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John Delaney: We won't beg players to play for Ireland

The FAI chief says any potential recruits will have to be fully-committed.

FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION OF Ireland chief executive John Delaney says new manager Martin O’Neill will not ‘beg’ players eligible under the so-called Granny Rule to play for the Boys in Green.

O’Neill was in Dublin today for an end-of-year press conference, in which he made reference to watching Norwich winger Nathan Redmond.

“Well first and foremost, truthfully, I don’t know anytime we’ve begged a player to play for us,” Delaney told the YBIG podcast. “Never. A player might have enquired about his availability to us. We might have said, through a grandmother or father, or mother or father, you can play for us. But that’s your choice.

“It’s always been the way with us and we’ve never, in my time, brought a player in where we’ve said listen we got down and our knees and said please play for Ireland. That’s not the way.

“I think if you asked Mick McCarthy, Ray Houghton people like that who are second-generation Irish, they’re as Irish as anybody and they believe hugely in that. Andy Townsend was a great captain for us too. You can go back through the years.

“Sometimes it can be easy to dismiss people because of where they’re born. But it depends on the attitude to come with, of course the ability as well, but most of the lads I’ve seen come in — bar none to my mind — have come with the right attitude, they’re professional footballers, they want to play for Ireland, want to do well for Ireland.”

Delaney will accompany O’Neill to Nyon in February as UEFA host the draw for the Euro 2016 qualifiers. And the Abbotstown chief insists the side’s second seeding could be key.

“Sometimes I read in the papers that our FIFA rankings are dropping but we’ve moved from a third seed to a second seed. Which give you a little edge, you never know.

“You know, there is such a thing as a lucky or unlucky draw. You can get ones better than others. But we’ve got to have the confidence in the players that we have and the management team that we have that we’re as good as anybody on any given day. Top two go through, the best third placed team goes through and there’s a playoff for four spots. So there’s a great chance, it certainly gives us a better chance.

“But all those teams like Armenia are improving as well. We’ve seen that. And I know it’s a cliche, but there’s not many easy games in football any more. But let’s look forward to the draw, see who we get, we’ll know then who we’re playing and where we’re playing them — there’s new rules from UEFA now which is good — and I think that’s something that’s the most important thing.”

Listen to the full interview with Dave O’Grady here

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