FAI not practising what it preaches

After witnessing, with my 11-year-old son, at last Friday night’s debacle, I have to get this off my chest.

Regarding Ireland’s 6-1 defeat to Germany, I won’t state the obvious about Irish soccer.

Being at the Aviva was more about seeing a great German side than being proud of an Irish effort.

At schoolboy academies, my son and thousands of other kids are being taught to play football, from the back, in a patient and structured manner, yet when I bring him to national team games, he sees our goalkeeper launch an aimless punt at 20 players in the centre circle. All the Irish players congregated in this area for every Kieran Westwood kick-out.

The Germans had no trouble cleaning up these hopeless punts, yet Trapattoni stuck with it, because he is unwilling to tinker with a system that has brought nothing but heartache to the fans, embarrassment to our nation, and must be destroying the confidence of any young player with a smack of talent.

German players spread to the four corners of the pitch, allowing them time and space to work on their next pass or move when they received the ball from their goalkeeper.

My question is this: ‘what message are the FAI sending out to future players when the grassroots ideals of how to play football are dumped so Trapattoni can enforce his outmoded policies, which he thinks will nullify the opposition.

I am certain that Irish fans would support wholeheartedly a national team manager who applied the system we are teaching to the kids in academies. They would support a manager who tried to play the game properly; they do not want to endure the gutless formation that Trapattoni thinks is acceptable.

To say we don’t have the players is a cop-out and a complete contradiction of how we want the kids of today to play the game. If the FAI sticks with Trapattoni it is because it makes financial sense. It cannot be for anything positive he brings to the party.

So, maybe it’s time to replace the current FAI academy training, a system that advocates playing football correctly, and replace it with the long, hit-and-hope punt and backs-to-the-wall approach that satisfies the bag-men at the FAI.

If Trapattoni had any decency he would walk, but instead we, the fans, are being asked to follow this team deeper into oblivion, while he utilises an unimaginative and soul-destroying system that is not appealing to anyone, especially not to our kids, who should not be subjected to this embarrassment and negativity.

For the sake of Irish football, the FAI should get rid of Trapattoni now and have the balls to stick by the principles that they are trying to enforce at grassroots level, with the emphasis on playing the game properly, rather than trying only to nullify the opponents.

Who knows, maybe the players would adapt easier to playing football properly than to chasing shadows, with reigns so tight that a positive player is seen as a curse rather than a blessing?

Gerry O’Riordan

Blarney

Co Cork