O'Neill says he and Delaney don't talk politics

Martin O'Neill has said that he had no prior knowledge beyond what was already made public of the settlement agreement reached between the FAI and FIFA before he took the job as Republic of Ireland manager at the end of 2013 – and reiterated that he and FAI CEO John Delaney have not had any political discussions since his appointment.

Sitting alongside John O'Shea at the pre-match press conference ahead of the friendly game against England on Sunday, O'Neill was reluctant to be drawn into a discussion about the big story of the week involving his employers which threatens to overshadow his squad's preparations for next weekend's crucial Euro 2016 qualifier against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium.

O'Neill's assistant Roy Keane told media on Friday that the topic hadn't come up among the players on the training ground and stated his belief that the players had their priorities straight by concentrating fully on the job at hand. However, later that night Stoke City striker Jonathan Walters tweeted: "Meal in Howth with the boys. What a view! The waiter was happy with the €5,000,000 tip."

When asked by the media on his knowledge of the FAI-FIFA transaction, O'Neill replied: "It was out there in the public domain at the time so I wasn't anymore aware than anybody else and it has all come to a head just at this moment. But I haven't had time myself to study it in any sort of depth and I'm certainly not a European lawyer so I won't be taking any of that into consideration.

"We really want to concentrate on what we're here about – myself as the manager, John [O'Shea] as a player – and I think that is pretty important.

"What I would say I suppose," added O'Neill, "is that the FAI board have given me this opportunity to come in and manage the team. I was delighted to take it and obviously I want to try and push that forward on the footballing side as much as I possibly can. Naturally, this game and the Scotland game is taking almost my undivided attention."

O'Neill' was then asked if Delaney had his full support, a question which the Ireland boss needed repeated before giving his answer.

"John Delaney brought me into the FAI," responded O'Neill second-time around. "I just said that there to Bryan [Swanson of Sky Sports]. He brought me in, wanted me to manage the side. I was delighted to do so, delighted to have the opportunity, and I'd like to see that through. That's what I'm looking at and that's what I want to do, so I haven't had any discussions on the political side with John or the FAI board at any given stage."

O'Neill was then asked if a similar situation arose to the one which occurred in the play-off against France in Paris in 2009 – when Thierry Henry's handball allowed him to set up William Gallas to score the goal which ended Ireland's hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa – would he be happy enough to shake hands and leave it out on the pitch.

"What was your own reaction yourself when that happened at the time?” O'Neill asked. “What did you think about it way back? What year was it 2007? No, 2009. I think that [a replay] is what hopefully was going to be the case, that's what we were looking at. At the end of it all, it didn't materialize and I think that whatever's happened since, you'd have to look into what FIFA have done."

O'Neill went on to say that it wasn't in his "domain just at this moment" to answer a question about whether or not he felt the FAI's reputation had been damaged by the revelations of the past week. When told of Walters' tweet in the context of off-field affairs affecting the players, O'Neill both denied that was the case and made a quip that the restaurant should shut tomorrow to re-open in sunnier climes.

“Well, I think that John [O'Shea] was asked that question about four minutes ago and he said it hadn't affected any of our players,” said O'Neill. “And if Jon Walters has tweeted that...well, honestly, I wouldn't mind being in that restaurant now! I wouldn't mind.

“No, the players went out, [I've] given them the time to go out because they were bored with my company. They wanted to head out, and they headed to an apparently very nice restaurant and if they got a five million tip well done to them. They should be closing tomorrow and opening up in Spain.”