NEW BALLS PLEASE
It is unusual for the CEO of a major organisation to agree to a demotion, the “substantial reduction in salary” that comes with it and the adoption of a new role with similar, albeit diminished, responsibilities for no reason anyone in that organisation feels inclined to explain. But that is exactly what happened over the weekend at the Football Association O’Ireland, which announced on Saturday night that former chief executive John Delaney has taken a pay cut to become executive vice-suit of the organisation, just a week after newspaper revelations that he had once generously loaned his own cash-strapped employers €100,000 to solve a cash-flow problem.
Appointed to his new, unadvertised role without having to do anything so mundane as a job interview, it is almost certainly a total coincidence that this reshuffle means Delaney can hang on to his cushy and now more lucrative gig on Uefa’s executive committee. As an organisation that receives state funding, the FAI and its buffoonish new executive vice-suit are answerable to the government and have been summoned for questions about the mysterious ways they go about their business early next month. In the meantime it was left to the national team that represents them to provide entertainment, intrigue and excitement, which they duly did with a 1-0 win over Georgia in Tuesday night’s Euro 2020 qualifier that sent them top of their group.
In a reasonably entertaining match that was not so much marred as wonderfully enhanced by a planned protest against Delaney which arrived in a hail of 30 or 40 tennis balls thrown from one end on to the pitch, O’Ireland prevailed by the only goal of the game which arrived from a free-kick taken by Conor Hourihane as soon as the yellowy-green, hairy missiles had been cleared. “To be fair, I was concerned that it would affect our concentration,” said O’Ireland manager Mick McCarthy. “It wasn’t going to stop his free-kick though. Nothing would have stopped it, tennis balls or nothing.” Not that everyone was in such a good mood, mind. Speaking as an analyst on Irish telly, former O’Ireland winger Damien Duff claimed the four minutes added on at the end of the first half to make up for time wasted clearing tennis balls almost led to Georgia doing a goal. “Utter nonsense the fans throwing them on for me, they can protest somewhere else,” he harrumphed, suggesting that much like the FAI’s new executive vice-suit, his finger is not necessarily on the Irish football pulse.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
22 January: “Lionel Messi is the best player in this world and every world. Why are you laughing? That’s the truth, he has shown that with all that he has won in the last 10 years. It’s a great honour [to be at Barcelona] because Messi is the best player in the world, and Luis Suárez the best striker in the world” – Kevin-Prince Boateng plays to the gallery after his surprise move to Barcelona.
27 March: “Zlatan Ibrahimovic” – asked to name the best player he has ever played with two months on from playing with Messi, Suárez et al on a daily basis, Boateng takes a more controversial tack.
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FIVER LETTERS
“Good win for O’Ireland against Georgia, and we also boosted our goal difference – Conor Hourihane’s goal after the tennis balls had been cleared from the pitch surely gave us a 15-love win?” – Dexter O’ Riordan.
“Chris White (Tuesday’s letters) wrote about Shortbread McFiver and asked: ‘Can we have a weekly instalment of him going forward?’ Surely it’s incumbent upon you to point out that Shortbread McFiver never goes forward” – Tony Crawford (and 1,057 others).
“I presume that it’s now been established at Fiver Towers that the BA plane mysteriously diverted from Düsseldorf to Edinburgh this week is just another one of Shortbread McFiver’s tales? No doubt involving a night on the Tin in San Marino, a bottle of Kazakh hooch, a missed connection and a sympathetic flight attendant who was owed a favour by the captain?” – Justin Kavanagh.
Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. And you can always tweet The Fiver via @guardian_sport. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day is … Justin Kavanagh.
BITS AND BOBS
PFA chief suit Gordon Taylor will be soon-to-be-former PFA chief suit Gordon Taylor, after he used the union’s AGM on Wednesday afternoon to set out a timetable for clambering aboard the good ship Do One.
Karren Brady has defended West Ham’s work combating racism in the face of calls for the club to issue an unequivocal condemnation of the Democratic Football Lads Alliance.
Manchester United have added three money-spinning vital pre-season matches to their summer tour, and will play Inter in Singapore, Spurs in Shanghai and Meeelan in, er, Cardiff. “These games will … provide an opportunity to interact with our loyal fans in Australasia and Asia,” parped executive vice-suit Ed Woodward, neglecting to mention the Meeelan-supporting denizens of CF10.
And Trent Alexander-Arnold is a doubt for Sunday’s Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur due to continuing back-knack. “Trent still feels his back,” yelped Jürgen Klopp.
STILL WANT MORE?
Want some talking points from the week’s internationals? We got 10 of ‘em.
Ah the good old days … or perhaps not. Simon Burton recalls the forgotten story of the referee who had to be smuggled out of the ground to escape angry fans when a Newport v Norwich match in 1951 got pwoppa nawty (featuring gold in the final paragraph).
Portsmouth’s Jamal Lowe gets his chat on with Ben Fisher about his journey from the seventh tier to Wembley within three years.
Raheem Sterling has become a proper leader in the fight against racism, says Andy Hunter.
Danny Gabbidon on his experiences of facing racist abuse.
Gen up on former players in non-football related telly, and more random rivalries with this week’s Knowledge.
USA! USA!! USA!!! are beginning to improve under Gregg Berhalter but why is it so darn expensive to watch them, complains Tom Dart
Oh, and if it’s your thing … you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace. And INSTACHAT, TOO!
