Luck of the English?

  Yet again, international football has thrust its way back onto the scene, with the usual kerfuffle of last minute call offs, 'dream' last-minute call-ups and club managers generally getting their knickers in a twist about the players they usually order about being ordered about by other people instead.  Some people need to learn to share.

  Anyway, another favourite issue brought up during national service concerns how 'national' the national team is.  Before you think I'm about to go on some awkward BNP-esque political rant, I'm talking about naturalised footballers.  Stoke City's Liam Lawrence came out with some interesting comments today concerning this subject:

"We don't dislike these people, it's just some of the comments they come out with when they are saying they are juggling between Ireland and England- you just don't want it, do you?"

  Ah good old Liam Lawrence, promoting the traditional game, where you can only play for the country of your birth.  No time for part-timers like Amauri, Ozil, Senna, Evra, Lawrence....hang on....Lawrence?  That can't be right, can it?  Unfortunately, unless Nottingham is some rural village in County Donegal, then I'm afraid so.  The Irishman calling for tighter international qualification laws is a bit English underneath it all.

  In fact, of the 25 man squad called up by the Irish for this international break, an astonishing 13 were born outside the Republic.  Not very Irish at all.  It may be true that some of these 13 turned down their country of birth to play for Ireland, but how many of Lawrence's merry band of Irish cum Mancunian men honestly dreamed of pulling on the Irish green as a boy?

  International football is becoming more and more like a diluted version of club football.  Brazilians playing for Bulgaria, Uruguayans playing for Qatar, Argentines playing for Mexico....England looked to win the World Cup with an Italian at the helm while 8 of the other 32 employed foreign help too.  By all means, importing foreign knowledge can be a good thing, but it is getting to the point where you have to question the motives of these 'naturalised' footballers.

  The international game should about the love of your country.  It shouldn't be about boosting your CV. For every Liam Lawrence, there's a Stephen Hunt who misses out.  Of course, you could argue that Lawrence is the better player, but that's irrelevant.  The fact is that an Englishman is keeping an Irishman out of the Irish national team.  If you can't manage without being dependent on foreign help, then the country's football association must take a proper look at itself.

  The short term fix often harms the long term cure; instead of investing in better grassroots training for young Irish footballers, the FAI is paying Trapattoni over two million pounds per year to find out if Jermaine Pennant is allowed to play for the Emerald Isle.  Twenty odd years down the line, what will be the end result of all this?  Will the Irish squad have any Irishmen in it at all?  Most likely.  Although it'd have a heck of a lot more if the FAI decided to make the national team properly Irish.