Ahern urged to intervene in soccer passport row

The Government has been urged to intervene after it emerged holders of Irish passports are not eligible to play for Northern Ireland's soccer team.

Sinn Féin, the Labour Party and the SDLP called for the intervention after Fifa wrote to the Irish Football Association (IFA) insisting Northern Ireland players may no longer use Irish passports to demonstrate their eligibility.

The Taoiseach and the Ministers for Sport and Foreign Affairs were urged to put pressure on soccer's governing body, Fifa, to change its mind about insisting Northern Ireland international players must carry British passports.

In a letter to IFA chief executive Howard Wells, Fifa said: "The fact that a player holds an Irish Republic passport does not demonstrate conclusively, that he or she is eligible to play for Northern Ireland."

The IFA had argued a special case could be made for Northern Ireland players because under the Belfast Agreement people in the North are entitled to British and Irish citizenship.

However, Fifa said it was not realistic to expect a match commissioner to determine, on the basis of information on the passport, whether a player fulfils the passport requirements set out in the Belfast Agreement that he was born in Northern Ireland and that at least one of his parents was entitled to live there.

Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness, who raised the issue with the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin today, said the ruling interfered with the human right of an individual to carry the passport of their citizenship.

"This is a human right, a national right for Irish citizens to carry an Irish passport," he said.

"What in effect Fifa is saying is that anyone in the North of Ireland who exercises their right, as recognised by both the British and Irish governments, to claim Irish citizenship and therefore the right to travel on an Irish passport does not qualify to play for the North's soccer team.

Labour Party's sport spokesman, Jack Wall, called on the Taoiseach and the Ministers for Sport and Foreign Affairs to protest the matter "at the highest level".

"This ruling says you must declare yourself as British in order to represent Northern Ireland. As such, it alienates all those in the North with Irish passports from playing international football," he said.

"This ruling is utterly repugnant to the Good Friday Agreement, to the need to build good community relations through sport in Northern Ireland, and is a two-fingers to all those who hold Irish passports in the North."

Mr Wall said Fifa officials "clearly have no understanding whatsoever of the wider ramifications of this ruling in further entrenching sectarianism and widening the gap between the two communities in the North".

SDLP spokesman on culture, arts and leisure Pat Ramsey said Fifa's decision was a kick in the teeth for many people who wanted to play for Northern Ireland without compromising their citizenship.

"It is clear that the Irish government and the IFA must take a stand against what is essentially the sporting marginalisation of half the community in the North," he said.

"I will be seeking an urgent meeting with the chief executive of the IFA Howard Wells and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern to discuss a way of overturning this decree. This disgraceful decision cannot be allowed to stand."

Additional reporting: PA