Madam, – In your recent World Cup 2010 magazine (June 2nd), Tom Humphries wrote that it is hard to count the ways in which the FAI have let us down over the years and refers to a shambles here, a fiasco there.
Not a word about all the fantastic work the FAI is doing every day of the week, up and down the country, as it caters for the 450,000 people who are involved in football.
Mr Humphries regularly lauds the GAA and other sporting organisations for the work they do on the ground but he seems to regard the FAI as his personal sporting punchbag.
Fair play is an important part of football and it would be nice to see Mr Humphries adopt this principle when writing about Irish soccer. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I recently bought a World Cup sticker book for my young son to prepare him (and myself) for the finals in South Africa. I thought I had long since buried the disappointment of that night in Paris until I began to study the qualification routes of other countries.
Almost 200 countries initially attempted to qualify for the finals. Of these, only 10 remained unbeaten in their qualifying groups. Nine of these will participate in South Africa. Ireland, though unbeaten in their group, will not. Argentina are one of the favourites to win the World Cup and many would feel cheated if Lionel Messi was not able to display his huge talents on the biggest stage. Yet Argentina lost six times in their qualifying group. Few tears would be shed were Honduras not to take their place in South Africa. They also lost six times in the qualifying process.
Maybe we should forget about Thierry’s hand and look at the process of qualification as the real reason why we are not competing in South Africa this summer. – Yours, etc,