FAireland

The Republic of Ireland national football team is the football team of the Republic of Ireland and is governed by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI). The FAI were founded on June 1, 1921 and were permitted to join FIFA in 1923 as the Football Association of the Irish Free State (FAIFS). Prior to this, the Irish Football Association (IFA) governed all football on the island with the all-Ireland international team playing under the name, 'Ireland'. The first international game involving the new Irish association team took place in Turin, Italy in March 1926. The FAIFS also used the name, 'Ireland', for its team even though the IFA still remained in existence and fielded a team under the same name. In 1936, the FAIFS re-adopted its original name, the FAI, in order to conform with the approaching enactment of the 1937 Constitution of Ireland and the impending official name-change of the state from the Irish Free State to Ireland. It was not until 1953 that the FAI team became known as the 'Republic of Ireland', when a FIFA intervention directed that this be so, in order to distinguish the team from the IFA's 'Ireland', who were from then on to be known as 'Northern Ireland'. Three years previously FIFA had also directed that the two associations were to discontinue the practice of choosing players from all over the island and limited them to fielding players from their own respective jurisdictions.Though they had been involved in international competition since the 1930s, the FAIFS/FAI team did not qualify for any international tournaments until Euro 88 in Germany. That was followed by reaching the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup. The Irish also reached the second round in the 1994 and 2002 World Cups.The FAI announced on October 17, 2005 that the contract of manager Brian Kerr would not be renewed following elimination from the 2006 World Cup Qualifiers. On 9 January 2006 he was replaced by Steve Staunton, who will be mentored until Euro 2008 by Sir Bobby Robson.good show bois