'No regrets' - Keane, Saipan and the story of a lifetime

Yahoo

19-05-2025

With just two words and three syllables, Stephen Watson knew he had the scoop of his career.
In Saipan airport on the eve of the 2002 Fifa World Cup, the BBC Sport NI presenter had not found Roy Keane in a particularly talkative mood but, such was the furore unfolding around the Republic of Ireland captain, any word from the mouth of the Manchester United midfielder would be the stuff of global headlines.
The Cork native's forthright views on his side's preparations for the tournament in Japan and South Korea had sparked a week-long saga and provided the biggest story in the build-up to world's largest sporting event.
One minute he was headed home, the next he was staying, but with just one utterance into Watson's microphone as Keane waited for his unexpectedly early return flight it became clear that the chances of a thawing of the frosty relationship with manager Mick McCarthy were remote.
How did Keane feel about the sequence of events that had led to him being sent home from what should have been the biggest tournament of his life?
"No regrets," he told Watson.
"The biggest story of my career," recalls the presenter in the first episode of Hold the Front Page, which airs on BBC One NI at 22.40 BST on Monday.
Watch: Stephen Watson interviews Roy Keane in Saipan
What triggered the Roy Keane row in Saipan?
As the programme - which delves into how journalists broke their most memorable stories - shows, the troubled relationship between Keane and his international boss dated back to when they were international team-mates.
When the side arrived in Saipan for their tournament preparations without sufficient kits or footballs, Watson remembers wondering whether Keane's complaints were going to become "something that actually sticks and becomes a major problem or just a storm in a teacup".
It soon became clear it would be the former with the fallout becoming one of the most infamous episodes in Irish sporting history, one that more than two decades later will be the subject of an upcoming film starring two-time Oscar nominee Steve Coogan.
First Keane was to leave of his own accord, then he was to stay but retire from international football after the tournament.
Finally, when word broke of how he had criticised his manager and the Football Association of Ireland in media interviews, he was on his way home eight days before his side's tournament opener.
Watson says he was "still finding his feet" in his new job after joining BBC NI but soon found himself thrust into a huge sporting story, one which the time difference ensured would play out across a virtual 24-hour news cycle.
"I didn't know as many of the Republic of Ireland players as I did the Northern Ireland players, so it was more a chance for me to try and get to know them," he recalls of the initial assignment.
"Relationships in my job are the most important thing. Building relationships with sporting stars is absolutely key, but as it turned out, having those relationships didn't actually matter when the Roy Keane story broke."
Watson admits he "took a gamble" to trust his instincts to stay behind when the Republic of Ireland team, and as a result the majority of the press pack, departed for Japan.
"My feeling was if Roy Keane's staying here, I'm staying here.
"There was the slightest opportunity that we could get some pictures of him, if we could get an interview with him even better.
"It was a long shot."
When Keane slipped out the back of what had been the team hotel to head for the airport and start his journey home, Watson and a few remaining photographers thought they had missed their chance but followed in a waiting van.
"There was a heightened tension within that van because we thought we'd missed him. Suddenly, very close to the airport, we saw [Keane] in a white van and we were euphoric," Watson remembers.
"Roy knew that he'd been rumbled and he jumped out of the van and then all hell broke loose I suppose. The flashbulbs went off left, right and centre.
"I said to the cameraman we need to go and ask some questions and I fired off four, five, six questions and [Keane] never changed his gaze, he never even looked at me."
As Keane waited in line for security, Watson tried again with the player's brief answers that followed the "gold dust" he had chased.
"It was a short interview but anything said by Roy Keane was going to be powerful," he adds.
Indeed it was with the quotes soon travelling far and wide.
The Keane saga cast a shadow of Republic of Ireland's tournament. Reportedly written on the wall of the team's dressing room as they reached the last 16 of the tournament...'no regrets'.
Watch 'Hold the Front Page: Roy Keane in Saipan' on Monday, 19 May at 22.40 BST on BBC One NI and BBC iPlayer.