Boys in Green see red at ‘baseless’ claims of $10k-a-man Messi pay-off

Irish football chiefs are taking legal advice over claims that Republic of Ireland players were paid $10,000 (€8,900) each not to tackle Argentina star Lionel Messi during a 2010 friendly.

The FAI described as “baseless” the sensational claims originating in Argentina surrounding Messi’s appearance when the two countries played a high-profile friendly game with which the Aviva Stadium officially opened its doors in August 2010.

And former internationals Kevin Kilbane and Keith Andrews also dismissed the bizarre tale out of hand.

The story in the ‘La Nacion’ newspaper purported to link the game to the controversial €5 million paid by Fifa to the FAI, suggesting it was a form of additional compensation, even though the match against Argentina had been arranged some seven months before the Thierry Henry handball incident in the World Cup play-off in Paris November 2009.

The ‘La Nacion’ report goes on to allege that, following fears expressed by Messi’s club Barcelona, the then head of the Argentine Football Association, Julio Grondono, proposed that in lieu of footing an expensive $5m (€4.4m) insurance bill, he would see to it that the Irish players were paid $10,000 (€8,900) each not to injure the star player.

Former Fifa vice-president Grondona, who died in 2014 aged 82, was one of the most powerful figures in South American football. A close ally of Sepp Blatter, he was recently accused by Fifa of being the man responsible for authorising the $10m (€8.8m) payment to disgraced former vice-president Jack Warner and former executive member Chuck Blazer which has formed a key part of US investigations into corruption in football’s world governing body.

Yesterday, the FAI were quick to dismiss the allegations about the Aviva friendly.

“The Football Association of Ireland completely refutes the allegations made about the Republic of Ireland v Argentina friendly match in La Nacion as baseless,” they said in a statement.

“The match in question was organised by Kentaro and announced by press release prior to the World Cup play-offs in 2009. We are consulting our legal advisers in relation to the article, and will be taking further steps.”

Kevin Kilbane, who was on the pitch for just a minute shorter than Messi at the Aviva that day, was equally robust in denying the allegation.

“100%, there’s nothing in that at all,” said the former international. “Definitely nothing. Obviously there’s the whole issue of insurance around international football but I’ve never heard of anything like that before and there was no suggestion of it to any of the players, nothing whatsoever in the lead up to the game.”

Keith Andrews, who also played for Ireland in that game, described the allegation as “just nonsense”.

The former international midfielder added: “It didn’t happen. I remember that game quite well and Messi was playing well within himself as you’d expect in a friendly at the start of the season.

“But it was still a proper game, one we wanted to win, and and there was no way we were given any instructions about taking it easy on anyone.”

Argentina won the game 1-0 through an Angel Di Maria goal in front of a 45,200 crowd at the Aviva. Messi, who played for just under an hour, emerged unscathed. The nearest he came to chipping any kind of knock coming when he was felled in a tackle by Richard Dunne but he promptly got up to curl a shot at Shay Given.

Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni was unable to attend the game, having been hospitalised in Dublin for minor surgery on a stomach problem. His assistant Marco Tardelli took charge for the match, while it was the first game at the helm of Argentina for Sergio Batista who had replaced Diego Maradona as manager.

Kilbane admitted the claims had taken some of the gloss off what was a big occasion for Irish football.

He added: “To us, it was a big occasion because it was the opening of the Aviva. We lost the game but it was a great occasion to be part of, the first ever game at the Aviva.

“It was in many respects going back to Lansdowne Road — it’s where we felt as though our football home was — so for these sort of allegations to come out around it, it certainly makes me feel a little bit uneasy.

“It does seem to me like someone has come up with a story or a theory. Two and two makes 10, I suppose. That’s the only thing I can think of regarding it.

“It seems to me they have looked at what’s happened over the last month, they have looked at the allegations that have been made against us and they have come up with a theory. Again, I totally refute it, totally deny it.”