May I ask why, seeing as there are countries involved who may find it difficult to find a team/travel etc, that Northern Ireland are not given the chance to represent themselves in this tournament? I think the quality of players in both the republic and the north is of a high enough quality that the two countries of ireland should each be entitled to their own team. We in Northern Ireland have a strong APAT foundation as displayed by our current success in the online national league as Belfast, and a rather obvious team captain should we ever rightfully be acknowledged as a separate team from our Irish cousins.
I think it is a criticism of the APAT that in their team championship, where teams represent a country, that people from the North, who may have no affiliation with the south, must play under the tri-colour flag if they want to be involved, when in reality Northern Ireland and indeed the Northern Irish team should be recognised as the separate body and collection of members that they are.
