Euro 2012 Diary

RATINGS WINNER

If misery loves company, no wonder so many of us stuck with RTE’s coverage of Spain-Ireland on Thursday night.

The station revealed yesterday that more that two million people tuned in at some point during the evening, with an average of 1.1million sticking with the broadcast to the bitter end.

The numbers made the match the second most watched sports event in 17 years, just behind the Croatia game.

NOT SINGING FROM THE SAME SHEET

The cold war between former Eamon Dunphy and Roy Keane shows little sign of defrosting, judging by Dunphy’s reaction to Keane’s criticism of the Irish singsong in Gdansk.

Dunphy told Betfair.com: “The fans are the people who generate the money, interest and the passion to pay Roy Keane’s wages for a very long time. To turn on them like that was very wrong at that moment. They were making the best of a bad situation. To say the Irish just want to party and sing songs is an unfair characterisation of Irish people.

“I think they’ve been brilliant in the way they accepted defeated and made the best of standing in the rain watching your country being destroyed after paying big money to go there.”

HAVING A LEND OF US

Missed this on Thursday night, but did Jim Beglin make the first known personal finance joke in a football broadcast?

“Irish fans spending euro they don’t have to be in Poland. Credit to them.”

POLITICAL PINT-SCORING

Who knew? There is no Dáil bar in the Ukraine. In fact, alcohol supping of any kind is strictly outlawed on any state premises. With good reason, I suppose, since alcoholism is considered a national epidemic — a recent study put the Ukrainians in sixth place in the world alcohol consumption standings and they hold the top spot in the adolescent category with 15% of Ukrainian children drinking by age 13.

Probably not Prime Minister Mykola Azarov’s wisest move then to allow a photo circulate this week showing him share a beer atgovernment offices with a Sweden football fan.

The PM had bet Ola Sjostedt that the Euro hosts would beat Sweden in the Group D opener and when Sheva and company obliged, he invited the Swede to join him for a pint in the Kiev government offices.

Sure enough, opposition deputy Mykola Tomenko was quick to capitalise on the gaffe.

“It is shameful and inadmissible when the leaders of the country contradict the law and the principles of defending morality by beginning to publicise consumption of strong drink during working hours and on state premises.”

You feel a week on Kildare Street might prove an eye-opener for Mykola.

Azarov is set to face a fine of 85UAH (€9).

HOLD YOUR RUN, ROB

Stat of the day; despite Ireland barely getting out of our half for long stretches of our two games so far, Robbie Keane is joint top of the ‘caught offside’ standings.

RTE 1 ITV 0

Was it the day Darragh Maloney truly got his feet under Bill O’Herlihy’s desk? During yesterday’s storm in Donetsk, Adrian Chiles and company ducked out of an extended filling operation by screening a repeat of England v France, an attraction that competed uneasily with the earlier shots of driving rain.

Maloney, meanwhile, effortlessly steered a fascinating discussion with Richie Sadlier, Liam Brady and Eamon Dunphy during which Brady accused Irish journalists of colluding to come up with a nasty agenda against Giovanni Trapattoni, while Dunphy repeatedly asserted that Trap “plays the media like a fish.” Sadlier edged towards Dunphy’s line and Maloney chaired it beautifully, stepping in occasionally when he felt Brady and Dunphy were being unfair.

Billo will be missed when he finally goes, but the future of the panel looks oke doke.

HAS RONNIE JUMPED THE FENCE?

The Pros v Journos attitude that reared its head on Thursday when Dunphy and Brady dismissed Tony O’Donoghue’s inside information about Simon Cox,really upped a gear yesterday.

The catalyst was Dunphy’s suggestion that Ronnie Whelan backed his reservations about some of Trapattoni’s self-serving remarks.

Dunphy: “Ronnie Whelan’s a pro, he’s one of us.”

Brady: “Nah, they’re all together over there.”

FASHION UPDATE

Revise your vocabulary, those garments you see players wearing in the warmup are no longer called tracksuits or training tops. Rather they are…

“anthem jackets…”

CONFUSION RAINED

That France-Ukraine suspension prompted all manner of queries:

@lizlongstonepr

Overheard in pub: Regular lass on the football restart. “But how will they all know where they were standing before.”

VAUX NOT POPULAR

We heard, the other day, that Poland’s largest Volkswagen plant has halted production during the co-host’s matches at the cost of 80 cars per day.

Perhaps it’s in keeping with our neighbour’s low-expectation approach to the tournament but there has been no such leeway afforded the workers at Vauxhall, England’s main sponsor.

Bosses at the company’s Luton factory blocked plans to screen last night’s game with Sweden insisting production lines couldn’t be shut down to accommodate the match.

Then any chance workers had of watching it on the job were scuppered on health and safety grounds. The Sun probably put it best; “For Vaux sake! It’s ’elf and safety madness.”

RAIN EXPECTED

ITV’s pundit in Donetsk didn’t quite see that storm coming:

@MirrorFootball

“It’s a little bit breezy here,” says Craig Burley, the new Michael Fish

CHIPPY CHIPPER

Despite his earlier spat with Dunphy, Liam Brady’s form improved as the evening wore on — he even hinted at a touch of self-awareness. Talking about Nasri, he said:

“He’s a bit touchy about criticism, like myself.”