F.A.I. All true

[clubhappy]

And they wonder why we still give them a hard time eh .....

1965 - Ireland was in a play-off against Spain to qualify for the 1966

World Cup. The FAI agreed to play the game in Paris, where there would be

more Spanish fans, if the FAI could have the Spanish share of the gate

money. The Spanish agreed, and won the game.

1970s - The FAI regularly organised friendlies in Poland, where officials

enjoyed the 'night life' (yes, that means pr**titutes), and once did not

even stay in the same city as the match. The players travelled to one such

game in the luggage carriage of a train, while the officials relaxed on

seats.

1980 - After Johnny Giles quit, Eoin Hand beat Paddy Mulligan to the

Ireland manager's job by one swing vote. Afterwards, one FAI board member

said that he had voted for Hand because he thought Mulligan was the person

who had thrown a bun at him on an away trip.

1986 - Jack Charlton became Ireland manager by accident, after the FAI

messed up a vote intended to give the job to Bob Paisley. At first Charlton

got only three votes out of eighteen, compared to nine for Paisley. The FAI

then couldn't contact Charlton to tell him that he had got the job.

1986 - When a friend congratulated Charlton on his new job, he replied

'What job?' On being told he was Ireland manager, he replied 'Oh, I'd

forgotten about that.' When Charlton sent his first squad list to the FAI,

he found that an FAI official was adding players that he liked onto the

list.

1994 - The FAI bought ?296,000 of World Cup tickets, and gave most to a

tout with the confidence-inspiring nickname of 'George the Greek', who

unsurprisingly did a runner. The FAI ended up with a 'trading shortfall' of

over ?200,000, for which they obtained just 314 extra tickets for one

Ireland match.

1996 - Two referees won a court case against the FAI after being downgraded

for failing a new test. The judge called the FAI 'an autocracy which was

incapable of abiding by its own rules'. The FAI quickly reacted by writing

to 142 other referees, banning them all from refereeing for not taking the

same test - the exact opposite of the court judgment.

1999 - The FAI announced a plan to spend ?65m on a new stadium, but forgot

to include the ?16m cost of the site, then spent years debating which of

two non-existent stadiums they would use. During the optimistic FAI bid to

host Euro 2008, the UEFA panel was photographed examining an empty field.

2002 - The FAI prepared for the World Cup by forgetting to bring proper

footballs to an island that had no proper football pitch, causing a minor

civil war back home. On returning, the FAI ordered an independent

investigation into itself, and pretty much ignored the results.

2002 - The FAI tried to sell TV rights for Ireland games to the

subscription channel Sky. When the Government told them that EU law

protects important cultural events for terrestrial TV viewers to watch

free, the FAI countered that Irish football is not culturally important.

2005 - The FAI fired Brian Kerr, the only Irish manager to have won

European and World trophies, and vowed to replace him with a World-class

manager. This turned out to be Stephen Staunton, the part-time unofficial

coach of the defenders at a poor English third division team.

2007 - The FAI has just fined two League of Ireland clubs EUR500 each

because their fans were throwing paper. This comes after they introduced a

revised promotion system for last season, which infuriated a Dundalk fan so

much that he occupied their offices and doused himself with petrol.

So there ye have it , stupid c**ts still run things . Embarassing or what ?