Michael O'Neill has criticised the FAI over its pursuit of underage Northern Irish players.
Last year, Derry City's Aaron McEneff changed his international allegiance to the Republic of Ireland. The Northern Ireland manager, quoted by John Fallon in the Sunday Times, said that he felt it was 'terrible' for the FAI to approach the young player during Northern Ireland's U21 qualifier campaign.
McEneff had played for Northern Ireland at both U19 and U21 levels.
We know we will face a challenge on young players, aware conversations happen between the Republic of Ireland and our young players but I thought it was terrible to approach a player [Aaron McEneff] with two qualifiers of our under-21 campaign to go.
I thought it was morally poor for the Republic to do that, to ask a young player to make that decision and I made that clear to [Republic under-21 manager] Noel King at the time.
More recently, Aaron McEneff's brother Jordan, who plays for Arsenal, also switched his allegiance to the Republic. O'Neill said he felt bad for the Northern Ireland coaching staff who had spent three years working with the player only for him to then opt out.
The McEneffs are just two recent examples of young Northern Ireland players who have switched their allegiance to the Republic. Derry City's Josh Daniels, along with Hale brothers Rory and Ronan, who play for Aston Villa and Birmingham, respectively, are three more.
They have added to the more established names such as senior players Darron Gibson, Shane Duffy, James McClean and Eunan O'Kane.
Picture credit: Oliver McVeigh / SPORTSFILE
