Shane Duffy, the talented teenage Everton centre-half, has decided that his international future lies with Giovanni Trapattoni’s Ireland rather than the North.
The Derry born defender rose to prominence with the 'Toffees' this season when making two appearances for Everton in the Europa League against BATE Borisov and AEK Athens.
Both Duffy and his family are delighted that the issue has now been resolved and he can look forward to following in the footsteps of Derry’s other senior Irish international, Darron Gibson.
"As you can imagine, myself and the rest of the family are thrilled to bits now that he has made his decision," declared Mr. Duffy.
"Shane told me it has always been his ambition to play for the Republic of Ireland. I for one can't believe that it is now done and I'm delighted."
Mr. Duffy claimed that his son's decision was based on furthering his professional career and he remained extremely grateful for the experience and education he gained as part of the N. Ireland underage international set-up.
"It's always been his childhood dream to play for the Republic," added Brian. "He was brought up through the N. Ireland ranks but as time moved on he felt he would benefit more from playing with the Republic.
"Shane holds no ill feelings whatsoever towards N. Ireland and he remains extremely grateful for the experience he gained when playing for the N. Ireland international squad at youth level."
The Football Association of Ireland have since invited the Duffy family as their guests to the forthcoming friendly international against Brazil in Arsenal's Emirates Stadium on Tuesday next, March 2nd.
Mr. Duffy and his family, including Shane, have accepted that invitation and they expect to meet representatives of the FAI including former international and Arsenal legend, Liam Brady who, it's believed has been highly influential in securing the services of the Derry lad.
Discredited Fifa president Sepp Blatter has issued an apology to the Football Association of Ireland after he was accused of breaking assurances of private discussions regarding the ongoing World Cup saga.
The row erupted in the continuing fall-out from Ireland's elimination by France after Thierry Henry's now infamous handball.
FAI claimed Blatter had gone against his word by making the talks public knowledge and that it was asked for the subject of a 33rd team in next summer's finals to be ignored at Wednesday's meeting of Fifa's executive committee in Cape Town.
The accusation came after Blatter had originally raised the subject at the Soccerex business conference in Johannesburg earlier this week and his words were greeted with laughter from some delegates and businessmen present.
Bungling Blatter said: "In this connection I would like to express my regrets - my regrets to a wrong interpretation of what I have said in the Soccerex.
"I have only announced they have asked it, but the presence in the Soccerex they don't took it very, I would say, seriously.
"So I regret what I have created and especially towards the Irish Football Association, I am sorry about these headlines going around the world.
"Contrary I have nothing against the Irish, they were very sporting people when they came to Fifa and it is a pity that it has been now communicated in this way.
Blatter's half-hearted apology is unlikely to quell the growing unease at his poor leadership over the last few weeks and his personal comments have made a mockery of FIFA's so called Fair Play code.
Ireland assistant manager Liam Brady has blasted FIFA president Sepp Blatter for revealing the supposedly confidential details of a meeting with the FAI.
Speaking at a conference in South Africa, Blatter stated that the Irish had enquired at the meeting as to the possibility of being invited to next summer's World Cup as a '33rd nation' after their controversial play-off exit at the hands of France.
Blatter was seen to join in with the laughter that this news created at the meeting, and Brady is disgusted with the FIFA president.
"I was told that the FAI went to a supposedly private meeting with Mr Blatter and officials from FIFA a couple of evenings ago," he told Sky Sports News.
"I don't think they believed that Mr Blatter was going to reveal what was said at the meeting. I believe that they agreed it would be confidential.
"But I'm afraid Mr Blatter is a bit of a law unto himself.
"I thought he was very disrespectful how he presented this fact the other day at a business conference in South Africa.
"He totally ignored most of the controversial things that went on that evening. He never had anything to say about those at all. Like Henry's behaviour after scoring that goal and how that stands within his campaign to have fair play within the game.
"You see the goal and Henry celebrates as if he's done nothing wrong.
"Is that fair play? Hardly. But Mr Blatter chose to talk about our request to be considered as the 33rd team.
"I think when we asked for that we knew there was very little chance of that happening. We asked because we wanted to have them respond in a measured way and see what they had to say.
"After all Mr Blatter is responsible for the officials. He didn't say anything about the appalling mistake the official made to miss such a blatant handball.
"He didn't even have the grace to acknowledge the behaviour of the Irish players after the game. Not one player got booked after that incident, not one player got booked after the match.
"There were 20,000 Irish fans in the stadium. Not one fan caused trouble in the stadium in Paris that night, or in the city that night.
"Now I think my country deserves a little more recognition from Blatter than the way he presented it to the press conference in South Africa yesterday.
"I think the man is a bit of a loose cannon and embarrassment to FIFA."
Brady was also disgusted with the way in which Blatter had seemed to treat the matter as a joke in South Africa, and his revelations had been greeted with laughter by some of the audience.
"The way he presented it was bound to be," Brady added.
"He was presenting it to business people, and he's very close to business people. I think people will be watching Mr Blatter and his decisions very closely from now on.
"And of course England will have a lot to do with him, because they're trying to get the World Cup in 2018 and Mr Blatter will have a big say in that."
Brady also hinted at a broader conspiracy in favour of the bigger European sides.
"I've been a player and gone to Paris a couple of times and been on the wrong end of decisions," he said.
"I think when it comes to the big teams and big business in football you'll find that they usually get the decisions.
"Forget about that. We can accept that. What we can't accept is how he's presented the case to the media in South Africa yesterday.
"He needs to show some respect."
Former Ireland boss Brian Kerr has again criticised Current Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni over his stewardship of the national side. Kerr said Trapattoni’s idea of watching players club games on DVD was a “load of baloney”. He added that for the Italian to attend ‘a dinner here and there’ displayed little regard for the well-being of Irish football in general.
Speaking to Brendan Crossan in today’s Irish News Kerr said “I don’t think Trapattoni does himself any favours by not going to watch players playing, I genuinely think the manager has a duty to be interested in the well-being of the overall game instead of going to the odd dinner here and there.”
He continued “I don’t think Trapattoni has any interest in the development of Irish football, but that’s up to him and he probably took the job on those terms. Maybe other people don’t share that view. He picks a team for a match and that’s it.”
On the issue of Liam Brady & Marco Tardelli covering most of the scouting needs in Britain and sending DVD’s of games to Trapattoni, Kerr said “ I think it’s a load of baloney because you can’t see the players properly in terms of what they do, or where they move to in a game. I don’t care what age you are or how much experience you have, you need to see the players by attending games.”
“Other people’s opinions are not the same as yours because you have in your own mind what you’re looking for. But look, they’re doing fine and I’d let them at it..”
And speaking about Ireland’s chances of reaching next years World Cup finals in South Africa Kerr commented “It looks now that they’ve a good chance of beating some of the other play-off teams, but you wouldn’t want to be playing France or Portugal”
“To some degree, Irish people will put up with anything as long as they get to the World Cup finals. The media are more critical…The reality is we have an exaggerated view of our players because they’re playing in English football and are on our television screens”
Ireland assistant manager Liam Brady has said that former Ireland manager Mick McCarthy had “thrown them a dummy” over the availability of Kevin Doyle for Ireland’s friendly against Australia on Wednesday.
Speaking after the team trained in Tipperary today, Brady said that Doyle would be able to play for 45 minutes on Wednesday.
Brady said: “Mick McCarthy threw us a dummy last week. He said to me to tell the manager that it was very unlikely that he would be here.
“He had an operation and he said that there was a little infection in the wound and he wasn’t going to be able to participate in their friendly match on Saturday.
“But things changed. Mick rang me on Saturday and said that Doyle would be playing and he would get half an hour and therefore he could have 45 minutes for us against Australia.”
Brady said he was delighted at the positive news on Kevin Doyle, as well as being pleased with having an almost full squad, but said that Leon Best was “doubtful” for the game.
Brady continued - “Leon Best is a doubt, he is going to have an examination in Coventry and they are going to let us know if he is available to join the squad, but I have to say it’s doubtful.”
Liam Brady believes Ireland have got world champions Italy worried simply because of their choice of venue for Wednesday night's Group eight qualifier.
The Irish squad headed out from Dublin this afternoon for the Group Eight clash with the Italians at the Stadio San Nicola in Bari having conceded a two-point lead to Marcello Lippi's men as a result of their 1-1 draw with Bulgaria at Croker on Saturday night.
Until the weekend, Ireland and boss Giovanni Trapattoni, were level on points with the World Cup holders and genuine competition for automatic qualification.
That, in the eyes of assistant boss Brady, who played under Trapattoni for Juventus and also for Sampdoria, Inter Milan and Ascoli, is the main reason Wednesday's game is being staged in the south of the country.
He said: 'I know the Italian Federation, when they feel it's a difficult match, they like to take their games down south. When they are much more confident, they play up north, so it's a good sign for us that we are playing there.'
The game will see 70-year-old Trapattoni lock horns with his successor as national boss in a contest which has been eagerly anticipated since the draw was made.
Brady said: 'I suppose Giovanni is the king of Italian coaches, isn't he, and there is going to be huge interest in the battle between Lippi and Giovanni.
'Lippi is reigning world champion and it is going to be huge over in Italy.'
Ireland arrived in Bari in determined mood, still getting over the disappointment of conceding a late equaliser against the Bulgarians which, if it did not exactly release their grip on at least second place and a play-off berth, certainly loosened it a little.
The trip to Italy will undoubtedly be the most difficult challenge of the qualification campaign, and with away games in Bulgaria and Cyprus to follow before they welcome Lippi's side to Croke Park in October, they are well aware just how significant a positive result could be.
Brady said: 'In this group, if you look at it, there has been very little in the games played already as regards teams winning by large margins.
'Nobody has really had an easy game and I think we are in for much of the same on Wednesday. We feel as if we can go there and get something from the match, and we are in a very good position points-wise in the group.'
The game will inevitably rekindle memories of Ireland's famous World Cup finals victory over the Italians at New York's Giants Stadium back in 1994, and Brady is hoping those memories might provide an added inspiration.
He said: 'Well, that was a great moment, wasn't it? I don't think the Italians expected us to win that afternoon in the Giants Stadium, but I was there and what a great feeling it was to beat Italy in a World Cup match in the finals.
'We are going into this situation with a healthy amount of points on the board, and I think we will give them a hell of a game. You never know, we might come up with something like that. That would be nice.'
Lippi will be without a series of players through injury, including in-form Udinese striker Antonio di Natale, but Trapattoni too has his problems.
Newcastle winger Damien Duff was ruled out of the game with a hamstring problem last week, while Aiden McGeady has recovered from the bruised foot which threatened his participation against Bulgaria, but is now struggling with a knock to his knee and Wolves striker Andy Keogh is standing by.
Brady said: 'It's a little bit swollen, so he has just had a walk today. We will get him over to Italy tonight and assess him in training tomorrow evening and the manager will make a decision then whether he plays.
'He is a slight doubt, but I think he will be okay to play again on Wednesday.'
Shay Given, Richard Dunne and Robbie Keane all missed training at Malahide this morning, but only as a precaution, and all three are expected to be available.
