26/06 Your Morning JOE

The Front Pages

‘Fraud Squad probes HSE missing millions’ roars the front page of the Irish Independent this morning as news emerges of yet another example of flagrant misuse of funds by  a state body. According to the report in the Independent, €2.35 million set aside for a training scheme for low-skilled health workers was instead used to fund overseas trips for officials from the Department of Health and the Department of finance.

The face of Ivor Callely also adorns the Indo’s front page, accompanied by the headline, ‘I broke no rules, says defiant Callely’, after the beleaguered senator claimed yesterday before a Seanad inquiry that he did nothing wrong in claiming a whopping €80,000 in travel expenses a home 370km away from his constituency.

The HSE story is also touched on in the Irish Times, but plays second fiddle to a report about Barack Obama’s plans to radically alter the financial system in the United States. ‘Obama gets backing for radical overhaul of Wall Street’, headlines a story about how Obama intends to implement the most far reaching package of financial reforms since the Great Depression ahead of the G20 summit in Canada this weekend.

“This weekend in Toronto, I hope we can build on this progress by co-ordinating our efforts to promote economic growth, to pursue financial reform, and to strengthen the global economy”, said the president on the White House lawn before boarding a helicopter bound for the summit.

More Calleley talk on the front of the Irish Examiner, who break the senator’s expenses claims down into simpler terms, reporting that Calleley claimed €140 a night on hundreds of occasions when attending the Seanad, even though he stayed in his Clontarf residence on the nights in question. Callely defended himself saying, “I think it’s called subsistence. So it’s not necessarily that you have a hotel”. Quite what he needed the €140 a day for remains a mystery.

Tales from the tabs

Footballer has decent taste in music shocker! Now here’s something I didn’t expect to come across while perusing through the morning’s papers. While most footballers confess to an affinity with bland hip hop and R&B artists, it seems that the best of the lot of them, Lionel Messi, is a big fan of Mancunian rockers Oasis and wants them to reform to play a celebration party for them if they win the World Cup.

The Star tell us that Messi was blown away by the band after being forced to listen to them by Argentinean team mate Carlos Tevez.

“Ever since he has been playing in Manchester, Carlitos has told me how great Oasis was”, said the little genius. “On the plane on the way to the World Cup, Carlitos made me listen to their first two albums. I have to say I wasn’t expecting much but it is some of the best material I have ever heard”, he added.

Messi said that the team have pledged to try and get the feuding brother Gallagher brothers to get back together and play for them should they be victorious in South Africa and added that money would not be an issue.

“We have agreed that if we win the World Cup we want to fly them over to Argentina for our celebration party. We just need them to name their price.”

I don’t think that would be too much of an issue Leo, I’m sure they’d be, as Liam might say, ‘mad for it’.

It’s all going Pete Tong for Tiger Woods lately I’m afraid. Fresh from startling revelations about his private life and his subsequent loss of form on the golf course, today’s Irish Daily Mirror reveals that his upcoming divorce from Swedish wife, Elin Nordegen is set to cost Tiger a cool €600 million.

The payout puts other celebrity divorces, such as the €400 million reportedly paid by Mel Gibson to his ex-wife Robyn, or the €140 million Tiger’s buddy Michael Jordan forked out to his ex-missus Juanita, in the shade. As part of the deal, Elin is said to be forbidden from signing any book deals or giving interviews to the press about the breakdown of the couple’s marriage.

In fairness Tiger, what could she tell us that we don’t already know?

The Sports Pages

The World Cup takes a back seat temporarily on this morning’s back pages as the papers concentrate on tomorrow’s meeting of age old Leinster rivals, Dublin and Meath in Croke Park.

‘Gilroy’s gamble’, shouts the Irish Independent after Dublin bainisteoir Pat Gilroy made four changes to the side that struggled badly against Wexford before overcoming the Model County after extra time. Captain David Henry is the most significant man to lose out, with former All-Star Alan Brogan slotting in instead at centre forward while Bryan Cullen will don the number six in place of the injured Cian O’Sullivan.

‘Gilroy’s red mist warning’ is the angle taken by the Irish Sun, who tell us that Gilroy has warned his players of the importance of discipline in the meeting of the old rivals, which has been a tumultuous rivalry in the past.

“Discipline is key for this game because it will be a physical game. We’ve worked on trying to be a lot more disciplined in the tackle and not give away easy frees”, said the Dublin boss.

In South Africa, Spain are through as group winners after a hard-earned victory over a feisty Chile side. A potentially mouth-watering last sixteen meeting with Brazil has been avoided, but Spain Portugal shouldn’t be a half-bad game and the papers are all over the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo will be coming up against a number of his Real Madrid team-mates.

‘The Cris of Death’ is how the Sun sum it up while the Star goes with the predictable, ‘Spanish too hot for Chile’ headline to describe the David Villa-inspired victory.

England’s meeting with Germany is also covered across the board and away from all the jingoism in the tabs, the Irish Times’ chief soccer scribe, Emmet Malone, is predicting a win for the Germans. ‘Germany can bag big game’ he says, predicting that the speed and guile of the likes of Thomas Muller and the excellent Mesut Ozil may be too much for a leaden English defence.