Saipan. More than two decades on, one word is still enough to send a shudder down the spine of every Ireland fan. Few place names evoke such an instant reaction – within football, Saipan is only associated with one thing.
Some may not be able to identify it as the tiny capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, or point to it on a map, halfway between Papua New Guinea and Japan. But everyone in Ireland knows it as the far-flung place where Roy Keane and boss Mick McCarthy had the mother of all bust-ups ahead of the 2002 World Cup, leading to Keane’s exit before the tournament had even begun.
