TV View:We often wonder about this carbon-footprint business. If, for example, you criss-cross Dublin, several times, in a taxi or an RTÉ-chauffeured limousine, in pursuit of the FAI, is it you or the FAI that is, ultimately, morally responsible for the carbon footprint left behind?

And, in this case, a carbon footprint so cavernous you wondered how we were all still breathing by the time we knew for certain Steve Staunton was no longer The Gaffer.

RTÉ's chief football reporter, Tony O'Donoghue, tries to be the right man in the right spot at all times, but on Tuesday hitting the right spot proved nigh-on impossible.

They're an elusive bunch, the FAI. They had, seemingly, booked more hotel rooms in Dublin than Barbra Streisand and her entourage, only the FAI were damned if they were giving out refunds to disgruntled fans.

Tony, we'd be fairly sure, would absolve himself of all blame for the carbon footprint he left behind that night, but Eamon Dunphy, not a man who very often stands up for the FAI, inadvertently defended the association on this particular issue.

By telling us he had "known these guys" since he was 16 years old, and he's now 62, and by intimating that they hadn't travelled any distance at all in that time, he was as good as telling us they are the greenest association on planet earth. And for that we doff our caps.

But Tony was in no mood to doff anything in the direction of the FAI. When he first checked in, during RTÉ's coverage of Manchester United's Champions League trip to eastern Europe, he was standing outside the Crowne Plaza in Santry, and he was chirpy enough.

Bill O'Herlihy: "We'll be in touch with Tony at the Crowne Plaza through the night."

Next? He was outside the Radisson Hotel at Dublin Airport, and by his face we were guessing he was wishing he were on one of the jumbo jets roaring overhead.

Bill: "We'll be in touch with Tony at the Radisson Hotel through the night."

Next? Well, he was still outside the Radisson Hotel at Dublin Airport, but he was half wondering if the FAI were in the Clarion Hotel across the road.

Bill: "We'll be in touch with Tony at . . ." Wherever.

"The waiting media at the Crowne Plaza in Santry have been the victims of an elaborate FAI ruse - it's just ridiculous really," said Tony, who by now would have been quite content to leave a footprint, carbon or otherwise, on the collective faces of the FAI.

"It was quite obvious, it seemed, that the FAI were to have their board-of-management meeting there; it was even on the plasma screens, and Steve Staunton's imminent arrival was also in evidence by the fact that very well known security men were there expecting him at any minute."

Tony was angry.

"An hour later he still hadn't arrived. We checked some other hotels to find there was another booking at the Radisson. We came here to find Staunton was in room 322 (4-4-2 would, surely, have been more appropriate?).

"The FAI board of management meeting continues somewhere else, not in the hotel we were told, not in the Radisson, not in the Clarion across the road, somewhere else. The cat-and-mouse continues."

Tony was very angry.

Liam Brady felt his pain.

"They've tricked them, which is quite funny," he giggled.

Dunphy wasn't laughing, though. "They fooled the media by putting up a sign in the Crowne Plaza . . . childish . . . it gives you an insight into their character. They hate the media, they hate the fans - we're a bloody nuisance to them. They got their own back tonight. That just shows you how small-minded and stupid they are."

Right, mission accomplished: media fooled. Now for the easy part: a new manager.

Bill: "Ron Atkinson has said he's interested."

Dunphy: "No, Bill. Absolutely not."

Bill: "Right. Graeme Souness?"

Liam: "I've got to be careful what I say about Graeme Souness; he'd come in and thump you - I had enough of that on the field without getting it off the field."

Bill: "Right . . . But they say there's no rush."

Johnny Giles: "Who said that?"

Bill: "A number of footballers."

Giles: "Well, I think Tony Cascarino said that."

Tony Cascarino watching on YouTube: "Gee, thanks, Gilesie."

Adieu, Stan. You hardly had the chance to leave your carbon footprint on international management. We await the announcement of your successor. And in which hotel he'll be unveiled.