SOCCER NEWS:GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI has confirmed he had an altercation with Andy Reid at the Republic of Ireland team hotel in Germany after the World Cup qualifying game against Georgia on September 6th but insists the dispute, which arose out of a number of players staying up beyond a 1am curfew, has not been a factor in his decision not to play the Dubliner.

"It is important to clarify the situation, I don't want revenge, I don't give a f**k," he is reported as saying.

The Italian was speaking after being pressed over whether rumours of a run-in between the pair were true. Trapattoni conceded there had been a problem which, he said, arose when the Sunderland midfielder was the last of a group of players he instructed to stop drinking and go to bed on the evening of the Georgia game. But, he maintained; "If I was certain that Andy Reid would improve the team, he would play tomorrow."

Asked about the matter, Trapattoni suggested he was reluctant to reveal what had happened among squad members behind closed doors but, clearly frustrated by the recurring theme of his treatment of the 26-year-old, he ended up providing his version of events, often in characteristically animated fashion.

Reid, he says, was one of 10 players to break the curfew and stay in the bar of the team hotel until well beyond midnight.

"It was two o'clock. We had a game in three days' time and the table was like a pub with all the beer on it," he says of the situation.

The Dubliner was playing guitar and, the manager alleges, declined to call it a night, despite repeated attempts to persuade him to do so.

"'Go in bed, you must go in bed'," he says he said to the player. "'Richard (Dunne) has gone to bed, (John) O'Shea has gone to bed, you must go in bed'.

"If he was my son, I would go boom!" he continued while pretending to kick somebody up the backside. "But he is not my son. Do you understand? This is the first time I have clarified the situation, the 10 players can say it is true or not true.

"Football is my work," he said. "I saw what happened between (Michel) Platini and (Zbigniew) Boniek 25 years ago and I did the same with them. I haven't come here to be on holidays and sing songs and be up all hours. There has to be some discipline, authority.

"All the teams I have led in my career have respect and authority. I let them up for four hours, 10 o'clock till two o'clock - but tomorrow, I told them, you work, you train, so now you must go to bed."

"I am not happy," he added, "because I don't want it to go into a newspaper. I have 30 years managing teams and the situation in the dressingroom stays in the dressingroom. And I have never put myself, my ego over a player. If a player has to play, he will play for the good of the team. It is nothing personal. It is about the team and the order in the team. It's about the team first. If the player fits the team and my plans, then he will play."

When that might be for Reid, he concluded, he could not say as, he observed, "I do not have a crystal ball."