A UK national football team

[UlsterCitizen]

If they do a single league the next step is a single FA and 1 team from Ireland. The Good Friday argeement is giving the players from the North a chance to declare for the South so I would rather have a Ireland team over the 2 on hole. Rotate the games from Dublin and Belfast if they get a stadium or is the Maze still getting the go ahead or not?

You might rather have an All-Ireland team Leighton, as would I, but I doubt the majority of Northern Irish football fans feel the same.

Maze Stadium is dead with WP set to be redeveloped at a cost of 20 million subject to Kennedy resigning as IFA president.

 

[IrishMacca]

True, but in the long term its probably the only way for either league to grow. Really we should be able to sustain a league as strong as the SPL but instead we have two leagues that are financially around the same level as the Conference.

If they do a single league the next step is a single FA and 1 team from Ireland. The Good Friday argeement is giving the players from the North a chance to declare for the South so I would rather have a Ireland team over the 2 on hole. Rotate the games from Dublin and Belfast if they get a stadium or is the Maze still getting the go ahead or not?

While it's different in a sense, and a different set of supporters..etc. Rugby does it. we've Ireland, and Irish team, with players from Ulster, and it's fine.

I can't see many NI supporters wanting it, but it's not out of the question.

 

[UlsterCitizen]

If they do a single league the next step is a single FA and 1 team from Ireland. The Good Friday argeement is giving the players from the North a chance to declare for the South so I would rather have a Ireland team over the 2 on hole. Rotate the games from Dublin and Belfast if they get a stadium or is the Maze still getting the go ahead or not?

You might rather have an All-Ireland team Leighton, as would I, but I doubt the majority of Northern Irish football fans feel the same.

-- Mon Sep 06, 2010 11:02 pm --

I worked for one of the 4 irish league clubs who were invited to join an all ireland league about 3 years ago, and the figures didnt stack up at that time. With Derrys financial implosion and other southern clubs in severe financial trouble I supect the idea is dead for the foreseeable future

Is this the Platinum One proposal you are talking about? Weren't they offering a huge increase in prize money? That coupled with more lucrative sponsorship deals and higher attendances (at least in the beginning) would have made it a no brainer for the clubs, I would have thought? I thought it was the FAs rather than the clubs that had stopped it from happening?

Yip the very one, the clubs could have forced it through but no Euro Spot was on offer to the new league, that coupled with transportation costs, higher wages etc made it difficult but not unachievable. it certainly was given alot of detailed examination before the plug was pulled<br /><br />-- Tue Sep 07, 2010 12:09 am --<br /><br />

If they do a single league the next step is a single FA and 1 team from Ireland. The Good Friday argeement is giving the players from the North a chance to declare for the South so I would rather have a Ireland team over the 2 on hole. Rotate the games from Dublin and Belfast if they get a stadium or is the Maze still getting the go ahead or not?

While it's different in a sense, and a different set of supporters..etc. Rugby does it. we've Ireland, and Irish team, with players from Ulster, and it's fine.

I can't see many NI supporters wanting it, but it's not out of the question.

I dont know of one NI supporter who would even consider the idea

 

[depps]

If they do a single league the next step is a single FA and 1 team from Ireland. The Good Friday argeement is giving the players from the North a chance to declare for the South so I would rather have a Ireland team over the 2 on hole. Rotate the games from Dublin and Belfast if they get a stadium or is the Maze still getting the go ahead or not?

While it's different in a sense, and a different set of supporters..etc. Rugby does it. we've Ireland, and Irish team, with players from Ulster, and it's fine.

I can't see many NI supporters wanting it, but it's not out of the question.

It has always been that way in Rugby though, that's why its so easily accepted. No one ever had to give up their own national team for it to happen. Soccer is also a more working class sport and national rivalries tend to be more important among the working classes... in spite of the best efforts of socialist internationalism.

To think that the protestant working class of Northern Ireland would want to have a unified Irish soccer team at any point in the near future is naivety in the extreme.

 

[UlsterCitizen]

While it's different in a sense, and a different set of supporters..etc. Rugby does it. we've Ireland, and Irish team, with players from Ulster, and it's fine.

I can't see many NI supporters wanting it, but it's not out of the question.

It has always been that way in Rugby though, that's why its so easily accepted. No one ever had to give up their own national team for it to happen. Soccer is also a more working class sport and national rivalries tend to be more important among the working classes... in spite of the best efforts of socialist internationalism.

To think that the protestant working class of Northern Ireland would want to have a unified Irish soccer team at any point in the near future is naivety in the extreme.

Plus quite a few people on both sides would loose controll of their little empires and have to step of the gravy train which is FIFA, turkeys voting for christmas springs to mind

 

[Dr.Faustus]

I'd love this to return (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Home_Championship" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Home_Championship</a>) with England a part of it (I know something similar is set to launch between Wales, Scotland, NI and RoI in 2011- <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_Associations%27_Tournament" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_Associat ... Tournament</a> - but it wont be the same.)

 

[UlsterCitizen]

I'd love this to return (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Home_Championship" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Home_Championship</a>) with England a part of it (I know something similar is set to launch between Wales, Scotland, NI and RoI in 2011- <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_Associations%27_Tournament" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_Associat ... Tournament</a> - but it wont be the same.)

Just remember who are the Briitsh Champions (:

 

[depps]

It has always been that way in Rugby though, that's why its so easily accepted. No one ever had to give up their own national team for it to happen. Soccer is also a more working class sport and national rivalries tend to be more important among the working classes... in spite of the best efforts of socialist internationalism.

To think that the protestant working class of Northern Ireland would want to have a unified Irish soccer team at any point in the near future is naivety in the extreme.

Plus quite a few people on both sides would loose controll of their little empires and have to step of the gravy train which is FIFA, turkeys voting for christmas springs to mind

Although that is true I think if public sentiment was generally in favour of it happening then it would. The bitterness between the two FAs at the moment over us poaching players probably doesn't help either!

 

[goat boy]

not going to happen. if memory serves, the home fas have 4 of 8 permanent seats at the top level of fifa, a throwback to the origins of the international game. team gb would erode the importance of the individual nations and would aid other fas who might want to wrest control from any of them.

 

[UlsterCitizen]

Plus quite a few people on both sides would loose controll of their little empires and have to step of the gravy train which is FIFA, turkeys voting for christmas springs to mind

Although that is true I think if public sentiment was generally in favour of it happening then it would. The bitterness between the two FAs at the moment over us poaching players probably doesn't help either!

Good point.
The bottom line with poaching is if they dont want to play for OWC then we dont want them, although the FAI should be forced to pay compensation for each one they poach