Everybody loves a good underdog story and this is a GREAT one. Not only did the Republic of Ireland manage to qualify for the European Championships for the first time in about 20 years by thrashing Estonia 4-0 in Tallinn on Friday, but somehow Irishman Conor Cunningham managed to blag it onto the Estonian bench without a ticket to watch the game! That’s a big set of balls right there.
It’s never that good an idea to travel to an away match in a place really far away like Tallinn – especially if you’re not willing to pay the extortionate prices that the scum of the earth ticket touts offer you tickets at – but Conor Cunningham did it anyway. Luckily he was hanging around the stadium in Tallinn – which I assume is the national stadium so you know, the equivalent of Wembley but probably not as big – and spotted an unlocked door and nipped in, where he found a bag of balls and an Estonian tracksuit.
Not one to beat around the bush, Conor Cunningham put on the tracksuit and proceeded to pretend to be Estonian. He then rocked up to the Estonian dugout and sat next to the Estonian manager Tarmo Ruutli for the first 20 minutes of the game! It must have been pretty hard for him – as you would assume he was a diehard Irish fan – to not get involved in the match as much as he would like for fear of getting caught!
But Conor Cunningham did get caught, kinda. A UEFA official got suspicious of him about 20 minutes into sitting there and told him he had to move and go sit in the stands. This was probably a better option for him to be fair. But it didn’t stop him from running onto the pitch and celebrating with some of the Irish players post match. Apparently this aroused even more suspicion amongst officials at the game as they couldn’t understand why somebody in an Estonia tracksuit was celebrating with the Irish players after they had just got battered. Jokes, it was because he disguised himself as a Estonian and snuck into the game! Gotcha!
Conor Cunningham didn’t seem that assed about getting caught and/or told off either as he’s uploaded loads of videos of himself taking part in this great escapade onto YouTube. What a joker. He said it was one of the most amazing experiences of his life. Not surprising really, it’s pretty legendary.
Check out some of the videos of Conor Cunningham below:
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