Should there be an Ireland Olympic football team?

SectionF

Proposal for a GB Olympics team in 2012 is gathering steam, throwing up some interesting questions as to who's who.

Should there be an Irish team? And who should be on it?

Xavi6

Most definitely.

But sure doesn't it depend on how you do in under 21 competition as well?

Frisbee

Just let all the LOI players play on it. None of the National team players.
Then the LOI fanboys can stop whinging about not getting on a national team.
And the National Team fanboys can be happy as we still have the same real National team.

Everybody's Happy*


*Fully aware LOI fanboys will not be happy

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

premierstone

ziggy wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Exactly, the talk in GB is only relevant as they will be the hosts and therefore have a spot, but seen as they play in the u-21 champs as four seperate teams but are part of one team in the olympics is where the debate has come from.

SectionF

Xavi6 wrote: »

But sure doesn't it depend on how you do in under 21 competition as well?

Don't know how it works tbh. But if so, if we were going for an Olympic team effort then one would assume that would mean more effort at u21, and also might affect the, ahem, selection process.
Would it also upset boys in green fanboys by affecting player (e.g. the I'm not Irish but I'm Catholic brigade) decisions on who to declare for?
Would Niall McGinn play for GB, since he plays for NI, etc?

djpbarry

Frisbee wrote: »

Just let all the LOI players play on it. None of the National team players.
Then the LOI fanboys can stop whinging about not getting on a national team.

Actually, we already have an U23 team comprised of LOI players. There are also several LOI players represented at U21 level.

Check. Mate.

Charlie

I can imagine, should it happen, the Irish team playing the GB team being an utterly confusing state of affairs for anyone outside of the two countries. Ty and explain Clinton in a green jersey to a yank!

HalloweenJack

charlie mchugh wrote: »

Ty and explain Clinton in a green jersey to a yank!

In fairnes, Freddy Adu only plays for the US because his ma won a green card lottery and shipped the family over from Ghana when he was a little lad.

His link to the US is far less than Morrison's to Ireland.

Also, there's 40m Americans who claim to be Irish, even though most of them are about 3G or 4G at this stage.

SectionF

HalloweenJack wrote: »

In fairnes, Freddy Adu only plays for the US because his ma won a green card lottery and shipped the family over from Ghana when he was a little lad.

His link to the US is far less than Morrison's to Ireland.

From what you say, it seems he's lived in the US most of his life.

ArmaniJeanss

It wasn't a political issue for (Republic of) Ireland football in qualifiers for Beijing, Athens or Sydney, so why should 2012 be any different?

We (the FAI, Eire, ROI whatever) will enter a team in the qualifiers for the 2011 Uefa U-21 championships, and if we get to the semifinals of that competition we will also qualify for the following summers Olympics. The qualifiers will be starting in just over 12 months so I don't think there is any time/inclination to do it any other way.

eirebhoy

charlie mchugh wrote: »

I can imagine, should it happen, the Irish team playing the GB team being an utterly confusing state of affairs for anyone outside of the two countries. Ty and explain Clinton in a green jersey to a yank!

Plenty of athletes at the Olympics already take advantage of the citizenship rules...

SectionF

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

It wasn't a political issue for (Republic of) Ireland football in qualifiers for Beijing, Athens or Sydney, so why should 2012 be any different?

We (the FAI, Eire, ROI whatever) will enter a team in the qualifiers for the 2011 Uefa U-21 championships, and if we get to the semifinals of that competition we will also qualify for the following summers Olympics. The qualifiers will be starting in just over 12 months so I don't think there is any time/inclination to do it any other way.

Would things not be different if GB had a team? And what of this bit?

An Olympic football team would be primarily made up of players under-23, with three over-age footballers also allowed.

ArmaniJeanss

SectionF wrote: »

Would things not be different if GB had a team? And what of this bit?

I don't think it would change at all from Irelands point of view - Olympic soccer is ran under FIFA rules and what happens in NI/Scot/Eng/Wales has no bearing on us.

The qualifiers being an U21 tournament one year before the U23 (+3) finals is an ananchronism alright, but hasn't bothered anyone up to now.

As i said the qualifiers start in about 15 months, and going by our previous U21 campaigns this will stop being an issue in about 16 months.

rovingrover

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

I don't think it would change at all from Irelands point of view - Olympic soccer is ran under FIFA rules and what happens in NI/Scot/Eng/Wales has no bearing on us.

The qualifiers being an U21 tournament one year before the U23 (+3) finals is an ananchronism alright, but hasn't bothered anyone up to now.

As i said the qualifiers start in about 15 months, and going by our previous U21 campaigns this will stop being an issue in about 16 months.

Or they have ended already if Don Givens is still the manager.

dfx-

Not if it requires funding. There's little of it to go round as it is for Olympic sports...