Delaney insists Fifa missed chance on fair play

THE FAI formally conceded over the weekend that their hopes of having last Wednesday’s game in Paris restaged would come to nothing. But chief executive John Delaney insisted yesterday Fifa and the French Football Federation “had missed an opportunity” to make a stand in relation to fair play.

“There’s been a lot of the raw emotion since the game and the request for a replay, which got a lot of support within world football, the people of both countries and both captains,” he said. “It’s disappointing that, for whatever reasons, the French didn’t agree to the request, but it’s time now to move on.

“What Fifa missed here was a real opportunity, Fifa and the French in particular. I reckon Fifa would have gone with the replay if the French had gone with it, to show that the game can’t tolerate something like this on such a big occasion, a game that is being shown all around the world, videos of that goal have been shown in every country in every part of this world.

“They had an opportunity to stand up for what they tell us every week, day or month when we go to their meetings about fair play. I know the French FA were under a lot of pressure, from what I hear and from what I read, but, certainly from what I hear (Raymond) Domenech was not in favour of the game being replayed.”

Delaney was referring to suggestions yesterday that the FFF had been on the brink of offering to play the game again but that their coach’s opposition had proved a major stumbling block.

There was little in any of the federation officials’ actions, however, to suggest there was any real basis for the story.

The organisation’s president, Jean-Pierre Escallettes, talked about Ireland’s disappointment without any hint that offering a replay had been considered. His vice-president, Noel Le Graet was utterly dismissive of the idea, asking: “Why replay it? It’s not possible.”

Delaney restated his determination to push for new rules to prevent such situations arising and to make the retrospective punishment of those guilty of “match-defining” offences like Thierry Henry’s much easier.

“Cheating needs to be dealt with,” he said. “All the debate has been on the referee for the last few days. Should we put a linesman behind the goal? I agree with that. Should there be video evidence? I agree with that. But there needs to be some obligation put on players to understand that when they do something of that nature, that there is something that comes afterwards in terms of sanction.”

Delaney, meanwhile, described Roy Keane’s attack on him last week as a sideshow. “We’ve all moved on from Saipan – Niall Quinn, Mick McCarthy, the FAI and all the players – but it seems to me that he (Keane) hasn’t.

“It’s time for him now, in my opinion, to learn from the past – not live with it. I really thought the images shown around the world on Friday were very sad – it’s sad to see a great former player reflected in the manner he was.

“I felt sad for him more than anything else. It’s time to forget about Saipan and move on – because everyone else has.”