Steve Coogan will play Mick McCarthy in a film about the then manager of the Republic of Ireland football team and his falling out with captain Roy Keane at the 2002 World Cup.
The film is called Saipan, taking the name from the island where the Irish team were based when Keane stormed out and went home .
Eanna Hardwicke (The Sixth Commandment) will play Keane while Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa (who were behind Ordinary Love) will direct.
The Saipan incident is part of Irish footballing folklore - some fans take the side of the captain and others the manager.
“A million words have been written about what happened on that fateful week in 2002 on the tiny island of Saipan,” said producers Macdara Kelleher and John Keville.
“Next year audiences will finally get to experience first hand the feud between Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy and why it was labelled ‘the worst preparation for a World Cup campaign ever’.”
What was the Saipan incident?
The film will be based on events that played out in Saipan – a US island in the Pacific Ocean where the Irish team were based before the 2002 World Cup.
Manchester United midfielder Keane had been instrumental in leading his nation through qualifying to the tournament in Japan and South Korea.
But he had already publicly grumbled that Irish players had to take economy flights and eat cheese sandwiches rather than pasta before games. Members of the Irish Football Association had, meanwhile, travelled business class – he said in his autobiography .
On their journey to Japan, they changed first in Amsterdam and then Tokyo while other national sides flew directly to their base for the tournament.
And Keane was also annoyed that the Irish FA had apparently cut costs in basing the team in Saipan – a three hour flight from Tokyo – and not in the same country as the tournament.
Things only got worse upon arrival as the training kit and footballs had not arrived in Saipan while their training pitch was rock hard.
A Fifa officer explained they would have watered it "if anyone had told us you were coming”, according to reports .
The next day, the team found the pitch was still hard but had been flooded in one corner – prompting an irate Keane to give an interview with the Irish Times and Sunday Independent. In the interview he criticised the “third world approach” and said the team’s set-up was “a laugh and a joke”.
Irish Times writer Emmet Malone wrote: “McCarthy subsequently sought to confront Keane, prompting a tirade that everyone who was there described as shocking.”
McCarthy is then said to have told Keane that he had feigned injury during a key qualifier.
According to one report, Keane then yelled: "Mick, you're a liar … you're a fucking wanker. I didn't rate you as a player, I don't rate you as a manager, and I don't rate you as a person.
“You're a fucking wanker and you can stick your World Cup up your arse. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country! You can stick it up your bollocks.”
McCarthy then sent Keane home and the team regrouped to perform well at the World Cup – finishing second in their group before being knocked out by Spain on penalties.
However, the manager would leave his post after losing badly to Russia in Euro 2004 qualifiers – paving the way for Keane to return, which he did in May 2004.
The pair apparently put their differences aside in a telephone call in 2006 before a game in which they were managing opposing sides in the Premier League.
However Saipan the film is received, producers are hopeful it fares better than the stage play I, Keano in which Mario Rosenstock – cast as the footballer – left the production before the end of the run. It is due to be released next year.
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