FAI stands for fools and incompetence?
from independent.ie
Monday May 13th 2002
A LITTLE morsel of mildly interesting World Cup trivia for you to mull over this morning: Of all the squads, from all over the globe, travelling to Japan and Korea, only the Irish one is comprised entirely of players who play their club football in the one country.
With Phil Babb out of sight, out of mind and out of favour despite amazingly rediscovering how to kick a football and starring on the Sporting Lisbon side that won the Portuguese League, and with Ronnie O'Brien not so amazingly failing to live up to his billing as Time Magazine's 'Most Influential Man of the Century' as he warmed a bench in Dundee where he was on loan from Juventus, the 23-man squad announced by Mick McCarthy last week consisted completely of players in the employ of English clubs.
Er, it's not exactly an earth-shattering revelation, is it?
Actually to claim it is mildly interesting is probably a bit of an exaggeration.
Mention it in company and you'd be doing well to raise a single murmur, let alone an eyebrow.
But from such seemingly insignificant tit-bits do enthralling, erudite, profound and well-reasoned Monday morning rants sometimes grow, so bear with me.
However, first let us expand on the one thing that makes the Irish squad stand out from all the others that qualified for the World Cup.
The vast majority of other competing nations, from the best to the worst, draw their players from a diverse spread of national leagues, while only three England, Italy and Spain come close to matching Ireland's unique uniformity of origin.
Sven Goran Eriksson may have bizarrely omitted Real Madrid midfielder Steve McManaman, a player who will surely, before the week is out, have two European Cup medals jangling in his pocket.
But the England boss did, at least, have a little peep outside of England in his search for talent and included young Owen Hargreaves of Bayern Munich in his chosen 23.
Italy also have a token bit of diversity in the shape of Barcelona's Franceso Coco who joins 22 Serie A players in the blue corner, while the Spanish line-up will feature Gaizka Mendieta, the straggly-haired former Valencia midfielder who now plays no, 'turns up' would be a more accurate description of what he does for Lazio.
So, no matter what happens in the Asian sweltering pot next month, the Irish squad will be a little bit special, different from the common herd.
It may not be much of a distinction, buy hey, any sort of distinction is hard earned in the World Cup when you go into battle with a team like McCarthy's.
Actually, if that distinction is not enough to be going on with, you'll be delighted to hear that Ireland are unique on another score.
Not only are all the players based in one country, but of all the teams competing, we're the only one with no squad members playing for a home club.
Well, knock me down with a feather, I hear you gasp sarcastically.
True, there's nothing particularly surprising about that either, at least not at first glance.
We all know what a sorry state the eircom League is in, but just think about that absence of home-based players for a moment.
Every other country that qualified for the World Cup in fact, almost every country in the entire world has a domestic league capable of supplying at least a few players to their national teams. Every country, that is, except Ireland.
Why are we so special? What makes little 'ol Ireland so unique? It's all because of the incompetence of the Football Association of Ireland, the blazer brigade who are supposed to act as the guardians of the garrison game in this country.
They'll be over in Japan in a couple of weeks' time, a squad of them so big that it will easily out-number the players, some on all expenses paid trips, many more availing of the FAI's generous €3,000 travel allowance which was made available to the 50 or so members of the FAI's Senior Council.
You'll probably see some of them on television, hovering in the background on match days, clapping themselves on the back and basking in the reflected glory of the Irish team, just as they have been doing since Euro '88, 14 years ago.
Somehow, they have managed to delude themselves into believing that they have contributed in some way to Ireland's success on the international stage. But, what have they actually done to help the cause? Made the travel arrangements? A travel agent can and does do that for them.
Sort out ticket sales? A ticket agency helps them out with that.
Rent a ramshackle old stadium from the IRFU for home games and pay the stars? Any mediocre concert promoter could do that for them.
In reality, the FAI have done nothing to help Irish soccer over the last one and a half decades.
All they have done is preside over the continuing demise of the national league, fail to build eircom Park, and indulge in continuous in-fighting.
But their most serious failing and the reason behind why the Irish squad will be so unique in Japan has been their lack of action to stop the annual exodus of starstruck Irish kids to the big English clubs, a practice that inflicts unnecessary sacrifices on children. It is nothing short of a scandal that hundreds of 15 and 16-year-old Irish children have no option but to leave their native country, their families, friends and schools if they are to chase their dream of soccer stardom.
Because the FAI have stood idly by, and failed to set up a school of excellence to match what's available at the big English clubs, Irish soccer has had, for years, its brightest young talent plundered from under the FAI's nose.
What's worse is the ordeal the kids have to go through, the loneliness, the homesickness, the inadequate education, the bullying, the constant mortal fear of rejection.
It is an immense sacrifice, even for the lucky few who make the grade, not to mention the vast majority who are cut adrift and left, scarred and disillusioned, to pick up the pieces.
Until such day as the FAI set up a proper school of excellence and halt this scandalous trade, Ireland will continue to be unique among the soccer nations of the earth - unique for the incompetence of its governing body.
As for the catchy slogan, 'We Care About Irish Football', it's a sick joke.
koshaughnessy@independent.ie
Kevin O'Shaughnessy, Wild Card
