Northern Ireland’s Euro-dream ends…
LAST night’s disappointment for Northern Ireland’s Euro 2008 hopes was tempered by the good news that England (in a softer group) also failed to go through. Bye bye, McLaren. Ah well, at least NI can hold their heads high – particularly Healy, with his record 13 goals. (It wasn’t that long ago we were wondering if NI could score a single goal in 13 games!) Still, how many years is it since none of the UK or Ireland teams went through to the next stage? And someone mentioned to me that the IFA’s ‘never-on-a-Sunday’ rule had a narrow escape at the weekend – if the waterlogged pitch had been declared unplayable on the Saturday, apparently UEFA would have forced the game to be played the following day. Dunno if it’s true, maybe the anoraks can help…
JEB, there was an announcement some time back that qualifying for the next tournament would be based on the rankings.
“After initially proposing to use a similar system to recent World Cup and European Championship qualification (based on results across the previous two European qualification cycles), the UEFA Executive Committee decided on 27 September 2007 at its meeting in Istanbul that seeding for the qualifiers would be based on FIFA World Rankings, in accordance with the FIFA World Cup regulations (which note that where teams are ranked on “performance” criteria, the FIFA World Rankings must be used).”
Looking at the coefficients applied from the Euro qualifiers it looks like OWC will be in pot 4, not bad considering we where in pot 6 for the Euro campaign.
Wales may still be placed in pot 5 if FIFA decide not to include the poor run of results from Austria as their last competitive match was against NI two years ago this is because there is a smaller points ratio for non competitive matches. In fact Austria might well find themselves in pot 3 at the expense of either Finland or ROI who are borderline. This would then put Hungary down to pot five.
For what it´s worth my ideal group would be.
Spain
Scotland
Belgium
Northern Ireland
Hungary
Andorra
Again the potential to surprise and of course some good trips away.
Looks like I was wrong, the Euro coefficients will not apply, except in the cases of Austria and Switzerland who have not played a competitive game for 2 years.
As I don´t fully understand German, I can´t totally translate the offical Austrian FA website, but it looks as if their pot placing will be determined by their ranking prior to the start of the Euro 2008 campaign. This would have implications for teams in pot 3. NI are ranked 32 in the world with ROI ranked 35, this could see ROI moved to pot 4. I hope not I hasten to add.
Yes..lets have a British Championship next summer..
the Republic can play with themselves!!
well if you want a british championship, that would mean excluding the ‘GAWA’, as the north isn’t british.
‘Yes..lets have a British Championship next summer..’
At least it will mean the Wales and Scotland fans can boo the same anthem twice !
I thought that that the IFA had signed up to a lucrative tournament in the far east. I have no doubt that at this moment in time the English FA would be very interested in resurecting the old British Championship considering their lack of success against other teams from the same area of the FIFA rankings.
RS last time I checked Northern Ireland was spending british currency and was there certainly is a part of my Birish passport that said “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Has there been a snap referendum while I was eatting my dinner and watching X Factor?
so pounder you define your nationality through monetary terms, strange, very strange. british passport eh, would that be the same one nepalese ghurkas are eligible for? as isaid beofre and you seem unable to digest, the north of Ireland is officially not british.
RS -
You should really do a bit of research.
Northern Ireland won the last British Championship, in 1984. (and as such are reigning British champions…)
Ireland, and then Northern Ireland, played in every British Championship series from 1884 to 1984.
and what mike? sure Israel sings in the Eurovision song contest.
republican is clearly stoned lol. ignore the trolls , they will go away you know lol.
that was a well put and very convincing counter-argument there againstthehead. nice one.
RS -
“and what mike? sure Israel sings in the Eurovision song contest.”
‘And what’, you say? You really don’t get it?
The fact that we played in every British Championship series, spanning 100 years, highlughts the complete and utter pointlessness and redundanct of your statement:
“well if you want a british championship, that would mean excluding the ‘GAWA’, as the north isn’t british.”
And that’s without even getting into the fact the politically, your claim is wrong anyway.
What exactly was your point is making such a fatuous statement? Are you at all interested in the football discussion.
The fact that you so blithely dismiss the fact that Northern Ireland did indeed play in the British Championships suggests strongly that you had no interest in the footballing discussion beyond trolling to make a tenuous and inaccurate political ‘point’.