Ireland matchday programme goes viral after colossal spelling mistakes

Ireland U21 vs Latvia U21
(Image credit: Latvia Football Podcasat)

An Ireland under-21 vs Latvia under-21s matchday programme has gone viral thanks to major errors that saw Latvian players names printed incorrectly. 

The issue was raised by the Latvian football podcast's X/Twitter account. They published a screenshot from the programme, a page listing the Latvia team.

But there were numerous bizarre translation errors throughout, with Dario Sits name printed as "Dario Sh**" while Bruno Melnis was "Bruno the Black." Forward Gleb Patika was printed as "Gleb Liked It," while Robert Melkis was labelled as "Robert The Liar."

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The remarkable errors quickly went viral, with a number of Latvian and Irish football social media accounts criticising the FAI, the Irish governing body.

Thankfully, the FAI realised the error ahead of the match at Tallaght Stadium on Tuesday evening and were able to pull copies of the programme from sale. A public apology was later published to the Latvian FA following the online coverage.

An FAI Spokesperson stated: "We are aware of a translation error that was published in the match programme for the Under-21s match on Tuesday. 

"The programme was immediately pulled from sale, and our Latvian visitors were contacted and made aware of the situation for which we apologised, and which was accepted. We have already begun a review of our programme production process to ensure it will not happen again."

The match itself finished a 2-2 draw, dealing a major blow to Ireland under-21's hopes of qualifying the Euros next summer.

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Jack Lacey-Hatton
Freelance writer

Jack has worked as a sports reporter full-time since 2021. He previously worked as the Chief Women’s Football Writer at the Mirror, covering the England Women’s national team and the Women’s Super League. Jack has reported on a number of major sporting events in recent years including the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup on the ground in Australia. When not writing about the game, he can often spotted playing at a pitch somewhere in the west London area.