John Delaney: Martin O’Neill wrong to say his job hinges on Euro qualification

FAI chief executive John Delaney has confirmed he told Martin O’Neill he should never have said his job as Ireland manager would depend on qualification for Euro 2016.

And, pointing out that O’Neill made the remarks when first unveiled in his post, Delaney added with a smile that he thinks the manager regretted saying what he said the moment he saw how difficult Ireland’s Euro Championship group was going to be.

“We want to qualify,” said Delaney yesterday. “That is something we want to do. We are here to qualify. I think Martin said that before the group draw. We got possibly, arguably, the most difficult group of all the groups, with Germany the world champions, Poland, and Scotland being resurgent. There is no doubt it is a very difficult group. So when Martin said what he said in terms of ‘if we don’t qualify, I should go’, or words to that effect, we had a discussion and I said, ‘there was really no need to say that’. And when the draw came out, I think he possibly regretted it (laughs).”