And anyone born in england too if they can bluff it enough
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Thatâs an errenous statement.
Anyone in England canât, they need to have heritage with the 32 counties of Ireland to be able to play.
Anyone born in the 32 can, irrespective of any heritage or bloodlines with the 26. It is a 32 county football team - Wilson, Gibson, McClean and OâKane all qualified to play for Ireland because they were born in Ireland. People like you mind be partitionist by mindset but you canât argue the fact that the football team is a 32 county representation.
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I did not say it wasnât.
But english people can play for us too, and in the past english lads played for ireland without irish parents or grandparents.
So its a joke shop basically.
We do fine at international football, the game is well followed in the country but the way the game is coached and such really needs to improve, most of our top players will be off to England in their early teens so the dreadful state of the coaching structures and style of play thought in England has a detrimental effect to Ireland. We regularly punch above our weight in football and are a dogged and spirited bunch in a huge global game. We could possibly qualify as one of the best 24 teams in Europe next year which would be a great achievement when we havenât even got a single player playing European football this year - particularly when you consider some of the teams that didnât qualify:
Holland - star studded team with lots of players playing for the biggest clubs in Europe.
Serbia - likewise
Greece - ditto
The football team is a mediocre team in a huge pond which is regularly able to punch above its weight, the rugby team is a mediocre team in a shallow pond who keeps shitting its togs the time its anywhere.
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I donât see what relevance that has.
ANY person born in the 32 counties can play for Ireland irrespective of bloodline, heritage or whatever. It is a 32 county representation de facto.
Anyone born outside Ireland can only really play if they are part of the diaspora with the exclusion of Paul Butler (who to my mind was the only player capped outside of those cleared to play with bloodlines to the country.
On the other hand you have the rugby clowns going around and naturalising foreign imports to play for their team. Look at the backlash McGeady and McCarthy suffered because they felt Irish and wanted to play for Ireland. As much as some people wish to run it down, international football is still the cornerstone of football and even the highest paid players in the world show huge pride lining out for their country for relative pocket change (unless theyâre a mercenary like Roy Queen).
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The Irish Times are in denial this morning.
Their website is telling us that one plus for Irish fans is theyâre not French fans, whose team was humiliated on Saturday night 
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They are entitled to play for the 26 county team because they are entitled to citizenship of a 26 county Republic. The 6 counties are apart of the IFA, from grassroots upwards.
Tony Cascarino, who made a record 88 appearances for the Republic of Ireland, does not hold an Irish passport and has never been eligible to play for the country.
The man who was known as âTony Goalâ at the height of his up-and-down career - he played for Chelsea, Aston Villa, Celtic, Marseille and Nancy - says: âI didnât qualify for Ireland. I was a fraud. A fake Irishman.â
The Football Association of Ireland president, Bernard OâByrne, said his executive would discuss the revelations this week, and while they would consider taking away Cascarinoâs caps, such a course of action was unlikely. Three of Cascarinoâs team-mates, Steve Staunton, Andy Townsend and Niall Quinn, knew about Cascarinoâs secret for the past four years after the striker quit international football, according to the Dublin report.
Cascarino admits that despite being turned down for an Irish passport in 1985, after he had already made three appearances in the green shirt, he carried on representing Ireland regardless. During a 13-year international career, the Kent-born former hairdresser appeared in World Cups and European Championships.
The football team used to be a good team by leveraging the resources of the Big Pond across the water who developed footballers. Now they canât because that Big Pond has dried up. Stealing a few IFA developed shithouse players canât cover that up.
'The fans were amazing, there were flags from all over Ireland-Mayo, Cork and Dunkirk"
You spent alot of time reading it
Too fucking right Kev. Canât get enough of it. Best sports story of the year by a country mile. Even tops the win over Germany.
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The hilarious hypocricy of your post aside, of course it matters. When people with not even an emotional attachment previous to playing not to mind a blood relative, can play for a country it tells you what a farce it is.
When Ireland play a 32 county team with just players who have been born here, have parents here or are full citizens then i will take them more seriously.
For what its worth my support of the rugby has wained with this rodiculous âcome here for 3 years and weâll give you a capâ bullshit. Iadmire the rugby for the way they do things professionally more than anything and the fact that some of their players are not happy with being unlucky losers. They have a bit of fight in them. Unlike the soccer who are as contrary as a bingo hall full of auld women. Sometimes we play, sometimes we donât.
For all your bile about Keane, when he played Ireland generally put in a performance and didnât roll over or look to blame anything and everything with their victimized attitude.
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This thread has reached tragic new proportions overnight.
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So you are the A-Typical sad bitter bastard.
People like you make me sick.
Sad ???
Sadness is one emotion I certainly amnât feeling this morning Kev.
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Its a Sad thing when someone gets happiness from other peoples woes.
Thats intrinsicly sad.
But the team I was supporting wonâŚ
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I think youâll find its the Irish way. Weâre a beautifully petty and vindictive people. I bet DodgyKeepers been on some horn since yesterday, the missus probably didnât know what hit her last night.
The rugby football team has never gone past the last 8 in whatâs essentially a 8/9 team competition. Theyâve never once outperformed expectations. 8 tournaments, 6 quarter final appearances and 0 victories in those knock-out games. Not only have they lost those games, theyâve been annihilated a few times. Theyâre not unlucky losers. Theyâre simply losers.
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