Bright sunshine, sunny spells and the storm clouds that won’t go away for leaderless Irish football

Carla Ward’s team can do the FAI suits a favour and overshadow Israel issue

And now for something completely different. Here’s the weather forecast for Irish football ahead of another week of mixed fortunes on the horizon, on and off the pitch, as two World Cups fight with pollen for airtime.

Bright sunshine will continue for Carla Ward and her Irish heroines after a quite brilliant win in a rain soaked Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Friday night, a result that has set-up the prospect of some Brazilian sunshine via FIFA Women’s World Cup qualification in the French enclave of Grenoble this Tuesday night.

As the other World Cup beckons, sunny spells and scattered showers remain the forecast for Heimir Hallgrimsson and his players after a 1-1 draw in Canada when the first-half was grim but the second-half was brighter as the squad experimentation came to an end ahead of the Nations League storms to come.

Ah yes, the storms. It’s still stormy I’m afraid for those who sit in the FAI Boardroom and the offices on that corridor of power in Abbotstown. They still can’t shift those Israeli storm clouds and still don’t appear to want to. Dark days ahead but more of that anon.

Let’s start with Mna na hEireann and a win in Cork on Friday that is every bit as worthy of high praise as their victory in Hampden Park almost four years ago.

Then it was Amber Barrett who scored the goal that made all the difference for the Girls in Green. Again on Friday night and fittingly, it was the Donegal hero who scored when it mattered most.

Already guaranteed a play-off for the finals in Brazil next year, this brave and bold Irish side can now throw caution to the wind against France on Tuesday when a win will send them straight to the World Cup.

They will have a ‘f****ng go’ as Carla Ward promised on Leeside and why not. They have nothing to lose and they have already proven that there is no limit to their ambition when it really matters. Give it a lash Carla - and it if works, then we can all go f****ng mental!

Post Prague, it looked like it will be some time before fans of the Irish men’s team will get the chance to go effing mental on a World Cup stage again and whilst some are talking of green shoots after wins against Grenada and Qatar and a draw with Canada, these are early days.

Yes, there were bright spells in the latest experiment that was Friday night’s game in Montreal but the huge variety of players used over the past month tells its own story. These end of season games were designed to have a look under the bonnet and see what parts are missing and what parts are available for an overhaul two summers before Dublin co-hosts a Euro finals that Ireland must be a part of.

The truth is that some of those players utilised for the first time by Hallgrimsson over the past three games may have played themselves into contention for the Nations League games to come but caution is the word here. Very few of them will be in the squad come the end of September but more of them may be around when the Euro qualifiers begin.

It is down to them now, down to the likes of Jaden Umeh, Mason Melia, Jack Moylan, Tom Cannon and James Abankwah to show at club level that they deserve to be part of a bright future for this Irish side.

And so to the silent FAI and the dark days ahead. They still haven’t told us what decisions, if any, they made about the Israel game when their Board met last Thursday and they still seem to be whistling in the wind caused by the Israeli storm that won’t go away until they take a definitive stand.

The world and his mother now seems to accept that the game can’t be played in Dublin and last week John O’Shea, one of the football world’s great ambassadors, added his voice to a story that shouldn’t have ever concerned the Irish players or management if the FAI had any real leaders in the boardroom or in the big offices in Abbotstown.

The leadership wannabes will have their fingers crossed that Carla Ward fashions a win against the odds in France on Tuesday night and overshadows the Israel issue for another day or two.

But those storm clouds ain’t going away. Irish may be rosy on the pitch but off it, Irish football needs a big decision now. Don’t hold your breath.