Football Association of Ireland - Definition and Overview

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) is the organising body for the sport of Association football (soccer) in the Republic of Ireland. It should not be confused with the Irish Football Association (IFA), which is the organising body for the sport in Northern Ireland.

The FAI was formed in 1921 upon the partition of Ireland into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. The already existent IFA that had been the organising body across the whole of Ireland continued to organise in the North and the FAI was formed to organise in the Free State.

The FAI formed a league championship, the Football League of Ireland, and extablished a FAI Cup competition along the lines of the FA Cup and Scottish Cup competitions.

The FAI has responsibility for the Republic of Ireland national football team.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the FAI had an aggressive policy of recruiting talented players in the Irish diaspora who were eligible for Irish citizenship for the national team. A standing joke in the Republic during that time asserted that FAI actually stood for "Find Any Irishman" or "Finding All Irishmen."

See Also

• Sport in Ireland

External links

• FAI Website (http://www.fai.ie/FAI/Welcome+to+the+FAI.htm)