Ruud Gullit on his Fr Ted cameo, Jack Byrne going Dutch and the FAI’s disappointing €5m loan

Almost an honour.

What do Pete Sampras and Ruud Gullit have in common?

They both are linked forever in Irish memory to Fr Ted.

We’re not sure how the American tennis player would react to his name being linked to rabbits, but at least we now know how the Dutchman feels, having been described as ‘sitting on a shed’ in an advent calendar

This intrepid reporter risked the ire of his fellow journalists to bring to Gullit’s attention that his name features in the Christmas episode of the legendary TV show.

After his initial perplexion, the Dutch legend, having watched the clip admitted that it is ‘almost an honour’ to be linked to the series.

Now that the big question was out of the way, the Dutchman was loose enough to open up about the saga of the FAI and Fifa’s five million payment after the infamous Thierry Henry handball.

The BBC pundit has sympathy for fans and players who were unhappy at the revelation,

“Of course they are disappointed, of course you are, you’ve been bought off for five million.”

“I’m not so mad about FIFA, I’m mad about Ireland. I’d be mad about my Federation. What the hell is that? Five million, you say it’s ok. That was a surprise. What did you do about it?”

“It’s not my federation, it’s a difficult thing. Maybe they were thinking if we were knocked out anyway let’s get something out of it.”

“It is a huge disappointment when something like that happens but don’t get in that position in the first place.  The thing is, also with the Irish like I said, maybe they thought ‘we cant change anything about it, and maybe we get something out if it’.

“You know that this game would not be played again. You know that, it’s not going to happen. You know that. It never happens so why would it happen now.”

“So, I think he (Sepp Blatter) did well. He got rid of it. Fifa, it’s not their fault what happened. It was not their fault but they wanted to get it out of the way and the Irish were competitors so move on. “

The Dutchman was part of a golden generation of Dutch players such as Marco Van Basten and Frank Rijikard who came through together in the late 1980’s and went on to rule football with a star-studded AC Milan side.

However when asked about the new guru of under-age football appointed by the FAI, and fellow Dutchman, Ruud Dokter, Gullit admits he’s never heard of him.

One Irish player he has heard of  is under-age starlet Jack Byrne, who is currently on loan with Dutch Eredivisie side Cambuur from Manchester City.

Gullit feels that his development will be accelerated by playing in the more technical Dutch top-flight,

“He’s doing well. He’s injured. He doesn’t play this Sunday. He’s a midfielder, like Roy Keane, little but a tough guy.”

“It’s a fantastic opportunity  Because he plays in a small, small community, a small club. I don’t like to play on plastic turf, but he has to play on it there. But the development in Holland is good. You get your first team football. It is more open, very technical, very tactical so it’s a good experience.”

“Here you play mostly school’s football and youth and there’s the problem already. Because if you play for your school, what’s all-important in England is winning.”

“For us (in Holland), everything until 14 is all bout development. I don’t care if you win. It’s all about play, play play. If you play for the school you say, hey, I want to win.”

“So I have a big guy up front. Two big guys at the back and maybe all the little players, they don’t play. They don’t get a chance. There it already goes wrong. It’s all about results and that’s not what it’s about.”

“It’s difficult, though, for the coaches because they want to win to but the development of the kid until 14 is just to play for fun, just do you’re things. Try to develop and try to encourage people to do the things that they need to do.”