IFA need to look closer to home

Even by recent standards, this has not been a good week for the Irish Football Association. Defeat in a B friendly against Wales was bad enough, but events in the run-up to that game did the real damage as the vexed issue of qualification requirements for prospective Northern Ireland players was opened up yet again. This remains one of the most contentious issues facing football here and threatens to strangle any of the IFA's ambitious development plans.

First, a potted history lesson. Relations between the IFA and their southern counterparts at the FAI have never been over-friendly in the second half of this century. Very adept at protecting their own interests, both have deftly skated around the issue of amalgamation into a one island team. More recently matters were not helped by the good ship Republic sailing to both Italia '90 and US '94 while the Northern Ireland team was still firmly marooned in port.

Enthusiasm for those World Cup adventures by the Republic was rather muted in large sections of the community here. Much of the motivation may have been good, old-fashioned jealousy but it also manifested itself in mutterings about over-exploitation of the eligibility rule in the selection of players like Ray Houghton and Tony Cascarino. Fast forward through the decade to Lawrie McMenemy's nascent tenure in charge of the Northern Ireland team. McMenemy inherited a set-up that was high on public relations profile but desperately low on results, as failure to qualify for a major finals since 1986 proved. He clearly knew his way around the English and international scenes and immediately set about combing the lower divisions for the striking talent so cruelly exposed by the ease with which Iain Dowie continues to get international recognition. The search began inauspiciously with both Dele Adebola of Birmingham City and David Johnson of Ipswich Town expressing the customary surprise and joy at being named in a squad, only to withdraw a few days later when other international associations for which they were qualified - Nigeria and England respectively - declared an interest. There was clearly a change of attitude given the fact that Adebola was qualified only on the basis that as a naturalised Briton he could play for any of the "home" countries. It was all a far cry from the patriotic days of Billy Bingham et al.

All had gone quiet on the trawl for players until the middle of last month. The local soccer journos seized on the naming of Kilmarnock midfielder Gary Holt in the squad for the B game against Wales. Holt gave a raft of interviews proclaiming that his native Scotland was his first love, but that if international recognition was not forthcoming from there he was more than happy to give Northern Ireland a go. Details were less readily available about his Northern Ireland credentials - there were some vague references to the "granny rule" but none of the journalists probed much deeper.

Nor, it appears, did anyone at the IFA because at the beginning of last week Holt was withdrawn from the B squad. It was "discovered" that while his stepfather was from Co Down, his birth parents were Scottish and the player had no Northern Irish blood relatives. The IFA claimed it had been misled with regard to Holt's parentage qualifications, but the player and his manager at Kilmarnock, Bobby Williamson, had a different story to tell. "Gary is totally blameless," said Williamson. "We were aware there might be a problem right from day one. Every time we sent the IFA documentation they were clearly aware of the facts." Pressed as to whether he felt Holt was owed an apology over the handling of the affair, Williamson was curt and to the point. "I'm sure if they've got anything about them they should do."

THE GARY HOLT saga completes a difficult month for the IFA. It follows the storm of protest provoked by letter from an IFA official to Brian Lagan, a young Derry-born player currently on the books at Leeds United. Lagan, claiming he had been repeatedly ignored by the Northern Ireland youth set-up, declared for the Republic late last year. In doing so he joined a steady trickle of Northern-born players who, with unquestionable entitlement, decided to throw their lot in with Brian Kerr and the Republic of Ireland.

The IFA cried foul and Lagan subsequently received a letter asking if "religion had any influence on your career" and the decision to opt for the Republic. That the letter had strayed into the perilous territory of sport and religious and political affiliation was bad enough. That it had been written by the newly-appointed Community Relations Officer at the IFA, whose clear remit is to broaden the appeal of football here, was something close to disaster.

The IFA and FAI then held a frosty meeting in Belfast from which, rather predictably, both took different things. IFA president Jim Boyce felt he had been given an assurance that the FAI would not now approach players born in Northern Ireland (conveniently ignoring, perhaps, the freedom of the players to approach the FAI themselves). For their part the FAI was quite clear that there was nothing preventing a young player with Irish citizenship declaring for them.

The number of young players who will find themselves caught up in this very public spat is unlikely to be large - the treatment meted out to Alan Kernaghan on his visits to Windsor Park could make most of them think twice before taking the plunge. That, though, doesn't make life any easier for those that do.

IFA officials can argue that they are simply protecting their own interests and those of future international teams - no country in the world would be comfortable with quality players being lost to a neighbour. But instead of feeding anti-FAI stories into the media and flexing their muscle, those same officials would be better served asking themselves a few pertinent questions and addressing some of the underlying issues.

Why is there a perception among young Catholic boys that they are being overlooked in the selection of various Northern Ireland youth sides? Why is it that to play for certain clubs here seems to exclude you from consideration? Even more starkly, why do the boys who are approached by the FAI show so little loyalty and affinity for their `home' team and readily rush into the welcoming arms of a `foreign' association.

The Gary Holt affair and the youths situation are further proof of the muddle the IFA has got itself into with qualification of players. It needs to clarify the position both in its own policy and for the public at large. Instead of moaning like bitter, world-weary fishermen about the "ones that got away", the IFA should be trying to find out why young, talented players are swimming just as hard as they can in the other direction.