Why dont ireland enter a team in the olympics?

StupidLikeAFox

Hey folks, love the show.

So, exactly what it says on the tin, The likes of Argentina and many fairly good standard teams do it, why don't we?

DaveH

Well you have to qualify by making the semi's(i think) of the European U/21. Have we ever qualified for the Euro u21's?

mikemac

Couldn't find any info on the under 21's.

The Irish Free State played in the 1924 Olympics. It seems no team has been entered since
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland_national_football_team

Pigman II

I presume even if we got to the semi finals we still wouldn't qualify because we weren't playing as "Ireland".

whatawaster

Pigman II wrote: »

I presume even if we got to the semi finals we still wouldn't qualify because we weren't playing as "Ireland".

Que?

Pigman II

whatawaster wrote: »

Que?

Well England / Scotchland / Wales never play in the Olympics because the country that enters is Great Britain. Same logic would apply to us I'd imagine. "Ireland" could play but RepIreland or NornIron can't.

thusspakeblixa

If Belgium can qualify, Ireland should be able to.
Think of the team we could have had-
With Garvan, Keogh etc. they may have had a decent chance of progressing, especially with the likes of New Zealand and Australia in the draw.
Might give EL players a good chance of making it to a major tournament too

whatawaster

Pigman II wrote: »

Well England / Scotchland / Wales never play in the Olympics because the country that enters is Great Britain. Same logic would apply to us I'd imagine. "Ireland" could play but RepIreland or NornIron can't.

Do Northern Irish athletes represent Ireland then? Or do they have a choice?

Pigman II

In theory they'd have to play for Ireland because NornIron is not part of 'Great' Britian.

bohsman

No, itd be fine - the british team includes the north. Call themselves GB and Northern Ireland.

OPENROAD

whatawaster wrote: »

Do Northern Irish athletes represent Ireland then? Or do they have a choice?

I can see this tread getting very very messy.

citytillidie

In some sports like boxing where its the Island or Ireland then those in the North who box fight for Ireland.

You can choose as there is 3 guys all who went to the same school in Coleraine 1 of them rows for ireland and the other 2 for GB & NI

shane86

Was talkin about this with the owl lad yesterday whilst watching Nevin box. Wayne McCulloch, despite being E Belfast Protestant and of unionist leaning (IIRC he had William McCrea do his wedding or something?) fought for us. Yet Mary Peters (who, he told me, was a nordie athlete in the 70s) competed for GB. Im fairly sure we are down as the rep of Ireland for this competition. But having said that didnt a Kerr team do well in a Euros 12 odd years ago? Maybe even won it, cant recall.

DaveH

Ok...first of boxing is a 32 County sport. N.Ireland boxers compete for Ireland. The Irish Amateur boxing assocation is a member of the Olympic Council of Ireland.
N.Ireland athlete's have a choice to either compete for GB or Ireland. Athletics Ireland are OCI members. Northern Ireland Athletics (NIAF) are affliated to UK athletics...but have a kind of assocaite membership of Athletics Ireland.

The FAI are OCI members. The FAI would provide the Irish olympic soccer team. The IFA are affliated to The British Olympic Council.

LeixlipRed

Pigman II wrote: »

Well England / Scotchland / Wales never play in the Olympics because the country that enters is Great Britain. Same logic would apply to us I'd imagine. "Ireland" could play but RepIreland or NornIron can't.

I've read this post about twenty times and I'm still baffled.

aidan24326

Originally Posted by Pigman II
Well England / Scotchland / Wales never play in the Olympics because the country that enters is Great Britain. Same logic would apply to us I'd imagine. "Ireland" could play but RepIreland or NornIron can't.

LeixlipRed wrote: »

I've read this post about twenty times and I'm still baffled.

Baffled? Well England, Scotland and Wales comprises Great Britain, which is the 'country' that competes in the olympics. What's confusing about that? They could enter a GB soccer team but probably aren't too bothered anyway. IMO there shouldn't be soccer at the olympics at all.

LeixlipRed

It's Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Hence why I'm baffled at the bizzare nature of the post

bohsman

aidan24326 wrote: »

IMO there shouldn't be soccer at the olympics at all.

lol, where can we have football? In the last 24 hours youve called for the abolishment of the FAI and now olympic soccer.

ArmaniJeanss

thusspakeblixa wrote: »

If Belgium can qualify, Ireland should be able to.

Ironically it was Belgium who knocked us out of the qualification for the 2007 U21 Championships (which as said earlier we would have had to finish in top4/5 of to qualify for the Olympics).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_UEFA_European_Under-21_Football_Championship_qualification#Group__4

If we had finished in the Top4 then we would definitely have competed in the Olympics - back in the late 80s when Olympic qualifiers were separate from Uefa qualifiers the FAI entered an LOI select team in the Olympic qualifiers on 2 occasions, without success.

thusspakeblixa

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Ironically it was Belgium who knocked us out of the qualification for the 2007 U21 Championships (which as said earlier we would have had to finish in top4/5 of to qualify for the Olympics).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_UEFA_European_Under-21_Football_Championship_qualification#Group__4

If we had finished in the Top4 then we would definitely have competed in the Olympics - back in the late 80s when Olympic qualifiers were separate from Uefa qualifiers the FAI entered an LOI select team in the Olympic qualifiers on 2 occasions, without success.

Suppose Belgium have guys like Defour and Van Den Borre, but still.
I'm talking about the likes of John Paul Kelly, Ian Bermingham etc. who may never progress on to Senior level, IMO it'd be a great experience for them

Karmafaerie

LeixlipRed wrote: »

It's Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Hence why I'm baffled at the bizzare nature of the post

The official name for the UK is "The United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland".

(It used to be "The United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Ireland")

The team entered in the Olympics is a United Kingdom team, and used to be reffered to us such.
It's only reffered to as "Team GB" by the colourfull British commentators.




P.S: it was the Euro under 16' and Under 18's you were thinking of with Kerr back in 1998 Shane86, and we came third in the World Youth Championship back in 1999.

Benedict XVI

There was a discussion on Off the Ball a number of months back where Pat Hickey or someone else from the OCI was advocationg that we take take GB's place in the London 2012 Olympic Soccer tournament

His point was that the host country gets free entry to the soccer tournament, and with GB having trouble getting around how it could enter a GB soccer team, we could put them out of their misery by offering to take their automatic place, seeing as we are right next door.

What a lota of S**T I thought at the time and still do.

OhNoYouDidn't

this thread is demeaning.

we didn't qualify. thread closed.

Racing Flat

Karmafaerie wrote: »

It's only reffered to as "Team GB" by the colourfull British commentators.

It must be sincerely annoying if you are from NI and have to wear the 'Team GB' polo shirts etc. that they have with their kit.

A bit like how we call the rugby team the 'Lions', while across the water they call it the 'British Lions' (the fans that is, the television broadcasters eventually got this right in the last tour or two)

zAbbo

Racing Flat wrote: »

A bit like how we call the rugby team the 'Lions', while across the water they call it the 'British Lions' (the fans that is, the television broadcasters eventually got this right in the last tour or two)

It's only the last 2 tours were they were renamed to the British & Irish Lions, but for the 100+ years before that - they were called the British lions, so it's understandable when fans call it that.

Thankfully this kind of nationalist bs isn't that important to Rugby fans.

OhNoYouDidn't

Racing Flat wrote: »

It must be sincerely annoying if you are from NI and have to wear the 'Team GB' polo shirts etc. that they have with their kit.

If you are likely to be bothered by it, you are unlikely to have declared for the British team in the first place...

Pigman II

Karmafaerie wrote: »

P.S: it was the Euro under 16' and Under 18's you were thinking of with Kerr back in 1998 Shane86, and we came third in the World Youth Championship back in 1999.

PPS: 3rd place World Youth Championships was 1997

Benedict XVI

Racing Flat wrote: »

It must be sincerely annoying if you are from NI and have to wear the 'Team GB' polo shirts etc. that they have with their kit.

There are pelnty of people from NI who are quiet happy to be part of Team GB

Racing Flat

OhNoYouDidn't wrote: »

If you are likely to be bothered by it, you are unlikely to have declared for the British team in the first place...

Imagine being from Connaught, playing for the Republic of Ireland and having to wear a 'Team Leinster' polo shirt. Same thing.

As said above, the team is the 'UK of GB and NI', so just leaving out the NI bit on the polo shirts seems bizarre!

The Rooster

Racing Flat wrote: »

As said above, the team is the 'UK of GB and NI', so just leaving out the NI bit on the polo shirts seems bizarre!

That's simply not true!!

The team name for Olympic purposes is "Great Britain". End of story.

The full official legal name of the country is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but that's irrelevant.

At the previous Olympics there was something official (can't remember what it was) with the name "Great Britain and Northern Ireland" on it. This was a mistake and the OCI strenously objected to its use, and it was quickly corrected. You will only see Great Britain at this Olympics, because that's the correct Olympic name.

Athletes from Northern Ireland have a choice to compete for Great Britain or Ireland.

In some sports like boxing and hockey its almost inevitable the Norn Iron athlete chooses Ireland because that's the country the person represents in all other events (in any event GB would never pick them given they represent Ireland normally so its hardly even an option). In the likes of athletics and swimming most choose Ireland, but some choose GB. Its of course easier to get picked for Ireland than GB.