Linfield seeking legal advice over Keane comments

The Northern Irish football club Linfield has announced that it is seeking legal advice after Irish international Roy Keane described the team’s supporters as "bigoted".

In his controversial autobiography, the Corkman said Linfield’s signing of Senegal-born Tony Coly had heightened tensions ahead of a World Cup qualifier between the North and the Republic in 1993.

He said Coly’s signing was a major problem for the Northern club’s fans because the player was black and Catholic.

Club chairman Billy McCoubry has described Keane’s comments as "outrageous and unfounded", saying some of Linfield’s most respected players going back to the 1940s were Catholic.

He also said that Tony Coly was treated "like an idol" at Windsor Park and that he was signed in 1988, five years before the World Cup game that Keane was referring to.

Former Linfield manager Roy Coyle, who signed Coly, is also consulting his lawyers in relation to comments in Keane’s book.