Sir, – For many years, I have thoroughly enjoyed the all-island competitions in rugby, hockey, boxing, cricket and basketball.
Just when it looked like we could look forward, after nearly 100 years of division, to the possibility of an all-island football league, I read with dismay that the Irish Football Association (IFA) will not sanction any of the Northern Ireland clubs' participation in an initiative intended to make that happen, ("Lucid backing all-island league plan despite IFA stance", Soccer News, November 1st).
Contrast this with the approach from the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) which is, I understand, simply that it is up to the football clubs themselves to decide what is in their best interests, if and when a firm proposal emerges from the current process of consultation and analysis.
Emmet Malone makes the point that, whatever else emerges for consideration by the clubs, the financial projections from the Lucid group mean that even if they only reach a reasonable fraction of their target, this would still represent a major improvement for clubs in terms of financial rewards.
Accordingly, he is quite right to declare that the IFA’s decision to not even wait until the process has been completed “seems remarkable if viewed in solely football terms”.
If the reason is not football, then what can it be? One can only speculate that, at a time when our politicians North and South are striving to avoid “hard borders”, the most popular sport on the island will continue to suffer from a history guided by the need to exert control rather than promote ambition. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN Mc DONALD,
Terenure, Dublin 12.