At one point last week the bookies stopped taking bets on Martin O’Neill returning to Leicester
But FAI chief executive John Delaney says he was never concerned that the Republic of Ireland manager would be lured away by the glamour of the Premier League.
But Delaney admits that there is a lot at stake financially for the FAI in Ireland’s remaining qualification games in Euro 2016.
Speaking to Ocean FM ahead of Saturday’s AGM in Sligo Delaney claims he had no fear that O’Neill would return to Leicester.
“There was a lot of speculation about Martin O’Neill going to Leicester but that was never going to happen. Martin came into see me on Friday and we were looking at the new development at Abbotstown, where we’ve have built six pitches and the international team are going to start training there in September. That’s our new acadamy.
“So we were walking it and had a quick discussion about Leicester. He said he was staying, I said ‘we want you to stay’ and that’s done.
“And I was driving down to Waterford Hibs’ 75th dinner later that evening and I was listening to the radio and Emma my partner was with me and we were hearing Roy Keane was now manager, how was I going to deal with that, how we weren’t going to qualify and Martin was at Leicester.
“And Emma said to me ‘are you sure you were at that meeting?’
“That’s speculation. If you comment on every rumour, then you follow the rumour. But the facts come clear in the end. [Claudio] Raineiri was appointed on Monday and it was gone away but I’m sure when the next manager is let go in the Premier League Martin or Roy will be linked with it.”
Speaking of the FAI’s much discussed finances, Delaney said that the association aren’t depending on the windfall that would come with qualification for France next summer but he admitted that the €12m odd that would come the FAI’s way would come in handy.
“We never do our budgets based on qualifying for major tournaments, but there’s lots of money at stake. There’s €12m if you qualify so that’s extra money to put back into the game or reduce the Aviva debt, whichever way we would look at it. We have big games coming up in September and October – we’re not out of it yet.
“We got a very difficult group. There’s no doubt. Some of the other groups were much easier. We got the world champions in Germany, a very good Poland team and Scotland, our near neighbours – but all is not lost.
“We’ve Georgia and Gibraltar in September. Pick up six points there, that’s the aim. Scotland play Georgia and Germany and Poland play Germany at the same time and then we need a big result in October.”
You can listen to the full interview here.
