Ireland's biggest sporting embarrassment?

washman3

ChunkyLover54 wrote: »

I think he wore his cap the day we beat Italy 1-0.

He did indeed, and played a starring role.
But some posters prefer a rant to suit their agenda.;)
Maybe its because he failed to 'side' with Keano in Saipano.

Letree

DeanAustin wrote: »

John Delaney and the 33rd team debacle.

That was painful its still painful when you reminded me of it.

Nekarsulm

Not our biggest embarrassing, but remember Sonia O S. Being ordered to change her knicks and top before a race,in front of an official, in public, cause our wonderful Athletics organisation had screwed up?

kfallon

Not so much embarrassing as entertaining but does anyone remember Paul Griffin's outburst after his fight was stopped by the doctor in 1992 Olympics. Griffin was actually seen as prob our best fighter going to The Games but the doctor stopped his first fight.

He wasn't best pleased and when he was getting out of the ring he had a go at the officials, a nearby microphone picked up every word he said and in his best Dublin accent he could be heard shouting, "What did ya bleedin' stop it for, I was fcuking alri!!!"

Think he got suspended for it!

Celebrity bainisteoir prob worth a mention too, cringeworthy stuff!

Talib Fiasco

Ryle Nugent and Ger Canning as the main commentators for the two most televised sports here. I'd rather have those Arab "allaaaaaah" boys chatting absolute ring over those two idiots.

kfallon

Talib Fiasco wrote: »

Ryle Nugent and Ger Canning as the main commentators for the two most televised sports here. I'd rather have those Arab "allaaaaaah" boys chatting absolute ring over those two idiots.

Isn't Ryle Nugent the head of RTE Sport too?

Talib Fiasco

kfallon wrote: »

Isn't Ryle Nugent the head of RTE Sport too?

Pretty sure he is yeah. Another bloody farce. The lad probably played tip the can in school while the lads bate the sh*te out of each other with hurleys.

Big Ears

kfallon wrote: »

Isn't Ryle Nugent the head of RTE Sport too?

Yes he is, and he is largely responsible for what is Ireland's biggest sporting embarrassment.
Ireland's 2 most successful sports are amateur boxing and professional boxing and RTE refuse to show either.

Infact there hasn't be a professional Irish boxing show on tv since 2011, and in the mean time we've had 3 fighters Irish fighters win World titles.
The small amount of coverage they gave amateur boxing since the Olympics was pathetic, and thankfully TG4 have taken up the role of showing amateur boxing in Ireland and are doing a much better job.

Strongbow10

In Rugby, celebrating wins in meaningless games (Australia, South Africa and Georgia) like we have achieved something absolutely monumental.

Then when we actually get to the holy grail of the world cup (where the southern hemisphere teams actually give a crap) we end up getting whipped. And when we do turn over a giant, we usually piss it away by losing the following game which is winnable.

Sandwiched in between, we are spoon fed the 6 nations as being the absolute pinnacle of world rugby where we play giants such as Italy and Scotland on a yearly basis.

And also the fact that half the crowd probably have no idea whats going on in general in terms of why penalties are being awarded etc...

Mal-Adjusted

IsaacWunder wrote: »

But some clubs in Britain do genuinely have an Irish connection

What constitutes an Irish connection? I know Celtic was founded by an Irish lad (a priest?) and has connections with Finn Harps. Something similar with Hibs?

I won't say that the soccer teams performance in Euro '12 was an embarrassment, we were never going to beat those teams, but what is embarrassing is many of the Irish soccer supporters expectations of the national team being so out of kilter with reality. It'd be like Carlow fans not understanding why they don't win Liam every year.

Having a football association that wants absolutely nothing to do with the domestic game must be pretty high up the list

Borders no.2

Ireland v Georgia Rugby World Cup 2007
Ireland v Liechenstein 1995 Euro qualifer
Most of Steve Staunton's tenure as Ireland manager
John Delaney and dozens of FAI cock ups
FAI buying thousands of pounds of false tickets from unnamed touts pre WC 1994
Drugs controversies
New Contract given to Eddie O'Sullivan pre WC2007
I think we made a joint bid with Scotland for Euro 2008 that was to put in mildly ill advised. The bid was laughed out of contention and it left the Scots not too pleased with us.
Marty Morrissey
Tug of war over various soccer players, Rory McIllroy for Olympics etc.

dmc17

DeanAustin wrote: »

Stan's interview afterwards was comical too. Didn't he say they'd cause other teams problems in the group (and didnt Germany slaughter them 13-0) as well as some bizarre claim about us traditionally not being great in February or some such nonsense.

Felt sorry for Stan but his appointment was one of the few I've ever seen that was completely bereft of common sense and logic. Another bit of Delaney genius.

Well, in fairness, I think they could prove to be a massive banana skin. You can't legislate for that, so you can't........

rossie1977

probably this

diomed

Ok, I''ll say it.
Roy Keane losing his soother in Saipan.

markfla

Ireland v Argentina in 1999 rwc in lens
http://m.independent.ie/sport/rugby/shame-of-lens-the-spark-for-irelands-new-focus-26028347.html

ButtersSuki

Marty Morrisey asking Francie Barrett's mother "did he ever hit you an auld box?" Live on TV after Francie was the flagbearer for the irish Olympic Team in the '96 Olympics. That he asked this question at about 3 in the morning on a halting site in Galway as he interviewed Francie's parents, friends and family with a burning barrel serving as the centrepiece/interview desk was depending on your viewpoint hilarious or mortifying. This was rapidly followed by a return to the studio where Bill O'Herlihy apologises profusely and the RTE went to an unscheduled break. Ah, the memories...

Aphex

Nib wrote: »

A former World Champion missing one ball having previously potted thirty five without missing. Yeah, a really embarrassment that was. :rolleyes:

World champion only because Hendry missed an easy pink. But yes, pretty embarrassing not to pot the black after all the effort. I was gutted for him btw.
Ronnie pots the black just for fun ffs :pac:

ButtersSuki

Aphex wrote: »

World champion only because Hendry missed an easy pink. But yes, pretty embarrassing not to pot the black after all the effort. I was gutted for him btw.
Ronnie pots the black just for fun ffs :pac:

I was on a flight back from London the next morning after that shot. Ken was last onto the plane and hadn't been in the Lounge/departure area prior to take off. He was as white as a ghost. He got into his seat and put on headphones and basically kept staring at the floor.

What a lot of people forget is that he also "lost" an £80,000STG (a LOT of money then!) Honda Sports Car for missing that black as it was a bonus prize for a 147 in the tournament.

But by no means is that up there amongst our greatest embarrasments.

ROAAAR

Losing to England in croke Park when they made our president walk on the grass. They complicated humiliated the irish that day. The irish authorities should have not started that game until Johnson backed down and I'd almost guarantee an Irish victory instead.

ROAAAR

It was a ****ing disgrace to have happened and I'm embarrassed for Irish Rugby because of it. Small little island mentality really gets to me about the irish at times. A lot of people in Ireland are not driven natural born winners. "sure we played grand" attitude really bugs me. I would been ashamed of myself to let them away with that after everything they've done to us over the years and we just roll over and die. Now that's what I'd call puke rugby.

Aphex

ButtersSuki wrote: »

I was on a flight back from London the next morning after that shot. Ken was last onto the plane and hadn't been in the Lounge/departure area prior to take off. He was as white as a ghost. He got into his seat and put on headphones and basically kept staring at the floor.

What a lot of people forget is that he also "lost" an £80,000STG (a LOT of money then!) Honda Sports Car for missing that black as it was a bonus prize for a 147 in the tournament.

But by no means is that up there amongst our greatest embarrasments.

Sheesh OO didn't know that! Nah it's not the greatest, but it must be for him. I was rooting for him all the way. Think Stevens even took it worse on the night!

errlloyd

ROAAAR wrote: »

Losing to England in croke Park when they made our president walk on the grass. They complicated humiliated the irish that day. The irish authorities should have not started that game until Johnson backed down and I'd almost guarantee an Irish victory instead.

We never lost to England in Croke Park. That match was in the old landsdowne.

ROAAAR

errlloyd wrote: »

We never lost to England in Croke Park. That match was in the old landsdowne.

Actually you're wrong it was in the aviva before being done up. You're right about it not being in croker though good man, I just slipped out the wrong name there I was aware of that. I'd be a bit of a sporting expert in the area if you know what I mean

chrysagon

ROAAAR wrote: »

Losing to England in croke Park when they made our president walk on the grass. They complicated humiliated the irish that day. The irish authorities should have not started that game until Johnson backed down and I'd almost guarantee an Irish victory instead.

That was Lansdowne... Ireland beat the English out the gate on Croker..one of our proudest moments!

Losing to Cyprus.. getting thrashed at home to Germany, and the way DeBruin lost her medals after Atlanta 1996..producing poitin pee:D

Muahahaha

Big Ears wrote: »

Yes he is, and he is largely responsible for what is Ireland's biggest sporting embarrassment.
Ireland's 2 most successful sports are amateur boxing and professional boxing and RTE refuse to show either.

Infact there hasn't be a professional Irish boxing show on tv since 2011, and in the mean time we've had 3 fighters Irish fighters win World titles.
The small amount of coverage they gave amateur boxing since the Olympics was pathetic, and thankfully TG4 have taken up the role of showing amateur boxing in Ireland and are doing a much better job.

I couldn't believe it last week when the Limerick boxer Andy Lee won the World Middleweight belt. I'd literally never heard of him and the first time I'd ever seen him was on the RTE News AFTER he had won the belt. Really poor from our national broadcaster that this chap is a world champion in his sport but most people had never even heard from him as media coverage on boxing seems to be rare when it does occur.

Muahahaha

I'm not one bit a fan of John Delaney but I don't know why he is getting rubbished on this thread for the 33rd team thing. He said it in private to FIFA and it was never intended for broadcast except Sepp Blatter opened his big trap and broadcast it to make Irish people look like idiots.

Now if Delaney's lobbying behind the scenes had of actually resulted in FIFA somehow allowing a 33rd team play due to the extraordinary nature of the Henry handball then Ireland would have been going to the World Cup after all and everyone would be saying fair play to John Delaney for coming up with the idea.

As to how you would slot a 33rd team into a 32 team tournament I haven't the foggiest but had FIFA said fairs fair and Ireland should be there and they somehow made it happen then Delaney would have been doing his job, the FAI probably lost out on huge revenues by not going to the World Cup so he was only ever acting in the best interests of Irish football. The fact Sepp Blatter came out and broadcast a private solution wasn't Delaneys fault in fairness.

He's still a twat though, no doubt about that.

foxy farmer

Muahahaha wrote: »

I couldn't believe it last week when the Limerick boxer Andy Lee won the World Middleweight belt. I'd literally never heard of him and the first time I'd ever seen him was on the RTE News AFTER he had won the belt. Really poor from our national broadcaster that this chap is a world champion in his sport but most people had never even heard from him as media coverage on boxing seems to be rare when it does occur.

I'd say the last time a boxing match was televised in this country was the night that Bernard Dunne was hammered by the Thai boxer in the O2. Another sad day.

the whole year inn

chrysagon wrote: »

That was Lansdowne... Ireland beat the English out the gate on Croker..one of our proudest moments!

Losing to Cyprus.. getting thrashed at home to Germany, and the way DeBruin lost her medals after Atlanta 1996..producing poitin pee:D

I dont think she lost her medals tho

http://m.independent.ie/lifestyle/is-michelle-really-our-greatest-ever-olympian-26865802.html

Unlike waterford Crystal which did fail the drug test ...the shame.

osarusan

Saipan.
FAI blocking Barcelona friendly.
Various horrible GAA fights.
Argentina rugby match at world cup (less so as they've come on a lot)
Liechtenstein draw.
Six nations loss to Italy a few years ago.
2-5 versus Cyprus
33rd team at world cup farce.
FAI in general.
Delaney in particular.

kippy

Muahahaha wrote: »

I'm not one bit a fan of John Delaney but I don't know why he is getting rubbished on this thread for the 33rd team thing. He said it in private to FIFA and it was never intended for broadcast except Sepp Blatter opened his big trap and broadcast it to make Irish people look like idiots.

Now if Delaney's lobbying behind the scenes had of actually resulted in FIFA somehow allowing a 33rd team play due to the extraordinary nature of the Henry handball then Ireland would have been going to the World Cup after all and everyone would be saying fair play to John Delaney for coming up with the idea.

As to how you would slot a 33rd team into a 32 team tournament I haven't the foggiest but had FIFA said fairs fair and Ireland should be there and they somehow made it happen then Delaney would have been doing his job, the FAI probably lost out on huge revenues by not going to the World Cup so he was only ever acting in the best interests of Irish football. The fact Sepp Blatter came out and broadcast a private solution wasn't Delaneys fault in fairness.

He's still a twat though, no doubt about that.

Look, there are travestys in football all the time. Key games getting decided on a poor decision, missed foul, mistake etc. Even within the WC itself in far higher profile games some of the most historic moments in sport are around handballs. What exactly made Delaney think they'd overturn our result? What kind of a precident would that set?
JD is am embarrassment. Probably the highest paid sports administrator presiding over a sport that relies on the English system to train and develop our top players, has a sham of a national league structure and in my opinion is a failure to those many volunteers that work within it. Worse still, despite all JD's fcuk ups noone within the organisation is speaking up about him.