The John Delaney Discussion thread

[Donal81]

Delaney handed permanant role
Paul O'Hehir

11/03/2005: John Delaney was today appointed chief executive officer of the FAI a permanent basis. The 37-year-old had held the position on an interim basis following Fran Rooney's acrimonious departure last November.

His appointment comes as no surprise though. He has a long family tradition with the association and agreed a number of significant financial deals for the organisation in recent weeks that bolstered his hand considerably.

But of any single act that aided Delaney’s bid, it was his intervention to smooth the fractious relationship between the FAI and the Government before Christmas.

The two sides were at loggerheads over when the chief executive's post might be publicly advertised and harmony was only restored when Delaney said the job would be open to competition before the end of the year.

His intervention secured the release of Sports Council funding to the association which the Government threatened to withold.


Delaney's appointment will be welcomed at grass-roots level with many believing the Waterford man is the right figure to drive the game forward in Ireland.

The position - something of a poisoned chalice down the years - was formally advertised on December 31st and Delaney's appointment today brings to a close a process that reportedly saw up to 40 people interviewed.

It is believed between seven and 10 candidates were put forward for a final round yesterday.

All were interviewed by a five-man panel made up of FAI president Milo Corcoran, secretary Michael Cody, Sports Council / FAI Liason group representative Con Haugh, Sport's Council nominee Ronnie McBrien and Dublin City manager John Fitzgerald.

Speaking before Christmas when accepting the interim role, Delaney stressed an urgent need for the FAI to get "back-to-basics" and to "concentrate on football matters."

He echoed those sentiments today.

"The development of the game throughout the community as we implement the FAI's Technical Development Plan is an absolute priority," he said.

"We have huge challenges in getting our children interested and active in football and we must invest heavily now in order to reap the benefits in the next ten years."

Delaney has put the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road at the top of his 'to-do' list. The former FAI treasurer said the stadium project was "critical to the future of the game."

The relocation of the FAI offices from Merrion Square to the new Sports Campus at Abbotstown is also a priority if, as expected, the move gets government approval in the coming weeks.

FAI President Milo Corcoran said Delaney's passion for sport, twinned with his experience as a businessman and knowledge of the game was beneficial to the association.

"Great progress has been made over the past three months and I am looking forward to that progress continuing apace under the stewardship of John Delaney," he said.

[eirebhoy]

No suprise. The never intended on appointing anyone other than Delaney even though they interviewed 40 people.

[stojkovic]

Delaney handed permanant role

TO DO WHAT, EXACTLY ??

[Eirambler]

His appointment comes as no surprise though. He has a long family tradition with the association

Says it all really.

[Éanna]

:eek: shock horror :rolleyes:

[Stuttgart88]

Pronane, I think the main reason he's disliked is because of his failure to implement Genesis despite publicly putting his head on the block saying he'd do so within a year. He rigidly insisted Buckley got the role of Finance Director without putting the position open to the public, which just smacked of "same old, same old".

Funnily enough a pal of mine was introduced to him at a party in December. My mate said "to be honest John, I have to say I'm not a big fan of yours" . JD asked why not. My mate couldn't think of any of the reasons and had to admit he just didn't like him, no particular reason! :)

[Donal81]

alot of people are against john delaney, i might be a bit of a dope, but what are the main reasonings behind this?

The FAI needs to be run with some level of efficiency and the past decade of in-fighting, financial ****-ups and machiavllian coups have pretty much destroyed any confidence the average Irish soccer supporter has in the FAI. The appointment of Fran Rooney was a break from the past in that he was someone with a business background who seemed capable of running a large organisation. He mightn't have been perfect and I'm not saying he was a saviour or anything but he was better than the likes of Brendan Menton, Louis Kilcoyne, etc.

His shafting by John Delaney will eventually go down as just another pathetic coup. The organisation is not headed by someone who is concerned with the Genesis report, with streamlining the FAI and making it something that can actually deliver, it's headed by just another FAI stooge.

Quote from the Cass report into Merriongate: "If the Association is to achieve credibility as a competent, imaginative and professional governing body for Irish soccer, it needs to press ahead with a major overhaul of its decision-making structures and administration." Does anyone think that's going to happen? Maybe it will and I'm being unfairly cynical but I don't think Delaney is the person to revamp the FAI and get rid of the wasters.

[Stuttgart88]

I think Delaney was also responsible for telling Mick to negotiate a "bonus payment" from the FAI in 2002, something which was outside of his contract and which cost the FAI about 200,000 euros. This hardly served his employer's interest.

John O'Brien of the Sunday Times, whose view I tend to respect, is a fan of Delaney though.

[Lionel Ritchie]

I think Delaney was also responsible for telling Mick to negotiate a "bonus payment" from the FAI in 2002, something which was outside of his contract and which cost the FAI about 200,000 euros. This hardly served his employer's interest.

John O'Brien of the Sunday Times, whose view I tend to respect, is a fan of Delaney though.

disappointed but not in the least surprised at Delaney getting the job. I sincerley hope the non-in house FAI candidates demand to see the interview panels notes under FOI act.

As for John O'Brien -I dunno what his motivation is for liking Delaney or thinking he'll be any better than the Mentons and Kilcoynes -but I know that while he writes quite well technically -I generally wouldn't p i ss on his opinions as they're usually based in his being a ManU lovin' muppet.

[stojkovic]

John Delaney is a student of Macchiavelli.
Everyone person that he promoted - McCarthy, Menton and Rooney, he subsequently shafted. And all to benefit his own position.

Now lets see what he does for the game in this country.

But if he fails, he will no doubt get a huge pay-off, i'd say its in his contract.

[eirebhoy]

He's really trying his best to get the fans on his side. :)

A big thank you to all supporters who responded to the recent survey in connection with travel to and from games. The survey is being undertaken to gather information which will be really important in planning the new stadium.

Almost 50% of those who received the questionnaire responded. A really fantastic response.

All those responding go into a draw for a pair of tickets for the World Cup qualifier with France. Such has been the response, however, that the FAI has decided to increase that to three pairs of tickets. The three lucky winners will hear of their good fortune shortly.

Again on behalf of the FAI and Lansdowne Road Stadium Development Company a big thank you to all who participated.

We will be carrying out a similar survey at the Ireland v China game. Even if you have previously replied we would ask you to do so again.


John Delaney
Chief Executive Officer

[Glapots]

googley eyed prat :eek:

[joeSoap]

John Delaney is a student of Macchiavelli.
Everyone person that he promoted - McCarthy, Menton and Rooney, he subsequently shafted. And all to benefit his own position.

John Gotti was a student of Machiavelli.
Every person that he made a made man in the Gambino Family, he subsequently shafted, or shot more like, all to benefit his own position,

Do we have an organised mob leader on our hands?? :D

[drinkfeckarse]

"Such has been the response, however, that the FAI has decided to increase that to three pairs of tickets"



Jaysus fair play to him :rolleyes:

[brine3]

Surely there should be some kind of a boycott. Perhaps refusing to buy the next strip they bring out or something.

[nedder]

Extracts only -

" For our home internationals we have 36k seats, 32k go to regular block bookers, remainder going to away fans corporate sponsors and the media.

( re Croke Park) - " there will be the guts of 76k in attendance. - when you consider 32k go to blockbookers and the GAA will hold the premium that will take us to 42K. The germans and the Welsh FA's have informed us that the intend to take up their full allocation of 7k. Then we are on to 20k or so seats which people on the waiting list will want access to.
We intend to deal with some of those on the waiting list, but definitely their won't be any trouble selling out - for sheer novelty alone Kilkenny City v Waterford Utd would attract 76K to Croke Park"

" the only conundrum is that we don't expect 7000 Slovakians or Cypriots to attend, but either way we intend to put the away fans on Hill 16 which is a perfect location in terms of security and segregation."

[nedder]

Sorry, forget to mention source,

- Kilkenny People, Wed 19/04/2006

[gustavo]

Fair play to him for using his hometown club for a sly dig there:(

[geysir]

when you consider 32k go to blockbookers and the GAA will hold the premium that will take us to 42K.
I must have missed this small detail before, the GAA hold onto 10,000 premium seats, which is about €1m in ticket sales?

[nedder]

Fair play to him for using his hometown club for a sly dig there:(


I don't think it was a sly dig, he was merely putting the situation in a local context.

[nedder]

I must have missed this small detail before, the GAA hold onto 10,000 premium seats, which is about €1m in ticket sales?

I think this was always going to be the case, I know a few premium ticket holders and they would have been under that impression from day one.

[NeilMcD]

Yeah that was always going to be the case. If you have bought a box in Croker Park its your box for whenever there is an event at Croke park whether that be a U2 concert or an All Ireland Final or a qualifier V Wales. Not so sure about Civil Service exams though.

[Cowboy]

AFAIK a premium seat gives you the right to buy a seat for a non GAA event but still has to be paid for.

[geysir]

but either way we intend to put the away fans on Hill 16 which is a perfect location in terms of security and segregation."
And also if its lashing rain.

[joema]

Fair play to him for using his hometown club for a sly dig there:(

It wasnt a dig - it was just a way of saying that it will be no bother filling Croke Park

[CollegeTillIDie]

I'd love to see 76,000 at a Derby match between Kilkenny City and Waterford United in Croke Park....but we'd better warn Galtee that their will be some low flying Pork that day :D

[Poor Student]

Whatever about the ineptitude of our manager, should this man not be answerable and accountable for making an horrendus error in appointing an international manager? He is overseeing a collapse in our rankings, seedings and is wasting our funds on having a manager, a highly paid manager consultant and wasting time with a B team (why do we need one when our bench is that weak?). I hope he comes under fire for this.

[skitz3]

Again i agree 100%

[sligoman]

Wait til Delaney takes over our national league next season, some wild times ahead!

[Billsthoughts]

All this was very predictable after holland game.
Staunton should have gone then. Delaney should go as well.

[Soper]

I agree, except on the B team bit.If it is used to see if any EL players are good enough, then it is a positive.Won't happen with either Delaney or Staunton in charge however.

[dfx-]

What's the next guy in charge going to do? He's still going to be in charge of the FAI afterall. Sure he might appoint someone, but what can he do with that team? Who would want to be appointed?

It's alright looking for heads to fall, but it isn't going to improve overnight like that.

[gustavo]

Yeah but there has been a marked decline even from the Kerr days

[backstothewall]

Put Michael O'Leary in charge, things would soon be sorted out.

[pete]

While accept the buck stops at the top theres also something to be said about better the devil you know. Next FAI crony could be a lot worse... :eek:

[dfx-]

Put Michael O'Leary in charge, things would soon be sorted out.

Say Goodbye to the PFAI then...:D

[pete]

Say Goodbye to the PFAI then...:D

He has my vote so.

[pineapple stu]

Delaney took over about three years ago. Since then -

(a) We've had one eL team go broke mid-season and Revenue have issued three winding up orders against eL sides. These moves are, to my knowledge, unprecedented and came about despite the presence of UEFA Licencing to stop such things.
(b) The U-21 team, which was never great, had to pre-qualify for the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Only five countries, I think, scored fewer points than us in the entire campaign last time - Cyprus, San Marino, Luxembourg, Estonia and someone else. Despite all this, the manager stays in place.
(c) We've gone from second to third to fourth to God knows where in the qualifying groups. Delaney has appointed a manager with absolutely no managerial experience whatsoever. He didn't even have any coaching experience. When asked why a more qualified candidate - John Aldridge - didn't even get an interview, Delaney is on record saying he had paperwork to do. I don't want to discuss the merits or otherwise of John Aldridge, but it's incredible that he can offer this reason for not interviewing a more qualified candidate than the one we ended up with. Who else slipped through the net?

In the last three years, Irish football has been on an alarming decline. Delaney needs to resign now, and a complete, independent overhaul (not those muppets in Genesis) of the FAI needs to be undertaken.

We are now, I would say, at a further ebb than Scotland ever found themselves. It was a long way back for them to where they are now (beating France). We can resign ourselves to an even longer recovery, but only once steps have been taken to remedy the problems of Irish football.

[Noelys Guitar]

They have disgraced Irish football..But neither "Stan" or Delaney will go. who else would employ them? Exactly. So it is up to the fans on Wednesday to tell these 2 chancers to go and **** off NOW!

[Poor Student]

What's the next guy in charge going to do? He's still going to be in charge of the FAI afterall. Sure he might appoint someone, but what can he do with that team? Who would want to be appointed?

It's alright looking for heads to fall, but it isn't going to improve overnight like that.

The matter of who would want to be appointed is Delaney's fault. He has appointed a manager so inept that our stock is falling by the game. We're destined to be a 4th seed or less for the forseeable future (which is a long long time in international football) due to his decisions.

I don't expect it to improve overnight, dfx, but if things are to improve at all then we must begin to take action.

[John83]

I agree, Delaney has his part to play in this too. I think it was Tommy Docherty who said that any chairman who sacks a manager he himself appointed should resign at the same time.

[el punter]

In fairness neither Stan nor Delaney let the ball doink off their head to give the Cypriots an easy goal, or put in a park football tackle in the box to give away a needless penalty. Andy O'Brien on the other hand did both. Paddy Kenny also gave a goal away.

Ultimately we had 14 highly paid professional footballers representing our country who could not summon the collective nous to beat one of the weakest teams in Europe.

Yes, the management of the FAI and the Ireland team itself may be all wrong, but the players are the most culpable for this defeat.

[higgins]

Yes, the management of the FAI and the Ireland team itself may be all wrong, but the players are the most culpable for this defeat.

If I knew they were the best 11 available then I'd agree but its stans fault he has the players he has playing.

We should not have been in a position where Ireland was playing or where Clinton was playing.

Its Stans fault and Delaneys fault for appointing him.

[Dodge]

In fairness neither Stan nor Delaney let the ball doink off their head to give the Cypriots an easy goal, or put in a park football tackle in the box to give away a needless penalty. Andy O'Brien on the other hand did both. Paddy Kenny also gave a goal away.

Ultimately we had 14 highly paid professional footballers representing our country who could not summon the collective nous to beat one of the weakest teams in Europe.

Yes, the management of the FAI and the Ireland team itself may be all wrong, but the players are the most culpable for this defeat.
The manager is wholly responsible for defensive organistation...

[Stuttgart88]

Of corse Delaney should go. But he deserved the axe long before tonight, and it's got nothing to do with his deecision not to renew Kerr's contract.

Yes, players made mistakes but despite individual errors we came up well short. Losing 5-2 is a lot better than a waxy crappy result that ends up in us finishing 4th again.

We are not up to the standard required. Why?

There's no easy answer but I think every one of us be it wig-wearing ole ole fan, EPL / SPL armchair regular, eL hardcore, local or national politician or whatever has to look at himself tonight and ask if he's part of the problem.

Funnily enough, the domestic league's status is rising while the national team's fortunes plummets. I'm no eL fundamentalist but I am a proud Irishman. We can hold our own & even excel in all walks of life if we put our minds to it. It looks to me that the future of Irish football would be best served if the Irish actually had more input into it. Where exactly is the alignment of interest beteen the British club system and our national fortunes?

[pete]

Funnily enough, the domestic league's status is rising while the national team's fortunes plummets. I'm no eL fundamentalist but I am a proud Irishman. We can hold our own & even excel in all walks of life if we put our minds to it. It looks to me that the future of Irish football would be best served if the Irish actually had more input into it.

National team - 25th in europe
eL ranking - 35th in europe.

The eL had bad couple of years 4-5 years ago so with even modest couple of years ahead will be in the top 30 soon. This with effectively little or no FAI support. Top 20 is achieveable with a bit of FAI & public support.

[Peadar]

John Delaney has managed to set Irish football back 100 years in a matter of months. The Waterford man must have an agenda to destroy the game from within. He didn't want Brian Kerr as the manager from the very start, so he did everything in his power to have him removed. Then he hired Staunton. He is single handedly to blame for the greatest national shame since Michelle Smith.
There's no point getting rid of Staunton unless we get rid of Delaney too.
Limassol v Cork City FC in Nicosia had a bigger crowd than that game last night. Last year, there were 14,000 Irish in that stadium. We'll end up playing in half empty stadiums, like Wales, if John Delaney is allowed to continue!

[Partizan]

is it something to do with the fact that the said person is from "Wahherfurr".

Give over your obesession with Delaney. He is not the cause of our current malaise. Its due to 30 years of neglect.

[Billy Lord]

I blame the parents.

[Peadar]

is it something to do with the fact that the said person is from "Wahherfurr".

Give over your obesession with Delaney. He is not the cause of our current malaise. Its due to 30 years of neglect.

The fact that I despise people from Waterford and Louth is secondary to the pain I feel due to the damage Delaney and Staunton are doing to the game I love. You can remain loyal to your fellow county man but don't dare try to defend him to me. I shudder to think of the damage he could do to the eircom League.