James McClean

James didn't miss the chance to get back home and vote for Sinn Fein today

max wrote: Wonder will there be any repercussions for James saying that Austria had a 12th man in his interview directly after the game.

The possibility of McClean serving a longer ban than Neil Taylor is ridiculous

Roberto Baggio wrote: Thought at the time that it was a stupid thing for McClean to be saying in an after match interview

It was. It is another shame of football that it is the one sport where it has become acceptable to throw whatever mud you like at the referee, ignoring human error etc. Focussing on the referee is bitter.

Het-field wrote: Roberto Baggio wrote: Thought at the time that it was a stupid thing for McClean to be saying in an after match interview It was. It is another shame of football that it is the one sport where it has become acceptable to throw whatever mud you like at the referee, ignoring human error etc. Focussing on the referee is bitter.

I think it's a shame that football is a sport where you are allowed to gag participants from voicing their opinion, if a player wants to criticise an official then why not, they aren't sacred animals and they should be able to deal with it.

Edited by The O'Shea - 21 Jun 2017 at 12:13pm

I think The O'Shea has a point in fairness. Due to punishments like this nowadays we get very little out of players and managers in terms of their true view of a referring performance. 'No comment' is the best approach to take which is quite ridiculous when you think about it. In any event, both O'Neill and McClean know full well what type of environment we currently operate in and therefore should have conducted themselves a little more appropriately post-game. You would have a certain amount of sympathy however as both individuals are riled up from an intense and high pressure contest and then have a microphone shoved in their faces right after a game in which the referee has made two highly suspect decisions late on.

Yeah, it was brainless from Duffy to go charging in at all, never mind arm first. It was a straight battle between Walters and the defender on the goal-line, I would have fancied the worst outcome to be the defender keeping the ball alive in the box and another 50-50.

I'd say the Georgian team would really feel sorry for our team and these incidents from a terrible ref. 

It would be very harsh indeed if O'Neill gets punished. His words were strong but he didn't accuse the referee of bias, at all. He said he was inconsistent, but there wasn't even an implication of bias in what he said. You are entitled to call a refereeing decision poor, without calling him a cheat or biased. That's what O'Neill did. He shouldn't get punished. They could try and read an implication on bias into the comments ""I personally think it typified the referee’s performance. He let a lot of things go and if that’s the case, then you think, ‘let this go’. If he’s called a foul on Shane Duffy, I can’t see it," as if O'Neill was saying it wasn't let go because he was biased, but that's definitely straining things.

McClean on the other hand did call him a cheat. At this stage, damage limitation is the best option. Accept responsibility, but simply reiterate that he only said what he said after playing 90 minutes, having seen a late goal disallowed (and one that was only marginal), and having had a microphone thrust in his face the second he came off the pitch, when feelings were still raw. That's the way to play that one.