Keane<\/a> feud does not align with the new film\u2019s.<\/p>\nWhen writing for The Irish Times, Kilbane did not hold back in criticising parts of the film he called false.<\/p>\n
![\"Kevin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_inpho_00074627.jpg\")
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Kevin Kilbane of Ireland and Luis Enrique of Spain.(Image: )<\/p>\n
\u201cThe record needs to be set straight on a few falsehoods so that people learning about Saipan, via the film, do not think we were a pub team on tour,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe reached the last 16 at the tournament without the best midfielder in the world.<\/p>\n
There was an ill-judged barbecue on the island that the travelling media attended. The film has Roy fuming from his balcony as we did the conga night after night.<\/p>\n
\u201cBullsh*t. We had the one session and Roy was there; I remember him being annoyed that the hacks were invited, but he moved on with us to play darts in a local pub. He was in grand form.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kilbane went on to say Niall Quinn is unfairly portrayed and that McCarthy, played by Steve Coogan, deserves a better representation.<\/p>\n
\u201cNiall Quinn was my roommate in Saipan,\u201d he added. \u201cHe should steer clear of this interpretation of him as a hapless idiot. Quinny is one of the most intelligent players I\u2019ve ever met.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot sure about the Fiona McCarthy character either. Fiona is an incredible woman, the rock Mick would lean on when times were tough, but the entire narrative about her husband being a bumbling manager who was easily cowed is complete nonsense.<\/p>\n
\u201cMick took zero crap from the FAI blazers. He has always been a leader of men, a hero to young lads like me who grew up on a diet of Euro 88 and Italia 90. He deserves a better reflection than Steve Coogan\u2019s character and the script\u2019s interpretation of events.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe height difference was annoying. Roy didn\u2019t loom over Mick. Nobody did.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former Everton and Sunderland player also recalled how brutal Keane and McCarthy’s argument was in front of the squad: \u201cMick was on my right-hand side, so I had to slide around to see him, and with Roy over my left shoulder, it felt like Mick was looking at me, but he was looking straight at Roy when he pulled out a few sheets of paper. \u2018Roy, I want to address this,\u2019 he said. \u2018I think you owe the players an apology for this piece.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was it. Boom. Roy piled into Mick for what seemed an eternity. To this day, it still feels like none of us should have been privy to the Ireland manager and captain airing their differences. It needed to happen in a room with one or two mediators. Such as Mick Byrne or whoever.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tension between them had been building for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoy, clearly, felt cornered by Mick, and Roy Keane only knows one way out of a tight spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe took it that Mick accused him of feigning injury for the second leg in Iran. But that was not said in the meeting. Mick did say he played for Manchester United the Saturday after missing Tehran, which he did.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoy replied: \u2018You had an agreement with Alex Ferguson that I was only going to play one game.\u2019<\/p>\n
After Keane\u2019s diatribe, McCarthy said: \u2018Roy, it is either you go or I go, and I am going nowhere.\u2019 Roy stood up and said \u2018all the best\u2019, shook hands with Stevie Finnan and walked out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Kilbane starred for Ireland at the 2002 World Cup. 20:15, 09 Jan 2026Updated 20:18, 09 Jan 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,96220,272,43,57383,271],"class_list":["post-236672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kevin-kilbane","tag-mick-mccarthy","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-football-team","tag-roy-keane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Roy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_GettyImages-490653100.jpg\")
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