Wednesday, December 21, 2005
'What If'? Wednesday - All-Ireland team
This is an issue that I have once again found myself debating so I felt it would be a good idea to make a thread about it and to pose the following question to all of you...What if we had an all-Ireland football team?
In my opinion, an all-Ireland football team is the way to go. The late great George Best was the best known advocate for an all-Ireland team. While a few politicians north and south have mooted the idea, nothing concrete seems to happen on the issue.
Let's look at this objectively though...
- The island of Ireland has a population of just under 6 million people when combined. If we established an all-Ireland team, we would be able to pool our resources together and achieve far greater things than we have done separately.
- There is an all-Ireland team for lots and lots of sports. Rugby and cricket are two such examples and the Irish rugby and cricket teams have both had quite a bit of success in recent times.
- There are a horrible set of bigots which disgrace the NI fanbase. Admittedly these people are a minority but they haven't gone away you know. It is my view that the IFA could do more to weed out these bigots and make the team inclusive towards nationalists. However, even though a recent think tank recommended scrapping God Save The Queen as the anthem for the NI team, (shows you their idea of inclusiveness!) the IFA decided to REJECT this idea and RETAIN GSTQ. In other words, the message is that northern nationalists aren't welcome to support the NI team. Of course, an all-Ireland team would have the support of EVERYBODY.
- It might help relations in the North. Sport can help bring people together. If an all-Ireland football team had the chance to go to a World Cup tournnament, something I think would be quite possible, then the whole country would be delighted. North and south.
- It would potentially see the end of the inept, incompetent boobs who run the FAI. That would please me and I'm sure it would please most Irish fans.
This is too much of a good opportunity to pass up. I want some brave TDs out there to start bringing this issue up with the Sports Minister so he too can bring it up with his British counterpart.
United we stand, divided we fall. And in the current World Campaign, both Irish teams fell.
An all-Ireland team is the way to go. Let's see it happen!
# posted by United Irelander @ 2:15 AM 
© 2008 United Irelander.
