Martin O'Neill has said that he had no prior knowledge beyond what was already made public of the settlement agreement reached between the FAI and FIFA before he took the job as Republic of Ireland manager at the end of 2013 – and reiterated that he and FAI CEO John Delaney have not had any political discussions since his appointment.
Sitting alongside John O'Shea at the pre-match press conference ahead of the friendly game against England on Sunday, O'Neill was reluctant to be drawn into a discussion about the big story of the week involving his employers which threatens to overshadow his squad's preparations for next weekend's crucial Euro 2016 qualifier against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium.
O'Neill's assistant Roy Keane told media on Friday that the topic hadn't come up among the players on the training ground and stated his belief that the players had their priorities straight by concentrating fully on the job at hand. However, later that night Stoke City striker Jonathan Walters tweeted: "Meal in Howth with the boys. What a view! The waiter was happy with the €5,000,000 tip."
When asked by the media on his knowledge of the FAI-FIFA transaction, O'Neill replied: "It was out there in the public domain at the time so I wasn't anymore aware than anybody else and it has all come to a head just at this moment. But I haven't had time myself to study it in any sort of depth and I'm certainly not a European lawyer so I won't be taking any of that into consideration.
"We really want to concentrate on what we're here about – myself as the manager, John [O'Shea] as a player – and I think that is pretty important.
"What I would say I suppose," added O'Neill, "is that the FAI board have given me this opportunity to come in and manage the team. I was delighted to take it and obviously I want to try and push that forward on the footballing side as much as I possibly can. Naturally, this game and the Scotland game is taking almost my undivided attention."
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