Peculiarly ‘Irish’ arrangement backfires spectacularly on John Delaney

On Thursday, after an incubation period of almost a year, the story of Fifa’s payment of €5 million to the FAI at last broke out of Ireland via social media. Within hours it had become an international sensation.

It turned out that throughout the rest of the world, accepting €5 million from Fifa to shut up about Thierry Henry was actually considered rather scandalous.

Leading the charge for the international press, the Daily Telegraph thundered: "Take the money? That's laughable, contemptible, inconceivable. How could anyone with any soul or simple respect for their fellow-man put a price on the heartache suffered by [Richard] Dunne, those fabulous fans and a sport craving probity?"

Some of us in Ireland shuffled our feet and stared at the ground. What are we to make of the fact that the substance of the story was broken by the Irish Sun in July last year, and none of us batted an eyelid? Looking back, we find that the Sun's story was scarcely followed up by any other media. It was mentioned by a couple of other outlets, then quickly forgotten.

Watching the international outrage develop since Thursday afternoon, we in the Irish media were forced to confront some awkward questions.

Why did we not realise at the time how big a deal this €5 million payment was?

Maybe we are like the plank journalists in season five of The Wire, who miss all the big stories that are unfolding under their noses?

Or maybe we just have a higher scandal threshold in Ireland.

If we are honest, we have to admit that many of us in Ireland would have seen Delaney’s squeezing five million out of Fifa in those circumstances as quite a stroke. Maybe even the high point of his reign as CEO.

One suspects Delaney thought so too.

Famous patronage

Gavin Jennings raised the issue with Delaney on

Morning Ireland

eight days ago, inquiring whether the reported €5 million Fifa payment could be considered an example of

Sepp Blatter

bestowing his famous patronage on the FAI.

“It certainly wasn’t bestowing patronage to us because at no stage have we ever voted in favour of Blatter,” Delaney said.

Delaney had confirmed the payment but again there was no Irish media follow-up. Nobody thought it was that big a deal. One man’s corrupt patronage is another’s legitimate settlement of outstanding issues.

It certainly didn’t seem to occur to Delaney that he had anything to be ashamed of.

On Thursday he sounded like he was enjoying himself in the company of Ray D’Arcy. Lulled into oversharing by D’Arcy’s subtle, faux-ingenuous questioning, Delaney felt relaxed enough to tell a story about how he’d once had to tell Blatter to stop ogling his girlfriend.

When the €5 million Fifa deal was eventually raised by D’Arcy, Delaney’s tone verged on boastful. He’d faced down the Fifa president, traded some expletives, defended Ireland’s pride, put Blatter in his place and emerged with a “very good, very legitimate agreement” for the FAI.

“You’ve put a figure out there [Ray] and fair play to you... well done to you, but it was a very good and legitimate deal for the FAI,” Delaney said.

There was no furtive unease around the topic – on the contrary, Delaney was plainly proud of what he had achieved.

By the time what was to become possibly his most disastrous ever interview was drawing to a close, the star of John The Baptist was so relaxed that he didn't seem to notice the irony of D'Arcy's closing observation that for Fifa to have made a ridiculous film in praise of themselves demonstrated "incredible ego."

But throughout the rest of a world primed for scandal by a relentless week of revelations, the story of the five million took off. “The payment from Fifa to Ireland in 2009 is unmistakable evidence that Blatter’s mafia also manipulated tournaments!” tweeted the German journalist and anti-corruption crusader, Jens Weinreich.

It dawned on us that out here on this island, we were like a family that has a weird habit they don’t realise is weird.

Let’s say they are normal in every respect except that they all use the same toothbrush before they go to bed. Everything is fine until one of the kids goes on a camping trip with her class . . .

International scandal

We Irish journalists who failed to recognise the story as an international scandal in the making could say in our own defence that new information emerged yesterday.

If Fifa gave the FAI five million as a loan that was only repayable in the event of qualification for Brazil 2014, it sounds as though they were effectively paying us not to qualify for a World Cup, which raises some awkward questions about the incentive structure.

We also know the story is interesting to the world media not because of the involvement of Delaney but because of the involvement of Blatter.

The notion of Blatter arranging secret payments to make his problems disappear has an extra resonance after the events of the last two weeks.

We can at least say that Delaney has put on a hell of a show over the last 10 days. When do you ever see hubris followed by nemesis in such short order – not in a movie or a novel, but in real life?

There was Delaney last week, sternly holding Blatter to account, slamming him in terms that would perhaps raise the eyebrows of any follower of Irish football. Dictator, surrounded himself with yes men, felt entitled to the job, gigantic ego, shameless, believed he was invincible, etc.

Only days later, Delaney has somehow blundered into the heart of the world football crisis, a star of the Fifa drama alongside the Blatters, Blazers, and Warners. As Delaney said of Blatter: “When he had the wind at his back, he thought it was a hurricane.”

Haven’t we all felt that way from time to time?