Copied this post from an Irish Red on a Liverpool site; interesting reading!
"Here's the latest on the EGM going on today over Fran Rooney's wage demands.
Battle lines have been drawn - the old boys have formed their creaking wagons in a circle and unless strokes are pulled, this will be a game of last man standing. Tonight is the latest Kristallnacht for the FAI.
The 23 members of the Board of Management have convened to discuss the row that has flared up over FAI chief executive Fran Rooney.
Fran wants big bucks for his bonuses - effectively his renumeration would come to double of that of the previous incumbent of the position. Now, if he gets the job done this would be money well spent, and so far the signs are good - the Genesis Report being begun to be implemented, a rumoured €10 sponsorship deal in the pipeline (possibly a planted story by Rooney in the media), and strong leadership on many issues from the new Stadium to the sectarian booing of Rangers players at Irish internationals. Most of the public are delighted with the young go-getter, who has embarked on his objective to clean house in a pr-savvy way that has won the FAI a little bit of respect where before there was none. But the old boys don't like it.
Furthermore, many existing FAI staff - the people who can't sell tickets efficiently, who forget to forward faxes regarding suspensions of International players, who forget to tell DHL when to send kit to Saipan etc etc are 'unhappy' at Rooney's modern executive style management. They don't like to be told to do their jobs, and find job-descriptions and appraisals beneath their dignity. The real world has arrived in Merrion Square and the Mileys and Biddys are afraid they aren't up to it - so they've been squealing to the Board of Management. Ah diddums. Professionalism is a concept unknown not only to the figurehead positions, it seems.
Besides the issues of his proposed bonuses and style of management the most pertinent is that of his relationship with the old praetorian guard - the officers.
There has been a major battle waging since last September when FAI Honorary treasurer John Delaney found himself being investigated by FAI president Milo Corcoran and FAI secretary Kevin Fahy over Mick McCarthy's World Cup bonus.
That issue was put to bed following the intervention of barrister John G O'Donnell as a mediator but it's hardly coincidental that the same figures find themselves on opposite sides of the current Rooney row.
Delaney, a shrewd PR-man with a reforming zeal not only recognises the need for change, but has never forgotten how his father Joe was ousted as Honorary secratary in 1995. Nor who it was ousted him. He has thrown his considerable influence behind Rooney and the reformists' camp, despite the fact he would be voting himself out of a job.
Milo and Fahy want to keep their honorary positions - but also the power that those positions currently control. Once the board of management is reduced to 10 members (from 23) as has already been passed by the FAI Council, they stand to lose all that power to the CEO and his hand-picked appoinments to the newly professional positions on the board.
Whom will back whom is not an easy call. The Junior Leagues should back Fahy, but many are delighted with the changes in Association structures. Most Senior Clubs should largely back Ronney - the potential to make money lies with this fella, while Milo will appeal to the arch-traditionalists who believe the team should still be selected by committee. Those who are sure of their positions in the new world order are siding with Rooney, those who aren't and who stand to be stripped of the prestige and junkets of FAI business are not.
Fact is, the FAI has been run no different to the committee which runs your local Drama Society, and those with their snouts in the trough will be left with nowhere left to go. Milo doesn't have a club (officially he is Waterford United's board representative but in practicality Kilkenny City put him there) to go back to, and Fahy came from the Schoolboys Association - and definitively does NOT want to go back to teaching in Tallaght. But there are others too, mostly oul' lads from the Dublin Clubs who would really rather everything stayed a little hap-hazard, allowing them the room to manoeuvre in the grey areas of doing nothing but getting all the FAI perks of the job.
However the one new element in this round of blood-letting is that many people will vote on the basis of whether they want Genesis and progressive change in or not. A definitive vote tonight could be the end of all the in-fighting and literally wipe the slate clean. It's as simple as that.
However the FAI as it is now is very political and Ronney will be aware of that - my fear is that if olive branches are offered by the old guard, then Rooney might accept old Board memebers staying on in return, say for the full bonus demands being met. If he wants to, he can stand his ground and he would probably face them down. He knew this day would come the day he was appointed and if he gets rid of the living dead now he won't have to deal with this again. And financially, being a self-made multi-millionaire I suspect money won't matter tonight (it sure didn't matter yesterday when he was a paper billionaire as founder of Baltimore Technologies).
The last few days have seen both sides put out propaganda in support of their stance but inevitably rabbits will be pulled from hats and pins are pulled from grenades. As usual with the FAI, negotiation does not come easy - positions are always hardline, brinkmanship is always the currency of communication. You can be sure a few dirty tricks lie up sleeves - it's hard to understand the sheer brazen neck of the old lads in the face of overwhelming public demand for chage without them having a get-outta-jail card somewhere.
There SHOULD only be one winner. Rooney and the reformists should be allowed go ahead and implement fully the Genesis report, they should be allowed tackle the issues of the stadium issue, the UEFA Licence for clubs, the appalling lack of basic facilities for schoolboys, the absence of a National Coaching Academy and the drastic shortage of referees.
Instead the Nosferatu are attempting to pillory Rooney for his bonus demands - he has said the figure quoted (and leaked to the media) is an opening position for negotiations - they think its taking the mick and its a stick to beat him with. He has since offered to work for nothing and park the negotiations about his salary until 2004, but the boys see an opportunity to flush him out now.
That they have chosen the week of a crucial international to do this is indicative of their selfishness and complete disregard for the job they are suposed to be doing - a fact not gone unnoticed nor uncommented upon by Brian Kerr. The icing on the cake is that they want the CEO to be answerable to the old Executive Committee (ie them) thereby rendering the Genesis Report and all reforms cosmetic and redundant.
No matter what happens, however, it only cements the view among ordinary people that the in-fighting within the higher echelons of the FAI is a nonsense and that the FAI can't do their job. It begs the question what it would take for FIFA or UEFA to step in and threaten to withdraw their right to field international teams.
It's a crazy situation but it's probable that that the FAI won't function and pull together as they should until the old brigade are publically forced to back down and hand full control over the organisation to the CEO. Hopefully that will happen this week, though I suspect a long night lies ahead."
