4 hours Ago
THE INCLUSION OF James Abankwah in the upcoming senior Republic of Ireland men’s squad means there are five players in Heimir Hallgrimsson’s ranks who began their careers in the League of Ireland. Gavin Bazunu was training with the Shamrock Rovers first team from the age of 14 and made his debut a couple of years later, quickly earning a move to Manchester City who allowed him complete his Leaving Certificate while in England. Seven years have passed since that deal – which has earned the Hoops in the region of €5 million due to international add-ons that were quickly triggered as well as a sell-on clause when Southampton bought him for close to €18m.
Evan Ferguson was another around the Bohemians ranks in his early teens, coming to prominence when he played in a friendly against Chelsea when he was also just 14. Brighton beat off competition to bring him across and while he was trumpeted by club owner Tony Bloom as a future €100m player he will join the Ireland camp this weekend as a player still trying to rediscover form and confidence on loan at West Ham United. Sinclair Armstrong never really came onto the radar at the same level of Bazunu or Ferguson before he departed Rovers, joining Queens Park Rangers as a raw teenager in 2020 before Bristol City prised him away.
Jake O’Brien grew up player hurling in Youghal and was also a champion amateur boxer before progressing through Cork City’s academy ranks and into the senior set-up. Crystal Palace signed the towering centre back a few months before his 20th birthday in February 2021, but only on a loan deal initially. It became permanent that summer and his very modern transfer to Lyon resulted in Everton paying a reported €20m for him last year.
Only since David Moyes replaced Sean Dyche has he forced his way into the starting XI and, most likely, Hallgrimsson’s as well. Abankwah turned 21 in January and is the second youngest of the quintet after Ferguson. The centre back grew up in Lucan, Co.
Dublin before moving to Letterkenny and then Longford, when he became a fixture in the St Pat’s academy. He is the only one of those five players to win senior silverware in the League of Ireland. He lifted the FAI Cup in 2021 when his move to Serie A side Udinese had already been arranged.
Their stories are their own and, for the time being, they remain in the minority in the current Ireland squad. But not for long. By now, everyone should be aware that Brexit means that will change in the coming years.
It has to. Ireland’s best players are no longer able to leave these shores for Britain until they are 18. Europe, of course, still offers a route away but, as evidenced by the 23-man squad named later that afternoon, the LOI impact is growing.
More than half of the players named by Jim Crawford started their careers here, 14 players coming from the likes of Sligo Rovers, Galway United, Cobh Ramblers, Cork City, Bray Wanderers, Bohemians, Shelbourne and St Patrick’s Athletic. Mason Melia, still just 17, is one of them and he will leave the Saints for Tottenham Hotspur in a €2m move at the end of this Premier Division season. Ensuring the academy system in the League of Ireland is properly supported is paramount to the future success of the international teams.
It’s why the FAI has been in dialogue with the Government for more than 18 months, impressing upon them the need for funding and doing so sufficiently to ensure it did at least warrant inclusion in the most recent programme for Government. And then we have a 10-day period like this one, which has only created confusion and deepened a rift between the FAI and League of Ireland clubs. When that clubs were beginning the process of examining a breakaway from the association, reactions were varied.
Some supported it wildly and other wondered could it even be possible. But this is not a step that will be taken lightly or without due diligence, and the stance from the Premier Clubs Alliance this week in response to concerns they raised with the FAI relating to their new centralised training programme for 250 of the best 14 to 17-year-olds is not one taken in a fit of pique. The 10 clubs put on a united front and unanimously decided that none of their players would be released to take part in what they described as a “poorly conceived” idea.
They had invited the FAI’s chief football officer, Marc Canham, and assistant director of football Shane Robinson to present the plan in more detail last week and, after hearing them out, That triggered a reaction at Wednesday’s meeting of the National League Committee (NLC) – the League of Ireland’s governing body – to issue a formal request to the FAI for all details of plans and talks with Government relating to academy funding. Invoking the Freedom of Information Act is a step clubs will take if that detail is not forthcoming. After Minster for Sport Patrick O’Donovan already admitted in recent weeks that funding for academies was “not imminent”, the timing of the FAI’s new centralised coaching plan has raised eye brows.
Not least because clubs were not aware it was in the pipeline and even some of those working inside the relevant FAI departments were taken aback. This is a crucial juncture. On one hand there are clubs who do not feel that the FAI actually have superior coaches in place to offer more than what they can on a consistent basis.
The new FAI plan is for 45 days of the year during school holidays. With any kind of Government funding already increasingly likely to be delayed, this clash between clubs and the FAI will fill a void in the discussion. The PCA cited in their letter that “communication and engagement” was “poor at best”, another strand to the distrust that is central to the rift over how funding can be secured and, crucially, how it is utilised.
It’s understood that the FAI’s new centralised plan will cost €250,000 annually, a large saving on the €700,000 that went towards the recently-scrapped Emerging Talent Programme. When Rovers boss Stephen Bradley spoke about the “disconnect” between the senior men’s team and the League of Ireland, it was before this fracture came to the surface. Keeping academy funding at the forefront of the agenda is vital, actually securing the money to build on resources already in place is most important of all.
It’s a topic that cannot be allowed slip through the cracks because Irish football – and Irish footballers – will be the ones to suffer the consequences..
