Irish manager Heimir Hallgrimsson is smart and after watching two defeats in September knew that changes have to be made. For the games against Finland in Helsinki tomorrow and Greece in Athens on Sunday next he has dropped Matt Doherty, Alan Browne and Jake O’Brien and brought in two uncapped players, Luton Town’s Mark McGuinness and Jack Taylor from Ipswich Town. Jamie McGrath, Josh Cullen and Mikey Johnston, are also back, having missed the September games. Seamus Coleman is injured and Nathan Collins, who took the captain’s armband when he had to go off against England is expected to captain the team for the next two games.
Explaining why he had to make changes to the squad, Heimer said: “My job is to get this team to the World Cup in 2026, and given that next year, 2025, if we end up in a group with five nations, all our FIFA windows next year will be all official World Cup matches, so this is the only chance to experiment, to give players a chance to show what they can do. That is the reason we opted to go for other players at this stage.”
We have played Finland seven times and only lost our recent two meetings when Stephen Kenny was in charge. Our last win was back in 2002 just after the World Cup finals when we won a friendly 3-0 in Helsinki. That was Mick McCarthy’s second last game in charge. Finland are like ourselves, they haven’t scored a goal, having lost both of their opening games in the Nations League, going down 3-0 to Greece in Athens and 2-0 to England at Wembley. So we should be well matched tomorrow night in Helsinki.
We have played Greece six times under five different managers and have yet to beat them: Mick McCarthy, Don Givens (caretaker) Giovanni Trapattoni, Stephen Kenny and Hallgrimsson, who suffered a 2-0 defeat at the Aviva in September. Now can Heimir get us our first-ever win in Athens on Sunday next where the kick-off is at 9.45 p.m. local time.
Northern Ireland, who beat Luxembourg and lost to Bulgaria in the September window, are also in action this weekend. Their away game against Belarus will be played in the ZTE Arena in Zalaegerszeg in Hungary on Sunday with no fans present due to UEFA restrictions on Belarus and then Bulgaria visit Windsor Park on Tuesday next. Manager Michael O’Neill said that their behind-closed-doors game against Belarus will have the feel of a fixture played during Covid.
LIVERPOOL JOB FOR
LONGFORD’S FARRELL
Longford woman Clare Farrell, who has worked as a lead performance nutrionist with Munster Rugby, has now got a similar job with Liverpool FC where she will work with the first team at the club’s Training Centre in Melwood. Back home Clare is probably better known as a Ladies Gaelic footballers having helped her club Longford Slasher win the All-Ireland Intermediate club final in Croke Park in 2022. Her role means she will oversee nutrition strategies at the club to support the players’ health, performance and recovery around training and matches. Clare will also work with members of the squad on a one-on-one basis to individualise their training and game-day fuelling, recovery and supplement routines according to their specific positional demands and/or goals. Part of this sees the nutrition team work closely with the club chefs to ensure the daily menu offerings are in alignment with the team’s performance nutrition requirements.’
RULES CONTRARY
TO EU LAW: COURT
Some of FIFA’s rules on the movement of players between clubs are contrary to European Union law, the European Court of Justice has ruled. The decision follows a referral from a Belgian appeal court in the case of former Arsenal, Chelsea and Portsmouth midfielder Lassana Diarra, who challenged some of FIFA’s rules after the termination of his contract with Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow in 2014. He argued some of the rules imposed by football’s global governing body restricted his freedom of movement and breached competition law, and sued FIFA for damages. His lawyers contested a rule which makes a club wishing to sign a player jointly liable for compensation to a player’s old club, and at risk of sporting sanctions, in cases where the player's previous contract was terminated without just cause, on the grounds that it deterred Belgian side Charleroi from signing him. They also challenged a rule which allows the national association of a player’s former club to withhold an international transfer certificate where there was a dispute, which they said also hindered the move. A press release from the ECJ issued last Friday said the court had found the contested rules were contrary to EU law.
