"Now nobody wants to play us" Liam Brady on the state of Irish Soccer

Have they ever heard of the Irish football team in Italy? They have indeed. One of the Italian newspapers did a survey recently and they had us ranked down at the very bottom of the European League with countries like Malta, Luxemburg and Finland. On what basis are these rankings made? On the results we've had over the past while. And results like Ireland getting beaten five-nil by New Zealand. They send out a team comprised of League of Ireland players to New Zealand and make out that it's the full Irish team. Then they send us off with a squad with just three first team players. We get walloped 7-0 by Brazil. Then we get beaten by Trinidad and Tobago. Can you expect anything else with such a weakened team! They have no idea what damage that does to our reputation in international circles.

Are these results taken into consideration when we're being seeded for the World Cup and European Championship qualifiers? No. That seeding is decided on results in competitive matches. But the other ratings mean that no one is interested in playing us in friendly games. We're allowed to go off and play the West German B side. What can we learn from that? Nothing. With the players we have now, Ireland should be up there with the top eight or nine sides in Europe. But the way things are going we're never going to make the breakthrough. How can we ever expect to do well in competitive games if we have no adequate preparation by playing friendlies against strong international teams? We're international players. We like to come together and play some friendlies now and then. Now nobody wants to play us. Somebody should be getting us friendlies.

It's not Eoin's [Hand] job to be doing that. Who's doing it? What's his name? He's not doing his work. And who's pointing the finger at him? Nobody! Nobody says anything. Okay it's difficult. It's a delicate matter building up your contacts. You have to establish them, work on them, look after, your international prestige. But they don't have an idea. They're cut off from what's happening. I heard that the FAI chairman says he wants to have a fully professional league established in Ireland within the next ten years. The best of luck to him. In spite of all the problems, I think you had the luck of the lost in the European Championships draw this time. I agree with you absolutely. What did you think of the Dutch team in September? [Ireland lost 2-1 in Rotterdam.]

I wasn't very impressed. If you only knew the extent to whic, that team was there for the taking, I knew only too well they were there for the taking. But what was the game we had played before then? Trinidad and Tobago. That's what I mean. The lad from Tottenham - what's his name again - Chris Galvin, is it? We had never played together before. We'd never even met. What sort of preparation is that for such an important game?  Can you remember the goal the Dutch scored in the first seconds of that game?Yes. It started with a bad ball from me to Frank Stapleton which was cut out. They hit a long ball behind our defence and there was a lad [Schoenaker] coming in on the far post. The Dutch weren't very good.

But we got the result we deserved. [Defeat.] Iceland? [Ireland won 2-0 in Dublin in October.] There was a very unpleasant feeling to that match. They started fouling us straight from the kick-off. I don't now what was wrong with them. We made one bad foul - when Mike Walsh fouled one of them. They blamed us afterwards for being dirty, but it was nearly all coming from them. But that's what I mean about our international reputation. UEFA sent a referee from Luxemburg to Dublin. He had never refereed an international before. He couldn't control it. So you're pessimistic about us ever making the breakthrough? Yes. And the thing that gets me is that they will point the finger at Eoin.

It's not Eoin's fault. If we go out and get beaten by Malta, just wait for the criticism.  Things are bad, but you hardly think we are going to get beaten by Malta? It could happen. Italy only drew in Cyprus. You get a partisan crowd, a bumpy pitch where you don't know which way the ball is going to bounce. And we haven't played together since November. They beat Iceland, didn't they? Holland were allowed to play their away match against Malta just over their own border with Germany and win 6-0. What did the FAI do about that? That result should never have been allowed to stand. We could lose out to Holland in the end on goal average. It's a disgrace. I can't understand why the Spaniards didn't protest to UEFA. 

They did. They kicked up a terrible rumpus. But it was no good. UEFA is too corrupt.  Spain's No 6, Gordillo, was the brains behind all three Spanish goals scored against us in Dublin last November. Gordillo laid on Spain's only goal against Holland in February. In the two Olympic qualifying games Spain have played since then, they looked half as effective. They drew against a team of uncapped Belgians (0-0) and lost at home to an inexperienced France team. Gordillo was missing on both occasions. Is that a coincidence? I saw Spain-Holland on Monte Carlo television and I was very impressed by Gordillo.  If you worked out a plan to contain Gordillo, Spain as a team might be considerably less effective. That's the tendency in modern soccer, isn't it? Get someone to try and snuff out the dangerman.  Do you think we can get a result in Spain? If we beat Malta and use that as a sort of practice match preparatory to the Spanish game, I think we can. We should be able to get a draw out there.