Tom Cannon

What are we supposed to do with those players though - it would be ridiculous to give them senior callups, they'd be miles off our senior squad at the moment? If they're jumping to the NI senior squad at the first available opportunity and not waiting to see whether they're good enough for us in the future or not, the reality is that they mustn't consider themselves that Irish in any case. 

Or that they weren't approached but would not have made our U19 squads anyway?

so the onus is on the player to contact the national association? is this the same policy towards english born players? it’s ridiculous that we are not pro actively looking at irish players born in the Northern territory.

I'm just saying it's an avenue the player can pursue. These players don't have to play for NI if they want to play for the ROI. Nobody is putting a gun to their head.

The FAI are usually quite good at this to be fair.

the get go, the exact same way players from the 26 are afforded.

the fact that the IFA has basically a monopoly on northern players is madness. something big has to change 

A Nation Once Again - One League, One team. Unfortunately, I'd say we could still have 2 teams on the island even if a United Ireland came about, such is the lack of vision in both the IFA and the FAI, each protecting their own interests to the detriment of the beautiful game across the island. In my view the FAI should look at inviting a Belfast team to participate in the League of Ireland, a la Derry City, that might help as regards the player situation. There is also an obvious issue with European qualification, given each association has 4 spots.