Champagne Football, Mark Tighe
Champagne Football, Mark Tighe
List: $14.62 | Sale: $10.23
Club: $7.31

Champagne Football
John Delaney and the Betrayal of Irish Football: The Inside Story

Author: Mark Tighe, Paul Rowan

Narrator: Johnny Candon

Unabridged: 10 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 11/19/2020


Synopsis

Brought to you by Pengun.

THE NO.1 BESTSELLER!

Over the course of fifteen years, John Delaney ran the Football Association of Ireland as his own personal fiefdom. He had his critics, but his power was never seriously challenged until last year, when Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan published a sequence of stories in the Sunday Times containing damaging revelations about his personal compensation and the parlous financial situation of the FAI. Delaney's reputation as a great financial manager was left in tatters. He resigned under pressure, and the FAI was left hoping for a massive bail-out from the Irish taxpayer.

In Champagne Football, Tighe and Rowan dig deep into the story of Delaney's career and of the FAI's slide into ruin. They show how he surrounded himself with people whose personal loyalty he could count on, and a board that failed to notice that the association's finances were shot. They detail Delaney's skilful cultivation of opinion-formers outside the FAI. And they document the culture of excess that Delaney presided over and benefited from, to the detriment of the organization he led.

Champagne Football is a gripping, sometimes darkly hilarious and often enraging piece of reporting by the award-winning journalists who finally pulled back the curtain on the FAI's mismanagement.

'I read it in one sitting, it's a superb book' Eamon Dunphy, The Stand

'An astonishing exposé' Martin Ziegler, The Times

'Excellent' Irish Sun

'A jaw-dropping story ... brilliant' Irish Times

'Essential reading' Irish Daily Star

'Astonishing ... Side-splittingly hilarious' Guardian

'A damming account' Sunday Independent

'An instant classic, one of the all-time great Irish sports books' Alan English

'Excellent ... includes staggering detail' Daily Mail

'A cracking read ... [An] incredible amount of jaw-dropping detail' Matt Cooper

'One of the most hotly-anticipated sport books of the year' Brendan O'Connor

'A masterpiece' Tommy Martin

'At last, the truth of his ruinous reign has been rigorously and painstakingly exposed' Irish Daily Mail
'An absolutely extraordinary book' Eoin McDevitt, Second Captains

'Remarkable. The desperate story of Irish football but also a book about how Ireland works. Outstanding' Dion Fanning

© Mark Tighe, Paul Rowan 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Reviews

Goodreads review by James on December 21, 2021

In Thomas Piketty's Capital there is a section in which he argues that executive pay is getting higher because high-level directors are awarding themselves as much as they can. This book is a case study of such a scenario, made possible by the public interest in a football association that includes......more

Goodreads review by Ralph on May 21, 2022

John Delaney ran Irish football like he owned it. He floated around like a Mafia don dispensing favours and expecting loyalty or at the very least, omerta, in return. That's the conventional reading but until you get into this book, you don't realise what it was like in the 15 years Delaney was CEO......more

Goodreads review by Kevin on May 28, 2023

Tighe and Rowan's feat of investigative journalism is unparalled in not only its willingness to tackle systemic corruption but in uncovering myriad laughable transgressions committed by Delaney and his cronies. It is notable how much commitment is required to transcribe these injustices to a nationa......more

Goodreads review by Sam on January 28, 2025

Started off feeling a bit disjointed; it had to set the history, and it seemed like a bunch of anecdotes of the subject being just a bit profligate, egocentric and very wasteful. But after about halfway, as the authors' themselves started to appear around their story, it all began to pay off. Fascin......more

Goodreads review by Ruairi on December 01, 2023

Ireland does not award knighthoods or OBEs, but whatever equivalent we come up with should be given to Mark Tighe. He has served his country better than most of the footballers we've had down the years.......more


Quotes

A jaw-dropping tale of power and ego going unchecked Times, Best Sports Books of the Year 2020

I read it in one sitting, it's a superb book ... I urge people to buy it and read it even if you're not interested in football The Stand

A cracking read ... [An] incredible amount of jaw-dropping detail

The most important Irish sports book of the year and most significant book on Irish life itself ... Exceptional Irish Daily Mail

A superb piece of investigative journalism, in which a tale of tawdry venality is told with wit, verve, and just the right amount of disbelief Irish Times, Best Books of 2020

Excellent Irish Sun

Part thriller, part warning from history, part social diary, Champagne Football is a forensic and often tragicomic investigation into the biggest story in Irish sport. It's a fantastic read Irish Times, Sports Books of the Year 2020

Fantastic ... The best book I've ever read about Irish football Second Captains

A damming account ... brilliantly detailed Sunday Independent

Jaw-dropping