Jaysus
Not that we are bitter or anything but it still hurts when we think of being denied a place at the 2010 World Cup all thanks to Thierry Henry’s handball.
But it’s OK, after several years of counselling we have finally managed to get over it.
At the time the FAI made an attempt to be included as a 33rd team which was laughed at by our old pal Sepp Blatter
And now it seems that all it took for the FAI to get over the incident was a shedload of cash.
Last week FAI CEO John Delaney acknowledged that the FAI had received a payment from FIFA in lieu of a legal action and today he all but confirmed the actual figure on the Ray D’Arcy show on RTE Radio 1.
“We felt we had a legal case against Fifa because of how the World Cup play-off hadn’t worked out for us with the Henry handball,” Delaney told the D’Arcy show.
“Also the way Blatter behaved, if you remember on stage, having a snigger and having a laugh at us. That day when I went in, and I told him how I felt about him, there were some expletives used. We came to an agreement.
“That was a Thursday and on Monday the agreement was all signed and all done. It’s a very good agreement for the FAI and a very legitimate agreement for the FAI. I’m bound by confidentiality for naming the figure.
“You’ve put a figure out there [€5 million] and fair play to you. It was a payment to the association not to proceed with a legal case. And in there they signed a confidentiality agreement where I can’t talk about the amount involved.
“You used a figure there, well done to you, but it was a very good and legitimate deal for the FAI.”
Delaney also revealed that he had less than friendly relations with the FIFA President in 2009:
“In 2009 I called him an embarrassment to FIFA and to himself.
“He called me over about that, across the table like I am talking to you, with one or two expletives.
“That was in a room. He said, ‘No-one speaks to me like that’, and I said, “well I do’ and that was that.”
The chief executive also revealed a very creepy incident involving his partner Emma English with the 79-year old leering at the PR executive earlier this year:
“He met Emma, my partner, in Vienna recently.
“He stared at her for seven or eight seconds and he said, “I approve of your new girlfriend'”.
“I asked him to move on, move on please.’
“She is a great girl, I love her very much, it was an extraordinary moment. If she was here she would tell you herself. He stared at her and I said ‘move on’ and he did.”
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