QuoteAs a friend of mine said "it's good to have people talking about soccer again although the idea of the appointment bringing the "Irish supporters" back to Landsdowne puzzles me. The supporters never left".
By all accounts Delaney has been the ultimate schemer and politician. I'm reading "Who Stole Our Game?" and the author quotes FAI insiders as saying JD has a history of obstructing and undermining any initiative proposed by a CEO and is as Machiavellian as they come. One quote is quite funny "the best thing about Delaney being the CEO is that he doesn't have Delaney to undermine him from underneath".
I've no doubt you're right regarding Philip Browne, although I think organising and co-ordinating rugby in the professional era has been easier than football. To date it has simply been less commercial, less competitive and less political. Things are changing though and there are financial and political headwinds to contend with. I certainly admire how the IRFU has been transparent about its financial problems. None of this "we'll be debt free by 2020" without givbing any hint of how they'll achieve this.
One area where Delaney does deserve credit is that he has engaged with UEFA very effectively - although bar hosting the Europa League Final I'm not sure if there's been any tangible benefit to this.
As a friend of mine said "it's good to have people talking about soccer again although the idea of the appointment bringing the "Irish supporters" back to Landsdowne puzzles me. The supporters never left".
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
Would he have any chance of landing that post?
If Jim Boyce can be FIFA vice-prez...
I think thats fairly common knowledge is it not? He is good friends with Pat McQuaid so maybe he has been schooling him...
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
One of the FIFA vice pres!Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
there are more FIFA veepess than Snow White has dwarves.
And we know that's just a revolving perk thrown to the UK associations.
Yeah. This has been my thinking too alright.
As Charlie said once, "He's a snake-oil salesman, but he's OUR snake-oil salesman."
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
well, he's hosted the Europa League final, ahead of venues like the Emirates, among others
Platini awarded the fans that award after Euro 2012
and given that Platini is French, the presidency is more likely to go to one of the smaller associations when he departs, otherwise UEFA will be accused of favouring the larger and more powerful associations
why not?
I think I just called him a snake, but if the shoe fits!
What's Delaney done to win such a post? His record in his own association is hardly stellar.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
There's been plenty of questions about the IRFU structures - they got hammered on the performance director role (or lack of it), and the fact they were looking for a coach without the structures in place above him. Delaney avoids plenty of crap - look at the state of Irish football, the league of ireland is falling apart, and he gets lauded for appointing an international management team ffs.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
A bit as Macy said, if Irish rugby is in such good shape how come we've had to appoint foreigners to the top 5 coaching positions? It says something about coach education and "pathways". Delaney said on the radio that rugby gets a far easier ride in the media than football and I agree.
But it's true, only certain parts of the football pyramid are in any sort of decent shape. The FAI has been riddled with factions and vested interests since long before he took office but these factions remain. The question for me is whether JD has been unable or unwilling to change this. My suspicion is that it's the latter - they don't make life awkward for him if he doesn't make life awkward for them. Instead he passes the buck to someone like Dokter to try and join things up. JD has made some good appointments and done some good brown-nosing at UEFA, and I absolutely believe he works as hard as he says he does, but that's not to say he's working hard at the right things.
In a way I think market forces are at work already. The regressive factions recognise that exporting big physical lumps over to England is no longer viable so they have no choice but to embrace change. Others, like the NDSL, have effected change because it's the right thing to do.
If there's an issue with the National team, the FAI get a hard time, but that's the be all and end all. The media don't care about the League of Ireland, or the youth structures or whatever, so then Delaney and the FAI get a pass. An example was the euro's when we went out - the RTE panel were all "ah well, sure we don't have the players". England get knocked out and it's all about the English structures for developing players. The other levels of the game, which actually hold the power are Delaneys power base - he's not going to tackle that for the greater good of player development (which is with the National team as the pinnacle, LoI would just see a side benefit). And he won't get questioned on it because the media are only interested in English football, and our players there.
From the outside looking in, I think you can only genuine things you can really pin on the IRFU is the senior club game and Connacht. They've the structures in place to develop players now, even outside the traditional areas/ schools. It remains to be seen how Europe pans out, and obviously the change to the tax breaks and the removal of the need to be Irish based are problems not really of their making.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
The FA dont get a hard time for issues with the EPL, for example.
But it all depends on the remit i suppose of the FAi.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
I think there's been a lot of talk in the press and among the ordinary punter about youth development in football. I think many are ignorant of what certain sections of the game are doing well and what the real problems are.
When players regularly start playing rugby for Ireland that haven't come through the traditional schools system I'll be more impressed. By the same token underage players are playing football for Ireland from all over the country. I'm still waiting for evidence that rugby is organised on a superior basis to football - even though anecdotally I'm happy to accept that their administration is better quality. The AIL clubs have an aggregate debt of €24 million I think I read last week. Rugby suffers from a chronic lack of volunteers. We employ foreign coaches to manage the national team and the 4 provinces.Not exactly evidence of a thriving game.
Rugby fills a lovel gap. GAA is great but domestic only. People want the football team to be successfull internationally but they only are on a sporadic basis at best. Rugby has success internationally, especially in a European club league where we enter sub-parts of our national team supplemented by foreign imports. Schmidt insisting that Madigan play for Leinster last week highlighted the slightly odd nature of our "club" rugby.
I think the real own goals were scored by Irish football a long long time ago. If a cr@phole like Dundee can get two teams to European finals and semi finals, surely in the pre-megabucks era a team from Dublin could have done the same? But if Dunphy is to be believed, Irish football was so small minded it did everything possible to make sure an Irish club didn't succeed in becoming more professional.
Despite how it may read, I'm not here to have a dig at rugby. I'm here to have a dig at the notion that they do everything well and that football doesn't.
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 07/11/2013 at 3:52 PM.
My pals from Dundee would vehemently disagree...
The Scots had more talent than us in the '60s' and probably '70's...
Now all they have are EPL managers?
That's because the FA doesn't run the EPL. The EPL does. The FA doesn't get a hard time because the EPL has all the power and influence in the English game. This is something the RFU should be careful of.
Exactly, it's fascinating.
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