Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, Sinn Féin and the SDLP have criticised a ruling by soccer's ruling body that all Northern Ireland players travel on British passports.
Fifa, the governing organisation, said yesterday that Northern players holding Irish passports could no longer use them to prove their eligibility. It wants all Northern international players to use British passports to ease problems encountered by Fifa officials before matches.
A statement issued yesterday by Fifa said: "Fifa sees no alternative but to require players to hold the passport of the national association they are seeking to represent in order to allow the match commissioner to verify their eligibility.
"The fact that a player holds an Irish Republic passport does not demonstrate conclusively that he or she is eligible to play for Northern Ireland."
Howard Wells, chief executive of the Belfast-based Irish Football Association, said the ruling was "unfortunate".
"It is a seriously difficult issue to deal with but we have to deal with it. I need to take stock, and take advice from a number of people as to how we might address it and move forward."
Mr Ahern said: "If a player wishes, as he is entitled to under the Good Friday agreement, to produce an Irish passport in my view that should be accepted at the receiving country."
Sinn Féin MP Martin McGuinness raised the issue with Mr Ahern's department yesterday. "This is a human right, a national right for Irish citizens to carry an Irish passport."
The SDLP's Pat Ramsey said: "It is clear that the Irish Government and the IFA must take a stand against what is essentially the sporting marginalisation of half the community in the North."