LITTLE ROCK!
Tiny venue will welcome only 200 Irish fans
MICK McCARTHY’S return as Republic of Ireland manager will begin on an artificial pitch on the Rock of Gibraltar in front of a handful of visiting fans.
As few as 200 members of the Green Army may be allocated tickets at the 2,000-capacity Victoria Stadium for the Euro 2020 opener on March 23.
The scramble for tickets kicked off last night when the Gibraltar FA dug in their heels to play all Group D home games on the 4G surface.
It’s the last thing McCarthy, or the Ireland fans, wanted — their preference was for the 30,000capacity Estadio Algarve in Faro, where Ireland played Gibraltar in the Euro 2016 qualifiers.
‘It gives them (Gibraltar) a bit of hope because it will be a pitch our lads don’t play on, and don’t particularly like playing on either,’ said McCarthy.
‘Fortunately, we can get on one and train on one. But I don’t want to get on a 4G pitch for four or five days.
‘All the other coaches and managers will be wringing their hands and hoping I’m not doing
that. I think it (the pitch) does give a team an advantage having played on it,’ he added.
The FAI are entitled to tickets equating to 10 per cent of the stadium capacity and will seek to squeeze as many more as they can, although it will not be easy as Gibraltar virtually sold out their three home Nations League games.
In October 2012, Ireland played the Faroe Islands on an artificial pitch in Torshavn and won 4-0. The FAI will send a delegation to Gibraltar shortly for a site visit, after which they will have a clearer handle on the likely ticket allocation.
The association will have to be seen to be fair to the diehard fans, such as the 900 who travelled to Aarhus last month for what was effectively a dead rubber in the Nations League.
Before the double-header next June away to Denmark (June 7) and home to Gibraltar (June 10), McCarthy is eager to have a squad get-together in preparation. The FAI are likely to arrange home fixtures to fill the gaps in the September and November windows.
Meanwhile, Robbie Keane has revealed he has ambitions to manage the Republic of Ireland. Newly-appointed to McCarthy’s backroom staff, the 68-goal former striker has ‘no fear’ for the coaching challenges which lie ahead.
In conversation with Eamon Dunphy at a Paddy Power event to be shown on eir Sport tonight (10.30pm), Keane was quizzed on his ‘new role with Ireland’.
‘You could have a good career as coach, you could be the next Irish manager, but one or two? Do you have that kind of ambition?’ asked Dunphy. ‘Of course, yes,’ replied Keane. ‘I’ve been doing my coaching badges. That (managing) is the avenue I want to go down.
‘I don’t want to be one of those players who becomes fat, drinks and plays golf all the time and thinks “my life is fine”.
‘I want to go down the other route, coaching. You have to earn it. And I’m prepared to do. I did that as a player,’ he said.
The earliest Keane could become manager is 2022 as McCarthy and Stephen Kenny are in harness until then under the FAI’s succession strategy.
In a candid interview, Keane felt ‘no one won’ in the Saipan row and revealed he didn’t know Spain only had 10 players in extra-time in the 2002 World Cup last 16 duel.
‘We should have won the game. We were the better team. In extra-time, we were dominating, they were flat out.’
Keane told how Harry Kane used to clean his boots at Spurs, and how David Beckham teed up his move to LA Galaxy.
While his time at Liverpool didn’t work out, Keane felt Rafa Benitez was ‘tactically one of the best (managers) I worked under.’
He called the methods of Giovanni Trapattoni ‘simple, and effective’ while Brian Kerr’s prematch chats, especially at underage level, were ‘brilliant’.
‘You’re going out of the dressing room almost wanting to kill someone,’ he said.
Recently retired, Keane was fuelled by the desire to score, which he did almost 400 times,
‘As a striker you have to be obsessed with scoring goals. If I didn’t score, I’d be upset.’
For all his club feats, it was the country’s call which mattered most in a 146-cap career.
‘The jersey that fitted the best was the green jersey. Being Irish and playing for your country is something special.
‘Not many teams win the World Cup but we had spirit that no other team had. I look back on it (Irish career) with great pride.
‘It’s something I’ll take to the grave, forget about all the other teams, all the other goals I scored.’