Turkish delight for Irish amateurs who aim to take on the world

NEVER write off those dreams of picking up an international cap. A cheeky drunken email has bagged eight Irish amateur footballers a place at the football tennis world championships in Turkey next month – even though they’ve never played the sport before.

Jamie Mulrooney had been enjoying a few drinks when he read about the Istanbul tournament, scheduled to run over three days from December 9.

Noting that free accommodation and meals were promised and probably recalling an occasional bout of head tennis in training, Mulrooney fired off an entry email to the organisers FIFTA.

“Jamie said we were part of Football Tennis Ireland, which was a load of rubbish. We’d had a few drinks in the house,” said teammate Steven Conway who plays junior football with Sligo club Kilglass/Enniscrone.

The pair expected to hear no more but, low and behold, the Turkish organisers jumped at the chance to involve an Irish team.

“We couldn’t believe it,” said Conway. “Most of the teams involved come from central and eastern Europe so they were keen to broaden the entry base. All we had to do was register our new ‘organisation’ as part of their federation so we could compete.”

With their place at the top table of football tennis booked, the lads are milking the opportunity.

“Now we’re the governing body of football tennis in Ireland. I had to tell my club manager that I would be unavailable for selection next week as I would be away on international duty. I’ve always wanted to say that,” joked Conway.

The Irish team faces competition from a dozen other nations at the championships including Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey and India. But before they could entertain genuine dreams of glory, it was time to brush up on the rules – and learn a little Turkish.

“We had the rules emailed to us by our new Turkish president friend. But they were rather poorly translated. Luckily we stumbled on to a Turkish site with some videos of past games,” said Conway.

Football tennis is a hybrid sport that originated in central Europe in the early 1990s. The first world championships were held in 2006. There are three separate events; singles, doubles and triples and the squad for this championship must also include a coach and a chief delegate.

“Two of the lads will be wearing suits with Ireland flag ties,” said Conway. “We don’t have a clue what else they’ll be doing.”

Jerseys have been sorted, flights booked and two weeks of solid practice has helped the lads get to grips with the basics of their new sport. An appeal for sponsors is next on Conway’s growing to-do list.

“We are international athletes after all, representing the country on a world stage. It’ll be televised in the Czech Republic to hundreds of thousands of people. So what a chance to advertise a business!”

From watching footage of past matches, Conway believes the Irish selection is “not that bad” but if ultimate glory proves elusive, the squad does have an added incentive to put up a respectable performance in Istanbul. The next Football Tennis World Championships are due to be held in Las Vegas.