The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international football. In such events, the constituent nations of the UK compete separately. The independent Republic of Ireland has its own team. Before 1921, all of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the team represented the entire island.
Current Campaign
Northern Ireland are currently seeking qualification to the finals of the Euro 2008 competition. They were seeded sixth, but can reasonably hope to finish fourth in their group, and may even challenge for a qualification place.
2006
- Northern Ireland v Iceland (2 September)
- Northern Ireland v Spain (6 September)
- Denmark v Northern Ireland (7 October)
- Northern Ireland v Latvia (11 October)
2007
- Liechtenstein v Northern Ireland (24 March)
- Northern Ireland v Sweden (28 March)
- Northern Ireland v Liechtenstein (22 August)
- Latvia v Northern Ireland (8 September)
- Iceland v Northern Ireland (12 September)
- Sweden v Northern Ireland (17 October)
- Northern Ireland v Denmark (17 November)
- Spain v Northern Ireland (21 November)
Past performances
Northern Ireland's best World Cup performance was in their first appearance in the competition, the 1958 World Cup, where they reached the Quarter-finals after beating Czechoslovakia 2-1 in the play-off. They were knocked out by France, losing 4-0.
Northern Ireland also qualified for the 1982 World Cup, again reaching the quarter finals after beating Spain, the hosts 1-0. In the 1986 World Cup, they reached the first round. Billy Bingham was manager for both of these tournaments. They have not qualified for any other World Cups. The side have yet to participate in their first European Championship finals.
Northern Ireland were the last winners of the now defunct British Home Championship held in 1984.
Current coach Lawrie Sanchez was appointed in January 2004 after a run of 10 games without a goal. The previous manager was Sammy McIlroy. That run ended after his first game in charge, a 1-4 defeat to Norway in a friendly in February 2004. The run of 16 games without a win ended after his second game, a 1-0 victory in a friendly over Estonia, with a largely experimental side, in March 2004.
On 7 September 2005 Northern Ireland achieved arguably their best victory in recent times by beating England 1-0 in a 2006 World Cup Qualifier at Windsor Park. David Healy scored the winner in the 73rd minute.
Since then Northern Ireland have been beaten at home against Wales in an exciting match which ended 3-2. A few weeks later they were beaten 2-0 by Austria away from home and but still finished fourth in their group. This result is a huge achievement for such a small country with a limited amount of professional players to choose from.
History
The Northern Ireland team is the successor to the all-Ireland national football team that existed before the formation of the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) in 1921. The team selected by the Irish Football Association (based in Belfast, Northern Ireland) continued to claim to represent (and pick players from) all of Ireland even after the partition. A rival Ireland team was set up by the Football Association of Ireland (based in Dublin, Irish Free State) in 1926 which also claimed to represent all of Ireland. It took until 1946 for the boundaries to be sorted out, and it was not until 1954 that the IFA's team became known as 'Northern Ireland' (though it took many more years for the name to fall into popular usage), while the FAI's team became known as the 'Republic of Ireland' (often called simply 'Ireland' or 'The republic' in popular usage). Even then, it was not until 1950 for the rules to be changed, ensuring that only players from Northern Ireland could in competitive matches for the IFA's team and that only players from the Republic could play for the FAI's team (until 1950, both teams had at least in part drawn on players selected from across the island). In fact the Republic of Ireland still occasionally engage in selecting players from Northern Ireland.
In 2002, Northern Ireland captain Neil Lennon left the team after receiving a death threat from loyalists opposed to his association with Celtic F.C..
Stadium
Windsor Park - a view from the Kop Stand, showing the two-tiered North Stand and the low Railway stand behind the opposite goal
Northern Ireland play their home matches at Windsor Park, home of Linfield F.C., which they have use of on a one hundred year lease, part of which gives Linfield 15% of the gate receipts for all home internationals.
There is currently speculation of building a national stadium for Northern Ireland at the disused Maze prison in Lisburn for the use of Rugby, Gaelic games and football. This plan has been given an in principle go ahead by the Irish football association. However, it has been unpopular with fans, over 95% in a match day poll in 2005 preferring to stay at a smaller new or redeveloped ground in the city of Belfast. The Amalgamation of Northern Ireland Supporters Clubs organised a successful protest against the move to Lisburn at the game against Estonia in March 2006.
Popular culture
Northern Ireland's football team has been something of a running joke among locals, who famously never miss an opportunity to mock themselves. However, since the defeat of England in 2005 there has been an increase of national pride in the team. Tongue-in-cheek songs such as "We're not Brazil, we're Northern Ireland" (sung, ironically, to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic) and 'It's Just like watching Brazil', poke fun at both Northern Ireland's rather poor record and the inability of teams to defeat them.
Unionists are more likely than nationalists to support the Northern Ireland team, with the latter often for political reasons giving their support to the Republic's team instead. However it is not unknown for Northern Ireland supporters to adopt the Republic of Ireland as their second team when they are not in direct competition with Northern Ireland, and supporters of the Republic would often recipricate, and support Northern Ireland.
World Cup Finals record
European Championship Finals record
Notable players
The wall of heros ouside Windsor Park
Goalkeepers
Defenders
Midfielders
Strikers
Managers
Current squad
Goalkeepers
Defenders
Midfielders
Strikers
External links
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland_national_football_team under GFDL
