History of Ireland Football Team
The Irish football team has produced a lot of great players such as Robbie Keane among others. That aside, they have also made a significant presence in the World Cup. Though recently, it may appear as the boys in green are losing their glory. Nonetheless, one may want to know where this great team came from and how it started. Below is a history of the Irish football team.
The ireland football team made their first debut in the national games in the 1924 summer Olympics. This team was organised by the Football Association of Ireland. During this game, they only managed to make it to the quarterfinals. Moreover, the team went by the name of Irish Free State before being renamed to Ireland later in 1950.
Later, there were two teams, and FIFA could only allow one to use the Republic of Ireland name. The other retained the name Northern Ireland. This went on till 1984 when the title was discontinued. Did you know that Ireland was the first non-UK team by then, that managed to beat England at home? This happened at Goodison Park, Liverpool in 1949.
Also, in the 1964 European Nation’s Cup, they managed to reach the quarterfinals again and lost to Spain which later won that cup. The team started with a high note, unlike other national teams. Nonetheless, it is during the reign of Jack Charlton that the Irish football team succeeded in winning most of their games.
Under Jack’s leadership, Ireland managed to get their highest FIFA ranking. That is, they were position 6 in August 1993. They later qualified for the UEFA Euro championship in 1988. In this tournament, they were knocked out during the quarterfinals. But, they were, however, able to make it to the last 16 during the 1994 playoffs.
Jack, their coach, was later succeeded by Mick McCarthy who lost two main tournaments. He was, however, able to lead the team to qualifications of the 2002 world cup. Here, they reached the last 16.
McCarthy was replaced by Giovanni Trapattoni, and he wasn’t able to make it to the 2010 world cup. They missed this chance by a whisker. But, they were able to make it to the Euro 20212.
Giovanni’s role as the manager came to a halt when they didn’t qualify for the 2014 world cup in Brazil. This made them get a low FIFA ranking of 59th before going even lower to 70th in the same year. Martin O’Neil was tasked with leading the boys in green. He aided them to finish third in the Euro Qualifying Campaign. Nonetheless, they still qualified for the Euro 2016 after thrashing Bosnia 3 to 1. They, however, lost to France by one goal.
As at now, the Ireland football team is ranked 43rd. Their biggest win ever was when they faced Malta in Dublin in the year 1983. The match ended with Ireland beating Malta 8 – 0. They have also had their fair share of loses when they were beaten 7-0 by Brazil in Uberlandia back in 1982. The team has retained their jersey of a green shirt, white shorts and socks ever since the team was founded.