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LONDON, May 27: Roy Keane has admitted Republic of Ireland coach Mick McCarthy was right to throw him out of the World Cup.
The Ireland captain, however, told Monday’s Daily Mail that he did not regret his row with McCarthy, before also taking a swipe at some of his team mates.
“I don’t regret what I said, but at the same time I agree that Mick had to send me home,” he told the newspaper.
“A player cannot speak to a manager like that and continue to work under him. Of that charge, I am guilty.”
McCarthy sent Keane home on Thursday after the two clashed in front of the rest of the squad at a team meeting. Keane, who admitted he had insulted McCarthy, said he had been provoked after getting angry by the training facilities on the Pacific island of Saipan.
The midfielder, the team’s leading player, also claimed McCarthy had accused him publicly of faking an injury before the World Cup playoff against Iran and said the coach had brought the situation by calling a team meeting rather than speaking to him “man-to-man”.
“I waited eight years to play in another World Cup and I’m sacrificing that dream because of something I believed in,” he was quoted as saying.
SEOUL: FIFA has lost 470 million Swiss francs ($296.9 million) in the past four years and may have to cut back its support for its national associations, the head of the committee investigating its finances said Monday.
FIFA vice-president David Will said that while FIFA’s accounts show a projected loss of 134 million Swiss francs ($84.65 million) for 1999 to 2002, the “true net loss” suffered by world soccer’s governing body is more than triple that amount.
The shock announcement comes just two days before Sepp Blatter, heavily criticised for his handling of FIFA finances and facing an investigation by Swiss courts, seeks re-election as president in Seoul.
The figures are contained in an open letter addressed to the national associations and signed by Will, the chairman of FIFA’s internal audit committee, was released four days before the World Cup finals start in Seoul.—Reuters
