With 'Champagne Football' airing on Tuesday evening on Virgin Media, Irish football supporters have reacted to the scenes of excess.
While supporters have spent the last week firmly focused on events on the pitch, the majority of the conversation about Irish football over the last month has followed on from the work of journalists Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan.
In their book 'Champagne Football: John Delaney and the Football Association of Ireland', both men documented the inner workings of the FAI under John Delaney's tenure and in doing so, they played a major part in his downfall.
It’s time. 🍿 #ChampagneFootball 🍾⚽️pic.twitter.com/XDykUGjb0d
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) October 13, 2020
As per the book's synopsis: "Over the course of fifteen years, John Delaney ran the Football Association of Ireland as his own personal fiefdom. He had his critics, but his power was never seriously challenged until last year, when Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan published a sequence of stories in the Sunday Times containing damaging revelations about his personal compensation and the parlous financial situation of the FAI.
"Delaney's reputation as a great financial manager was left in tatters. He resigned under pressure, and the FAI was left hoping for a massive bail-out from the Irish taxpayer."
John Delaney and Champagne Football
In the book, Tighe and Rowan dig deep into the story of Delaney's career and of the FAI's slide into ruin.
They show how he surrounded himself with people whose personal loyalty he could count on, and a board that failed to notice that the association's finances were shot.
They detail Delaney's skilful cultivation of opinion-formers outside the FAI and they document the culture of excess that Delaney presided over and benefited from, to the detriment of the organisation he led.
Tighe was a recent guest on Off The Ball and one of the main things that he discovered in his investigation of Delaney and the FAI was the division between supporters.
Some of the supporters were against Delaney's running of the FAI, while others backed him to the last.
Tighe noted that while the most vocal supporters were calling for Delaney to be removed from the FAI, there was a “clique” of Delaney supporters that wanted him to stay on.
“He had a clique of supporters who backed him,” Tighe said.
“We talk about the game in Denmark, that horrible nil-all draw, and there was a clique of ‘Delaney-ites’ who were grabbing at supporters who were holding up ‘Delaney out’ banners.”
Reaction
Mad for a few jars. @FlynnCiaran @KillersPhair #Sopot #2012 #champagnefootball pic.twitter.com/gDgehzUp7r
— Franko (@FrankoGraham) October 13, 2020
Blood pressure slowly going up watching #ChampagneFootball
— Kevin Maughan (@KevinMau1983) October 13, 2020
I remember tailing it over to Merrion Square when #JohnDelaney addressed the media following Roy Keane's departure from Saipan. A car had crashed into a railing around the corner from FAI HQ just before the press conference. Little did we know...#ChampagneFootball pic.twitter.com/EWG47KajqF
— Dermot Keyes (@DermotKeyes) October 13, 2020
I hope they don’t say how this ends with John Delaney, I’ve 3 more chapters to read in the book 👀 #ChampagneFootball
— Graham Patchell 🇮🇪🇪🇺 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 (@GrahamPatchell) October 13, 2020
Perhaps Dutch Gold football would have been a more appropriate title #ChampagneFootball #johndelaney
— Éanna Ó Chuinn (@cnaideach) October 13, 2020
A younger John Delaney has a look of Simon Harris about him #ChampagneFootball
— Chloë (@ChloeOh___) October 13, 2020
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
