Republic of Ireland national football team

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The Republic of Ireland national football team is the national football team of the Republic of Ireland and is governed by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI). The FAI were founded on June 1 1921, as the Football Association of the Irish Free State. The first international game involving the Irish team took place in Turin, Italy in in March 1926. Though they had been involved in international competition since the 1930's, the team did not qualify for any international tournaments until Euro 88 in Germany. That was followed by reaching the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup. The Irish also reached the second round in the 1994 and 2002 World Cups.

The FAI announced on October 17 2005 that the contract of manager Brian Kerr would not be renewed following elimination from the 2006 World Cup Qualifiers. On 9 January 2006 he was replaced by Steve Staunton, who will be mentored until Euro 2008 by Sir Bobby Robson.

Contents 1 Stadium 2 History in major tournaments 2.1 World Cup record 2.2 European Championships record 3 Notable past players 4 Current squad 5 Famous games 5.1 Infamous games 6 Managers 7 References 8 External links

Stadium

The Republic of Ireland play their home matches at Lansdowne Road, Dublin. The first game played there was a friendly against Italy in 1971. The ground is due for redevelopment between 2007 and 2009 which will entail the Republic playing home games at Croke Park during reconstruction. The all seater new stadium will increase seated capacity for competitive games from 36,000 to 50,000.

Prior to the 1980s, the Republic of Ireland played most home games at Dalymount Park but progressively more games were played at Lansdowne following a safety review which reduced Dalymount's capacity and the last international match to be played there was against Morocco in 1990. The Republic of Ireland has also played home matches in Tolka Park (twice) and the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin as well in Cork venues Mardyke and Flower Lodge.

History in major tournaments

See comprehensive article: Republic of Ireland national football team - record in major tournaments

World Cup record

• 1930 - Did not enter
• 1934-1986 Did not qualify
• 1990 - Quarter-finals
• 1994 - Round of 16
• 1998 - Did not qualify
• 2002 - Round of 16
• 2006 - Did not qualify

European Championships record

• 1960-1984 - Did not qualify
• 1988 - Round 1
• 1992-2004 - Did not qualify

Notable past players

John Aldridge Packie Bonner Liam Brady Shay Brennan Tony Cascarino Tony Dunne Eamon Dunphy

Patsy Gallacher John Giles Don Givens Chris Hughton Ray Houghton Charlie Hurley Denis Irwin

Roy Keane Bill Lacey Mark Lawrenson Mick McCarthy Paul McGrath Alan McLoughlin Kevin Moran David O'Leary

Terry Phelan Niall Quinn Steve Staunton Frank Stapleton Liam Whelan Ronnie Whelan Gary Kelly

Current squad

Clubs are English except where noted.

Goalkeepers Shay Given (Newcastle United) Wayne Henderson (Brighton & Hove Albion) Nick Colgan (Barnsley) Paddy Kenny (Sheffield United) Defenders Stephen Carr (Newcastle United) Richard Dunne (Manchester City) Steve Finnan (Liverpool) Gary Doherty (Norwich City) Ian Harte (Levante Image:Flag of Spain.svg) Stephen Kelly (Birmingham City) Paul McShane (West Bromwich Albion) Andy O'Brien (Portsmouth) Joey O'Brien (Bolton Wanderers) John O'Shea (Manchester United)

Midfielders Lee Carsley (Everton) Jonathan Douglas (Leeds United) Damien Duff (Newcastle United) Owen Garvan (Ipswich Town) Stephen Ireland (Manchester City) Graham Kavanagh (Sunderland) Kevin Kilbane (Wigan Athletic) Liam Lawrence (Sunderland) Aiden McGeady (Celtic Image:Flag of Scotland.svg) Liam Miller (Sunderland) Alan O'Brien (Newcastle United) Alan Quinn (Sheffield United) Andy Reid (Charlton Athletic) Steven Reid (Blackburn Rovers)

Strikers Jason Byrne (Shelbourne Image:Flag of Ireland.svg) David Connolly (Sunderland) Terry Dixon (Tottenham Hotspur) Kevin Doyle (Reading) Stephen Elliott (Sunderland) Robbie Keane (Tottenham Hotspur) Alan Lee (Ipswich Town) Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace) Daryl Murphy (Sunderland)

Famous games

• September 21, 1949: Template:ENGf 0 ‒ 2 Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland, Goodison Park; Friendly; England's first defeat at home to a non-Home Nation side
• October 30, 1974: Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland 3 ‒ 0 Template:URSf, Dalymount Park; European Championship qualifier; Details
• November 16, 1983: Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland 8 ‒ 0 Template:MALf, Lansdowne Road; European Championship qualifier; Record victory
• October 14, 1987: Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland 2 ‒ 0 Template:BULf, Lansdowne Road; European Championship qualifier; Enabled qualification to first ever major tournament (Euro 88), in conjunction with Bulgaria's 0-1 defeat at home to Scotland on November 111987, thanks to a late goal by Gary Mackay.
• June 12, 1988: Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland 1 ‒ 0 Template:ENGf Neckarstadion, Stuttgart; European Championship first round
• June 25, 1990: Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland 0 ‒ 0 Template:ROMf; 5 ‒ 4 penalties Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genoa; World Cup second round; David O'Leary's famous penalty brought Ireland into last eight
• June 18, 1994: Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland 1 ‒ 0 Template:ITAf; Giants Stadium, East Rutherford; World Cup first round; Unexpected victory over the side who later lost the final on penalties
• September 1, 2001: Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland 1 ‒ 0 Template:NEDf; Lansdowne Road; World Cup qualifier; Acclaimed performance, all but guaranteeing World Cup qualification
• June 11, 2002: Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland 3 ‒ 0 Saudi Arabia Image:Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg; Yokohama, Japan; World Cup first round; The first time Ireland scored more than one goal in a World Cup finals match. Victory ensured qualification to the second round

Infamous games

• November 10, 1965: Template:ESPf 1 ‒ 0 Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland; Parc des Princes, Paris; World Cup qualifying playoff; Was supposed to be played in London (where Irish community would give huge support), but FAI agreed to move the game to Paris in exchange for 100% of gate money. In front of an almost totally Spanish crowd, the Republic of Ireland lost their best chance of making the finals thus far.
• March 25, 1981: Template:BELf 1 ‒ 0 Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland; Heysel, Brussels; World Cup qualifer; Controversial loss which ultimately cost Ireland qualification for the 1982 FIFA World Cup. Frank Stapleton had a goal contentiously ruled out for offside while the scores were still 0-0. Belgium's winning goal came a short time later from a controversially awarded free kick. Ireland missed out on qualification on goal difference.
• May 27, 1982: Template:BRAf 7 ‒ 0 Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland; Uberlândia; Friendly; An abysmal South American tour (a number of the better Irish players playing in the English leagues were unable to travel) reached its nadir with the Republic of Ireland's record defeat
• June 17, 1990: Template:EGYf 0 ‒ 0 Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland; Stadio Della Favorita, Palermo; World Cup first round; TV panellist Eamon Dunphy (allegedly and probably apocryphally) said he was "ashamed to be Irish" after the Republic played out an extremely dull scoreless draw with Egypt
• February 15, 1995: Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland 1 ‒ 0 Template:ENGf; Lansdowne Road; Friendly; Match abandoned after 21 minutes due to rioting. <ref>http://www.geocities.com/irishafa/c18_windsor.html</ref>
• June 3, 1995: Template:LIEf 0 ‒ 0 Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland; Vaduz; European Championship qualifier; Failure to defeat a nation of population 30,000 with no professional players
• April 2, 1997: Template:MKDf 3 ‒ 2 Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland; Skopje; World Cup qualifier; Unforeseen loss to Balkan underdogs
• October 7, 2006: Template:CYPf 5 ‒ 2 Image:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland; Neo GSP Stadium, Nicosia; European Championship qualifier; Heavy defeat to 103rd team in world led to calls for sacking of manager Steve Staunton and ferocious criticism of the entire team

Managers

• Team of selectors (1921-1969)
• Mick Meagan (1969-1971)
• Liam Tuohy (1971-1973)
• Seán Thomas (interim, 1973)
• Johnny Giles (1973-1980)
• Alan Kelly Snr (interim, 1980)
• Eoin Hand (1980-1985)
• Jack Charlton (1986-1995)
• Mick McCarthy (1996-2002)
• Don Givens (interim, 2002)
• Brian Kerr (2003-2005)
• Steve Staunton (2006-)

References

Template:Unreferenced

External links

• RSSSF caps and goals list
• RSSSF archive of coaches
• Ireland matches from World Football Elo Ratings website. Note: this page incorrectly includes matches for the IFA Ireland team up to 1923 alongside the FAI team's matches since 1926.

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