James McClean and Martin O’Neill escape with reprimand after ref comments

James McClean and Martin O’Neill have escaped with nothing worse than a slap on the wrist from Fifa for the critical comments they made about the match referee after the 1-1 draw with Austria in the World Cup qualifier at the Aviva in June.

O’Neill had described the Spanish official’s performance in the game as “poor” while McClean went further in a post-match television interview by suggesting that David Fernandez Borbalan was Austria’s “12th man”.

That implicit questioning of the referee’s integrity prompted fears that the West Brom man could be in line for a ban but, yesterday, it was confirmed that, following a disciplinary investigation, Fifa had settled on issuing a reprimand to both men.