
Northern Ireland withdraw from youth tournament that set Steven Davis and Conor Bradley on their way to stardom
Exclusive |
Northern Ireland have pulled out of the famous Victory Shield youth tournament that set the likes of Norman Whiteside, Michael O'Neill, David Healy, Aaron Hughes, Steven Davis, Jonny Evans and Conor Bradley on their international football journey.
The Irish FA confirmed to Sunday Life Sport that they have withdrawn from the competition 100 years after it was first played as a 'strategic step designed to allow us to reshape and refocus our Under-16 programme'.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BBC News
21 minutes ago
- BBC News
McIlroy 'annoyed' by driver story 'leak' at US PGA
Rory McIlroy says professional golfers are "well within our rights" to skip media duties as he admitted he was left "annoyed" by a story regarding his equipment at last month's US PGA Championship. The Masters champion said a combination of tiredness, poor play and reports of his driver failing a legality test contributed to his decision not to speak to reporters after each of his four rounds at the year's second major. After winning at Quail Hollow Scottie Scheffler revealed his driver had also been deemed non-conforming in pre-tournament tests carried out by the United States Golf Association (USGA), but McIlroy was unimpressed that his name - and not the American's - was reported by the media during the Northern Irishman's second round. "It was supposed to stay confidential," said McIlroy, speaking to reporters for the first time since that event at this week's Canadian Open. "Two members of the media were the ones that leaked it. I didn't want to get up there and say something that I regretted either because there's a lot of people that I'm trying to protect: Scottie, I don't want to mention his name, I'm trying to protect TaylorMade [the manufacturer], the USGA, the PGA of America, myself. The five-time major winner added: "With Scottie's stuff, that's not my information to share. I knew that that had happened, but that's not on me to share that. "That process is supposed to be kept confidential and it wasn't for whatever reason so that's why I was pretty annoyed at that." McIlroy said that the relationship between players and the media is a "two-way street", adding that players will continue to turn down requests to speak as long as it is not mandatory. "From a responsibility standpoint, I understand, but if we all wanted to, we could all bypass you guys and we could just go on this [our phones] and go on social media and we could talk about our round and do it our own way," said the 36-year-old."We understand that's not ideal for you guys and there's a bigger dynamic at play here. I talk to the media a lot and I think there should be an understanding that this is a two-way street. "We understand the benefit that comes from you being here and giving us the platform."But I've been beating this drum for a long time. If they [golf officials] want to make it mandatory [to speak to the media] that's fine, but in our rules it says it's not and until the day when it's maybe written into regulations, you're going to have guys skip from time to time and that's well within our rights."


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
All you need to know about Northern Ireland friendlies
Northern Ireland are back in action in their final two friendlies before the start of World Cup qualifying in has been a positive 12 months for Michael O'Neill's youthful squad, who won promotion to League B in the Nations League. June's double-header with Denmark and Iceland will be the team's final outings before Northern Ireland take on Luxembourg and Germany in opponents, squad news and how to watch it on BBC Sport - here's all you need to know. Who are Northern Ireland facing? Northern Ireland start the double-header away to Denmark, who have become familiar opponents for O'Neill's side in recent game is on Saturday, 7 June and kick-off in Copenhagen is at 18:00 BST. After that, Iceland travel to Windsor Park in the final friendly before the all-important World Cup in Belfast is at 19:45 BST on Tuesday, 10 June. What's the form guide? While it has been a positive year for O'Neill's young side, who have made more progress with Nations League promotion, they head into the June double-header off the back of a 5-1 away defeat by Sweden in that result was something of an outlier as there have been just three defeats in their last 13 internationals - a vast contrast from the two wins in 10 before that, and both of those victories were over San Ireland faced Denmark twice in Euro 2024 qualifying, and were denied a dramatic late equaliser by VAR in Copenhagen in June that November they exacted revenge on the Danes as Isaac Price and Dion Charles netted in a 2-0 win at Windsor Park. Denmark finished second in their League A group behind Spain, but their recent form has not been have only won one of their past six matches, in the Nations League quarter-final first leg against Portugal before Cristiano Ronaldo's side powered through in the second leg. Northern Ireland last played Iceland in Euro 2008 qualifying, losing both matches with a 3-0 home defeat and 2-1 loss in Reykjavik. More recently, Iceland's form has been a bit patchy with just two wins in their past eight matches. They finished third in their Group B4 in the Nations League. Who's in the squad? Fresh from winning the Premier League with Liverpool, Conor Bradley returns to the squad after missing March's matches through injury. In fact, it has been a successful time for the squad as Trai Hume and Dan Ballard won promotion to the Premier League with Sunderland, and Justin Devenny celebrated FA Cup success with Crystal Palace. Preston North End midfielder Ali McCann and Huddersfield Town striker Dion Charles have also returned to the Jordan Thompson, Ciaron Brown, Eoin Toal and Josh Magennis miss out on the 26-man squad through defender Kofi Balmer and Rangers winger Ross McCausland are also absent, while there is still no place for Birmingham City goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell. How can you follow it? You can watch both matches live on BBC Two NI, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport Magennis and Stuart Dallas are the pundits for both matches, and will join Stephen Watson for the Denmark fixture and Gavin Andrews at Windsor Park for the Iceland Kane and former NI defender Stephen Craigan are on commentary for both for the Denmark game begins at 17:40 BST, while you can watch the Iceland match from 19:30 can also listen live on BBC Sounds, BBC Radio Ulster and the BBC Sport Northern Ireland internationals George McCartney and Keith Gillespie join Mark Sidebottom in studio for the Denmark game, and coverage begins at 17:45 the Iceland game, Joel Taggart is on presenting duties alongside Gillespie and McCartney, with coverage getting under way at 19:30 Northern Ireland defender John O'Neill is on co-commentary for both matches, and he will join Joel Taggart for the Denmark game and Michael Clarke for Iceland's trip to Windsor Park. The pre-match press conferences will also be streamed on the BBC Sport website and app, and the BBC Sport NI online team will provide live text commentaries, reports, reaction and highlights from both matches.


BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Dunlop continues Supersport dominance with 32nd TT win
Michael Dunlop continued his dominance of the Supersport category at the Isle of Man TT by taking victory in Wednesday's delayed race two in the class for this third win of the success in the four-lapper took the Northern Ireland rider's overall tally of career wins at the event to an all-time record-extending had an advantage of 26.1 seconds over runner-up Dean Harrison by the end of the race, with Davey Todd a further 15.8 seconds adrift in 36-year-old has now won 15 Supersport TT races, including the last eight in a row, courtesy of four consecutive doubles between 2022 and county Antrim rider had given Italian marque Ducati their first TT win for 30 years was first in Monday's opening Supersport outing, a triumph which was also notable for being the seventh different manufacturer on which Dunlop had achieved success over the 37-73-mile Mountain Course."The wee bike [Ducati Panigale V2] is mint and it never missed a beat," a delighted Dunlop told Radio TT after the race."We buy our own bikes and choose our own manufacturers and winning races is what I'm here to do so I'm happy. To be in the 30s bracket is great."It's nice for Ducati too, nice for them for them to be back at the top again, so I'm happy to do the double for them." Dunlop in charge from the off Wednesday's race started two and a quarter hours later than originally scheduled because of weather problems, a road traffic accident and a non-racing related medical emergency but when the action did begin, it was Dunlop who immediately headed the timings in the windy a primarily yellow livery in recognition of one of Ducati's preferred colours, in addition to their more customary red, Dunlop found it hard to shake off the challenge of Harrison and Todd on their respective Hondas on lap one, the margin of his lead the end of the opening circuit, he had 1.9 seconds to spare over Harrison, with James Hillier moving into third, before the Hampshire rider retired on the second gradually extended his advantage thereafter, enjoying a lead of 15.9 seconds after his second circuit and increasing that to 21.5 seconds by the end of lap three and then by a further 4.5 fastest lap of the race, 129.297mph on lap two, was marginally slower than the 130.313 he managed in race one, due largely to the breezy also won Supertwins race one on Tuesday, the TT wins record holder will have opportunities to secure a fifth four-timer of his TT career when he takes in the second Superstock and Supertwins races on Friday and the blue riband event of the meeting, the Senior TT, on Harrison, who took his fourth podium of the week, and Todd, Paul Jordan finished fourth, James Hind fifth and Josh Brookes the other solo races held so far this week, Davey Todd took his third TT success by winning the Superbike event and Dean Harrison secured his fourth victory and his first for six years by coming out on top in Superstock race one, giving Honda a first triumph in that class since 2013 and ending the domination of BMW, who had won the previous eight editions from 2016 onwards. Supersport race two result 1 Michael Dunlop2 Dean Harrison3 Davey Todd4 Paul Jordan5 James Hind6 Josh Brookes7 Mike Browne8 Dominic Herbertson