Stephen Ireland, the Manchester City midfield player, has warned that no amount of hate mail or death threats will force him to play for Ireland again and insisted that he will have “not a tinge of regret” about the decision even if it prevents him from starring in a World Cup finals for his country.
Giovanni Trapattoni’s team face France in the first leg of their World Cup play-off in Dublin this evening, but although Ireland says that he will watch the game, he is adamant that he will not “feel guilty” if they lose. Furthermore, he claims that he never liked playing for a country he last represented more than two years ago.
He says that is, in part, because players from Dublin are always given preferential treatment while those who originate from Cork, like him, are demonised.
“Even now, I know for a fact the whole Irish set-up is exactly the same — they pick all the Dublin lads, one or two Cork lads, and the Cork lads are thrown on the back seat and that’s basically it,” Ireland said. “It’s just wrong. It’s not fair because a lot of great players go other ways because of it. Even when I was younger, I didn’t want to go training there. I was looking for excuses but I had to go because I wasn’t cross-channel at the time so I thought it was important for my career to go.
“I was at the age when I couldn’t make those decisions for myself and my parents were doing that for me, but when I got old enough to make my own decisions, I knew exactly what I wanted.
Advertisement
“I’ve left my country now, and obviously left under the wrong terms, but it’s happened and since then my life has gone really nicely. Even if they get to the World Cup, there’s not a part of me that will think, ‘That could have been me, I could have been there.’ I don’t feel guilty and I don’t ever wish I could be there.”
The tipping point came in September 2007, when Ireland received a phone call from his girlfriend, Jessica, 45 minutes before his country’s game against Slovakia in Bratislava was due to kick off. She had suffered a miscarriage, but rather than speak the truth, Ireland told a web of lies that involved claiming the death of his two grandmothers.
He admits what he did was wrong but says things had been coming to a head long before then and remains unswayed by the hate mail and death threats that have come his way since.
“I’ve had a lot of that stuff, but it was bound to come,” Ireland said. “It’s normal and it doesn’t faze me at all. A lot of people say to my friends, ‘Why’s Stephen Ireland not playing for his country? If I ever see him, I’ll do this or that to him,’ but then if I ever see them, they just bottle it. It’s all talk. My family have had problems, too, but it’s nothing we can’t deal with.
“When all that happened in Slovakia, that whole affair, it was clearly the wrong terms to leave on but I knew that was just the end. It was a ticking time bomb, to be honest. I never enjoyed my time playing for Ireland, never enjoyed it from 14 or 15.”
Advertisement
Ireland have fared well without Ireland, rising from the wreckage of Steve Staunton’s time as manager to become an organised and resilient team under the expert if idiosyncratic tutelage of Trapattoni.
However, after an unbeaten qualifying campaign in group eight, they face their most severe test in the first leg of their play-off against France, the group seven runners-up, at Croke Park this evening.
Ireland do not have a good record in play-offs for championship finals, having lost to Spain, Holland, Belgium and Turkey. Yet they can take heart from their solitary success, against Iran, which took them into the 2002 World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea.
“We have to stay calm,” Robbie Keane, the Ireland captain, said. “There’s no point in going out with all guns blazing, being stupid, picking up silly bookings, doing something we might regret. We’ve got to use our heads as well. Hopefully it will be a night that we’ll never forget.”
Neither Keane nor Trapattoni has become embroiled in the war of words that has flowed back and forth between the squads this week. However, Bacary Sagna, the Arsenal right back, could not resist a last gibe. “We’re not worried what the Irish say,” he said. “The game’s played on the pitch, that’s where we’ll give our response.”
Advertisement
Trapattoni explored a similar theme. “In the past few days, there have been many words about the game,” the Italian said. “Now we must move to action and put into practice what we have said. We must believe.”
Raymond Domenech, the France coach, lived up to his eccentric reputation by walking out of a press conference at an hotel at Dublin airport last night. He and Thierry Henry, his captain, had spent 27 minutes offering mostly banal comments when Domenech was asked about remarks made by Michel Platini.
The Uefa president and former France forward had suggested that it would not be all bad if France failed to qualify for the finals. The team, Platini had said, could then regroup — presumably with a new coach. Domenech uttered, “I said the previous question was the last question,” and left.
How they line up
Ireland (probable; 4-4-2): S Given — J O’Shea, R Dunne, S St Ledger, K Kilbane — L Lawrence or A McGeady, G Whelan, K Andrews, D Duff — R Keane, K Doyle.
France (possible; 4-2-3-1): H Lloris — B Sagna, W Gallas, ? Abidal, P Evra — A Diarra, L Diarra — N Anelka, Y Gourcuff, T Henry — A-P Gignac.
Referee: F Brych (Germany).
Television: Live on Sky Sports 1 from 7.30pm (kick-off 8pm).