FAI general secretary Brendan Menton has denied the claim by Mick McCarthy that the association undermined him while he was in Saipan by reinstating Roy Keane to the Ireland squad before the manager had even heard of the player's decision to stay on for the competition.
In an extract from his forthcoming World Cup diary, published yesterday in Ireland On Sunday, McCarthy alleges that on the morning after Keane originally said he wished to leave the Republic squad and return home, the FAI pre-empted his decision to accept the player's change of mind by faxing FIFA with a squad list that included the United midfielder, rather than intended replacement Colin Healy.
After Mick Byrne returned from a visit to Keane's room and confirmed the Corkman's intention to stay on, McCarthy claims "a new fax is sent to FIFA but there is no guarantee it will make Switzerland in time. . . Then I discover that a fax had been sent by the FAI half an hour earlier with Roy back in the squad, before I even knew he was staying. I am livid."
Menton claims that the "confusion" over the timing of the fax sent from Dublin was subsequently ironed out with McCarthy and that the version of events carried in the book "may have slipped through".
"I sent a fax from Dublin at 20 to 12 because we weren't sure that the one from Saipan was going to make it, but it was only after the decision had been taken by Mick," he says. "It was a while later before this was brought up as an issue by Mick, but when it was we straightened things out and I think he accepts now that nothing improper was done at our end."
Menton also said yesterday he was generally happy with the tone of the manager's book.
In his account of the events that subsequently led to Keane's departure, McCarthy also claims that the player originally assured him that he would play in the second leg of the World Cup play-off against Iran. At the infamous team meeting, "I ask him why he missed the bigest game of all our international careers with Ireland to date, why he pulled out of the trip to Iran on the Sunday morning, just hours after telling me he was going.
"That is the final straw. He shouts at me about 'your deal with the gaffer (Alex Ferguson)'. I ask him," McCarthy continues, "did he tell me on Saturday night that he was going to Iran? He ignores the question and goes on about the 'deal with the gaffer' again. He is fuming now and the room is stunned. I am a crap player. I am a crap manager. I am a crap coach. I can't organise training. I can't manage people, even though I have been managing him with kid gloves for six years now."
McCarthy will be in Dublin tomorrow to announce his squad for next week's Euro 2004 qualifier against Switzerland.
