Time to invite legal eagle O’Neill to a VAR-themed dinner in the Marker Hotel
Oh to hear what the Celtic manager really thinks of video evidence
When Martin O’Neill first got the Ireland manager’s job he was keen to ‘hold court’ with the sports editors on our national newspapers, ‘hold court’ being a fitting phrase for a man besotted with the law and the legal systems of Ireland and the UK.
For a couple of years, together with senior employees from his parent football association, O’Neill would attend a dinner in one of Dublin’s better hotels down by the Docklands.
Having attended two of these such functions, I can confirm that they were very hospitable and very amicable but all the better when the subject turned away from football.
We first discovered this in a private dining room in the Marker Hotel in 2013, just a long kick-out from the Aviva Stadium and the stage where O’Neill came into his own.
That night, it’s fair to say he was reticent at first. These days football people and the media share a distrust for each other, a far cry from O’Neill’s career as a player when journalists and teams would travel together, stay together and socialise together.
In the days pre-teletext never mind pre-social media, the lifestyle gap between footballers and media wasn’t all that apparent and they lived, for the most part, in harmony.
That began to change as O’Neill was transitioning from player to manager in the late 80s. Media began to rely less on sources and more on speculation, football people began to distance themselves in some circumstances from old friends.
Caginess entered the vocabulary and with managers long before players stopped handing out their phone numbers, long before they discovered the value of self content on Insta or Tik-Tok.
That’s partly why O’Neill was quiet and a little withdrawn at first in the Marker - and partly the reason why he was there in the first place for this getting to know you soiree.
The evening needed something to break down the barriers and that something was true crime. I’d read that O’Neill, the man who gave up a law degree to take a punt on professional football with Nottingham Forest in 1971, had queued up to attend the Yorkshire Ripper trial at the Old Bailey in 1981.
It was the perfect ice breaker once the subject was put on the table. For an hour or so, Martin O’Neill enthralled one of the toughest audiences in Dublin with his legal tales, his times at Queen’s in Belfast, his first hand experiences in the public galleries, how he had brought his family on the Jack The Ripper tour in London’s Aldgate to celebrate one of his milestone birthdays.
The interest in the law, in justice, was clearly evident, excuse the pun.
And that’s why I would be intrigued to sit down for dinner in the Marker Hotel again with Martin O’Neill and ask his forensic brain to discuss the rights and wrongs of that recently old chestnut VAR.
On Wednesday night, Celtic’s league ambitions were revived the minute, an extra-time minute, that referee John Beaton was summoned to the sideline by VAR official Andrew Dallas to review a potential handball by Sam Nicholson.
Beaton hadn’t seen the handball when Nicholson clashed in the air with Auston Trusty. Those of us watching the pivotal moment in the Scottish season on TV assumed VAR was checking on the ‘hand to head’ movement by the Motherwell player.
But no, after another long wait, Beaton looked at the monitor as the handball was highlighted and the penalty was awarded. Yes, Kelechi Ihenacho kept his cool as he sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot to seal the 3-2 win for Celtic with the last kick of the game.
But that can’t dampen the feeling that VAR did football another disservice at Fir Park. Hearts would have all but won the League for the first time since 1960, since before even this old fogey was born, if the referee’s gut instincts had been followed, if the penalty had not been awarded by video and if the game had finished at 2-2.
Now Martin O’Neill has the chance to steal the title from the Jam Tarts with a win when they meet at Parkhead on Saturday and I wouldn’t bet against that, much as Hearts deserve to be crowned Champions of Scotland.
Late on Wednesday night as he faced the TV cameras, the legendary manager was adamant that the right decision was made for the penalty that may well change Scottish football history but deep down I’d love to know what this legal eagle really thinks of VAR.
Maybe I’ll invite him to dinner again in the Marker Hotel. Table for two please.