Wilson called to the Dark Side

[saffron sam2]

Other way round I think. Cahill was born and raised in Australia but has a Samoan mother. He represented Samoa at underage level in some bullshit competition when he was ridiculously young, about 13 or 14.

Thats about right, I don't know what Saffron Sam is referring to when using Tim Cahill as an example of FIFA being shit scarred of nationality issues.
FIFA bent over backwards to allow Cahill to declare for who ever was his fancy.
There was no big pressure on FIFA at that time, no federations warring over Tim's right to declare for them.
It was an interesting case which caught the attention and eventually led to removal of the age limit of 21 for dual national eligible players who had been tied to one federation after being capped in some meaningless underage international.

That is my point. FIFA steered well clear of tying Cahill to Samoa for his entire career. They are equally scared of issuing a decree that would ban Irish citizens in the north representing the FAI.

And I said scared, not scarred. Shit scarred conjures up interesting images.

[Main Street]

I think that's tenous.

There was nothing for FIFA to be scared of with Cahill. But I am partial to a conspiracy theory based around FIFA in the form of Blatter, using it to further his own political base amongst the smaller nations when he managed at Congress to successfully push through the removal of the age limit that inhibited players like Cahill.

[MW]

Looking at the nitty-gritty of this, I must confess to being surprised that you can play right up to B level and still be allowed to switch your allegiances. It's all very well saying that a person shouldn't be tied to decisions made when they were a schoolboy (see: Ryan Wilson), but B level? You should be man enough to live with your choices at that stage

He was only 17.

I would have said 17 was old enough. Plenty of players make their full debut at 17. Should they be allowed a do-over?

That's very harsh. At 17, most can be very easily lead by people that don't necessarily have their best interests at heart.

Quite...

The Football Association of Ireland have since invited the Duffy family as their guests to the forthcoming friendly international against Brazil in Arsenal's Emirates Stadium on Tuesday next, March 2nd. Mr. Duffy and his family, including Shane, have accepted that invitation and they expect to meet representatives of the FAI including former international and Arsenal legend, Liam Brady who, it's believed has been highly influential in securing the services of the Derry lad".

(Derry Journal)

[MW]

The use of words like 'tapping' and 'poaching' are erroneous becuase in my experience, the first approach (or declaration) has always come from the player, not the IFA.

Apologies for (at this stage - time is short tonight!) lifting one comment out of a long & considered post, but...see my post above.

(BTW in the interests of my being fair and complete, the Derry Journal report also says...

"It's always been his childhood dream to play for the Republic," added Brian. "He was brought up through the N. Ireland ranks but as time moved on he felt he would benefit more from playing with the Republic.
"Shane holds no ill feelings whatsoever towards N. Ireland and he remains extremely grateful for the experience he gained when playing for the N. Ireland international squad at youth level.")

[ziggysego]

Is that the young fellah who was bleating that he'd never play for any country but NI not 3 months ago?

Don't know, but it's pretty poor form IMO to play for one international team through U16, U17, U19, U21 and B international, (and even sit on the bench for the full international team) then decide you want to switch to play for another international team.

What about soccer players who come through youth programmes and team in English clubs like Arsenal or Spurs, but then get snapped up by another team such as Man Utd or Chelsea?

[MW]

Is that the young fellah who was bleating that he'd never play for any country but NI not 3 months ago?

Don't know, but it's pretty poor form IMO to play for one international team through U16, U17, U19, U21 and B international, (and even sit on the bench for the full international team) then decide you want to switch to play for another international team.

What about soccer players who come through youth programmes and team in English clubs like Arsenal or Spurs, but then get snapped up by another team such as Man Utd or Chelsea?

As I've said above, there's a transfer and compensation procedure in place for club football.

And given that footballers can play for as many clubs as their heart desires at senior level, contract and transfer arrangements permitting, it really isn't terribly analogous to international football.

[MW]

Other way round I think. Cahill was born and raised in Australia but has a Samoan mother. He represented Samoa at underage level in some bullshit competition when he was ridiculously young, about 13 or 14.

Thats about right, I don't know what Saffron Sam is referring to when using Tim Cahill as an example of FIFA being shit scarred of nationality issues.
FIFA bent over backwards to allow Cahill to declare for who ever was his fancy.
There was no big pressure on FIFA at that time, no federations warring over Tim's right to declare for them.
It was an interesting case which caught the attention and eventually led to removal of the age limit of 21 for dual national eligible players who had been tied to one federation after being capped in some meaningless underage international.

That is my point. FIFA steered well clear of tying Cahill to Samoa for his entire career. They are equally scared of issuing a decree that would ban Irish citizens in the north representing the FAI.

And I said scared, not scarred. Shit scarred conjures up interesting images.

It's worth reiterating that Duffy's father is from Donegal, so there's no question of his original eligibility to play for the RoI.

It's purely down to the fact that he merrily played for NI at all underage levels*, at B international level, (and was an unused substitute at full international level only 8 months or so ago so was happy at that stage to be capped for NI) before switching to the RoI.

*captained NI at under 19 level too IIRC.

[Main Street]

Totally irrelevant if Duffy has relatives from the 26 counties or not, he would still qualify regardless.

For merrily, read smiling through gritted teeth 
Didn't his Da say in the Derry Journal that the Norn Iron fans should be grateful that he played to his best standards despite his heart not being in the set up
Also Duffys mates, or mates of mates, or a brother of a mate of a mate, has been posting on the Footie thread  for the last 9 months or so that the Duffy issue was far from closed and rumours about he wanted to declare for the Republic and last December there was a live rumour that he was switching.
Sounds more like he was persuaded against his will to keep on being a part of the IFA set up
and the IFA  are not very good listeners.
It does take a bitter sort to  begrudge a mere kid to move out of the IFA, something he never really wanted to be a part of, in order to be a part of something he always aspired to.
Doesn't make any difference to me what team he picks. The rights of an Irish citizen born in the 6 counties are clear when it comes to choice of representative team.  Pat McCourt is no less or no more an Irishman than Shane Duffy.   

But strange enough, there is only one team where Irish citizens can qualify to play for and there is only one team where a British citizens can qualify to play for. One team plays AnbF before their game and the other plays GSTQ.
For me there is only one team that has my affiliation and it has the affiliation of most nationalist kids from the North.

[saffron sam2]

The Football Association of Ireland have since invited the Duffy family as their guests to the forthcoming friendly international against Brazil in Arsenal's Emirates Stadium on Tuesday next, March 2nd. Mr. Duffy and his family, including Shane, have accepted that invitation and they expect to meet representatives of the FAI including former international and Arsenal legend, Liam Brady who, it's believed has been highly influential in securing the services of the Derry lad".

(Derry Journal)
[/quote]

The use of words like 'tapping' and 'poaching' are erroneous becuase in my experience, the first approach (or declaration) has always come from the player, not the IFA.

Apologies for (at this stage - time is short tonight!) lifting one comment out of a long & considered post, but...see my post above.
(

I think my point remains valid. In my experience (I could named several footballers I know who have declared for ROI) it has always been the player who has made the initial contact with the FAI.

That the FAI then get involved and include people like Liam Brady is only to be expected; it is in their interests to do so.

I am not aware of any cases where the FAI are trawling round clubs / schools looking for potential targets.

[stibhan]

Is that the young fellah who was bleating that he'd never play for any country but NI not 3 months ago?

Don't know, but it's pretty poor form IMO to play for one international team through U16, U17, U19, U21 and B international, (and even sit on the bench for the full international team) then decide you want to switch to play for another international team.

If this is true, then I wonder if the IFA pay all of the clubs who own their players money for maintaining and developing them? The German team who brought on Maik Taylor? The English clubs who brought on Sanchez, Dowie, Patterson et al?

I appreciate that it's perhaps a bit amiss to change your allegiance to another team when you had given your word, but we've been over exactly why it's a legitimate choice to play for the republic ahead of the north, and exactly why these rules are necessary in the interest of both player protection and the letter of the GFA.

[Billys Boots]

Is that the young fellah who was bleating that he'd never play for any country but NI not 3 months ago?

Don't know, but it's pretty poor form IMO to play for one international team through U16, U17, U19, U21 and B international, (and even sit on the bench for the full international team) then decide you want to switch to play for another international team.

What about soccer players who come through youth programmes and team in English clubs like Arsenal or Spurs, but then get snapped up by another team such as Man Utd or Chelsea?

As I've said above, there's a transfer and compensation procedure in place for club football.

And given that footballers can play for as many clubs as their heart desires at senior level, contract and transfer arrangements permitting, it really isn't terribly analogous to international football.

I didn't know that point that Saffron Sam made - underage representation (in NI) being dependent on where you go to school, is that true MW?  It changes the goalposts quite a bit for those youngsters with a nationalist leaning in NI, if it's the case.  It (if it's true) obviously would not be in the IFA's interest to change that ruling, but changing it might stop this kind of thing happening.  I don't think it would have made any difference in this case however, as this lad's change of mind happened very (very) recently.

[naka]

   

But strange enough, there is only one team where Irish citizens can qualify to play for and there is only one team where a British citizens can qualify to play for. One team plays AnbF before their game and the other plays GSTQ.
For me there is only one team that has my affiliation and it has the affiliation of most nationalist kids from the North.
[/quote]
nail on head--the IFA know that nearly all nationalists follow the 26 counties and depite their efforts they know that when push comes to shove a nationalist kid will pick the south
AND LONG MAY IT CONTINUE

[longrunsthefox]

They are wasting their time with this sh*t... Good Friday Agreement and all that 

Irish FA set to take player eligibility dispute to CAS

The Irish FA is set to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in an attempt to prevent more Northern Ireland-born players opting for the Republic.
The IFA move follows Everton player Shane Duffy's decision to declare for the Republic earlier this week.
Duffy had played for Northern Ireland up to Under-21 level and was included in the full squad last year.
Manchester United's Darron Gibson and Portsmouth's Marc Wilson have also switched allegiance in recent years.

Duffy's case differs from those of Gibson and Wilson in that the Everton player does have a parent or grandparent who was born in the Republic of Ireland.
The IFA acknowledges that under existing rules, Duffy is eligible to play for the Republic of Ireland.
However, the Northern Ireland governing body will argue that players such as Gibson, whose parents and grandparents were born in Northern Ireland, should not be allowed to declare for the Republic.

[red hander]

When are the owc (and the pravince's meja) gonna accept that nationalists in the north consider themselves Irish and nationalists who follow soccer owe absolutely no allegiance to the team that plays at Windsor Park, they support the Republic ... the IFA are just going to make fools of themselves (again) by following this action, which is fine cos I like a good laugh as much as the next man

[The Watcher Pat]

The Football Association of Ireland have since invited the Duffy family as their guests to the forthcoming friendly international against Brazil in Arsenal's Emirates Stadium on Tuesday next, March 2nd. Mr. Duffy and his family, including Shane, have accepted that invitation and they expect to meet representatives of the FAI including former international and Arsenal legend, Liam Brady who, it's believed has been highly influential in securing the services of the Derry lad".

(Derry Journal)

The use of words like 'tapping' and 'poaching' are erroneous becuase in my experience, the first approach (or declaration) has always come from the player, not the IFA.

Apologies for (at this stage - time is short tonight!) lifting one comment out of a long & considered post, but...see my post above.
(

I think my point remains valid. In my experience (I could named several footballers I know who have declared for ROI) it has always been the player who has made the initial contact with the FAI.

That the FAI then get involved and include people like Liam Brady is only to be expected; it is in their interests to do so.

I am not aware of any cases where the FAI are trawling round clubs / schools looking for potential targets.

I know for a fact that Portsmouth 18 coach approached both the FAI and IFA about 2 players (Marc Wilson and Darlyl Forsythe (who now plays at Glentoran))for the u18 squad. IFA picked Forsythe and did not pick Wilson. FAI picked Wilson after IFA ignored him. Wonder who made the right call there!