parsforlife Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 anyone from Northern Ireland can play for the Republic under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. The fact fifa allows this is farcical imo, but as they do we should probably look at getting a similar deal with the spanish fa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Macleod has been injured for pretty much his whole Brentford career. Think he only started training properly again in the last month or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chlamydia Kid Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Footballers on the off season were treated as kids, they were given heart rate monitors to monitor their training and specific drills to complete to keep their fitness ticking over. But when they returned from their summer break they'd to submit the monitors and the coaches would check they had done the training they were supposed to do. I just couldn't see boxers or MMA fighters or any other athletes being required to prove they had done their training, they would accept responsibility their own fitness and get it done. Footballers tended to have a mindset that if they could evade training then they would. Pathetic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Here are the stats from the FIFA Big Count 2010... As you can see we've far fewer players than Poland or Eire in organised football but more clubs. Germany Reg'd Players ... 6,308,946 Football Clubs ... 26,837 Poland Reg'd Players ... 656,964 Football Clubs ... 5,891 Eire Reg'd Players ... 252,844 Football Clubs ... 5,828 Scotland Reg'd Players ... 111,089 Football Clubs ... 6,727 Georgia Reg'd Players ... 26,786 Football Clubs ... 209 It's longer ago but the FIFA Big Count 2006 carried more detail, in so far as it broke things down into Adult and Youth, and Teams as well as Clubs. Germany Adult Pros ... 864 Adult Ams ... 4,221,170 Reg'd Youth ... 2,081,912 Clubs ... 25,922 Teams ... 170,480 Poland Adult Pros ... 1,202 Adult Ams ... 465,854 Reg'd Youth ... 185,808 Clubs ... 5,690 Teams ... 13,245 Eire Adult Pros ... 476 Adult Ams ... 77,870 Reg'd Youth ... 174,498 Clubs ... 5,629 Teams ... 15,025 Scotland Adult Pros ... 4,132 Adult Ams ... 39,234 Reg'd Youth ... 67,123 Clubs ... 6,600 Teams ... 8,200 Georgia Adult Pros ... 1,279 Adult Ams ... 1,137 Reg'd Youth ... 23,990 Clubs ... 202 Teams ... 522 Anyone who looks at a country like Eire and thinks we should be streets ahead of them should take a look at those figures and perhaps think again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Tennis Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 It's interesting that we have similar numbers of clubs to Eire, but half as many teams and fewer than half as many registered players. No surprise that we've many more professionals, given the tiers of our game, but surprised to see the low Polish and German figures for this. I like to think that participation must be improving, given the huge advance in facilities here, even in just the last decade. It's strange though to see that so few here play, given the ubiquity of the sport. I'd be slightly suspicious of some of the results in that the headings might not represent quite the same thing everywhere. It's sobering to see how we compare to Ireland in this regard though. I'd just assumed, perhaps naively, that our levels of obsession were at least broadly reflected in participation, as well as in attendance. It's simplistic to relate this to our obesity issues of course, but that doesn't necessarily mean that no link exists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdTheDuck Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Here are the stats from the FIFA Big Count 2010... As you can see we've far fewer players than Poland or Eire in organised football but more clubs. Germany Reg'd Players ... 6,308,946 Football Clubs ... 26,837 Poland Reg'd Players ... 656,964 Football Clubs ... 5,891 Eire Reg'd Players ... 252,844 Football Clubs ... 5,828 Scotland Reg'd Players ... 111,089 Football Clubs ... 6,727 Georgia Reg'd Players ... 26,786 Football Clubs ... 209 It's longer ago but the FIFA Big Count 2006 carried more detail, in so far as it broke things down into Adult and Youth, and Teams as well as Clubs. Germany Adult Pros ... 864 Adult Ams ... 4,221,170 Reg'd Youth ... 2,081,912 Clubs ... 25,922 Teams ... 170,480 Poland Adult Pros ... 1,202 Adult Ams ... 465,854 Reg'd Youth ... 185,808 Clubs ... 5,690 Teams ... 13,245 Eire Adult Pros ... 476 Adult Ams ... 77,870 Reg'd Youth ... 174,498 Clubs ... 5,629 Teams ... 15,025 Scotland Adult Pros ... 4,132 Adult Ams ... 39,234 Reg'd Youth ... 67,123 Clubs ... 6,600 Teams ... 8,200 Georgia Adult Pros ... 1,279 Adult Ams ... 1,137 Reg'd Youth ... 23,990 Clubs ... 202 Teams ... 522 Anyone who looks at a country like Eire and thinks we should be streets ahead of them should take a look at those figures and perhaps think again. but they don't of course, they look at the respective leagues and club "histories" and make judgements based on that, because Dunfermline got to a European semi final in 1968 we should be better than Eire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 If we were comparing leagues it would be a totally different matter, of course... Their league has low attendances and corresponding finance, quality of players, competition, recruitment from overseas, and so forth. However the basic foundation of any national team is the pool of people participating in the sport. Fewer people play here, kids and adults. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Tennis Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 However the basic foundation of any national team is the pool of people participating in the sport. Fewer people play here, kids and adults. Which begs the question: Why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gav-ffc Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 We don't have a world class player like bale or have a piss easy group like Northern Ireland. If we had Norn Irelands group we would have qualified easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Which begs the question: Why? That's the question. Culture change? Society? Laziness? Post-industrialism? We love watching it, but don't play it as much as many others. Maybe we never did, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mizfit Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 The problem with Bale is he's scored 6 of Wales goals and assisted with the other couple. Would they be able to cope if he was unavailable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Co.Down Hibee Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 We don't have a world class player like bale or have a piss easy group like Northern Ireland. If we had Norn Irelands group we would have qualified easily. based on what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denltfc Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 The Irish figures have been queried before as the FAI consider 5 a side and kick abouts as participation. Growing up in Ireland we rarely played Gaelic outside of the GAA club but after school we would play football or indoor football. Also outside of Dublin and the other cities football is not as well organised but every parish and half parish has a GAA team with teams from u6 to senior. The Irish senior team is heavily reliant on Dublin for players or the disapora. If you look at the Irish born players the other night that started only O'Shea and Given not dubs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 The Irish figures have been queried before as the FAI consider 5 a side and kick abouts as participation. Growing up in Ireland we rarely played Gaelic outside of the GAA club but after school we would play football or indoor football. Also outside of Dublin and the other cities football is not as well organised but every parish and half parish has a GAA team with teams from u6 to senior. The Irish senior team is heavily reliant on Dublin for players or the disapora. If you look at the Irish born players the other night that started only O'Shea and Given not dubs Possibly, however even adding estimated Unregistered* players - where we claim many more - they're still slightly ahead (1k). * "Army, Schools, Universities, Street Football" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DA Baracus Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 based on what? Exactly. Assuming we win tonight, that will be just 1 away win and only 5 points from a possible 15. That's abysmal form. If we couldn't even get a point in Georgia, would we have got even a point in Greece, Romania, Hungary or Finland? Our away form is pretty awful and there is huge scope for messing up those games, especially given our mentality and how we usually play in away fixtures. Of course we could have won them; there's no way of knowing. Our group wasn't a particularly hard one in terms of challenging for 2nd or at least looking for a play off place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Debbie Harry Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Exactly. Assuming we win tonight, that will be just 1 away win and only 5 points from a possible 15. That's abysmal form. If we couldn't even get a point in Georgia, would we have got even a point in Greece, Romania, Hungary or Finland? Our away form is pretty awful and there is huge scope for messing up those games, especially given our mentality and how we usually play in away fixtures. Of course we could have won them; there's no way of knowing. Our group wasn't a particularly hard one in terms of challenging for 2nd or at least looking for a play off place. In terms of away points, only Germany (before tonight) has beaten any other of the top 4 placed teams away from home thus far, its been a tight group over the piece. Losing in Georgia was obviously the main f**k up whilst all our rivals succeeded there. Perhaps not taking points off Germany while others have is of more importance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogmc Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 I think that you could never have touched a rugby ball until you were at high school and take the game up late and still be able to potentially perform at a decent level, same goes for boxing and other sports as the skill level required to survive isn't so intricate as football. If you hadn't kicked a ball and took up football at even the age of 8 or 9 you would never catch up. That isn't said to denigrate rugby or boxing, just that there is a different ratio of skill to athleticism required in football, though Mayweather and the elite rugby boys are every bit as skillful as the likes of Aguero... I've seen the dedication of others in different sports like you say though and it is incomparable to football Tbf England just tried to parachute a player in to their side who was a great athlete from a vaguely similar sport and he was totallyshown up....virtually no decent players in rugby will have started after the age of ten. The sru are now working really hard on primary school age developmentto try to catch up with sh kids who get a ball in their hand from virtually walking age. I know from the outside that it looks like big blokes colliding with each other but the technical side is far more complex than it looks. I did both sports until I was 16 (albeit my footy was with the old Inverness caley rather than a full time club) and the skills work dominated far more in my rugby training than football. I do think more on topic tho we have issues with fitness levels in Scottish football....mind hearts playing spurs few seasons back and whilst the skill level gap was big, the gaps in pace and fitness were frightening. Against Germany fletcher tried to sprint to press their cbs a few times and they literally strolled away from him. We still have a romantic notion of a jinky winger scooshing past defenders having drunk 14pts the night before and shagged page 3 lass at half time.....we need a huge turnaroundin our culture of development. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogmc Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Do we have any figures for the ratio of kids who play til their teens then give up?? I know their will b cultural issues like finding girls/booze etc....but how many give up cos the last youth coach was a dick more interested in the u11 league trophy than letting kids have game time, kids knowing that if they haven't been signed by 13 they're never gonna play at senior level, being poached by other sports like cycling rugby etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gav-ffc Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 based on what? Romania < Germany Hungary < Poland Finland < Ireland Faroe Island < Georgia Greece are in turmoil and i would expect us to take more points from the teams above than the group we have. Put it this way would Northern Ireland come top of our group? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CowdenConvert Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Tbf England just tried to parachute a player in to their side who was a great athlete from a vaguely similar sport and he was totallyshown up....virtually no decent players in rugby will have started after the age of ten.I went to high school with future scotland internationals in both football and rugby. The footballer wasn't even considered the best player in our year whereas the rugby player was streets better than anyone else. We'd all been kicking a football from when we could walk so there were plenty decent footballers about but he was the only guy playing rugby from a young age and it showed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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