A DIVIDE CLEAR TO SEE
O’Neill tackles eligibility question
THE Irish Question. Benjamin Disraeli, the former British Prime Minister, couldn’t find an answer to it in the 19th century.
Yesterday at Aviva Stadium, Martin O’Neill, a fellow resident of Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, probably knew how Disraeli felt. For solving the Irish Question, in football terms, is as tricky today as it was for the British ruling Victorian classes some 150 years ago.
O’Neill knew what was coming in terms of the line of questioning for his first Dublin press conference of the year.
The cat was out of the bag, as Giovanni Trapattoni might have said, when Michael O’Neill, the Northern Ireland manager, publicly lamented the loss of young Northern Ireland players to the Republic of Ireland ranks.
It followed the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s ruling of July 2010 which threw out the IFA’s challenge to FIFA’s 2007 decision on the international status of players born on this island.
O’Neill went further in these pages than perhaps he should have, by observing the common theme of the players who’d switched allegiance: their nationalist background.
While O’Neill was acting in the best interests of his team, which has a far smaller pool of players to draw from, his comments were provocative and forced his Republic of Ireland counterpart — a former Northern Ireland captain — to respond.
No one doubts the elder O’Neill wants Northern Ireland to be successful and reach tournaments finals, but he has a responsibility, as Republic of Ireland manager, to protect his corner for, as he put it, ‘the comments were remotely aimed at me’.
And that was the role he assumed as he expressed his dismay with Michael O’Neill over his remarks, specifically for bringing the combustible religious card into play, when referencing the background of players who’ve crossed from North to South.
In his defence, O’Neill stressed he had not capped a single new player from Northern Ireland on his watch and pointed out that Alex Bruce had crossed the international divide the other way.
O’Neill accepted there was only so much he and Michael O’Neill could do about a gentleman’s agreement in relation to giving younger players with dual eligibility more time to make a final decision over their international future.
Both O’Neills are passing through as managers, although the latter, as chief football officer for the IFA is more in touch with his association’s overall strategy. ‘Whatever Michael says, and I say here, we are managers at the time but we’re somewhat transient,’ said O’Neill. ‘If something happens within the next couple of years then an agreement between two managers I think would pose some sort of difficulty, but it’s worth having a conversation about. ‘I have no problem with sitting down with Michael on this. But it’s not as if to say that we are lifting a load of players from them (the North) at underage level and preventing them from doing something,’ he said. ‘The player has the choice. I think that is very important and something that’s been overlooked in this. They’re not being coerced into doing this here. They’re being asked. ‘And if I was a player and two nations were looking for me, I think
that I’d be kind of overjoyed about that, I must admit.’
When O’Neill was in his playing prime in the late 1970s and early 80s, there was one international team anyone born in the Six Counties could play for, Northern Ireland. Now, there is a choice. ‘Do I think it’s fair? I can’t see how that can be of any benefit to Northern Ireland,’ the Republic boss admitted.
‘They are the rules, unfortunately I didn’t make them.’
No, he didn’t, but he can avail of the benefits of them, to the detriment of the team he captained in the World Cup. Consider the case of Paul Smyth, the QPR striker, who plays for Northern Ireland U21s, but is believed to be considering his options when he moves out of underage grade.
Smyth is a Catholic from Belfast, who likes GAA. O’Neill knows of Smyth; he saw him play on Tuesday night against Derby at Loftus Road where ‘he was brilliant’.
When asked would he speak to Smyth if he heard there was interest, his reply was pointed. ‘Of course. Why would I not want to?’ he said, adding instantly, ‘But I am not imagining that’s the case.’
If Smyth were to switch international shirts, thus depriving the North of another fine young player, Michael O’Neill would be entitled to cry enough is enough. Would anyone listen?
Finding a solution to the Irish Question, in football, remains a conundrum.