Abolish the crazy rules that allow Grealish to play for Ireland
NOT many people had seen Jack Grealish play before Sunday, so even fewer had heard him speak. When he did, he sounded like Ozzy Osbourne. Not as broad maybe but he was, unmistakably, from Birmingham. So is his father, Kevin. As a boy, Jack would play football in the car park of the New Aston Social Club, where Kevin and other family members drank after Villa games. Kevin was present when the club won the European Cup.
Grealish was called up by England at 15 but was sent home after falling ill. He was later named in an Under 17 squad but by then it was too late. He was already playing for Ireland.
That was partly through his grandparents on his father’s side and also because the Irish employ a scout called Mark O’Toole, whose job it is to sweep up the best young players qualified to play for Ireland. That’s not the same as sweeping up the best young Irish players.
Ireland were into Grealish early, at 14, and since then he has represented them at Under 17, Under 18 and Under 21 levels. Recently there have been mixed messages. Receiving the award for Ireland’s Under 21 player of the year — despite making only two appearances — he said ‘hopefully’ he would be back in the green jersey next year.
He had taken close to a season out of international football to concentrate on breaking into the Aston Villa team. The England Under 21 manager, Gareth Southgate, was encouraged by this hiatus.
Roy Hodgson’s attitude is that players should want to play for England and he may be in no mood for romantic overtures, despite Grealish’s obvious talent. Rightly so.
The Football Association’s pursuit of Adnan Januzaj was unedifying, misguided and ended in rejection anyway. Better to have allowed the player to decide rather than make a sales pitch.
Grealish has until now preferred to be with the group of teenagers who have accompanied him through his formative years in international football, and if that makes him feel more Irish than English culturally, that is his choice.
This is not about the player, then, but the process. Grealish can be Irish if he wants, the rules say so — but are the rules still relevant? Is it right that O’Toole should be able to act as a club scout in the international game, exploiting outdated regulations around nationality to sign up teenage schoolchildren for Ireland?
The rules were intended to help those without a choice — unable to play for their country of birth, but good enough to represent that of their ancestors. Andy Townsend, born in Maidstone, wasn’t regarded highly by those in charge of England but was considered good enough to play for Ireland 70 times, through his Irish grandmother. Good luck to him — England’s loss was Ireland’s gain.
But Grealish’s situation isn’t like that. The rules as applied in his case do not combat the absence of choice, they offer more choice, where none is necessary. Grealish would have long been around the England age group teams by now. He would certainly be in next season’s Under 21 team, if he wasn’t already heading to the European Under 21 Championship in the summer or to the Toulon Under 20 tournament.
So while Ireland haven’t broken any rules, they are certainly making the most of them. Their last Under 21 squad — which did not include Grealish — was made up of 21 players, 11 of whom were not born in Ireland. That cannot be right. It is not fair on those within Ireland’s club youth system. It is time for change.
We live in an era of globalisation, of migration, foreign travel and employment abroad. As borders break down or blur, more young athletes will qualify for multiple nations.
Januzaj is the perfect example. His father was from Kosovo meaning he could play for Serbia, his mother Albanian, he has Turkish grandparents, was born in Belgium and has lived in England since the age of 16.
As the planet shrinks more players will have these options.
So is it right that a national association operates as clubs do, recruiting the best young players in what is increasingly a free market. How long before there are secret inducements, promises, before agents are involved?
What if a sharp figure with good connections said he could ‘get’ Grealish for England, that he had the ear of the player and his family, but would want
his expenses covered and maybe a bit extra? Far-fetched? Today’s era of the super-agents would also have seemed that way had it been described to those who fought for the abolition of the maximum wage in the 1960s.
FOR who will benefit, long term, if not the wealthiest associations? Ireland may win over Grealish but imagine the howls if the positions were reversed: if the FA stepped in to entice a young Irish footballer, with a Brummie grandfather, to switch sides?
It only requires an unscrupulous regime seeking victory at all costs. This is what happens if we take the nationalism out of national sport, if we make it too easy to pick up or abandon allegiance. It should be resolved at confederation level. UEFA should have a panel that sits to consider the status of any player who is not representing the country of his birth. Some cases would go on the tick, taking seconds. Nobody thought Singapore had much claim to Terry Butcher, for instance, just because his father was a signalman in the Royal Navy and he spent the first two years of his life there.
And there would be little objection to a player such as Townsend, who was 25 when he got his first Ireland call-up, at a time when it was obvious he was unwanted by England.
It is different for players like Grealish, who turned his back on England before he was old enough to sit a GCSE. This wasn’t opportunity; it was opportunism. Unnecessary and wrong and all too predictably destined to end in this unsightly tug of war. HARRY KANE’S recent drop in form has been blamed — you’ve guessed it — on his England call-up. ‘When players get their first, they try to show they are good enough and impress the national manager,’ said Tottenham Hotspur coach Mauricio Pochettino. ‘They are over-motivated, they expend a lot of energy and when they come back to the team it is normal they feel a bit down.’ This may be true — except one of Kane’s quietest displays of the season, away at Manchester United, came before he played for England. And his two longest spells without scoring for Tottenham in this campaign — four matches — both arrived earlier, before his England selection, too. It’s the same old story: if the player is full of beans it’s down to his club, if he’s knackered it’s England’s fault. They call it Arsene’s Law.