World Cup Special: The Full Brazilian

Requisitioned for the duration from the Late Late, the station’s footballing nerve centre is festooned with flags and plastic palm trees and has a replica World Cup trophy in the corner that yours truly feels obliged to kiss in a 1966 Bobby Moore “We’ve just stuffed the Germans 4-2!” stylee.
Whilst Neil Lennon, Didi Hamann, Brad Friedel, Liam Brady and Real Madrid coach Paul Clement are still lying on some foreign beach, the rest of the station’s World Cup squad are meeting the ladies and gentlemen of the press.
I’ve no idea what the joke is, but Ossie Ardiles – more of whom overleaf – is having a good old giggle with Ronnie Whelan while there’s a bit of a Reservoir Dogs vibe about Richard Sadlier, Kenny Cunningham and Ray Houghton as they whisper conspiratorially together in their dark suits. Bill O’Herlihy is charming the pants off everybody, as is his wont, and Eamon Dunphy, as is his wont, is running ten minutes late.
When he does breeze into the room, the first thing Eamon does is express concern that the World Cup will be overshadowed by the present political unrest in Brazil. The latest opinion poll shows 52% of Brazilians against the tournament being staged there, mainly because of the huge overspend on building stadiums – and the heavy-handed police response to protests.
“There are reasons to worry,” Dunphy states. “Not just about the corruption in the country but also in the Brazilian Football Federation and FIFA. The picture is very grubby: it’s ugly and it’s tainting football. The key will probably be how Brazil is doing. If they start exciting people and making the country proud I think the protests may be more muted. But if they don’t play well, people will want to make trouble for the association, which is very unpopular in Brazil. The domestic game is poor; they lose all their players to Europe and they’re not a great international side, so I think it could be very bad.
“FIFA’s image has been badly damaged by the Sunday Times story last week. Not that it was good before but it’s in shreds now and we know that there’s been terrible corruption. That will overshadow the tournament to some extent.”
Those sentiments are echoed by Bill O’Herlihy who proffers, “You can fully understand why they’re so annoyed down there about so much money being spent on football when it could be spent on the country itself.”
Off the pitch concerns addressed, Kenny Cunningham tells us why he thinks Spain will be holding-on to their title.
“I actually think they’re a stronger squad than they were last time,” he proffers. “They have an outstanding striker, Diego Costa, as opposed to the sort of false number nine they’ve operated with these past few years. We know the ability they have in the middle of the pitch and how strong they are. They’ve both experience and vibrant young players like Koke coming into the team as well. They like to keep the ball and play at their own pace, which will suit the conditions.”
Cunningham’s assertion that “England could be a very dangerous team” is shot down by Ronnie Whelan. “I think they’ll be lucky to get out of their group,” the formar Liverpool star says. “I don’t think England are that good at all. I don’t know what the hype is about Barkley – he doesn’t do the right things at the right time.”
Asked why no European team has ever won the World Cup when it’s been staged in South America, Ossie opines, “You mentioned a lot of corruption in the game before...” The rest of the room laughs. He doesn’t.
Along with Ardiles, Argentina’s chief cheerleader is Ray Houghton – on June 18 it will be exactly 20 years since he stuck the ball in the Italian net. “Going forward they’ve players like Di Maria, Aguero and Messi who can win you a game,” he states. “With the Benfica midfielder, Garay, coming in they’re stronger defensively and you won’t have the distraction of Diego Maradona and what stunt he’s going to pull next.”
The final word goes – as always – to Eamon Dunphy who has some sage-like advice for all the World Cup coaches.
“When I was playing at the very highest level for Milwall,” he deadpans, “we were told ‘no sex after Wednesday’. You’ll have to adjust it depending on what day the game’s on, but it’s a good rule!”