Well deserved and hopefully the achievement will also get some (any) recognition north of the border and on the mainland as well.

Looking forward to this evening in a strangely serene fashion.
Who would have though after the first home game disaster that we would be going in to the last game with even a mathmatical chance of qualifying?

Ms O'Neill allows one away game a year and this year unfortunately(?!) I chose Lickystein, but ever since Saturday I've been sorely tempted to hop on a charter and take my chances out there for a ticket. On wise advice I've decided to put a few shillings on a NI/Latvia double, so if we do make it tonight my dosh for Switzerland/Austria is already sorted out!

You should tell Miss O'Neill where to go! Lol. I got dumped by a girlfriend for lying that I was away with work when actually on friendly GAWA duty in Switzerland. My absence is dictated by a lack of any remaining holidays unfortunately. But I too am oddly calm. We've already achieved more than we could have expected and I'll begin to get excited if things are going well in the two matches. Unfortunately I thought Latvia were an abominable side and I simply can't envisage them doing us any favours.

The North of Ireland were unlucky last night in Spain. Although they were beaten on the night, and probably didn't do enough to deserve to take anything from the game, they can be proud of their committment during the qualifying and for a jurisdiction of less than 2 million have had some great nigthts.

There is one thing you should remember about awards. They are given more for progress that for the current setup. This would indicate that there was an underlying problem in the first place.

Other countries, such as Wales or Scotland, do not get yearly awards for being non-sectarian, because they got their house in order years ago. Whilst the award is welcome and probably deserved, it should also act as a clear indicator of past problems.However the IFA are on the right road.

Sadly there were still a few butcher's aprons disgracing the stadium last night. If the GAWA are serious about this FFA initiative they should be taking serious measures to stamp this out. I suspect that the will is not there yet, and until that happens this tag of being a cross-community team will be a self impose one. You cannot ignore the giant red white and blue elephants in the room any longer. But progress is being slowly made. They are two steps away from being a cross community team. Getting there!!

Dan, nationalists aren't the only people to be considered. As I mentioned in the post this award was made for the IFA's involvement in a campaign "aimed at getting more people from all ethnic backgrounds involved".

Your suggestion that they only got the award because they were inherently bad in the first place is a bit harsh and (sectarian issues aside) FAs across the British Isles face similar challenges.

Frankly, while I understand your reservations about the Union Flag, and agree it doesn't do FFA much good, it's not as easy to get rid of habits like this which are relatively innocent (when compared to some of the overtly sectarian guff we used to get years ago). These were more obviously and self-evidently wrong and also put off families and ordinary fans as much as it did nationalists).

Obviously a ban is not the way to go, and aggressive actions by the FAI recently make it more difficult to explain what point there is in considering nationalist opinion since it will be met with the stock response that those who currently do so will continue to place their allegiance with another national team anyway (though some might feel they have to come up with another excuse), and those who don't seem to be able to support NI anyway - so what is there to gain?

In fact can you imagine how it would go down with the rugby crowd if they were told not to bring tricolours (ignoring the fact that the IRFU actually fly it themselves!)? I'm not trying to use the rugby situation as justification, just hope it puts into perspective how such suggestions would be received by some and what a challenge it would be to change people's minds.

"Your suggestion that they only got the award because they were inherently bad in the first place is a bit harsh and (sectarian issues aside) FAs across the British Isles face similar challenges.

Frankly, while I understand your reservations about the Union Flag, and agree it doesn't do FFA much good, it's not as easy to get rid of habits like this which are relatively innocent (when compared to some of the overtly sectarian guff we used to get years ago). These were more obviously and self-evidently wrong and also put off families and ordinary fans as much as it did nationalists)."

Its a bit harsh but fair I feel. I am not going to pretend that other FA's don't have their problem (Spain, Italy eg with racism). The IFA is by no means the worst and I accept that. I also agree with you about how difficult it is to implement these issues. The atmosphere at Windsor Park has certainly improved and a number of people have been forward thinking, and they certainly deserve some sort of recognition.

You don't see Union Jacks at Scotland or Wales matches. In your experience why do you think the fans bring them??

"Obviously a ban is not the way to go, and aggressive actions by the FAI recently make it more difficult to explain what point there is in considering nationalist opinion since it will be met with the stock response that those who currently do so will continue to place their allegiance with another national team anyway (though some might feel they have to come up with another excuse), and those who don't seem to be able to support NI anyway - so what is there to gain?"

However your portrayal of agressive actions by the FAI seems to be a common unionist response. Its kind of like the mad barstool republican who thought that if the British Army were driven into the sea that the Unionists would turn into leprechauns. The FAI are not poaching, nor are they aggressive. Not one player has ever been forced to play for the republic, nor has one northern nationalist been forced to follow them. Its a deliberate ploy to deflect the attention away from problems closer to home I feel. Very poor effort repeating this poaching line.

What is there to gain?? An organisation that actually represents the community in NI! Surely this should be there anyway. Not just over half of it. This should be done anyway. The fans know this, and the IFA certainly do.

They have failed to implement the findings of an independent report into the issue. Don't be blaming the Republic or anyone else because GSTQ is still being played.

You might be surprised how quickly hostility drops when these few changes are implemented. And I agree with you that the IRFU needs to have a good look at the flags issue as well. I think that St Patrick's flag and an agreed anthem should be aired. Even the Sash is better than Ireland's Call.

I’m not a big soccer fan, so the issues don’t directly affect me (more of a GAA man myself and I know the GAA has come in for a lot of flack, some of it harsh and some of it justified, but that’s a whole different debate!), but I do follow soccer on a casual basis and find these discussions interesting nevertheless.
Both the FAI and IFA are fair game for criticism. The FAI had a chance to get their house in order in terms of building their own stadium, but seemed happy to constantly leach off the IRFU for Lansdowne and now sponge off the GAA for Croker. They made their bed and can lie in it. The IFA has certainly done a lot of good work to make the NI team more inclusive, but a few unresolved issues remain.

In an ideal world the FAI would never have split off to form their own splinter group and we’d have a cross-community all-island team playing under the IFA banner in an 80,000 capacity stadium in Belfast, but this will never happen, so there’s no point in crying over spilt milk.

Your average fence-sitting wishy-washy liberal middle class Alliance voter would argue that supporting NI would be the politically correct thing to do, so that the entire community could unite behind the team, and support ROI as a second choice team in the interests of good neighbourly relations, but this would never wash with most nationalists. Some nationalists will of course never support the GAWA under any circumstances. However, I believe there are significant numbers of nationalists who could be persuaded to support NI if the right conditions were met.

Let’s be honest - the last taboo is the playing of God Save The Queen. This leads to the ridiculous situation of having the same anthem played for both teams whenever NI play England. Replace this with a neutral more NI-specific anthem (not that awful Danny Boy tune, but maybe something rousing like Stiff Little Fingers’ “Alternative Ulster”! ; ) ), and nationalist soccer fans will (at least the more open-minded ones) have no further grounds for complaint – if this doesn’t happen then at least the IFA can say “well at least we tried”. I know that many NI fans have expressed their preference for a distinct Northern Irish anthem, but nothing gets done about it. The attitude seems to be “nationalists will never support us anyway, so why bother?”
The GAA has come in leaps and bounds through successful grass roots debate resulting in the removal of some of its more controversial rules. It’s time the IFA initiated serious grass roots debate among clubs and supporters, so that a new inclusive anthem could be agreed on.