EFL clubs 'uncomforable' with Michael O'Neill being manager of both Blackburn and Northern Ireland

Martin Macdonald

• 31 Mar 2026 10:30 CDT
• 2 min read

News

Several English Football League sides, including Oxford City, have expressed discomfort at Michael O'Neill's dual role as manager of both Blackburn Rovers and Northern Ireland.

O'Neill has been Northern Ireland manager since 2022, while he was appointed the boss of Blackburn in February of 2026 after the dismissal of Valerien Ismael.

He's certainly had a lot on his plate recently, with Northern Ireland featuring in the World Cup playoffs and Blackburn fighting against relegation. The national team did get knocked out of the playoffs after a 2-0 defeat against Italy, but they still need to play Wales this midweek.

The concern from clubs in the Championship stems from the fact that O'Neill can choose to select Irish players for international duty from clubs who are relegation rivals to Blackburn.

Northern Ireland face Wales on Tuesday with Oxford's Jamie Donley, Ciaron Brown, Brodie Spencer and Jamie McDonnell all part of the squad. Oxford are 23rd in the Championship, while Blackburn are in 20th, four points ahead.

Portsmouth and West Brom, both near the bottom of the table, have one player each in the Ireland squad. O'Neill has also only called up one Blackburn player.

The Football League said they had been contacted by "one or more clubs" regarding the matter but it was not an issue that would be dealt with by them, rather by FIFA and the independent national team association.

Oxford face Hull on Friday, just 72 hours after two of their important players, Donley and Brown, may have featured for Northern Ireland.

"I think 80% of my squad play in the EFL so I am aware of that situation," O'Neill said.

"We're mindful of the situation for the clubs, of course, but when the clubs signed these players they knew they were international players.

"We're not going to be reckless with the players or anything like that. But we have to look after ourselves as a group of players, so the most important thing is that the players just go out and play the game.

"They will be fine. The lads who play in the EFL they play a lot of football and they are used to playing regular football. They have a lot of resilience so I'm sure they'll get through the game fine."

O'Neill previously had another dual role, acting as manager of Stoke and Northern Ireland at the same time. However, the schedules did not clash as much due to Covid delaying the Euro 2020 playoffs.

He did not spend an extended period of time stretching himself too thin over both roles, at that time.

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