MOVE OVER Bertie Ahern and give Eamon Dunphy the news: there’s a new sports pundit in town.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen has joined the soccer commentariat with his very own preview of Saturday’s Ireland-France match on YouTube.
Catchily entitled “An Taoiseach talks about the upcoming World Cup qualifier”, the clip features Mr Cowen’s analysis of Ireland’s chances in the big match.
The Boys in Green will have to rely on “individual brilliance” in midfield and our forward line to “produce” on the day, he reckons, but overall he is “very hopeful” of a result.
The Taoiseach is wearing his best dark suit and standing in a panelled office, like he has just stepped out after 90 minutes with Siptu’s Jack O’Connor. As you’d expect from a Cabinet Minister, he is pleased that the Irish team doesn’t “leak” many goals and is “good defensively”.
He heaps praise on “Mr Trapattoni” for providing the team with a well-organised system that allowed us be so threatening in previous matches. Ultimately, though, he believes we’ll be depending on “flair players” such as Shay Given, Robbie Keane and Damien Duff to qualify.
Fianna Fáil, it’s fair to say, have never been fans of men in blue shirts, so it’s no surprise that the Taoiseach damns Les Bleus with faint praise.
“A good side, but . . .” Mr Cowen remarked, but whether the French had the same sense of teamwork, cohesion and consistency as the Irish remained to be seen.
The Taoiseach is only the latest in a long line of European leaders to unveil his soccer-mad credentials. Silvio Berlusconi owns AC Milan, and Tony Blair, a lifelong Newcastle United fan, regularly kicked ball in the Downing Street garden.
Gordon Brown sold match programmes for Raith Rovers as a boy. Of course there’s Bertie, who has been a Premiership pundit on TV and is now a sports columnist for a Sunday tabloid.
Mr Cowen played Gaelic football for Clara and Co Offaly in his younger days. His love of soccer is less well-known but equally ardent, aides say.
On the evidence to date, he shouldn’t give up the day job just yet. By yesterday evening, his two-minute promo had been watched just 244 times – and most viewers were probably political correspondents whose interest was piqued by a press release from the Fianna Fáil press office. There were no reviews because the comment feature had been disabled.
Nevertheless, should Ireland triumph in the two-leg decider, Mr Cowen could yet become the first Taoiseach to taste sporting triumph in Paris since Stephen Roche was joined by Charles Haughey on the podium after he won the Tour de France in 1987.
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