Rugby is taken half seriously by 9 countries.
Football is played passionately by 200+ countries.
It was a genuine question on Terry Phelan as I didnât know. If I happen to ask what Phil Babbs connection was is that also classed as racial profiling or being curious?
Anyway, for every Jared Payne, thereâs a Paul Butler or a Trent Johnston
Gobshite. Samoa to Australia is about the same distance apart as Ireland and Egypt.
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How many Paul Butler cases are there with the football team?
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Here Rocko, if Nathan White or whoever considers themselves as Irish as bacon and cabbage after living here for three years whatâs the harm in that. Surely nationality is a state of mind as much as anything else, particularly after a 20th century of unparalleled population movements. Are you trying to suggest the likes of Geret van Gelderen or Harm Luykx havenât earned the right to be called Irish after giving their heart and soul to the country and contributing to the jollity of the nation. Old Erskine Childers is one of the great Irish patriots despite not having a drop of Irish blood in his body.
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Exactly. Iâm on record as fundamentally disagreeing with Paul Butler playing for Ireland. But his name comes up specifically because heâs the sole example of that route. Itâs obviously widespread in rugby.
Nathan White has lived in Ireland for 4 years now. He is contracted for several more.
It is nothing different to someone coming to a country and living there for 5 years and deciding to get a passport and citizenship.
Conversely on the âmercenaryâ thread, you can argue that it is pure opportunism that someone with one grandparent would represent a country. They may never have met that grandparent and not feel at all a part of that country. The Jason McAteers of this world have made a lot of money they wouldnât have for playing for the ROI when they had no idea they could rep for them until their playing career started.
3 years should go to 4 but describing it as rampant in rugby is ott. I would guess there are about 25 players in the RWC who came over to a country and gained residency after their teens i.e. on a professional basis.
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Its only the bare 6 hours flying time from Sydney to Samoa - next door neighbours sure.
I wouldnât deny anyone the right to Irish citizenship when they are entitled to qualify for it. FIFA realised some time ago that there needs to be a difference between citizenship and sporting eligibility because otherwise itâs open to abuse.
Gobshite. A couple of hundred euro for playing international football. Itâs not financially motivated, unlike those who do it in rugby as part of a professional contract.
Kind of like the way a load of athletes that once ran for their home country now run for the likes of Qatar or some random rich country having been granted âcitizenshipâ for that country?
Iâm sure thereâs plenty mate. Weâve had plenty of shit centre halves play for us in recent years.
The likes of McAteer didnât really have an awful lot to gain from a financial perspective to play for Ireland at the start of his career, it was only the fact he turned out to be a very good player for Ireland and scored one of the most memorable goals in Irish football that made it turn out that way.
There are plenty of players who have turned down Ireland in the past and present because they just didnât feel Irish - Nolan, Curtis Davies and Mark Noble being three prime examples. Footballers generally donât need to play international football for any other reason than having a genuine affinity or pride in playing for their country.
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Welcome to the Pacific ocean pal. There are 13 Samoans and 12 Tongans on the list of players who werenât born in their country. Do you think many Kiwis and Ozzies went to Samoa and Tonga to earn a living playing professionally? They are granny rule players
Thatâs not definitive, why are you making claims that you canât back up?
Yes mate. FIFA donât run athletics. Itâs a big problem in athletics too. But the difference there is that itâs an individual sport. So if Qatar want to take credit for some Kenyan runner winning them a medal then thatâs a problem that needs addressing. But ultimately itâs more obvious and open to ridicule as a result.
Did Nathan White have a burning desire to represent Ireland as a child? Did he fuck. He has the same motive as McAteer at the back of it all - money and a career. Trying to say one is more justifiable than the other is ridiculous.
The small number of countries that play the sport obviously contributes to the number of players who represent countries of ancestory. I donât really think thatâs a problem in rugby. The northern hemisphere nations have always looked disdainfully on the selection policies in the southern hemisphere but they are reflective of overall migration and population trends.
That doesnât mean that Samoa and Australia are right beside eachother of course.
But the residency stuff is a joke. And it makes a mockery of the integrity of the competition.
Yea sure it isnât pal. Keep looking through those rose tinted glasses. The players in the 2002 World Cup received 70k for the tournament. Plenty of them would have been on that kind of weekly wage at the time, and probably less than 13k/14k a week. They are no mugs, they know well the money to be made off the Oirish soccer crowd going to jolly ups for the rest of their careers.
The fact that you consider the greatest achievement in Irish sport being a bunch of British born and raised and players and who learned to kick the ball first in Britain, came through British academies and enjoyed their pro careers everywhere but Ireland just makes me laugh. It had fuck all to do with Irish sport, we just reaped the benefits.
Rugby Football has a proper grassroots up, pyramid structure. Just because the FAI including Delaney of late have proven to be downright incompetent for decades doesnât mean you should take it out on rugby. I hope you enjoyed all of those great days and nights sitting in the oldest Test Football ground in the world knowing you were paying rent for the privilege.
What money comes out of international football for a player like McAteer?
Just look at guys like Roy Keane and Stephen Ireland who couldnât give a monkeys about playing for their country. For most players playing for your country is an inconvenience unless you really have a passion there.
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