For the day that’s in it here is a book that anyone with an interest in football governance should have on their bookshelf.
Tonight, in Slovakia, my Boys In Green are in action.
However, the main result for Irish soccer recently was the end of John Delaney’s reign of error at the FAI.
It is no exaggeration that had it not been for Mark Tighe’s dogged journalism in the Sunday Times then the Tipperary man would still be at the top of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).
Along with his colleague Paul Rowan, they lay out in forensic detail what the awfulness of the Delaney years.
The book opens with the events of 21st October 2017 at the Mount Juliet gold club in Kilkenny.
The event was Delaney’s 50th birthday party which had a 007 theme.
“The centrepiece of the drinks reception was a huge ice sculpture of a Walther PPK pistol, bond’s weapon of choice. The ice sculpture was surrounded by the spy’s favourite martini cocktail glasses.”
The picture that Tighe and Rowan paint is one of hubris on steroids.
“A huge birthday cake had been styled to look like the Aviva Stadium, which the FAI had part-owned since it was built on the site of the old Lansdowne Road ground in 2010. Delaney had repeatedly claimed that the stadium was his finest achievement, despite poor ticket sales and persistent media questions about whether the stadium debt was too great for the association to repay.
“The baked version of the stadium came with working floodlights and a miniature crowd holding ‘Happy birthday, John’ banners.”!
Two years after this birthday bash the real Irish soccer fans were disrupting an international match to demonstrate against Delaney.
Ireland’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Georgia on March 26th 2019 was brought to a standstill at the AVIVA as fans threw tennis balls onto the pitch.
Last week I spoke with Mark Tighe, and he said to me that:
“I think it helped that I was a news journalist and not a sports reporter.”
Quite so Mr Tighe, quite so…
Citizens of Planet Fitba might be interested to know that General Ashley and some contractual matters also played their part in Delaney’s downfall.
“Details of this extraordinary clause were not given to the board or to Deloitte, the FAI’s auditors.”
Sound familiar?
It all came crashing to an end when Delaney himself had to lend the FAI €100,000 to prevent an insolvency event.
How utterly ironic that the very chap who had used the organisation as his personal ATM had to bail it out.
Despite his toe-curling 007 fixation, Delaney was a caricature of a Bond Villain in Irish soccer.
He was brought down by a series of scoops from someone who didn’t require a place in the press box.
Sound familiar, dear reader?
There is no shortage of jaw-dropping revelations in this book.
The story of how this handball cost FIFA €5m is just one of them!
Champagne Football by Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan is published by Sandycove and is available from all the usual outlets.
Highly recommended.
Now, lads, let’s do this tonight!
COYBIG!
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If Eduoard and Christie cannot play against Sevco on 17th Oct, then sporting integrity says the game is postponed until they can play.
The only fair option is Morelos and Kent are removed for Sevco to make it more even.
You re a far better man with words than me Phil, I was trying to think of a word to desribe how apt The forged Roy Keane signature on the framed jersey in Berties office is .
Delaney the donkey appeared answerable to nobody. What a shambles it was.
Cheers Phil,you recommending any book is definitely a positive for its future sales.
Henry should look back on that incident,the Harlem Globetrotters version of football,with great shame,though such is his ego;he probably remembers it fondly.Boasting about it is not beyond him either.Indeed,after that incident I couldn’t watch him play ever again,I think it was because I admired his playing style that his wayward actions irked me so much.
Strange times with COVID-19 infection rate as players gather from all over the World for their respective international games,seems to be a hotspot for C-19 infections.It is all very risky to me that they think it is worthwhile playing international fixtures whilst there is an ongoing pandemic.This is putting lives at risk and it is all down to one word GREED.Internationals aren’t worthwhile atm.imho.
As was the recent documentary with David Attenborough,A Life On Our Planet,the reason for climate change is happening is down to the utter greed and disregard for future generations shown by,to a degree,nearly all of humanity.We All must learn that our daily actions do have direct consequences and adapt those daily habits to better serve a healthy,vibrant and forward looking futuristic Planet for All of Our children worldwide.We can All play a part no matter how small.I haven’t owned a vehicle since 1994,small potatoes,yes,but it was a conscious decision that I’ve adhered to.Other small things like eating less beef is another thing we can do to help stop the destruction of forested habitat.
Thanks for keeping us updated Phil🇮🇪
Yes let’s do this…
Lets risk players on massive wages playing in a Tournament that should have been put back (like they did the Women’s) by taking people from all lever the Globe sticking them in rooms together and then hope upon hope that their non wage paying overseeing Association have got their collective shit together?
Celtic should be suing UEFA and The Scottish FA for the loss of two said players in the next game.
Shocking that no one in the media is taking UEFA to task on this.