EURO 2016: The luck of the Irish?

The UEFA EURO 2016 tournament has now kicked off in France.  Unusually, three UK home nations (and members of the International Football Association Board) have qualified for the finals this time - England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.  Even more unusually, perhaps, both teams from Ireland have qualified, as the Republic of Ireland are also in the finals, starting their campaign later on today against Sweden.  The issue of split football associations interests us here at soccer-mad-boffins, as it represents exceptions to usual the FIFA rule that one 'nation' must only be represented by one FA.  Apart from Ireland, splits were most common when nations were partitioned during the Cold War - North and South Korea, and China and Taiwan being prominent examples, along with East and West Germany, who famously met in Hamburg during the 1974 World Cup.  In the only finals appearance to date of two teams from partitioned countries, the East won 1-0, but the West would go on to win the competition.

Ireland's split was intriguing because the Northern Irish FA still calls itself the Irish Football Association, and both it and the Football Association of Ireland, formed just before partition in 1921 both fielded teams under the name 'Ireland' until the late 1940s.  Both teams still play in green, can call up players from both sides of the border (though they often play in English football), and are managed by an M. O' Neil; indeed both might legitimately represent Irish hopes of tournament success.  Any sense of animosity now seems to have subsided as both sets of fans were pictured partying together in Paris.  There is the possibility of Northern Ireland and the Republic meeting later in the tournament, perhaps in the Quarter Finals if both teams win their groups and the following second round matches although this now looks unlikely as Northern Ireland lost their opening match to Poland 1-0.  Any such meeting would only be the second between two partitioned nations in a major finals to our knowledge.  Helpfully, BBC Northern Ireland have produced a short video to encourage further confusion between the two teams, which is probably best viewed after a pint or two of McGrath's Irish Black Stout!

Grimethorpe Black Diamonds Ladies

Following our previous post commenting on the FIFA Womens' World Cup, our colleague Professor Stephen Linstead (University of York) has brought to our attention this clip from 1968 about the Grimethorpe Black Diamonds Ladies Team:

As well as providing rare archive footage of womens' football in the 1960s, the Grimethorpe Black Diamonds clip also offers insight into the relationship between industry/industrial communities and sport.   

Perhaps the most famous 'industrial' women's team were the Dick, Kerr Ladies Team which comprised munitions factory workers during WW1:

All of this is of course a long way from Canada 2015, temporally, spatially, and financially, but serves as an interesting reminder of the roots of women's football and also how far the sport has come in recent times in terms of recognition and professionalisation.  According to Reuters.com, the 2015 World Cup has seen women's football attracting a great deal of new interest from sponsors (although in 2015 this is from global sportswear brands, rather than local munitions factories and collieries!) and is considered to be an important opportunity by FIFA as a means by which to achieve their sponsorship targets.  

Given the reported funding problems and financial inequalities in the women's game, particularly in and between the teams from the CONCACAF region (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) and CAF region (which encompasses African Football Associations), new money in womens' football will be well received - although the challenge will be to avoid the pitfalls associated with commercialisation of soccer and alleged financial irregularities and mis-management that have beset the men's sport in recent years.  Watch this space.

FIFA Women's World Cup 2015 - A Feast of Football

Whilst the world of football was rocked by events in Switzerland around the FIFA presidency elections, the FIFA Women's World Cup Finals kicked-off in style with a 1-0 victory by this year's hosts Canada over China (who were the inaugural hosts way back in 1991).

There have been some tremendous score lines including Germany's 10-0 win over Cote D'Ivoire, Cameroon's 6-0 victory over Ecuador, Switzerland's 10-1 win , also against Ecuador.  There have also been a couple of 4-0's, a 3-2, and a 3-3, and we are not yet past the group stages. Of course, there have also been many matches with substantially lower score lines, but there is no denying that it has been entertaining: 88 goals in 28 matches, at the time of writing, an average of 3.143 goals per game, but only two goalless draws so far (Canada v New Zealand in Group A, and USA v Sweden in Group D).

England's 2-1 win over Mexico was a great advertisement for the tournament, a close scoreline with goals at either end and a high standard of technical ability throughout.  FIFATV have made highlights available on youtube:

The remainder of the group fixtures take place today (16th June) and tomorrow (17th June), with the Second Stage of 'knockout' fixtures beginning on 20th June and culminating in the Final on July 5th.
More information can be found at FIFA.com: http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/news/index.html and also via the BBC at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/womens/