A Load of Balls: ‘Why the FAI are idiots this week’

As ‘compensation’ for not qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, Ireland will play Brazil in a friendly on March 2. Fantastic! A glamour tie is exactly what we need after ‘Le Handball’. It may not be the same as playing in the World Cup, but it’s better than nothing, isn’t it?

It should be a great occasion, what with all the atmosphere surrounding the Boys in Green playing the Samba Boys. Hang on though - it’s being played in the Emirates stadium, London.

That’s London, England, the United Kingdom, for you fans of English football who are used to referring to teams from London as ‘us’. Check that map again. Yes, it is indeed over the sea.

“The fixture is something of a coup for Ireland,” report RTE Sport. Really? Is it? Ireland, as compensation for being cheated out of a place in South Africa, are playing Brazil in a foreign country.

Will many Londoners bother to fork out the £50 to watch two national sides, neither of whom are playing at home, play a meaningless friendly? Yes, readers, A Load of Balls gets that smell too. It’s the smell of yet another FAI cock up.

Is there any material gain for the FAI? Let’s see; no income from stadium gates and no fee from organisers Kentaro. So aside from the income the FAI get from TV rights, (RTE and Eurosport have rights, as of yet no other broadcaster has expressed an interest) the income generated will be zero.

What about experience? Surely the Ireland squad, confident of challenging for a spot in Euro 2012, could do with a run out against the likes of Kaka, Lucio and Luis Fabiano? Yes they could indeed, but the likelihood is that most of Brazil’s first team will be rested.

What about the experience of playing in front of a packed crowd, baying for goals? As already mentioned, it is unlikely that the Emirates Stadium will sell out on a Tuesday night for a meaningless match.

Handed a carte blanche, the FAI have somehow managed to agree to a lose-lose situation. There is no gain from playing this friendly in London. After being able to hold their hands up for once and say “it wasn’t our fault!” after the events in Paris, the FAI have returned themselves once again to the dungheap of disrepute.

Yet, John Delaney has been parading around the newspapers and radio stations, yammering on about how massive this match will be for Irish football. If they had asked Fifa, the FAI probably could have had any team in the world at home in Croke Park.

The excuse that Croke Park wasn’t available doesn’t fly, as according to the GAA it remains available on the date, as it always was. In fact, several newspapers report that it was the FAI who turned down Croke Park, claiming it was Brazil who invited Ireland to the match, not vice versa.

So Brazil dictate to Ireland where to play the match that is supposed to be compensation to Ireland. Does that sound right? It had more to do with the aforementioned Kentaro, the FAI say. It still doesn’t work out; why would Fifa offer Ireland a ‘compensation match’ on a third party’s terms?

Sometimes it feels like this column should be renamed “Why the FAI are idiots this week”.