The FAI have apologised for offence caused by an ‘error’ in the match programme for last night’s playoff defeat to Wales which saw a map of Ireland describe the county of Derry as ‘Londonderry’.
Former Ireland international James McClean, a native of Derry, reacted angrily to the graphic – which appeared to be a lift of a Wikipedia page on ‘Counties of Ireland’ – in an Instagram post where he described it ‘disgusting, pathetic and insulting’ before adding ‘hang your heads in shame you shower of arseholes.’
In a statement, the FAI said: “The wrong graphic was inadvertently used in an Ireland Women’s National Team match programme, this was a genuine mistake and the Football Association of Ireland apologises for any offence caused.”
The page was used to highlight the respective county backgrounds of the members of Eileen Gleeson’s squad. For the six counties, a different colour of shading was used, even though there are squad members who qualify via relations from Tyrone and Antrim.
It’s the second time this year that a match programme has caused issues for the FAI. They had to apologise for a translation issue for an U-21 game with Latvia which saw the programme withdrawn from sale when it emerged that visiting players had been listed as Robert the Liar and Dario Shit amongst other names.
A review of the production process was instigated in the aftermath.
News Catch Up – Wednesday 4 December