FAI chief joins in the carnage

Looking at the human carnage in Sopot this morning, it’s no surprise Spain and Ireland are the basket cases of Europe.

It was bailouts of a different kind that were no doubt taking place after Irish and Spanish fans spent the wee hours learning each others’ chants, swapping wigs, and imbibing gut-busting amounts of Polish gatt.

It’s worth remembering that the only Irish arrests at the tournament turned out to be, not for rioting, but for public nudity.

A basketcase of the footballing variety was also making his mark in downtown Sopot into the small hours.

Never far from the maddening crowd, FAI chief executive John Delaney treated fans to a bit of a spectacle last night. Far from the upmarket surroundings of the team hotel in Sopot, John hit the bars with the fans — in spectacular fashion.

When last seen, he was being carried aloft by raucous Irish fans somewhere along the main drag of Sopot’s party district. Delaney was loving it, even if by the time he was returned to the ground, he no longer had any socks or shoes on.

Mobile phones aloft, this was another John Delaney golden moment. Mrs Delaney was none-too-pleased by the carry on and one onlooker described her as “sprinting” into the green mass to drag her smiling husband off the shoulders of a boozed-up fan.

“God help his poor wife. She ran in to try and pull him down. His shoes and socks had been taken off him at this stage. The crowd were loving it. For one or two weeks of his life he has to be professional and he couldn’t even manage that,” said David Farrell from Wicklow.

Perhaps his partying partner Jason McAteer led the poor FAI chief astray. Either way, he’s down a pair of shoes and socks, by now a cherished memento for some Irish fan.

“People had their phones out, they were taking pictures and videos. It’ll be up on YouTube before the tournament is out I’d say. It was crazy stuff,” said David.

Another man likely to live long in internet memory is Eamon Keegan from Sallins, who admitted to having “mortified” his poor mother after being snapped in, let’s say, a rather uncompromising position with a female Croatian fan at the match in Poznan.

So what was his memory of having his head in the mammaries ? A rather sheepish Eamon admitted that drink played its part and that, like any good Irish son, his first thought was what his mother would think.

“We were drinking all day in the square in Poznan and at the match the lads just started singing ‘Get your tits out for the lads’, joking, and sure, then I just went for it. My Ma was mortified this morning. That was the thing I thought of when I heard it was doing the rounds,” explained the man of the moment.

However, Eamon was a little more amused when Ireland goal scorer Seán St Ledger was tweeting all day about the story. Apparently, it has been the talk of the team and tickled the defender no end.

“When I heard it was being retweeted by Seán St Ledger I couldn’t believe it. I can’t belive the man that scored the goal for our country in the Euro Champs retweeted a picture of me with that girl.”

With all that madness, ex-players seem to have slipped in under the radar, but they are here in large supply, usually ducking and diving the glare of the photographers, but happily posing with snappers of the amateur kind. Poland has already seen the arrival of former international heroes Matt Holland, Jason McAteer, and Kevin Kilbane.

The sheer volume of Irish fans is something which has not been lost on the current crop of players. Goalkeeper Shay Given said yesterday that he was hoping a result against the Spanish would be a fitting thank you to the travelling army.

“It’s not just a cliché — even any neutral fan in the stadium the other night would say how amazing the Irish fans were. Even at the end of the game, when we came off defeated, they were still outsinging the Croatians.”

“They’re just amazing. I’ve said it before, but for any major tournament when they’re not here, it’s a loss. They’re here to have a good time, but at the same time they want to see us picking up points, as well,” he said.

Believe me, if we can’t manage the points, we’ll lead the way in picking up the pints.