A tactical mistake.
Ireland’s Euro 2012 campaign won’t be remembered all that fondly by the 23 members of Giovanni Trapattoni’s squad, for obvious reasons, but it seems like the players’ significant others didn’t have a great time either.
Striker Kevin Doyle has revealed that the Ireland WAGs had to be hurriedly resettled after they were initially booked into accommodation above a lap-dancing club in the town of Sopot in Poland.
The Sunday Times reports that the team was forced to disrupt preparations for their crucial opening game against Croatia, which Ireland went on to lose 3-1 the following day, to find an alternative place for their wives and girlfriends to stay.
“You have a little issue about changing hotels for your wives which becomes a big issue, the day before a game,” said Doyle.
“They were posited over a lap-dancing club. It’s not what you want when you are cooped up and under stress and bursting to get the first game out of the way and then all of a sudden this pops up.
“It may just be an excuse, but we were so cooped up together for such a long time,” the Colorado Rapids striker added.
“I had no problem with that, but the last thing you want before your first game is trying to arrange another hotel for your family and stuff.”
Other players also complained about the situation, with Darren O’Dea voicing his fear that players could be pictured entering what could have been mistaken for a brothel.
Doyle faces a battle to be named in Martin O’Neill’s squad for this summer’s tournament in France but is at least confident a repeat of that debacle will be avoided.
“Teething problems like that won’t happen again as the players and the people organising things now have that experience of going to a tournament.
