Football Association of Ireland
Encyclopedia : F : FO : FOO : Football Association of Ireland
| Founded | 1921 |
| FIFA affiliation | 1923 |
| UEFA affiliation | 1958 |
| President David Blood | |
| Coach Steve Staunton (Men's) Noel King (Women's) | |
History
The FAI was formed in 1921 when the Leinster Football Association and the Munster Football Association withdrew from the IFA after a series of disputes about the alleged Belfast bias of the IFA. The IFA had been founded in 1880 in Belfast as the governing body for football on the island of Ireland, which was then a single part ("Home Nation") of the United Kingdom. Tensions were exacerbated by the Irish War of Independence of 1919-21, which disrupted contact between northern and southern clubs. The Belfast members were mainly Unionist, while the Dublin members were largely Nationalist.Both bodies initially claimed to represent the entire island. The split between Southern Ireland (which in 1922 became the Irish Free State) and Northern Ireland did not produce a split in the governing bodies of other sports, such as the Irish Rugby Football Union. The Falls League, based in the Falls Road of nationalist West Belfast, affiliated to the FAI, and from there Alton United won the FAI Cup in 1923. However, when the FAI applied to join FIFA in 1923, it was admitted as the FAIFS (Football Association of the Irish Free State) based on a 26-county jurisdiction. This jurisdiction remained until Derry City FC (from Northern Ireland) were given an exemption, by agreement of FIFA and the IFA, to join the League of Ireland in 1985. A final major attempt at reconciling the two bodies failed in 1924, although informal contacts persisted for several decades. The name Football Association of Ireland was readopted in 1936, in anticipation of the change of the state's name in the pending Constitution of Ireland.
The limit of territorial jurisdiction was not reflected in the selection of international sides. A number of players played for both the FAI "Ireland" (against FIFA members from mainland Europe) and the IFA "Ireland" (in the British Home Championship, whose members had withdrawn from FIFA in 1920). Shortly after the IFA rejoined FIFA in 1946, the FAI stopped selecting Northern players. The IFA stopped selecting southern players after the FAI complained to FIFA in 1950.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the FAI had an aggressive policy of recruiting talented players in the Irish diaspora who were eligible for Irish citizenship to play for the national team. Many of them became core players during the national team's rise to respectability in that period, including John Aldridge, Mick McCarthy and Ray Houghton.
Activity
At its foundation, the FAI formed a league championship, the Football League of Ireland, and established a FAI Cup competition along the lines of the FA Cup and Scottish Cup competitions. A second cup competition was formed in 1974 called the FAI League Cup. As a measure of the competitiveness of domestic football only one League of Ireland club (Derry City in 1989) has ever won the league championship, the FAI Cup, and the FAI League Cup in the same season.The Setanta Cup was inaugurated in 2005 as cross-border competition between clubs from the League of Ireland from the Republic of Ireland and the Irish League from Northern Ireland.
See also
External links
| Irish Sport |
|---|
| Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) > Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) |
| Irish Football Association (IFA) > Football Association of Ireland (FAI) |
| Association Football in Ireland |
|---|
| Northern Ireland Irish Football Association - Northern Ireland national football team>National Team - Football League |
| Republic of Ireland Football Association of Ireland - Republic of Ireland national football team>National Team - Football League |
| Ireland>Combined Setanta Sports Cup |
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