How the world’s media reacted to John Delaney’s stunning FIFA revelations

A major moment told through the medium of the wireless, The Ray D'Arcy Show and an FAI chief executive that crusaded against a FIFA regime he knew to be rotten.

John Delaney threw a wrench into the internet on Thursday afternoon when he confirmed, on RTE Radio One, that the FAI had accepted a payment from FIFA (believed to be in the region of €5 million) to stand down potential legal proceedings against them following the Thierry Henry hand-ball fiasco in 2009. Delaney's remarks made an instant impact with a global media thirsty for any news of payments made by FIFA over the last 20 years that may not, on the face of it, have seemed entirely necessary. And with the arrival on Irish shores any minute now of the very same English media who kept the campaign against Sepp Blatter going for years after nearly all others lost hope, this could have some mileage yet. The Guardian immediately began liveblogging the reaction to the FAI chief's comments The Huffington Post were stunned linking to a since-deleted RTE tweet https://twitter.com/HuffPostSports/status/606483718241460224 While renowned French journalist also couldn't quite believe what he heard https://twitter.com/PhilippeAuclair/status/606481497374257152 https://twitter.com/PhilippeAuclair/status/606500987881328640 Oliver Kay of The Times struggled to comprehend the stupidity of it all https://twitter.com/OliverKayTimes/status/606484447597203457 As did Andrew McKenna, of talkSPORT https://twitter.com/talksportMacca/status/606482349254164481 While his comments made an impression on Elmer Polanco, one of ESPN's Latin American correspondents https://twitter.com/PolancoESA/status/606484771460411392 Gabrielle Marcotti wondered why we are only hearing about this now https://twitter.com/Marcotti/status/606484841958371328 The US edition of the Guardian was also on the case https://twitter.com/GuardianUS/status/606507918163341312 While those with a focus on Irish football simply wondered whatever happened to this FIFA handout https://twitter.com/alansmith90/status/606509595356483584