Return to granny rule, says big Jack

THE FAI needs to reactivate its interest in the ‘granny’ rule if Ireland are to recover the ground lost in the last two qualifying campaigns for major championships, according to former manager Jack Charlton.

The World Cup winner, in Dublin to promote the DVD ‘Jack Charlton - the Irish Years’, an era when the Geordie routinely capped players with tenuous links to the Republic.

“If you don’t use it you’re daft,” said Charlton with typical bluntness yesterday in Dublin. “I got a lot of criticism about the players I brought in but you obey the rules. It is a fact that me and me brother (Bobby) could have played for Scotland because our grandmother was born in Dumfries.