July 19 – A delegation from the Irish Football Association (IFA) will today travel to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne to lay out their case in the ongoing eligibility case against the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and FIFA, which Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington claims is exploiting them.
The IFA will argue before CAS that FIFA are going against their own statutes by allowing the FAI to select players born in Northern Ireland but who have no affiliation to the Republic.
FIFA insist that if a player holds an Irish passport then he qualifies to play for the Republic due to the Good Friday Agreement.
Worthington said: “We need to clarify the situation and I just hope common sense prevails.”
Under FIFA statutes a player can only perform for a country if he is born in that particular nation or his parents/grandparents come from that country or if he has lived for two years continuously on the territory of the relevant association.
But in February2009 , FIFA President Sepp Blatter insisted the Republic of Ireland are entitled to select any player born in Northern Ireland who holds an Irish passport due to the Good Friday Agreement - which the IFA claim is against FIFA’s own rules.
In recent years, Londonderry-born Darron Gibson, and Marc Wilson from Aghagallon, have decided that their senior international futures lie with the Republic of Ireland.
Worthington is upset that the IFA have put money and resources into their development and some other country reaps the benefit.
He said: ”I think the association is right and proper in what it is doing because no one else is looking after us.
“We have to look after ourselves.
“We produced, in Darron Gibson and Shane Duffy [who also opted to play for the Republic of Ireland], two very good players and two good players who will be around the top end of football for years to come.
“We put time and effort as an association into their international careers, as have the coaches who worked with them over the years.
“When the time comes, there is a loophole there that has been exploited and that’s not right.
“We need that dealt with firmly by people at the top end of football.”