O’Neill on back foot for a fast tango in Paris

WHEN it comes to a ‘little trickery’, there are few folk in football quite like Michel Platini. The tousle-haired musketeer, banned from football for accepting disloyal payments from his buddy Sepp Blatter, has freely admitted to fixing the draw for the 1998 World Cup finals to ensure France and Brazil were kept apart. Platini, as head of the tournament organising committee, says he had no issue rigging the schedule so the teams couldn’t meet until the final once they won their groups. Should we be surprised? Sure, a little tweaking here and there is nothing new to former UEFA president Platini, who was part of the FIFA executive in December 2010 which anointed Qatar, of all countries, as host nation to the 2022 World Cup finals. The flamboyant Frenchman (below) was chief overseer for the 2016 European Championships before being exposed and suspended by FIFA’s ethics chiefs in December 2015. By then, of course, the timetable for the Euro finals in France was in place. Hosts France were allocated top seeding in Group A which meant a cushy last-16 tie if they topped the group, which they did on June 19. Three nights later in Lille, Ireland beat Italy 1-0 to progress as a third-placed team in Group E. Their reward? A trip to Lyon to play a refreshed France. Curiously, of the 16 teams who advanced to the second round, only France and England had seven days to prepare for their next game. The Irish had four. By coincidence, Les Bleus were also the only quarter-finalists to enjoy another seven-day breather after they beat Ireland. Was there ‘trickery’ at play here? Possibly. Possibly not. Martin O’Neill certainly smelt a rat when Ireland were given roughly half the time to prepare that France were afforded. The Ireland manager was entitled to feel aggrieved, as were his players, who rattled the French before running out of juice in the second half. On Monday, Ireland meet France for the first time since their loss in the Lyon den. The venue is the Stade de France, Paris, where Ireland were cruelly denied a penalty shoot-out to reach the 2010 World Cup finals due to myopic officials. Most end-of-term games carry little relevance but there will be an edge to this friendly as Ireland feel they are ‘owed one’ by the French for events of 2009 and 2016. O’Neill names his squad tomorrow and no less than 15 of his Euro 2016 squad will be marked absent through a combination of retirement, injury and unavailability. With a chronic dearth of Premier League players coming through to replace them, O’Neill must call on players from League One and the League of Ireland to fill his squad. It’s a throwback to the 1970s and 1980s when an SOS went out from for players at this time of the season. How O’Neill must envy French coach Didier Deschamps, whose 23-man provisional squad for the World Cup finals is crammed with elite players across Europe’s top divisions. Such is the strength in depth in the French ranks, the likes of Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal), Anthony Martial (Manchester Utd), Moussa Sissoko (Spurs) and Kurt Zouma (Chelsea) are on stand-by. What O’Neill would give for the riches of the French reserve. The French under-age conveyor belt is still churning out youngsters capable of lighting up Europe’s top four leagues, in England, Spain, Germany and Italy. As for Ireland, Father Time has started to intrude, and O’Neill faces a significant challenge to source quality recruits who can sustain the competitive edge which Irish teams are renowned for. Perhaps Paris will provide a few positive pointers.