Delaney Doesn't Know Theres A Crisis

[A face]

Will the guy have any desire to sort things out with this kind of stuff going on ...... we wont see these 'fans' for years, until we manage to scrape another qualification in 2032.

affbvK4UZgc

IMPLEMENT PROPER STRUCTURES DELANEY OR GET LOST !!! :(

[Murfinator]

I'll be honest, the only thing about the Irish team I support are our players. John Delaney and our awful supporters can **** off, both embarrassments in equal measures.

[Crosby87]

Why are the supporters an embarrassment? B/C they are on vacation and don't want to act miserable?
What's childish is people all bent out of shape b/c they thought we would get out of a group with Croatia, Spain and Italy. I mean come on. Santa might be real too.

[Stuttgart88]

Is there a crisis in Dutch football, or just something some considered response would set right?

I think it's dangerous to jump to the knee jerk conclusion that there's a crisis. There should be a proper review prompted by this but it should be objective and not hysterical.

[Murfinator]

Why are the supporters an embarrassment? B/C they are on vacation and don't want to act miserable?
What's childish is people all bent out of shape b/c they thought we would get out of a group with Croatia, Spain and Italy. I mean come on. Santa might be real too.

Because they have such little investment in the teams performance to the point where results are an absolute irrelevance.

[A face]

I think it's dangerous to jump to the knee jerk conclusion that there's a crisis. There should be a proper review prompted by this but it should be objective and not hysterical.

There is no structured tierred system for football in this country, the FAI are meant to bring all of this together and make it work. Its like everyone is going off and doing their own thing and the system is meant to produce players for our national team? Its a complete disaster and no amount of window dressing will wash that away.

I'll take the disaster that was Euro 2012 on the chin but i think the FAI now, when we are in crisis, need to step up and grow a pair ... setout a proper functional structure and get all the stakeholders in Irish football to subscribe to it. Until that happens we are gonna go fookin' nowhere.

[Fergie's Son]

The FAI are part of the issue as techie is no transparency or accountability. Delaney's Father was forced out of the FAI due to irregularities when he was Treasurer yet his son now runs the organization. Says it all to me.

[barney]

The FAI are part of the issue as techie is no transparency or accountability. Delaney's Father was forced out of the FAI due to irregularities when he was Treasurer yet his son now runs the organization. Says it all to me.

What does it say? That John Delaney is crooked? That, if a relative does something wrong, their family should be tarred with the same brush?

[bennocelt]

Tsk,eh yeah!:rolleyes: Same old same old FAI, Delaney with his big FF head on him, jobs for the boys and all that (feck I miss Dermot Morgan)

[bennocelt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dHZ2CmTwdA

[Fergie's Son]

What does it say? That John Delaney is crooked? That, if a relative does something wrong, their family should be tarred with the same brush?

It smacks of cronyism and a lack of transparency. Do you honestly believe that an independent, non-affiliated search committee would have chosen John Delaney?

[Stuttgart88]

The Irish Sports Council takes governance very much into account when allocating government funding to national sports bodies. Does anyone know whether they have any concerns about the FAI and whether this is holding back funding?

[backstothewall]

In fairness to Delaney, I feel things have moved forward under him. 10 years ago the crisis in Irish football was kit going missing between Dublin and Saipan, bumpy training pitches, and a certain guy wanting to walk the dog. The kind of things being people want done now are an upheaval of the League of Ireland, and a National Academy. 10 years ago if someone had suggested building something like Claire-Fontaine at Abbotstown they would have (rightly) been told that while the FAI can't organise luggage they couldn't possibly be let loose on a massive project like that.

[Charlie Darwin]

I don't buy the idea there is suddenly a crisis. Either this crisis has been around for decades and we haven't addressed it (true) or there is no crisis because we have achieved our best international result in a decade. It's somewhat perverse that we have to qualify for arguably the world's elite international tournament in order for people to realise we're not as good as we used to be.

[Stuttgart88]

Agree with the evolutionist. Which is not the same thing as denying that a serious evaluation should take place. If it finds out that lots is wrong or not much is wrong is not the real point.

However, I was just googling Genesis 2 to see if I could power-read through its key suggestions about league reform. I had no idea (assuming wiki is right) that it was not actually penned by Genesis at all, but rather by the FAI itself. Is that right?

I still think that although you should always strive for improvement the structure of european football leaves us on the outside looking in the whole time. We are beyond peripheral in the overall scheme of things. The big city clubs in the big leagues couldn't give a hoot about their own smaller clubs let alone the small clubs in smaller countries. I'm sure UEFA would like to be more egalitarian but they'd face furore from the major clubs via the ECA and there is only so much they can do.

The LOI winners get a prize probably around the same as Wayne Rooney earns in a week. The EPL benefits from free marketing from one of the world's biggest (and repugnant) media organisations. It really is an uphill battle.

As I've said before my preference is for the Europa League to be regionalised and the domestic league season reduced to allow for the the top 3 or 4 Irish teams to play against British and Scandinavian clubs in group-like competition regularly, with income distributed generously around the LOI. Such a structure would throw up interesting local derby type fixtures all across Europe from August through to February, with the [8] regional winners going into a Q/F situation. It'd require a lot of thought and careful construction to put together properly.

Although it's already largely intuitive to most of you, some Belgian economists wrote a good paper* on the financial and competitive polarisation of European football, ascribing it to increased TV money in a "closed product market" (clubs can't up sticks and leave to where they could earn more money) and facing an "open labour market" (EU players can go where they get pioad most, post Bosman).
The solution to the imbalance is to at least partially open the product market (cross-border leagues for example) or at least partially close the labour market (unlikely to find favour with the EU). My regionalised Europa League would fit into the partial opening of the product market category.

Other economists have gone the whole hog and recommended a large inter-city European Super League but unless, e.g., Dublin, could enter a franchise team into that, it'd have no positive impact on Ireland.

I honestly wish more Irish people could see just how toxic the EPL is for Irish football. And think how clubs with fantastic European pedigree like Celtic, Ajax etc. feel? Crikey, I remember when Aberdeen and Dundee United were European heavyweights (almost).

Although I'm loathe to support closed franchise leagues, it's hard not to think that European football and Spain and England in particular, have gone too far in letting their clubs run riot over everyone else and that Financial Fair Play can only go so far to bring things back to a degree of normality.

* Here's the paper, a bit dry and academic but worth ploughing through:

http://college.holycross.edu/RePEc/spe/DejongheVanOpstal_LabourMarkets.pdf

[barney]

I don't buy the idea there is suddenly a crisis. Either this crisis has been around for decades and we haven't addressed it (true) or there is no crisis because we have achieved our best international result in a decade. It's somewhat perverse that we have to qualify for arguably the world's elite international tournament in order for people to realise we're not as good as we used to be.

Well said, we don't suddenly have a crisis because we lost three games. Different players and different system and we would have been better than we were over the three games.

If there is a crisis then it was just as bad, if not worse, in 1988 than it is now. F**king sensationalist rubbish to pretend that we have a crisis because we lost the three games heavily in Euro 2012. We lost the three games heavily because our manager sent out the wrong team with the wrong tactics. We had the same crisis when we were in the quarter finals of Italia 1990 and the second round of Japan/Korea 2002.

[Stuttgart88]

If anything 88 and 90 papered over the cracks. The 02 and 12 teams were more representative of the kind of footballer our system produces that back then.

As Owls Fan is right to point out Belgium, Scotland, Cyprus, Norway etc would probbaly have swapped places with us quite gladly.

[BonnieShels]

Well said, we don't suddenly have a crisis because we lost three games. Different players and different system and we would have been better than we were over the three games.

If there is a crisis then it was just as bad, if not worse, in 1988 than it is now. F**king sensationalist rubbish to pretend that we have a crisis because we lost the three games heavily in Euro 2012. We lost the three games heavily because our manager sent out the wrong team with the wrong tactics. We had the same crisis when we were in the quarter finals of Italia 1990 and the second round of Japan/Korea 2002.

barney,

You speak a semblance of truth but myself like a lot on this mb feel that this is a situation where the chickens have come home to roost.
Losing three games is one thing but losing them in the (un)Irish manner in which we did, coupled with the root-and-branch reform required in Irish Football (see Mons). We are in a crisis. It's something a lot of us have known about for a while. It's only just come out to the masses with these 3 defeats.

[OwlsFan]

I'll be honest, the only thing about the Irish team I support are our players. John Delaney and our awful supporters can **** off, both embarrassments in equal measures.

wft? Awful supporters? Unbelievable. So the Turkish and German fans whom I have seen this year supporting their teams even though they have been getting a hammering in the CL are awful. People sit on their backside at home and have the cheek to attack supporters who travel across Europe to support their team in good times and bad as awful. I was at the first game and my friends who are supporters for over 30 years have been at all the games and supported the team yet you describe them as awful and an embarrassment. People have come up to them and appauded their support - only in Ireland, the land of the gombeens, would supporters be criticised for......supporting. I saw the camper van parks in Poznan where guys spent their last few cents to get to Poland and support the team. The roads from Poznan to Berlin and beyond are now thronged with his supporters heading home little knowing that at home there are people who think they are awful because of their unconditional support for the team. Perhaps, in the old refrain, we should only sing when we're winning.

Sometimes I despair.

[Stuttgart88]

Were Shamrock Rovers fans an embarrassment at White Hart Lane, continuing to sing their hearts out at 3-1 down against a team absolutely miles better than them?

[OwlsFan]

if Wigan play in a 4 way league with Man City, Arsenal and Everton and lose all 3 games, is there a crisis at Wigan?

[CraftyToePoke]

if Wigan play in a 4 way league with Man City, Arsenal and Everton and lose all 3 games, is there a crisis at Wigan?

See those are the only three games I'd back Wigan to win in a season, such an anomaly of a place it has become. But I get what you mean.

[barney]

barney,

You speak a semblance of truth but myself like a lot on this mb feel that this is a situation where the chickens have come home to roost.
Losing three games is one thing but losing them in the (un)Irish manner in which we did, coupled with the root-and-branch reform required in Irish Football (see Mons). We are in a crisis. It's something a lot of us have known about for a while. It's only just come out to the masses with these 3 defeats.

I think we are on the same page here.

[Stuttgart88]

if Wigan play in a 4 way league with Man City, Arsenal and Everton and lose all 3 games, is there a crisis at Wigan?If they lost to Arsenal, yes!

Point taken, and 95% accepted, but if Wigan had gone out with a whimper and barely put up a fight, and after warning signs had been there for 2+ years previously (limp performances, inadequate ball retention against lesser teams, getting easily picked off by more technical teams, widespread opinion that team / squad selection was rigid and conservative, falling crowds) it'd be fair for Wigan fans to ask what could be done better.

So, there's no evidence that suddenly there's a crisis but nor is it just OK to accept everything unquestioningly.

I think there's a fair comparison to be drawn between Trap and Wenger. Losing 8-2 to United, 4-0 to Milan and losing 9 or 10 league games while the dogs on the street know that his team lacks certain characteristics and that these are within the manager's ability to rectify if he wasn't so dogmatic can not just be fobbed off by the fact that he has by and large done what he has been paid to do.

[third policeman]

if Wigan play in a 4 way league with Man City, Arsenal and Everton and lose all 3 games, is there a crisis at Wigan?

With respect this question kind of makes the point. It's not that long ago that we held our own with Spain and Italy (as well as Germany, Holland, England, Russia etc) in major tournaments. We have been competitive in every competition that we have qualified for, and would probably been competitive in the ones that we didn't qualify for, when we were in much more demanding qualifiying groups. This is the worst ever performance by a team in the Euro finals. Worse even that Latvia! The results and performances were predictable and were in no small measure down to the tactical obstinacy and irrational selections of an overage coach who we rescued from semi-retirement in Austria. His appoinment was a post-traumatic spasm engendered by the horror that was Stan. I am sick of Trappistas justifying his generally baleful tenure by comparison to Staunton as if the previous two decades didn't actually happen. I watched a rerun of our 2002 game against Cameroon on ESPN the other night and it was an eye opener. The 2002 squad (minus Roy Keane) was not conspicuously more talented that the players available to Trapp, yet the football and ambition were a million miles ahead of what we have had tio endure over the last week.

The evidence is pretty stark. Trapps CV is in the past tense. He will only become more conservative, more obstinate and more certain about the eventual triumph of his outdated and manifestly inadequate tactical approach. He cannot possibly enjoy the respect and confidence of the players who will be the hub of our next campaign, because these are the very players who he has ignored, snubbed and alienated. We need a new beginning, and above all a manager who actually believes we are capable of performing and competing at this level by playing something recognisable as football.

[Murfinator]

if Wigan play in a 4 way league with Man City, Arsenal and Everton and lose all 3 games, is there a crisis at Wigan?

Thats ignoring the context in that Wigan's season is successful if they win 1 in 3.5 games. There'd be no crisis because if they won their next game at Wolves it'd be a good months work.

If those however were the last 3 matches of the season with Wigan needing 4 points to survive and they wound up getting a 1-9 goal difference out of them I'd say there'd be questions asked at why the teams spirit was so poor to collapse without a fight.

[Murfinator]

We need a new beginning, and above all a manager who actually believes we are capable of performing and competing at this level by playing something recognisable as football.

The FAI should begin their recruitment around the mental institutions then?

We should take a leaf from Englands book in recognising how bad we are and compete through anti-football chelseaball rather then try and fail at taking on superior players.

[third policeman]

The FAI should begin their recruitment around the mental institutions then?

We should take a leaf from Englands book in recognising how bad we are and compete through anti-football chelseaball rather then try and fail at taking on superior players.

In the parlance of UK Parliamentary protocols, I would refer the Honourable Gentleman to my previous answer........ We actually did quite well playing something that was "recognisable as football" in years gone by. This did not mean us playing like a proto-Barca, but it did mean something slightly more intelligent and versatile than what has clearly not worked at this tournament.

[Stuttgart88]

Thats ignoring the context in that Wigan's season is successful if they win 1 in 3.5 games. There'd be no crisis because if they won their next game at Wolves it'd be a good months work.

If those however were the last 3 matches of the season with Wigan needing 4 points to survive and they wound up getting a 1-9 goal difference out of them I'd say there'd be questions asked at why the teams spirit was so poor to collapse without a fight.I think his point was to illustrate that if a team lost to 3 superior teams there'd be no talk of a crisis. He clearly said if it was a 4 team league. He was asking for some imagination.

England lost 3 games at E88 and got to WC SF next time out. Irish rugby did just as badly in 2007 and won a Slam in 2009. Wholesale change in a kneejerk response may not be required.

[Uncle_Joe]

i posted this in the league forum by mistake, but here is a good piece on Delaney
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0620/1224318259016.html


While I don't think the man can be blamed for our miserable showing at the euros he has been running the organisation for nearly a decade now and I really can't see what he has achieved in that time apart from a big salary.
He can hardly take any credit for the redevelopment of Lansdowne road and qualifying for a first tournament in 10 years is more down to other people suggesting Trap and picking up the bill.

[Stuttgart88]

I think it's fair for Delaney's performance / record / contractual terms being scrutinised (in fact any senior executive should be scrutinised by stakeholders in an organisation) but I generally don't have an issue with him fraternising with fans on away trips. The cynical view would be that it's only a PR gimmick on his part but I think it's all part of the unique Irish football thing as well.

[Noelys Guitar]

I have never heard Martinez constantly hinting at the poor standard of player he has to work with. And I'm sure Martinez will shortly be putting in bids for either Paul Green or Glenn Whelan to replace McCarthy. Back to the crisis question. One of the main problems the FAI created for themselves was in hiring managers who were clearly IMO not up to the job ie Kerr and Stan or offering extended contracts too early to the likes of Micmac and Trap. These decisions seem emotive to me and not thought through. Delaney should be calling a meeting with Trap and Tardelli and try work out some way to say good byes all round. I would like to see someone like Roy Keane brought in to run Irish football (not as manager). Get rid of Delaney too.

[OwlsFan]

The trouble about the tournament is that there are only 3 games. In the campaign leading up to the Finals our record was 7-4-1, including the play offs. In a league scenario, if the likes of Wigan then played 3 of the top 10 in the league and lost, would there be a crisis? I don't think so.

We have problems of course. Trap refusing to consider the likes of Wilson, McCarthy and Coleman is strange and frankly annoying, although the latter had an injury affected season. The public outcry for McLean I am not sure about. I have a feeling he may be a shooting star but I hope I am wrong. His test will come half way through next season but he was in an area we are pretty much covered. Goal keeper and defence are problem areas. Possibly we have a crisis there. I don't think Clarke at the moment is an answer. If Dunne, who had a poor tournament by his high standards were to retire we would be screwed.

As to the style of football, I am not that bothered. I don't go to games to be entertained. I go to see winning football. If playing football in the purest sense were to get better results, then so be it, but bearing in mind that the first goal we gave away in each game was caused by us trying to play football in our own half, the jury is out on that but with better players, who knows. I would have preferred Hoolahan to be our 5th midfielder against Spain but he wasn't in the squad.

Do we have a crisis in the international side? A crisis of confidence yes. A crisis in what Trap is about, I don't think so but he does need to look outside the group of players whom he regards as his team.

[Noelys Guitar]

I agree with a lot of that Owlsfan. But can you see Trap changing things enough to get the results we will need against Sweden and Austria to get that second spot? I can't. And the pressure is going to increase on Trap from journos and then the crowd. Familiar path again.

[paul_oshea]

There is one main(2 maybe) thing I have learnt about this forum since I've gone out to poland and come back.

Only a handful of posters have any clue about football.

Second, less relevant, the rest are completely out of touch with what is going on.

[Stuttgart88]

He's been saying the right things, more or less anyway, as reported in the papers.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0620/1224318258850.html

“I accept your criticisms,” he said without sounding 100 per cent sincere. “We lost. When the team is winning the people are grateful to the manager but not when it loses.

“Obviously it’s a tough group [WC14 qualifying group], the others are high in the ranking but I think that with the young players we can be better.”

“If the players are young then we won’t need to make changes for new energy and so we can change the team technically.”

He was pretty scathing when pressed on specific formations, though, and dismissed the idea he should have changed things after having qualified on the back of one style of play.

“We built a team around this system. Now, we have ideas about the system and maybe in August [when Ireland play a friendly against Serbia in Belgrade]. But we can talk a million times about the system and it is only words.

“What are important are facts and it has to be tested because if it doesn’t fit the qualities of your players then it doesn’t work.”

His suggestion was a switch to a five-man midfield would have to be tried out, possibly in the team’s next game and he identified James McCarthy as a player whose greater integration into the side could facilitate a shift in approach.

Others who might take encouragement from his comments yesterday included Séamus Coleman, James McClean and particularly Darron Gibson who, perhaps because he got so little of a look in here, was singled out for special attention.

The older players, he acknowledged, would have to make way but gradually, he again insisted.

Playing them here was, he said, “not just about loyalty, it was the right thing to do.”

Now, he continued, it is important they help a new generation to grow. “One or two players are particularly important for us,” he observed after revealing he has already spoken to Richard Dunne about sticking around.

“We can talk about Shane Duffy,” he said, “but is he ready for this?”

Intererstingly, although Tets and I frequently comment on how Trap has actually introduced new faces, Emmet Malone says that 7 of the Poznan team started against Georgia in Mainz 4 years ago, and it would have been 8 except Duff was injured then.

[Stuttgart88]

What's your synopsis Paul - which of the following would you tick on your ballot box (tick a few if you want)?

(a) Bad luck and injuries were main culprits. Trap can stay.
(b) No shame in losing to 3 good sides, but performance was poor. Trap can change things a bit and we'll be grand next campaign.
(c) Performance was poor because of tactics / shape / Trap's system / personnel selection / substitutions. Trap must go but only slight personnel changes required.
(d) Trap can stay but must be more flexible and must introduce some new blood
(e) Wholesale change required, manager, players, everything
(f) fans were right old gombeens
(g) fans were great

[DannyInvincible]

I don't know if a crisis all of a sudden is the most appropriate description for our current state. A worrying exposure of what has long been an inept and fragmented (barely existent?) domestic developmental infrastructure is more apt.

[paul_oshea]

What's your synopsis Paul - which of the following would you tick on your ballot box (tick a few if you want)?

(a) Bad luck and injuries were main culprits. Trap can stay.
(b) No shame in losing to 3 good sides, but performance was poor. Trap can change things a bit and we'll be grand next campaign.
(c) Performance was poor because of tactics / shape / Trap's system / personnel selection / substitutions. Trap must go but only slight personnel changes required.
(d) Trap can stay but must be more flexible and must introduce some new blood
(e) Wholesale change required, manager, players, everything
(f) fans were right old gombeens
(g) fans were great

That stephen ward is crap, and was responsible for at least 2 goals, like i suggested and kept banging on about, had he not been playing then thats 2 less goals, and 2 at vital times in games.

That we were lucky when it mattered, as i had suggested, and teams didnt take their chances against us over the last few years, and when they did, we got beaten out the gate.

That people harped on about drawing with a poor italian team home and away who were shown up in the world cup, against the might of new zealand, and an ageing french team who were in disarray, and then that a meaningless pre holiday friendly against Italy when we won 2-0 was a barometer in how far we had come.

That traps stubborness to his system and that the players were only good enough to play this system and still get results, proved part of our undoing. Even though for 20 minutes against the italians the 4-3-3 showed that we can play a different system, and we can hold ball and create chances with it.

That we made so many basic mistakes, even though trap bangs on about leetle details and what not, it made absolutely no difference when push came to shove.

Basically anything that the majority of posters and a lot of the main ones on here banged on about for ages that were always wrong but finally got shown up at the Euros.

That trap rarely makes changes when it matters most, again like i have said in the past.

Trap got us through a few scrapes, had we not got estonia we would more than likely not have qualified. Our biggest win under Trap to date is Armenia away. Thats enough for me really.

That playing players out of club sides(not clubless) or game time is fine on 1 off games throughout the seaon, but will be shown up in intense tournament football over a few days, especially when you have players good enough to replace them.

But I could go on and on ....

We definitely had more to offer at the Euros than Trap showed, and as usual Trap has shown that he isn't up there when it comes to intense international tournament football. I still think though, that there are enough players who have been around under him now, that if he adapts and changes when required, like say when we are NOT playing against Germany, then he should stay.

[Macy]

I think it's dangerous to jump to the knee jerk conclusion that there's a crisis. There should be a proper review prompted by this but it should be objective and not hysterical.
There is a crisis. Not because of 3 lost games, with two totally inept performances though. The performances just expose it. If we'd gone and got three draws or fluked our way out of the group the crisis would still exist. However, Delaney and Co needn't worry. I haven't heard one media commentator actually try to go beyond the superficial tactics and/or the players that weren't picked. Obviously, most of our "experts" came through the current failing system, so why would they be enlightened?

[A face]

We should take a leaf from Englands book in recognising how bad we are and compete through anti-football chelseaball rather then try and fail at taking on superior players.

Why cant the FAI develop our players the same way those 'superior players' are being developed.
There is no reason why they cant and there is no reason for the FAI-apologists to defend them for not doing so.

They can see where football is going, its there job to take us there. Why do we have to play catch up all the time? Its not a radical agrarian society we are proposing or anything, its good technical football .... something the administrators of the game in this country should be in favour of.

[Murfinator]

Why cant the FAI develop our players the same way those 'superior players' are being developed.
There is no reason why they cant and there is no reason for the FAI-apologists to defend them for not doing so.

They can see where football is going, its there job to take us there. Why do we have to play catch up all the time? Its not a radical agrarian society we are proposing or anything, its good technical football .... something the administrators of the game in this country should be in favour of.

Can they see where its going? They strike me as an organisation poorly led with little foresight or initiative.

If you look at what the IRFU have done is they've loaded the coaching positions from top to bottom with experienced and talented Kiwi's. Why aren't we doing the same with Spanish? Though I suppose we actually have to keep the talent here past their 16th birthday for that to be of any use.

[Stuttgart88]

I'd prefer Eastern Europeans meself.

can we afford them?

[jbyrne]

I'll be honest, the only thing about the Irish team I support are our players. John Delaney and our awful supporters can **** off, both embarrassments in equal measures.

so turning up in massive numbers, always remaining enthusiastic and supportive to the team (support of the only part of the set-up you claim to support!!) no matter what goes on on the pitch, behaving impeccably at ALL times both at and away from the matches etc etc makes us "awful" and embarrassments"?? never heard such tripe in my life.

you obviously werent over there to see and hear what the local polish media said, the poznans residents organised show of support and thanks in the main square monday or what the fans of many countries that we mingled with said and thought about us. our supporters were a 100% credit to the team, themselves and the country.

lets be racist and violent like the croats and russians instead shall we?

[dong]

lets be racist and violent like the croats and russians instead shall we?

Nice generalisation.

[cavan_fan]

Can they see where its going? They strike me as an organisation poorly led with little foresight or initiative.

If you look at what the IRFU have done is they've loaded the coaching positions from top to bottom with experienced and talented Kiwi's. Why aren't we doing the same with Spanish? Though I suppose we actually have to keep the talent here past their 16th birthday for that to be of any use.

The argument about the rugby team is one that really irritates me. Here is a sport played seriously in about 12 countries (most with small populations) and we claim it is a success story because in the last ten years we have hovered between being the 4th and 8th best team. How is that better than being between the 20th and 40th best at a sport taken seriously in c150 countries?

[Kingdom]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0620/1224318259016.html



EMMET MALONE in Poznan

EURO 2012: A DECADE ago, when the bullets were flying around the FAI over the Saipan affair, one of the criticisms levelled at Brendan Menton was that he had demeaned the status of the position of association chief executive by showing up to team training in shorts. Given the photographs and video of John Delaney out socialising in Poland over the last few weeks, it seems a more laughable complaint than ever now.

Delaney, who was treasurer of the association in 2002, played a key role in the departure of both Menton and, subsequently, Fran Rooney and has won just about every internal battle he has fought since.

The upshot is that he is widely considered to be untouchable within the organisation; an attitude he would appear to share himself if the many images of his nights out that have appeared in newspapers or on various social media platforms over the last week or two are anything to go by.

Technically, of course, he is an employee of the association and answerable to his board.

But those who have publicly stood up to him in the past have tended to leave the organisation not long afterwards and, if it would be unfair to describe the current members as “yes men”, then it is certainly hard to recall any significant issues on which they have said no to him in recent times.

His job brings with it a salary/package worth just over €400,000 – that’s about three times what Menton was paid for performing the same role a decade ago and four times what a League of Ireland team will receive for winning the title this year.

The biggest part of the salary hike occurred during Rooney’s time at the association, with the former Baltimore Technologies man demanding to be paid what he reckoned he was worth.

Even at a time that many others within the organisation had concluded that the appointment of Rooney had been an error, Delaney told The Irish Times that he believed Rooney’s demands should be met.

In time, Rooney did get most of what he wanted but as he was forced out of the job soon afterwards it was to be Delaney who ultimately benefited.

As rivals departed one after the other, power appeared to become more and more centralised within the association, with Delaney coming to wield almost all of it. Many, though certainly not all, grumbled in private but given the central importance of the association in making or obtaining grants for clubs and leagues, none wanted to be identified as an opponent.

And during the boom the amount of money that flooded into the association from the public and private sectors meant Delaney came to be regarded by many, not least himself, as a tremendous success. On one of the many occasions he has been asked what is it he does that merits him being paid more than the Taoiseach, he said he “delivers” for the association.

Now, however, the association in struggling under the weight of the huge debt it incurred for its part of the Lansdowne Road redevelopment. The association’s plan, championed by Delaney, was that the money, around €70 million, would be paid through the sale of premium seats but the pricing and timing of the scheme was spectacularly misjudged, with the result that the finances of the organisation were plunged into crisis.

That, combined with dramatic cuts to public funding and other setbacks on the revenue front like plummeting ticket income and the swift collapse of the Dublin Super Cup, have left the association looking pretty desperate at times, as when they refused Limerick permission to play high-profile friendlies in Thomond Park or when centralised deals ended up depriving already cash-starved clubs of income they had previously received directly from the same sponsors.

Some supporters of the club and of the league generally ask how it was that somebody whose salary accounted for about one per cent of the association’s entire turnover last year could feel free to enjoy himself so wholeheartedly while the senior game back at home received yet another body blow with the decision of Monaghan United to withdraw from the League of Ireland.

Others have been less surprised. There was some mirth among the press corps when the 44-year-old was asked to help launch a drinkaware leaflet aimed at fans coming to Poland given that he had been involved in high-profile drink related stunts while on recent trips to Slovakia, Estonia and Russia.

Here, most of the journalists on the trip tended to avoid Max’s cocktail bar in Sopot on the basis that they might run into him.

By the end of the trip, though, it wasn’t hard to uncover a fan with a story relating to the chief executive’s behaviour which typically involves joining in with or leading a chorus of “Oh John Delaney, used to be a w****r but he’s all right now”.

Some of those he is singing with clearly like him but for others he is a laughing stock.

He has never exactly shied away from the spotlight, of course, but to be at the heart of a story like this would, for most people, be utterly humiliating.

It is not entirely clear what those around him have made of it – although there has been more of that grumbling – but it is not hard to imagine what the likes of Michel Platini (as important to Delaney these days in terms of funding as the Irishman is to those beneath him in the game) must think.

If, in any case, he is embarrassed by the remarkable pictures which have appeared in Sunday newspapers or the various images now viewable on the likes of YouTube or Twitter then he has shown no sign of it.

Perhaps he’s actually proud of himself. The players, after all, only came remotely close to delivering at these European Championships in the last game. Delaney, it seems, gave it more of a lash over the course of the group stages.

[Stuttgart88]

I think JD can be glad Enda Kenny is running the country, not this fella:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jun/26/euro-2012-russia-fa-chief-resigns

[Junior]

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/euro-2012/irish-news/fans-carried-me-headhigh-home-now-if-thats-a-crime-im-not-guilty-trust-me-3147496.html

Dion Fannings interview with Big Bad John - Sorry if its been posted elsewhere, I've only just read it.

Some items a crossover with your corporate governance topic stutts.

[Stuttgart88]

Wow, that's a great interview. Now, I'm a big softie but I have to say JD made a good case for himself and his work there. I maintain that he can do wtf he likes at night. Fraternising with fellow Irish while away on a business trip is absolutely fine. I get p1ssed when I'm away on business, often with clients / potential clients / competitors / whoever (at nights) so why shouldn't he?

Fanning was resorting to ad hominem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem) tactics in that regard wheraes he should have focused more on the FAI's own review processes etc. Better questions to ask would be along the lines of Sadlier's criticism of Emerging talent Programme, i.e., that it starts too late.

I'm all on for the FAI to be subject to public scrutiny and would like to have seen more probing questions wrt Koevermans legacy etc.

wrt Bonner being a potential threat to JD wasn't it Liam Brady, on arrival at Celtic, who noticed that Bonner was very underpaid versus his peers and had very little business acumen? Hardly a candidate for FAI CEO I'd have thought, great guy that he is and all that.