Eamon Dunphy has said that Richie Sadlier "made an eejit of himself" for backing the supporters who threw tennis balls onto the pitch during Tuesday night's win against Georgia at the Aviva.
In the 33rd minute, as Ireland were preparing to take the free kick from which Conor Hourihane scored the winning goal, supporters launched balls from the stands in protest against John Delaney and how the FAI is being run.
On RTÉ's coverage of the game, Sadlier said, "fans are angry and disillusioned for very legitimate reasons."
"They were feeling this way long before Mick McCarthy took the job," said Sadlier.
"They feel if there is no meaningful change in the FAI at executive level and how it does its business they will continue to feel this way long after Mick leaves. We know he is going. It is a sign of how upset they are, how disgruntled they are, that they would turn up and do that.
"It's clear why they do that. They could go and do it tomorrow morning in their back gardens but there's no cameras. They do it here to bring attention to their reasons."
Writing in his Irish Daily Star column on Thursday, Dunphy launched an attack on the former Ireland international.
As for Richie Sadlier, he made an eejit of himself.
I understand Richie is trying to make a name for himself, not that he is doing a great job in that department.
He was the only so-called football person to give any kind of credence to that type of carry on.
If people wanted to protest, they should have stayed away from the match. There are plenty of things to do - sing, chant, hold up banners - but don't interfere with the actual game.
It was a very cheap, stupid and yobbish thing to do.
Dunphy believes that he speaks for the majority of supporters when saying that the protesters "represented nobody but themselves" and that they "proved nothing".
Picture credit: Sportsfile
