respect, if they choose to play for their national team be it NI or ROI respect their decision and leave well enough alone. You shouldn’t deny players the chance to play for their national team which is what will happen if the IFA manage to reverse this proposal.
Since the IFA isn’t happy with it perhaps they should tackle it another way, by encouraging lads to turn out for the North rather than denying them the chance to play for the Republic.
It is a bit of an anomally to be fair to the FAI, But having said all that, it just the same as someone born in the armed forces in Germany or wherever being allowed to choose any Uk country just because they hold a Uk passport.
Mind you, if I were an Irishman born in the 6 counties and not a wanna-be Englishman (and importantly could play football half decently), I’d want to play for the Republic.
Wales have profited in the past from players born to servicemen (the mighty Eric Young and Jeremy Goss in the 90′s). No matter how desperate you are for players (and we are desperate), the whole point of international footy is to represent your country, not have a go with some other team once you’ve realised you’re never going to make it into the England team.