Opinion: There is work to do, but Irish football has hope once again
By James Ffrench
It could be argued Irish football has never seen a week like this past one.
Recency and personal bias aside, Ireland won 2-0 against Portugal, the fifth ranked team in the world, and followed it up by defeating a Hungary side who qualified for the last three consecutive European Championships, and who before the game were ranked 25 places above us.
This is of course major, but much work is still to be done to make it to the States.
We have qualified for the playoff, but now stare down a difficult clash away in Prague against Czechia, and if we progress, a daunting reunion with the Danes at the Aviva Stadium likely awaits.
We are rank outsiders to reach the World Cup, being given an 8.4% chance of qualifying by reliable football data X account Football Rankings (not that low odds have stopped us in the past).
Projections and permutations though, are not what has united the country this past week, far from it in fact.
The nature of our campaign and how we’ve done it has no doubt contributed.
Picking up one point from our first three games, only to go and win our final three to seal a chance at the World Cup is a fairytale turnaround and one which would send any country into frenzy.
The pressure of the two games, a newborn national hero in Troy Parrott, a side coming of age, and of course the winning goal sealing the dramatic fairytale with the last kick of the game, was truly poetic stuff.
As the boy from Sherrif Street said post-match, “this is stuff you don’t even dream about.”
The scenes all over this small island and all over the world have garnered international traction, with videos of Irish celebrations reverberating everywhere from Doha to Dublin.
Ireland getting this sort of recognition, and more importantly, Irish football getting its day in the sun, is definitely enjoyable, but this is about more than that.
For many, football is about giving people hope and uniting individuals from all backgrounds, and this past week has done exactly that.
Ange Postecoglou summed it up perfectly after a 3-0 Glasgow Derby win for his beloved Celtic back in 2021:
“We had 60,000 in here. I’m sure a lot walked in with some problems in their lives and for 95 minutes we made them forget that and feel good – and that’s something special.”
Younger generations will have been reared on tales of Italia 90, USA 94 and, more recently, Euro 2016.
Even then, it has been almost 10 years since Robbie Brady headed home into the Azzurri net to send us into the knockouts.
The Irish men’s national football team has drifted into obscurity in the decade since.
Attendances remained steady and Irish football enthusiasts remained loyal, but the faith of the national team drifted down the priority list in the Irish psyche.
The rise of the League of Ireland post covid, a newborn sense of football fan culture on this island, almost separated itself from the national side.
The “problem child,” as John Delaney described the league, had almost taken precedence among League of Ireland fans up and down the country, with many dreading international breaks.
The sharp ascent of the Irish rugby side who have achieved tremendous success in the last decade had replaced its football equivalent.
For the majority of the population, Irish football has been an afterthought in this bleak ten-year wilderness devoid of hope or positivity.
This past week has changed that.
Hope has been given to a nation which desperately needed it.
There is now a pep in the step of every Irish person, new or old, football mad or indifferent.
However, it must be remembered that all is not perfect in Irish football despite this surge in optimism.
Since Brexit, the development and nurturing of the next Troy Parrott is now up to our own footballing structures, which have been shown to lag behind nations ranked 51-100 in the recent academy audit.
Our reliance on the English system to do our work is over.
Significant government funding is needed, and small progress has been made.
League of Ireland academies will receive a €3 million multi-year government investment to create full time academy roles across League of Ireland clubs.
For reference, Budget 2025 saw €100 million pumped into the horse racing and greyhound industry.
The Ireland u17’s recently made it to the last 16 of the World Cup, and 16 of their 21-man squad came through the League of Ireland pyramid.
Despite this, more investment in contact hours and full-time coaches is needed.
This might not be what the general population wants to hear after the high of Sunday evening in Budapest, but it is necessary if we wish to experience moments like that on a consistent basis.
For the moment though, let us get carried away.
I found it poignant that after Troy Parrott poked the ball into the Hungarian net, my father rang me in disbelief, overjoyed at what he had just witnessed.
His second reaction was to ask what this goal meant.
The details don’t really matter.
What’s important is that hope has been restored to a football-mad country.
