Playing for INT but in America... getting a callup for the Irish NT. http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/bre.../breaking9.htm 4th-5th paragraphs. the FAI is looking to give Joe Lapira a shot. Everyone is pulling out of their US tour, and they're trying to pull in players. http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishex...237-qqqx=1.asp Last paragraph.
I am not sure if this matters but I saw pictures of J. Lapira training with the Republic of Ireland squad today.
Why? 'Cos he won't beat out a healthy Robbie Keane and Clinton Morrison? To say nothing of Damien Duff?
We've used friendlies to cap tie players before. It's still a FIFA A international, and senior international caps will be awarded - in the unlikely event that he plays my understanding is that he would be tied to us for life. Certainly, that is being touted as the only reason he is in fact in the squad.
I think you'll find that's not the case. The best example I can use is for the U.S., where Jeff Cunningham appeared in a friendly for Jamaica before being tied to the U.S. by an appearance in an official competition (the 2001 or 2002 Gold Cup). If you look at the FIFA regulations, you'll find that friendlies don't tie a player... only official FIFA competitions (federation championships and qualifying thereto, and FIFA championships and qualifying thereto) tie a player. There's a special case involving "A" internationals for players with dual nationality who already have an official age-group (U-17, U-20, or U-23) appearance, but that doesn't apply to Lapira unless he subsequently appears for the Irish U-20 or U-23 team in an official UEFA or FIFA competition.
Lapira has been added to the official squad for Ireland's matches against Ecuador and Bolivia: Forwards: Kevin Doyle, Shane Long (both Reading), Daryl Murphy, Anthony Stokes (both Sunderland), Andy Keogh (Wolves), Joseph Lapira (University of Notre Dame). Link: http://www.eleven-a-side.com/boysingreen/irish_soccer_detail.asp?newsid=27813 Understanding that this is something of a cobbled-together Ireland team, he is surely playing against the best competition of his life thus far (loads of England pros) and if he gets in a game I would think it would be difficult for him to return to Notre Dame in the fall (if it isn't already) but who knows... Also, another detail: Lapira, a scoring sensation in college soccer for Notre Dame, came to the attention of Staunton through the player’s uncle, Michael Lynam, who is the National Children’s Officer with the FAI in Dublin. Lapira is nominally a striker but has been operating on the right side of midfield in training with the Irish squad, and if he does play he would become the first amateur to be capped for Ireland since the late Willie Browne of Bohs in 1964. Link: http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishe...-qqqm=sport-qqqa=sport-qqqid=33392-qqqx=1.asp
Interesting. I had never heard of the Cunningham case. I read through the FIFA regulations last night, and they say that once a player has appeared in a FIFA A international, he is cap-tied to that country. My understanding according to the FIFA website is that tonight's match is a FIFA A international. Certainly, we are giving senior international caps for these matches. If you look up a profile of Cunningham, does it say 1 cap for Jamaica, X for USA? Perhaps the Jamaica match that Cunningham played in wasn't an A international? I know North American countries play a lot more friendlies than we do, often against B or league representative sides? In any case, since the only reason he's in the squad is to cap tie him, so if you're right and the day does come when he wants to change international allegiances despite being a Republic of Ireland senior international, it will surely be a contentious issue. I'm not saying you're wrong, but there has never been a case of an Irish international representing another country after being capped at senior level. In any case, this is probably a moot discussion because I think it's quite unlikely he'll get any playing time.
The text you're looking for is in article 15 on page 60 of the FIFA statutes. "...any Player who has already represented one Association in a match (either in full or in part) in an official competition of any category or any type of football may not play an international match for a representative team of another Association." Friendlies are not official competition, that category only applies to FIFA and federation championships and qualifiers thereto.
Honestly, the FIFA cap-tying regs need to be a sticky on BS somewhere so that whenever someone less-familar with the regs comes on and makes an inaccurate claim he or she can be sent to the sticky and see that he/she is wrong. As Craig stated, senior team friendlies only cap-tie you if you already played for a YNT in an official competition and, at the time you played in the official competition with the YNT, you were eligible to play for a second (or more) national team. This is why Freddy Adu is cap-tied to the US, because he played for the US in various official YNT games AND (and the AND is key) played for the US SENIOR TEAM in an A friendly. A similar scenario keeps Benny Feilhaber from playing for Austria after playing in the 05 WYC and in friendlies with our senior team this spring. BTW, it's not just Cunningham who played for the US after playing in friendlies for another country. Matrin Vasquez (Mexico) and Chris Armas (Puerto Rico) did this as well. There are examples of players in the UK/Ireland who have been eligible to play for multiple countries and played in a friendly for one and then played for another. Ex Forest star David Johnson, for instance, was capped by Jamiaca in friendlies but later was called up to play for Wales and was being courted by England and Scotland. Back to Lapira - two things stand out as very ironic to me. First is the fact that a US college player has almost no chance to be capped by the US senior team but a country like Ireland, with access to all those English pros, might cap an American college player. Second, is that fact that the US still has some question marks at right mid - though it's not as bad as some think - and here is an American kid who is being looked at as a right mid for Ireland but can't even get a sniff from our YNTs, let alone the senior team. Go figure.
Let's be honest. He's just rounding out the squad so they have enough players at training. They had a few injuries and no one else could/would make it over to the US at the last minute. His presense in the squad, even if he makes a token appearance in one of the games, tells you just how seriously Ireland is taking these games. The Irish Football Association is need of some cash from these types of games every year to keep money in the coffers.
Very true. But as idiotic as the FAI may be. They are fabulous at getting players that are born in other countries to play for Ireland. And if you were in the scouting department in the FAI the United States is going to become a new England in the sense that there are many new young good players in America and many are eligible to play for Ireland. A US kid was called up to the Irish U-17 team last year. Heck, our 2002 WC team had stars like McBride, O'Brien, and Donovan among others like Gregg Berhalter (has Irish passport). In 2006 our only WC scorer was Dempsey. (Note: I know that probably none of them are eligible (I think O'Brien is) but you get the point).
Lapira made his Ireland debut tonight. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=541279&page=3
i remember hearing from friends about Lapira playing against IU last year (i couldn't go). i think he may have scored 4 goals on Frietag's boys.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mls/news;_ylt=AiyXCGHT1BkYJ.vkjpuYtm6kvrYF?slug=torontofcobrien&prov=st&type Its happening.
BTW - anyone willing to make a prediction that Lapira will not be playing for Notre Dame this fall? This guy is practicing and playing with Championship + Premiership players, and has the EU passport. Any chance he goes back to one of their clubs after this little training stint?
In fairness to our staff, he's not a right middie in college, although I don't know if the Irish had the change of position pegged before he got into their camp. I hope someone from our staff was at the game tonight to scout him.
I'm new to the board, was just searching for material on this Lapira guy and came across this forum, Just replying RE: Lapira's eligibility to change, Last nights game was classed as an official friendly by FIFA,therefore he has been officially capped by Ireland, should he wish to change allegiances in future, it won't and can't happen. I see this piece was left out from aticle 15: If a Player has more than one nationality, or if a Player acquires a new nationality, or if a Player is eligible to play for several Associations’ teams due to nationality, he may, up to his 21st birthday, request to change the Association for which he is eligible to play international matches to the Association of another country of which he holds nationality, subject to the following conditions: (a) He has not played a match (either in full or in part) at “A” international level for his current Association, and if at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an international match in an official competition for his current Association, he already had the nationality of the Association’s team for which he wishes to play. (b) He is not permitted to play for his new Association in any competition in which he has already played for his previous Association. A player may exercise this right only once.
That match wasn't an "A International" though. Similar to the US with Adu, except Adu had played for the YNT. Lapira has not played for the Irish youth team.