Kiely: We would never snub our fans

David Beckham and his England colleagues have been accused of making a ‘‘hollow apology’’ to their fans and of ‘‘living in an ivory tower’’ by Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Dean Kiely.

Sven-Goran Eriksson’s men were blasted for leaving the field after their opening 1-1 draw with Sweden without acknowledging the travelling fans, and were later forced to make an apology.

In contrast to England’s aloof attitude, the Irish players have mingled freely with fans at their base here and celebrated with them long after both 1-1 draws against Cameroon and Germany.

Charlton star Kiely believes the spirit in the Irish camp is so good because the squad has no superstars, and he insisted the players would never treat their fans as shabbily as England did.

‘‘A lot was said about the England players after the Sweden game when they trudged off and gave the fans nothing,’’ said Kiely.

‘‘I think the apologies made by England after the Sweden match were quite hollow.

‘‘It’s quite easy to run in front of the fans when everybody is cheering you and things are going well. You do that on auto-pilot but the test is when things are going the other way.

‘‘They obviously forgot but we are never going to do that because it’s just not in our make-up. You look at the Premiership stars in the England side and they seem to be in their ivory tower or detached from everything.

‘‘The one thing we have is that we are very close to the supporters and what’s going on.

‘‘There are a lot of them around Chiba and we want to make them feel part of it. We’ve made ourselves approachable and nobody has been turned down for an autograph.

‘‘It’s all conducive to good football and good feeling around the place. We eat away from the fans and we have our own rooms but in terms of walking through the hotel we never get any hassle because things are going really well.

‘‘It’s nice to see people smiling and having a laugh and a joke and we’re certainly joining in with that. We are going around and bumping into people and giving people the time of day, it is not a problem, burden or chore at all.

‘‘Our squad is fantastic and everybody is a quality footballer. But the (other) 22 lads are all quality people as well.

‘‘We are happy to stand and talk if people want to convey their feelings to us. We are not whisked away by people to our room and we don’t avoid eye contact.

‘‘We walk through the foyer of our hotel and it’s no problem. In fact it’s quite relaxed and it shows on the pitch as well.’’

Kiely’s team-mate from The Valley, midfielder Mark Kinsella, also took a swipe at England’s behaviour, suggesting some of Eriksson’s men were prima donnas.

He said: ‘‘Wherever we have gone you’ll see us walking around the streets,

‘‘We’ll say hello and sign autographs. We went shopping the other day and we didn’t need a whole store to ourselves or anything, we just went out and did our own little bit and we came home again.’’

Kiely also feels the Irish players are very down-to-earth and added: ‘‘People like Mark (Kinsella) and myself have come up through the lower leagues and I’ve never been in that position, so I feel quite happy the way I am right now.

‘‘We went to Disneyland the other day and to see the lads coming down the log flume and on Space Mountain you wouldn’t think we were out here for the World Cup. There is just a good buzz among the lads here.’’