Why no Irish Olympic team?

Danye

Genuine question, why don't Ireland send over a team to compete in the Olympics?

bohsman

Danye wrote: »

Genuine question, why don't Ireland send over a team to compete in the Olympics?

They didn't qualify.

MrStuffins

Be kinda akward sending a team seeing as thry didn't qualify!

Danye

So you have to qualify? When did the Olympic qualifiers take place?

LuckyLloyd

Danye wrote: »

So you have to qualify? When did the Olympic qualifiers take place?

European U21 Championships

Top four squads at that tournament every four years get to compete in the Olympics the following year. This time three teams (Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic) qualified as GB took up the fourth European spot automatically as hosts.

Ireland couldn't qualify for the finals so didn't get near qualifying.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

MrStuffins wrote: »

Be kinda akward sending a team seeing as thry didn't qualify!

Nah, Delaney will just ask if we can be Team 17 :pac:

Danye

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

European U21 Championships

Top four squads at that tournament every four years get to compete in the Olympics the following year. This time three teams (Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic) qualified as GB took up the fourth European spot automatically as hosts.

Ireland couldn't qualify for the finals so didn't get near qualifying.

Oh right. Thanks for the insight. I thought it would of been a good opportunity for players playing in the Airtricity league to test themselves and represent their country. I thought there was a qualifying stage or something.

LuckyLloyd

Danye wrote: »

Oh right. Thanks for the insight. I thought it would of been a good opportunity for players playing in the Airtricity league to test themselves and represent their country. I thought there was a qualifying stage or something.

The majority of an Irish U21 squad will be over in England.

ArmaniJeanss

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

European U21 Championships

Top four squads at that tournament every four years get to compete in the Olympics the following year. This time three teams (Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic) qualified as GB took up the fourth European spot automatically as hosts.

Ireland couldn't qualify for the finals so didn't get near qualifying.

Czech Repuplic are playing under this flag though.

grenache

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Czech Repuplic are playing under this flag though.

That's the Belarus flag


It would open up a massive can of worms if our U-21s had done the business and we had qualified. We compete in the Olympics on an 'all island' basis, thus players for the North are entitled to play for Team Ireland.. Be interesting to see the IFA's reaction to that! They didn't want their players to be part of Team GB, so i'd love to see what they'd think of a Team Ireland football side.

UpTheSlashers

Czech Republic didnt qualify, Belarus did. According to wiki they beat Czech Rep. in the third place playoff which doubled as the olympic playoff.

I think.

dreamers75

We didnt qualify because the FAI allowed a mate to run the under 21s for nearly 10 years and win the award for successive defeats and the longest beaten by everyone award.

Shameful he had that job for that long. Complete waster.

Gavin "shels"

Be awkward sending over lads with English accents to represent Ireland in the Olympics tbh, nearly as awkward as them representing us at the Euros and World Cup!

dreamers75

Gavin shels wrote: »

Be awkward sending over lads with English accents to represent Ireland in the Olympics tbh, nearly as awkward as them representing us at the Euros and World Cup!

Know a lad who played for that under 21 team, things he told me makes Father Ted as the coach of the over 75s seem like a legit job and Givens was angling for it.

grenache

dreamers75 wrote: »

Know a lad who played for that under 21 team, things he told me makes Father Ted as the coach of the over 75s seem like a legit job and Givens was angling for it.

Go on.....

LuckyLloyd

Gavin shels wrote: »

Be awkward sending over lads with English accents to represent Ireland in the Olympics tbh, nearly as awkward as them representing us at the Euros and World Cup!

Good job, good effort. Keep pushing that agenda!

And Armani and UpTheSlashers ye are of course correct - Belarus pulled off the upset in the third place playoff.

Father Damo

Gavin shels wrote: »

Be awkward sending over lads with English accents to represent Ireland in the Olympics tbh, nearly as awkward as them representing us at the Euros and World Cup!

Jesus, does anyone care what you think?

ArielAtom

It's so funny to see the posts with lads knowing someone involved in the u21's and things he told me. Givens was a disclipinarian and came down heavy in a few lads. Trap does it on a few and he showing whose boss!!!!! He's gone since 2010 and are we any better? You don't build a squad at u21, you work with what you have. The players capable of playing senior move on and you have the left overs!!!!

gustavo

ArielAtom wrote: »

He's gone since 2010 and are we any better?

Yes

citytillidie

grenache wrote: »

That's the Belarus flag


It would open up a massive can of worms if our U-21s had done the business and we had qualified. We compete in the Olympics on an 'all island' basis, thus players for the North are entitled to play for Team Ireland.. Be interesting to see the IFA's reaction to that! They didn't want their players to be part of Team GB, so i'd love to see what they'd think of a Team Ireland football side.

Not all sports are done as in island some are still split and it is athletes choice from the north who they represent

losthorizon

ArielAtom wrote: »

He's gone since 2010 and are we any better? You don't build a squad at u21, you work with what you have. The players capable of playing senior move on and you have the left overs!!!!

The thing with U-21s usually is though you do have the same squad mostly for the entire campaign and they dont move on about half the squad leave at the end of the campaign! like every other country its no different. But Givens was blessed with a great squad, an immense squad and threw it all away in fact he had shocking results.

Someone will say its not about results its about building for the future as he used to say after losing to Finland or somebody 2-0 but theres nothing better than playing in a Finals competition to breed success.


I remember in the 80s when Ireland entered the Olympic qualifying and it wasn't like now, this is when they allowed professionals for the first time. . For years the Eastern Europeans were "amateurs" in name only. We entered a team composed of LOI players which was actually fairly handy and it had a lot of Rovers players including Pat Byrne who was perhaps the best LOI player Ive ever seen. The group we ended up in was the Group of death to put it mildly - Spain, France, Hungary (who were a footballing powerhorse a the time especially in the Olympics but had a new sensation in their ranks called Detari) and somebody else. We managed to pick up a few points but all our displays were excellent and very skillful.

Gavin "shels"

Father Damo wrote: »

Jesus, does anyone care what you think?

Your replied to it so obviously yourself!

MrStuffins

Gavin shels wrote: »

Your replied to it so obviously yourself!

Nice logic.

If you were 12 years old!

Coillte_Bhoy

Gavin shels wrote: »

Be awkward sending over lads with English accents to represent Ireland in the Olympics tbh, nearly as awkward as them representing us at the Euros and World Cup!

Not in the least bit awkward apart from you and your small clique. Most football people have no problem with it

Father Damo

Gavin shels wrote: »

Your replied to it so obviously yourself!

No. I think it is fcuking moronic like most of your agenda laden drivel.

Believe it or not there are people playing for Shels who did not spend all their life in Dublin. In fact you could argue that a player with no connection to North Dulin has, by your logic, even less right to play for Shels than a lad with an English accent who has supported Ireland all his life.


But sure I have seen your crap before. Ireland will only be Ireland when we give the boot to anyone who betrays our own glorious league for the PL. We can only be proud of the Ireland side when we start fielding LOI XI that would struggle against Andorra.

Danye

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

The majority of an Irish U21 squad will be over in England.

Not quite sure what you mean mate?

Gavin shels wrote: »

Be awkward sending over lads with English accents to represent Ireland in the Olympics tbh, nearly as awkward as them representing us at the Euros and World Cup!

Again I think I'm missing your point mate?

In anyway, what I was suggesting before I knew about how qualification for the Olympics works, was that Ireland should enter a squad of Airtricity players into it.

LuckyLloyd

Danye wrote: »

Not quite sure what you mean mate?

In anyway, what I was suggesting before I knew about how qualification for the Olympics works, was that Ireland should enter a squad of Airtricity players into it.

What I mean is that once you get past U17 level the majority of an Irish squad will be comprised of players in English setups, with little or no domestic club participation.

Cardinal Richelieu

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

The majority of an Irish U21 squad will be over in England.

Danye wrote: »

Not quite sure what you mean mate?

He means that most or practically all the Ireland Under21 Squad plays and is based in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland_national_under-21_football_team

Only one player not based in England was named in the squad for the friendly against Denmark on 28 May 2012, and the 2013 UEFA U-21 qualification match against Italy on 4 June 2012.

celtictiger32

Father Damo wrote: »

Believe it or not there are people playing for Shels who did not spend all their life in Dublin. In fact you could argue that a player with no connection to North Dulin has, by your logic, even less right to play for Shels than a lad with an English accent who has supported Ireland all his life.
.

i think you need to understand the different requirements between international and club football

paddy978

Gavin shels wrote: »

Be awkward sending over lads with English accents to represent Ireland in the Olympics tbh, nearly as awkward as them representing us at the Euros and World Cup!

Why do you feel the need to bring this up at every opportunity? Very ironic because judging from your posts on the GAA forum you support Westmeath because your fathers from there yet you have a pop at English people who play for Ireland because their ancestors are from there.

grenache

citytillidie wrote: »

it is athletes choice from the north who they represent

yeah, that's what I said.

Father Damo

celtictiger32 wrote: »

i think you need to understand the different requirements between international and club football

He cant have it both ways. If he is such a purist for the game he should have a problem with non Northsiders playing for Shels just as he bemoans English born players playing for Ireland. Non local players for big clubs has always existed but only become commonplace as wages rose.

Danye

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

What I mean is that once you get past U17 level the majority of an Irish squad will be comprised of players in English setups, with little or no domestic club participation.

I know that. But what I was trying to say was that we should send a squad over of just Airtricity players and no English based players. It would be a fantastic opportunity for those players and might improve and raise more awareness about our own domestic league.

Cardinal Richelieu wrote: »

He means that most or practically all the Ireland Under21 Squad plays and is based in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland_national_under-21_football_team

Only one player not based in England was named in the squad for the friendly against Denmark on 28 May 2012, and the 2013 UEFA U-21 qualification match against Italy on 4 June 2012.

Yea I know that. But as I said above, I feel it would be good to just send a squad of home based players to the games. An Airtricty select kind of thing.

bohsman

Father Damo wrote: »

He cant have it both ways. If he is such a purist for the game he should have a problem with non Northsiders playing for Shels just as he bemoans English born players playing for Ireland. Non local players for big clubs has always existed but only become commonplace as wages rose.

Shels are very much a southside club no matter where their current home ground may be.

celtictiger32

Father Damo wrote: »

He cant have it both ways. If he is such a purist for the game he should have a problem with non Northsiders playing for Shels just as he bemoans English born players playing for Ireland. Non local players for big clubs has always existed but only become commonplace as wages rose.

the point is it doesnt matter where you come in regards to playing for a club. but you are actually supposed to be from the country you play for or technically (although i disagree with it) have a family connection

LuckyLloyd

Danye wrote: »

I know that. But what I was trying to say was that we should send a squad over of just Airtricity players and no English based players. It would be a fantastic opportunity for those players and might improve and raise more awareness about our own domestic league.

Yea I know that. But as I said above, I feel it would be good to just send a squad of home based players to the games. An Airtricty select kind of thing.

Totally disagree. If we were to qualify for an Olympic games the best available players should be selected and, with very rare exceptions, that will preclude domestic based players from selection. You play to win the game.

In any case, any Irish side qualifying for anything beyond the U17 age group won't be doing it with domestic players unless there is a seismic shift.

aidan24326

Why do they bother to even have a football competition in the Olympics? I see no point to it. A cobbled-together Great Britain team playing a couple of glorified friendlies against equally cobbled-togther teams from wherever else. Does anyone here actually care?

_blank_

aidan24326 wrote: »

Why do they bother to even have a football competition in the Olympics? I see no point to it. A cobbled-together Great Britain team playing a couple of glorified friendlies against equally cobbled-togther teams from wherever else. Does anyone here actually care?

The teams that aren't GB aren't "cobbled together" :rolleyes:

Pinturicchio

aidan24326 wrote: »

Why do they bother to even have a football competition in the Olympics? I see no point to it. A cobbled-together Great Britain team playing a couple of glorified friendlies against equally cobbled-togther teams from wherever else. Does anyone here actually care?

The Britain team is cobbled together, but the other countries care. Spain definitely do. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/22/david-de-gea-spain-olympic-history

ArmaniJeanss

aidan24326 wrote: »

Why do they bother to even have a football competition in the Olympics? I see no point to it. A cobbled-together Great Britain team playing a couple of glorified friendlies against equally cobbled-togther teams from wherever else. Does anyone here actually care?

The rest of the world appears to take it seriously and those who qualify put out strong teams (e.g., Messi and Argentina four years ago).

The UK media has always looked down at it, but then they seem to see all underage representation tournaments as an inconvenience.

citytillidie

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

The rest of the world appears to take it seriously and those who qualify put out strong teams (e.g., Messi and Argentina four years ago).

The UK media has always looked down at it, but then they seem to see all underage representation tournaments as an inconvenience.

The UK media i say dont take is seriously is because no team from the UK can really play in it. No way will a GB and NI team will be in the next Olympics

PeterTwo

Surely for the players involved, an Olympic gold medal is a very, very prestigious prize.

ollaetta

A League of Ireland XI represented us in the 1988 Olympic Games qualifiers. We were in a stinker of a group with France (the holders), Spain, Hungary and Sweden.

Sweden finished top and we were 4th ahead of France (!) on goal difference. We lost home and away to Sweden and Hungary, drew with Spain twice and won at home to France after drawing away.

The home matches were in Milltown, Tolka and twice in Dalymount. The squad was managed by Jim McLaughlin of Rovers.

I've the programmes somewhere and must look them up to see the full squad.

Danye

celtictiger32 wrote: »

the point is it doesnt matter where you come in regards to playing for a club. but you are actually supposed to be from the country you play for or technically (although i disagree with it) have a family connection

Who plays for Ireland that doesn't have a family connection? If they didn't have a connection to this country they wouldn't be available for selection.

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Totally disagree. If we were to qualify for an Olympic games the best available players should be selected and, with very rare exceptions, that will preclude domestic based players from selection. You play to win the game.

In any case, any Irish side qualifying for anything beyond the U17 age group won't be doing it with domestic players unless there is a seismic shift.

I agree that you play to win the game. I just feel it would be a great experience for home based players and a fantastic opportunity for them to grow and improve as players.

It would also raise much needed awareness of our own domestic league.

_blank_

Danye wrote: »

I agree that you play to win the game. I just feel it would be a great experience for home based players and a fantastic opportunity for them to grow and improve as players.

It would also raise much needed awareness of our own domestic league.

Are you even aware what happened the last time a "LoI XI" played in a match


It wouldn't "raise awareness" - every football fan in the country is aware there is a League of Ireland, it's just "the best fans in the world" don't care about it.

Sending a "select XI" out to play against some of the best young players in the world is not going to change that.

Do you support a LoI team yourself I wonder.

bohsman

Danye wrote: »

Who plays for Ireland that doesn't have a family connection? If they didn't have a connection to this country they wouldn't be available for selection.

Cascarino had none. I'm sure there are others.

celtictiger32

Danye wrote: »

Who plays for Ireland that doesn't have a family connection? If they didn't have a connection to this country they wouldn't be available for selection.

the point i was getting at was if a player has a great granny from ireland it doesnt mean hes irish, and therefore imo shouldnt play for ireland

Danye

Des wrote: »

Are you even aware what happened the last time a "LoI XI" played in a match


It wouldn't "raise awareness" - every football fan in the country is aware there is a League of Ireland, it's just "the best fans in the world" don't care about it.

Sending a "select XI" out to play against some of the best young players in the world is not going to change that.

Do you support a LoI team yourself I wonder.

Yea of course I'm aware :rolleyes: But because of one bad experience doesn't mean the idea of an LoI XI should be locked away never to be attempted again!

Yea the majority of people are aware of the league but it's their awareness of the league that's the problem. Bar stoolers and other types are full of the same old nonsense about the league being crap and that they would see a better game down at their (insert local park) Which is not the case.

There is some good talent in the league and some good young talent in the league and I feel if they went to a tournament like this and did reasonably well it might wake people up and say well maybe this old LoI ain't so bad after all.

In turn that would hopefully a much better appreciation and awareness of the good things about the league and might help to put more bums on seats.

IMO until the powers that be decide to do something like this our domestic league is always going to suffer. People will always belittle the league and the fact that teams don't seem to be progressing and clubs are falling into extinction they are always going to have this ammo to fire.

Also just to let you know I do support a LoI team myself. Not sure why you needed to ask that though?

Danye

bohsman wrote: »

Cascarino had none. I'm sure there are others.

Fair point. At the time of playing for Ireland though was it not believed that he was of Irish descent?

bohsman

Danye wrote: »

Fair point. At the time of playing for Ireland though was it not believed that he was of Irish descent?

Yea, made up by him, he only revealed it was bollox to sell some autobiographies so would make sense if there are others like him. Was it Morrison that was trying to decide between 3 different countries before deciding to play for Ireland? Not the way it should be.

Danye

bohsman wrote: »

Yea, made up by him, he only revealed it was bollox to sell some autobiographies so would make sense if there are others like him. Was it Morrison that was trying to decide between 3 different countries before deciding to play for Ireland? Not the way it should be.

I see. Not to up to date on the Cascarino scenario.

I agree with you completely! But if a player has a parent(s) or grand parent(s) from Ireland and wants to and is good enough to play for Ireland he should be available for selection.