Rightly or wrongly, it's been the big story in the football world over the past week. Little old Ireland became front page news all over the world thanks to something that was already news years ago. John Delaney must be cursing his bad luck.
A large number of public figures have had their say on the €5 million payment and yesterday Jose Mourinho became the latest. As tends to happen when the Chelsea manager opens his mouth, he didn't hold back.
Nothing FIFA does surprises Mourinho anymore, but he is extremely annoyed at news of the payment FIFA made to the FAI in wake of the Thierry Henry handball.
In typical Mourinho incisive fashion, he likens the scandal to the end of the world.
This one, for me, is the end of the world. You change the truth of the game for €5m? What next? Because more stories will come for sure.
The suggestion being of course the precedence that paying someone for a refereeing mistake is extremely expensive and costly. But as angry as Mourinho is, he is not surprised, and for a very good reason.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Mourinho tells the story of the FIFA World Coach Of The Year vote in 2012, which was eventually awarded to Vincente Del Bosque.
Mourinho claims that he was contacted by a national team captain and a national team manager who both told him they had voted for him him in the private ballot but then had their votes changed when the ballot was made public.
Mourinho wasn't happy at the time but now that the FAI's payout has been made public, the Chelsea boss has seemingly had enough.
For me, the corruption, the money, the votes [is one thing]. But even more than that, now we are coming in the direction of what is mine. And mine is the game. This one (the payment to FAI), for me, is unbelievable.
You can now add Jose Mourinho to the list of figures who have come out against FIFA and the FAI over the controversial payment which includes Enda Kenny and Giovanni Trapattoni.
See Also: Jose Mourinho Reserves Special Praise For An Unlikely Recipient
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(Sunday Times €)
