James McCleans’ Dubious Excuse
Yesterday the media carried a story where former Northern Ireland international Keith Gillespie criticised James McClean for choosing to represent the Republic of Ireland rather than his native Northern Ireland. Gillespie believes that McClean is using his religion as an excuse—and a not very well disguised one—not to play for the country of his birth. McClean had previously stated that he had no desire to play for Northern Ireland because he felt uncomfortable playing in front of a Union Jack and Ulster flag waving crowd. Never mind that both flags are representative of the land he was born in and had no problem in representing through all the International set-ups right up to Under 21 level. Gillespie makes the point that although he accepts that there is a minority amongst the Northern Ireland fans who may be sectarian the vast majority of supporters welcome and in many cases embrace players irrespective of their religion. He cites former players who achieved hero status—players like Pat Jennings—Gerry Armstrong—Mal Donaghy—John O’Neill. There are many more examples of course but we need to be careful that we don’t fall into the trap of making it an issue over and above the shenanigans currently taking place.
There is a problem here—and a quite simple one. As it stands James McClean is absolutely within his rights to choose whichever country he wants to play for. The rules clearly state that any footballer can pick either the North or South when it comes to representing his country. It seems that all that is required is to be the owner of a passport from both of the respective countries. And of course young McClean isn’t the first—and is unlikely to be the last—person to “defect” as Keith Gillespie correctly pointed out. In recent years cases like Darren Gibson and the young Everton player Shane Duffy highlighted the dilemma facing the Irish Football Association. In 1993 the then Manchester City centre back Alan Kernaghan chose to represent the Republic when he had actually been brought up in Bangor, County Down. The difference here was that at that time the Irish Football Association didn’t allow players to represent Northern Ireland if they or their parents hadn’t been born here. Kernaghan and his parents were actually born in England although they lived in Bangor since Kernaghan was four years old.
The press and media have made much of Keith Gillespie’s claim that McClean is a defector and some feel that he is being a little bit extravagant in his claims. But a closer look at the facts lends weight to the point Gillespie has made. Twenty three year old McClean was born in the Creggan area of Londonderry—which we all know is Northern Irelands second city. As a young player at Trojans and then at Institute McClean was lucky enough to be selected to represent his country at Under-18 level. He progressed—with the excellent coaching staff employed by the IFA assisting along the way—to Under-21 level, where he played a total of 7 times during 2009/2010. The amount of effort—and expense– that is put into coaching and nurturing all of these young players is considerable and should not be disregarded. For young men like McClean to proceed to a stage where the next move is a full cap, before jumping ship is nothing short of scandalous and it is something that needs to be addressed. At what stage exactly did he realise that he was playing for the “wrong” country? Obviously if there is a system in place that can be bucked it will happen again and McClean won’t be the last to defect. Northern Ireland are going through a tough time at present in footballing terms and need to nurture and progress all the young talent at their disposal. Now is the time for FIFA to act and bring to an end this unacceptable and ludicrous practice. However, knowing the track record of both Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini on administration issues this outcome is highly unlikely.
