We can’t blame sporting bodies for societal problems with alcohol abuse

FOOTBALL Association of Ireland boss John Delaney’s behaviour came back to haunt him last Wednesday morning.

Delaney is well known to many for exploits involving alcohol when on foreign trips involving the Irish football team, yet on Wednesday he was part of a delegation that visited an Oireachtas committee hearing to lobby for the continued sponsorship of sport by the alcohol industry.

Delaney has never been happy about media coverage of his behaviour at away matches but it has been the advent of new media that rumbled him. You Tube videos of him leading sing songs in bars during the qualification process for the Euro 2012 championships went viral, forcing traditional media to address the issues of his behaviour. Criticism of it — or of his habit of lobbing large sums of money behind the bar to cover tabs for supporters, as much as €1,000 on one occasion reportedly — didn’t stop him having a blast during the tournament in Poland either. No other football association boss is known to have been “crowd surfed” by revellers, or to have had their shoes and socks removed as part of the process.