The gloves were off yesterday as the chief executive of Sport Ireland John Treacy faced the Oireachtas Committee for Transport, Tourism and Sport to discuss John Delaney, the FAI and the mysterious €100,000 loan made to the association by its former chief executive in 2017. Malachy Clerkin was at the four hour session in which Treacy was blunt when asked about his confidence in the organisation, he writes: "John Treacy isn't generally a studs-up kind of guy. Strange as it might seem to anyone who has followed John Delaney's career, Treacy has always taken the approach that the CEO of a sporting body shouldn't be in the news for very much beyond the nuts and bolts of the job at hand. So for him to strap on the knuckle-dusters, gives a fair idea of how annoyed Sport Ireland are at the lack of an acceptable response to their questions about John Delaney's €100k loan to the FAI." Emmet Malone was also present as it was revealed the committee would be asking elected FAI officials to join Delaney at his Oireachtas hearing next Wednesday: "FAI president Donal Conway, treasurer Eddie Murray and Paraic Treanor - the chair of the association's Legal and Corporate Affairs Committee - are all included in what is in danger of becoming a very large delegation next week."
Elsewhere Tottenham Hotspur's new stadium is finally open for business, as Mauricio Pochettino's side cut the ribbon with a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace last night thanks to goals from Son and Christian Eriksen. Elsewhere Manchester City made light work of Cardiff City, with goals from Kevin de Bruyne and Leroy Sane sending them back to the top of the Premier League table. In the night's other fixture, Chelsea eased past Brighton to leapfrog Manchester United and move into fifth place.
Robbie Henshaw is back in full training and set to return to the Leinster side for their Pro14 clash with Glasgow a week on Saturday, giving the province a welcome boost ahead of the Champions Cup semi-final date with Toulouse on April 21st. Henshaw missed the majority Ireland's Six Nations campaign after suffering a dead leg in the build-up to the second round clash with Scotland at Murrayfield, with the injury proving to be more problematic than first feared. He said: "This ended up being one of the rarest dead legs in the world. Honestly. There had only been three or four other ones that they've seen in the world. Roughly three or four, they didn't give me names. One in AFL, one in Ice Hockey - in sport, not just rugby." Meanwhile in today's rugby statistics column Gavin Cummiskey has assessed Ireland's options at openside flanker after Dan Leavy's cruel knee injury ruled him out of the Rugby World Cup. "Let's play a game. If the World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand or South Africa was today, who would wear number seven? Answers on a postcard."
The Aintree Festival begins today, and Thursday's action begins with four-consecutive Grade Ones. All eyes will be on the Grand National on Saturday, and Gordon Elliott looks likely to have 13 runners in the race - including the 4-1 favourite Tiger Roll.
And in her column today Joanne O'Riordan writes about the increasing attendances at certain women's sporting events, following the 60,700 crowd which filled Atletico Madrid's Wanda Metropolitano Stadium for their recent match against Barcelona. "'Build it and they will come' is now a snazzy marketable tagline applicable for women in sport across the world."
