We need national plan to put Irish team on even playing pitch

The embarrassment of Euro 2012 is a chance to rethink how we organise our game. The issue is not the current manager, or the current players, they are doing the best they can. The issue is our non-existent national style or national plan.

Before our second game, the Spanish press jokingly wondered if our academies taught long ball football, but the real joke is that we don’t even have any national academies. It’s just ridiculous considering they have been operating in plain sight across Europe for decades now. If we want our players to have technical ability as well as passion we have to invest in academies and follow the ’four provinces’ model successfully used by our rugby teams.

A Celtic Football League with teams from the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland would give our players an opportunity to compete at a high level without relying solely on the English Premier League.

Domestic leagues in each of these countries are struggling, none of our teams is troubling the Champions League, and not one of the national sides is truly competitive internationally. Each of the proposed four Irish provincial teams should invest in a youth academy which could help to develop the skill and technique which was sadly lacking in the European Championships.

If we fail to take Euro 2012 as an opportunity to invest in long-term reform we can look forward to more of the same.

Colm Gogarty

Portmarnock

Co Dublin