TV VIEW:THERE WERE a lot of red balls, a green and yellow set and Ronaldo prosperously suited and rotund. A former Brazilian legend enjoying the trappings of not having to train anymore, the one-time best player in the world pulled those puppies out of the bowl with the deftness with which he once graced the beautiful game.

Beyond reproach, Ronaldo was a fine piece of eye-candy for those who drool over celebrity footballers in designer clothes, but when Fifa do anything these days you are sitting on your sofa sifting through the Bombay Mix trying to figure out how on earth they are stroking this one.

Fifa has a big image problem. Even the seemingly simple process of pulling out the names of European teams for placement in the qualification process for Fifa 2014 seems suspiciously tainted by their recent past. Full disclosure. We have absolutely no problem of any kind with the probity and honesty of the draw on Saturday. But that is not the point. The point is the perception of an organisation.

RTÉ’s coverage of the red orbs came after a fascinating episode of extra-time had been completed between Donegal and Kildare for a place in the All-Ireland football semi-final. That meant Richard Sadlier, Ronnie Whelan and presenter Darragh Maloney were sitting it out, possibly watching the GAA and as it happened, Donegal’s victory was perfectly timed.

Forced to miss a significant piece of the allotted World Cup time because of the extended GAA coverage, RTÉ cut straight to the draw and we were asked to watch as endless balls emerged, were opened and a man with what sounded like a French accent read out the name on the strip of paper.

Watching the scoring unfold in the Eurovision Song Contest was not that far removed and with some people into that ‘jeez we only got two points from Armenia’ sort of television, for a certain set it may have been riveting.

A throwback, the Fifa 2016 World Cup draw had enough of the Euro-glitz, the gaudy pantomime greens and yellows of a Loop the Loop iced lolly (Brazilian colours under camera lights don’t stack up as much as on the back of a footballing artist) and lack of imagination to remind you that Fifa has effortlessly overtaken professional cyclists of the early noughties and the IOC as the world’s least trusted rump of sports people.

Harsh? Only if we simply forget that odious episode of vote-rigging that took place in selecting the World Cup venues. Remember England’s bid was one of the best but they just forgot how to perform the dirty little lap dance that reached right to the top of the Fifa organisation. Wise in the ways of little people paying the salaries but ultimately not counting for much, Fifa’s draw cleverly kept the suits away from the main action.

Sadlier, between his newspaper column and television commentary, rarely fails to be a perceptive and articulate voice in football, chimed in the truncated time they were allowed that Germany’s presence in the group wouldn’t disappoint the FAI.

All that television money coming Ireland’s way, should excite people like John Delaney who was among the audience in Rio. There was no mention of Des Cahill and the purported FAI sanction on the affable and well -informed RTÉ broadcaster, no mention of Delaney’s doubtlessly deserved €400,000 salary, which means he could probably have afforded a Ronaldo suit. But due to a stroke of providence, or, the hand of God (okay, okay that was Maradona not Ronaldo), Germany end up in the Republic of Ireland’s group and suddenly Delaney’s prior claim that the FAI will be out of debt by 2020 and the Aviva Stadium commitments honoured seemed suddenly more plausible.

Whelan shifted in his chair and became a little shirty when Sadlier hit sharply on the subject of money and another certain German injection into a stressed Irish football financial system. But what were the strings attached to the allocation this time? The draw was about football, maintained the former Ireland and Liverpool legend. It was about qualification for the World Cup and Ireland’s chances, not filthy lucre, chances far from fortified by Germany.

“We’re looking at second place in the group,” Whelan readily declared. Sweden and Austria seemed the obvious stumbling blocks in that thesis, not to mention Brian Kerr’s re-entry into the Irish footballing orbit with his Faroe Islands team of firemen and plumbers. There it was. A lot of balls. A lot of green.

“It is the home of Champions,” declared Enda Kenny. “This is a golden age . . .” No, sorry that was the Irish Open in Killarney.