ROY KEANE famously felt that being from Cork cost him Ireland underage caps – ‘dem up in Dublin’ got picked ahead of him.
And the regional imbalance remains.
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The Ireland Under-15 squad that faced Slovenia, Croatia and Lithuania in the past ten days is a good example with just four of the 20-strong panel not being Dublin-based.
And the only overseas member of those four, Aydin Aliyev, is Dublin-born and played for St Joseph’s before his family moved to Germany and he signed for Greuther Furth.
That side is also not an outlier; the last Ireland Under-21 squad included 11 players who have a Dublin club on their CV at underage level.
Of the 27 most recent debutants under Heimir Hallgrímsson, John O’Shea and through all of Stephen Kenny’s reign, 12 were Dubs, or played schoolboy football in Dublin.
Just six came through other FAI pathways with the remaining nine first kicking a ball outside the jurisdiction.
In the women’s game, it is even more pronounced with the granny rule providing the bulk of new caps – 14 of the 25 debuts handed out by Eileen Gleeson and Vera Pauw.
Eight were to players who cut their teeth in Dublin, and just three from outside the Pale; two fewer than the number of US-born stars to break into the Ireland set-up in that time.
Keane felt being in Cork was a disadvantage because Dublin-based coaches picked Dublin-based players.
And if that was ever the case – few would have argued the DDSL was not the strongest league at that time – it is not now, despite the continued imbalance.
That was apparent in a map produced by FAI Chief Football Officer (whoever created that jargony title should be run up a flagpole and wedgied from it) Marc Canham.
It highlighted the differences in development between counties.
That map is in the Football Pathways Plan though Canham produced it at a briefing again this week when saying more joined up thinking across the board is required.
He said: “It’s no wonder why our squad looks like it does at the moment, and based in a certain part of the country.
“Some parts of the country are not playing football between 8 and 11, some are playing biweekly games, some are playing only four and five months of the year. It’s completely inconsistent.
“It’s not just what our international coaches select at 14 and 15, you can trace it all the way back to this map, and what football has been delivered from the younger age groups leads to the type of player you get at 14 and 15.
“Our international coaches will always try to pick the best players at those age groups.
“If there’s a player from a certain part of the country, they won’t pick them just because they are from that area.
“While we need to make sure we select players from all parts of the country, it does start to come back what happens at a younger age.”
A lot of focus is naturally on pressuring the Government to fund academies so Ireland can develop great footballers in future.
But the Pathways Plan which proposes changes that cost little or nothing also needs backing or ‘Dem up in Dublin’ will continue to dominate football in Ireland.
