Early years In the 19th century, association football outside of
Ulster was largely confined to
Dublin and a few provincial towns. The
British Army teams played a role in the spread of the game to these areas, especially in
Munster, as local clubs were initially reliant on them to form opposition teams, leading to the nickname "the garrison game". Association football was played in relatively few
Catholic schools; middle-class schools favoured
rugby union while others favoured
Gaelic games. The
Irish Football Association (IFA) had been founded in 1880 in Belfast as the football governing body for the whole of
Ireland, which was then a part of the
United Kingdom and considered a
Home Nation. The
Leinster Football Association was an affiliate, founded in 1892 to foster the game in
Leinster, outside of the Ulster heartlands. This was followed by the establishment of the
Munster Football Association in 1901.
Growing Tension By 1913, the Leinster FA had become the largest divisional association within the IFA, displacing the
North East Ulster FA, yet all but two clubs in the
1913–14 Irish League were based in Ulster. While this largely reflected the balance of footballing strength within Ireland, southern members felt the IFA was doing little to promote the game outside of the professional clubs in its northern province. In the other provinces, association football was also under pressure from the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), which had banned members from playing or watching the sport as it was considered a "foreign" game. Furthermore, there was a growing feeling in Dublin of alleged Belfast bias when it came to hosting matches and player selection for internationals. This view was not helped by the composition of the IFA's sub-committees, with over half of the membership consisting of delegates hailing from the North-East, and the International Committee, who chose the national team, containing just one member from Leinster. The Belfast members were mainly
unionist, while the Dublin members were largely
nationalist. The
First World War increased the gulf between the northern teams and the clubs in the south as the Irish League was suspended and replaced by regional leagues, foreshadowing the ultimate split. Tensions were then exacerbated by the
Irish War of Independence of 1919–21, which disrupted contact between northern and southern clubs further and prevented resumption of the Irish League. The security situation prompted the IFA to order the March
1920-21 Irish Cup semi-final replay between
Glenavon and
Shelbourne to be replayed in Belfast, rather than in Dublin as convention dictated. This proved to be the final straw and the Leinster FA confirmed their decision to disaffiliate from the IFA at a meeting on the 8th June 1921.
Foundation and Split from the IFA The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) was founded in Dublin on 2 September 1921 by the Leinster FA. The Free State League (originally the Football League of Ireland and now the
League of Ireland) had been formed in June earlier that year when the Leinster FA withdrew from the IFA. This was the climax of a series of disputes about the alleged
Belfast bias of the IFA. Both bodies initially claimed to represent the entire island. The split between
Southern Ireland (which became the
Irish Free State in December 1922) and
Northern Ireland (which came into existence as a jurisdiction in 1921) did not produce a split in the governing bodies of other sports, such as the
Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). The
Munster Football Association, originally dominated by
British Army regiments, had fallen into abeyance on the outbreak of the First World War, and was re-established in 1922 with the help of the FAI, to which it affiliated. Further efforts to reach agreement were made through a series of conferences between the IFA and FAI from 1973 to 1980 during the height of
the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Shortly after the IFA rejoined FIFA in 1946, the FAI stopped selecting Northern players. FAI and public support for project was also undermined by the announcement of the
Stadium Ireland in Abbotstown, which would have 65,000 seats and be available free to the FAI, being funded by the state. The
Eircom Park project was finally abandoned in March 2001, amid much rancour within the FAI. During preparation for the
2002 World Cup, the captain of the senior football team,
Roy Keane,
left the training camp and returned to his home. He was critical of many aspects of the organisation and preparation of the team for the upcoming games, and public opinion in Ireland was divided. As a result of the incident, the FAI commissioned a report from consultants Genesis into its World Cup preparations. The "Genesis Report" made a number of damning criticisms regarding corruption and
cronyism within the association, but was largely ignored. The complete report was never published for legal reasons. In 2002, the FAI announced a deal with
British Sky Broadcasting to sell broadcasting rights to Ireland's international matches, as well as domestic association football, to be televised on its satellite subscription service. The general public felt it should be on
RTÉ, the free-to-air terrestrial service, in spite of their offering much lower rates. Faced with the prospect of the government legislating to prevent any deal, the FAI agreed to accept an improved, but still lower, offer from RTÉ. Following the respectable performance of the national team in the 2002 World Cup, the team's fortunes declined under the management of
Mick McCarthy,
Brian Kerr and
Steve Staunton. In September 2006,
Lars-Christer Olsson, CEO of
UEFA, was quoted as anticipating that
Lansdowne Road in Dublin (actually owned by the
Irish Rugby Football Union) would stage the
UEFA Cup Final in 2010, and that the FAI and the IFA would co-host the
2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship. The 2010 final was ultimately awarded to
Hamburg, but in January 2009, UEFA named Lansdowne Road as the host stadium for the renamed
2011 UEFA Europa League Final. In August 2010, chief executive
John Delaney said the FAI would have repaid all of their stadium debt of €46 million within 10 years despite the disastrous sale of 10-year tickets for premium seats at the
Aviva Stadium. In November 2007 the FAI moved to new headquarters at the Sports Campus Ireland in Abbotstown. Its headquarters since the 1930s had been a
Georgian terraced house at 80 Merrion Square, which was sold for a sum variously reported as "in excess of €6m" and "almost €9m". ==Principals==