11/20/2009 10:30 AM

Oh dear. Looks like my favorite Irish soccer player-turned-manager Roy Keane is about to get another pasting in Ireland after he blasted the FAI for complaining about Ireland's exit from the World Cup.

"France are going to the World Cup," said former Irish captain Roy Keane said today. "Get over it. They (the FAI) want sympathy as usual. It is the usual carry-on and it is boring.”

"The Irish supporters, the manager and most of the players probably deserve better but I’m not sure the FAI deserve better. What goes around comes around."

This is not going to go down well with the fed-up Irish soccer fans. In fact, if I listen closely I can hear the howls of outrage here on 6th Avenue!

That's Keane-o for you. A brilliant footballer but the world's worst diplomat.

Keane has never forgiven the FAI, in particular John Delaney, for failing to contact him after he walked out of the 2002 World Cup after a blazing row with then manager Mick McCarthy.

But doesn't he have a point?

Yes, it was a heartbreaking way to leave the competition and yes FIFA has skewed the rules in favor of bigger teams like France but what really do we have to complain about?

What sort of a team do we have if our chances for qualification rest on the final 30 minutes of the final play-off?

Keane says he has been amazed at all the commotion over the game.

"Of course Henry handled but I would be more focused about why the ball wasn’t cleared. I’d be more annoyed at my defenders and my goalkeeper than Thierry Henry. How can you let Henry get goal side of you? How can you let the ball bounce in the box?”

“Ireland had chances at Croke Park and in Paris but didn’t take them," he said. “France were there for the taking but Ireland never grabbed it – as usual."

“I don’t feel he game has been damaged one bit. If you look over the course of the campaign, Ireland had the chances. They never took the chance in the first game. They never performed.

“I heard an interview after the first game when the manager said none of the players got booked – maybe that was the problem, maybe the players should have got booked because they stood off France.

“In the second game we had opportunities and should have scored and didn’t take it.”

I know one thing - when Roy Keane was playing for Ireland he could pick up a game by the scruff of its neck and shake an opportunity out of it.

Maybe he's right. We had chances the whole way throughout the qualifying campaign and we just didn't take them.

What do you think? Is Roy Keane right to rubbish the FAI?