Happens all the time mate. ROI are notorious for it. If you look back at some of their squads in major tournaments you will find that alot of the time as little as 60% of their squad are born in the Republic of Ireland.
James McClean, Shane Duffy, Marc Wilson, Eunan O'kane, Darren Gibson to name a few in recent years...
The DUP could raise tax to 99% of your income and the same people would still vote for them. Unionists here certainly have not accepted a United Ireland or any sort of possibility of it.
Unfortunately there are still large chunks of Northern Irish people who vote tribally, voting one party to keep the other out. The most loyal DUP voters tend to be working class unionists which is quite ironic giving their right wing policies. Unfortunately these people don't educate themselves on the policies and simply vote to keep other parties out. As a protestant myself, I actually align myself more with SF policies however both parties are toxic and I don't endorse either.
Sykes decision if anything is more contentious now, the Northern Ireland football fans are sick of this behaviour.
Appreciate your comments although I trust you noticed I referred to 'moderate unionists,' which, as you know pretty much excludes the DUP. Both SF and the DUP took hits at the last election as the SDLP/Alliance made gains (DUP losing North Down to the Alliance was especially striking). But I have a question for you - do DUP supporters engage with the all-Ireland Rugby Union team and why does the divergence between Rugby Union and football?
Not really, historically we've had alot of great Catholic players who have been loved by the Northern Irish fans and treated very well. Even Michael O'Neil who is adored by the fans as a player and manager is catholic.
If anything it's actually became much more common in the last 10 years to change allegiance.
I'm sorry to say this but I really hope he does fail now. It really frustrates me stuff like this.
It's frustrating because he was happy to represent Northern Ireland through all the youth teams right up to the senior squad. He was also happy to take a wage playing in the irish league and now the English system. And I'm sure Gavin Whyte probably played a role in helping him join Oxford United and that other internationals formerly from the Irish league such as Stuart Dallas probably offered him alot of help and advice.
I just think it's ridiculous that in this day and age players can represent one country for so long and then just switch to the ROI so easily. We have a quarter of the population of the ROI as it is and if you take all those players who swapped to ROI from NI, we'd actually probably have a much stronger squad than them too.
I personally think Fifa need to change the rules with this a bit. I understand as a teenager you're not in the position to make an informed decesion but their should be an age limit in place which they have to switch by or something. It's unfair on NI to bring these players through the youth system and then for them to leave like that with no compensation. Not only are we losing good players but other potential youth prospects are also losing opportunities to represent their country too and push on.
If Mr Sykes really didn't want to represent NI then I'm sure he would of known a long time ago. Nothing has changed overnight to make him change his mind.