Sky Sports broadcast Irish League games live.Quote:
Originally Posted by OwlsFan
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Sky Sports broadcast Irish League games live.Quote:
Originally Posted by OwlsFan
'Daniel McDonnell: John Delaney response offers an insight into FAI approach to a national team crisis': http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-35608858.html
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan McDonnell
Dan's article is a damning indictment of Delaney's handling of the women's concern.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
The women assumed the high moral ground in the eyes of the public as soon as the issues became known. It's disturbing to some degree that Delaney didn't read the situation better, in the light of his petty persistence in digging his hole deeper.
Record year for the FAI https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2017...-future-plans/
He said 'Bigly' :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by OwlsFan
He also clocked in and commented on an article about himself*. Not cool John (I assume he sticks a head in here the odd time too).
*"I think John Delaney is doing a fantastic job and should get a pay rise, if he was in the private section there'd be a queue down the street for his services!!!"
John Fallon in the Indo adds some detail in the only print deviation from the FAI spin that I have come across and it's a mild deviation at that.
Bonus costs eat into FAI's €11m Euros haul
"The increase in salary costs by €2.7m to €12.4m was attributed to "exceptional costs associated with qualifying for Euro 2016".
"exceptional costs"??
The management were already paid top dollar, more than enough to get the team through the qualification process to this extended format tournament. We could finish 3rd in both the qual group and in the group at the Finals and still move on to the next stage. That's not the stuff of bonus, that's a minimum level achieved in order to feel pleased about not going backwards.
The players were already well enumerated.
The details of where exactly this money went will not revealed in the annual report.
The Iceland FA accounted costs for everything Euro Finals related was €3.7m and they did not short change the preparations
The FAI administer the LOI with a gleeful punitive condescension (or should that be Putinesque).
There can be little doubt that the abject €5k grant disbursed post Euros to the 20 clubs was an insult.
And now the FAI state that they have had a Euro finals surplus of €4.5m for 9 months, with no plan in place.
'FAI in line to receive €7.75m if Ireland reach World Cup': https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soc...-cup-1.3271364
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emmet Malone
Hopefully some of it will trickle down to the LOI.
Interesting that the Euros was worth a good bit more? €11m v €8.6m for getting knocked out at the same stage (last 16) in the World Cup.
Is there another source of income - TV deals or something?
Failure to qualify will cost the FAI a potential €9 million apparently. Bad news all round. http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/s...ia-462926.html
Delaney has maintained a very low profile since Tuesday as O'Neill and the players have taken the hit.
That's unfair Danny.
Unless he's firing the manager or publicly backing him, I don't really see why Delaney should be in the public eye.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
If he was consistently peripheral, grand, but had we robbed it 1-0 would he be so scarce ? Or has he in the past been reluctant to bask in any scrap of reflective glory ? Nope.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
As CTP highlights, we all know well Delaney would be basking in the success by association had we qualified. He'd be publicly thanking Martin and there'd be videos produced by FAI TV of him appearing in the changing room to celebrate with the players. There'd be sing-songs, drinks bought for fans and he might even have taken to the pitch to cheer-lead the crowd.Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
I guess my post was primarily an articulation of frustration at the man's eternal (and self-enforced) lack of accountability. If there was a sense that Delaney would ever have to answer serious questions in respect of his management of Irish football - be that in a few days, a few weeks, a few months or whenever - I wouldn't be overly bothered by his present ghosting.
Dan McDonnell makes some excellent points here, but no-one's ever going to get an opportunity to put them to Delaney. That's why Delaney should be in the public/media spotlight and shouldn't be let hide away from the consequences of his decisions and governance.
This is a decent summary of the numerous issues facing Irish football at present.
'A Blunt but Much Needed Assessment of Irish Football in Its Current State': http://www.punditarena.com/football/...current-state/
I think its a scandal that Kerr is not involved, in some capacity.
A big concern with MON is the style of play. We criticise the bandwagon brigade but as a football lover,at times I have pulled my hair out at the equally horrendous and stupid style of play we have. His generally good results have papered over the cracks. I do think that this type of football allied to the last few years of Trap's reign is doing long term damage to our esteem as footballers. I heard ****e from pundits that it's not in our dna to play the continental way but we produced outstanding footballers down the years and under mick we played lovely football on a regular basis.
The counter argument would be that we have a very average group of players (i still believe we can play better) and MON is a streetwise manager who could get us to euro 2020 where we would host group games and a last 16.It is the closest we will come to being a full host. That is a potential windfall for the game here which could be pumped into real long term development. Another argument would be who could realistically get better results? Do we have the young players coming through right now? My understanding is that we have some of our best talents in a long time but they are mostly 15-16. There is no guarantee they will reach their expectation. I watch a lot of underage football and i was convinced Conor Clifford would be a top premiership player.
Do we then write off wc2022 with a view to building an exciting squad for the future? I personally would be happy with this if in 5 years we had an exciting youthful team like what developed under Mick,even if they might not be as talented.
The FAI are in a significant amount of debt and their business model of choice presumably means they don't feel they're in a financial position to be writing off or sacrificing entire campaigns to focus on long-term co-ordination and player development rather than prioritising the potential cash cow of immediate qualification, so it seems they feel compelled by their financial situation to take what they consider the safe or most immediately lucrative option always, which appears to entail throwing all their eggs in one short-term basket and banking on qualification from campaign to campaign.
It appears desperate and short-sighted to me. Rather than the desperately hopeful and disjointed campaign-to-campaign approach, if they actually developed a long-term and more sustainable strategy to serve us into the future, it'd be more likely to reap greater rewards overall once the results started to take effect; it's just that it would take a bit more thought, planning, work and time, but we should think of it as delayed gratification.
On Brian Kerr, it's a travesty that his knowledge and intellect aren't being harnessed.
On paper Brian Kerr seems the perfect person for the role Ruud Dokter is in
And you thought I was serious. That's terrible. Just terrible.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
Kerr's last job was managing the Faroes in 2011. Since then he's worked as an analyst and co-commentator. Since then the only job I can remember him being linked with the Nigeria senior manager job, along with Bryan robson. To the best of my knowledge, no club in England, Scotland or Ireland has offered him a position. Whatever about a position in the FAI, is he happy just to sit on the sidelines?
I think he's still sore enough to want to prove a point. If Roy can come back then Brian can.
'Denmark hammering is not just on O'Neill or the players - it stops at John Delaney's desk too': https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...-36332782.html
-We've qualified for two Euros in a row and were very close to a World Cup, having previously qualified for one major tournament in eighteen years.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tommy Con man
-We performed very well at Euro 2016, a mere seventeen months ago.
-We have beaten Germany, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Italy, Austria & Wales over the last two years.
-Our underage sides are performing better than they have done in years.
-Dundalk produced our best every club performance in Europe in 2016, with Shamrock Rovers having raised the bar a couple of years earlier.
-Stephanie Roche finished runner-up in FIFA Puskas Award.
What fictional status & reputation does he think we had previously? Okay we probably had some higher profile players but that's the case with most international teams now. England have gone from having Scholes, Gerrard, Lampard & Beckham to Jordan Henderson & Jake Livermore! Italy don't have players like Del Piero or Pirlo anymore.
Yes, John Delaney is to blame for the Sky generated globalisation of the English Premier League. 'Keeping up' should have been a formality.Quote:
The industry in England now has a globalised workforce. The FAI has failed chronically to keep up with the competition.
Shoddy Premier League footballers for the most part, as it happens!Quote:
Once again on Tuesday night Irish players were exposed for their basic inability to control the ball and pass the ball - the fundamental building blocks of the trade. Anyone with a passing interest has been banging this drum for at least 20 years. A shoddy indigenous culture is repeatedly producing shoddy footballers.
Terrible article. There's enough to throw at Delaney without conjuring stuff up when we're in a bad moment. Big deal if he hasn't been in the public eye in the aftermath of the disappointment? Fair enough I can see the argument, but just because he gets involved in the celebrations doesn't mean he's obliged to criticise or defend what happened last Tuesday, what use would it be? He'd be damned if he did, damned if he didn't anyway.
Wouldn't bother Danny, there are a lot of JD fanboys on this site, mostly the ole ole crowd. Funny that:D
Fact is Ireland are not in the World cup, and if a top 16 in Europe is the height of your ambition then good luck to you.
I will enjoy watching Iceland this year in the WCup. Nice of them to plough all their funds from the Euros back into their set up, while our boys just gave most of it to the players and the hangerons, and thats a lot of people these days.
I'll jump at pretty much any chance to criticise Delaney, but don't think him not being in the public eye after the Denmark match is one.
If it's a comparison with him being in the public eye (drunk with fans, lost his shoes etc) after a good result, then I'd say that's the behaviour that should be at issue.
Some ball of sh!te.Quote:
Originally Posted by bennocelt
Calm down Ruby Walsh, respectable/good showings at major tournaments is the height of my ambition to be honest. You're right there.Quote:
Originally Posted by bennocelt
Fact is Italy aren't either and neither are Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. I suppose Delaney is at fault for those as well. I am not sure the KSI have a huge debt to pay off on their 18,000 capacity stadium so they were able to put more of the money back in to the game. To describe anyone who can actually see that it's not all Delaney's (Satan in an FAI suit) fault as an ole oler is ridiculous and not worth responding to.Quote:
Originally Posted by bennocelt
Ole, ole, ole,me no like John! ��
The globalisation of the EPL isn't something Delaney can control, certainly, but did Conlon strictly mean that the ultra-rich EPL was direct competition for the FAI and that the FAI should be keeping up with its level?Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
I got the sense that by "competition", he was more referring to other countries (rather than the EPL itself) who now have a greater number of players playing at higher levels of the game in England at our expense and our apparent or perceived inability to keep up with those countries.* Although maybe that's more or less the same thing ultimately, considering those are now the players who increasingly set the enhanced EPL "benchmark"...
*Critics could point out that the LOI is ranked 39th out of 55 European leagues; a poor rating in the grand scheme of things. Fair enough, we're never going to be in the top five with the likes of Spain, England or Italy, but there's no reason why we shouldn't be aiming for the top 20 - after all, the Cypriot league is ranked 18th, just to use an example - which should in turn help us maintain a higher national standard, help us produce a greater number of higher calibre players and assist the international team in at least providing it with a greater number of options and enhanced strength in depth. In saying that, it's not as if the LOI's ranking has been in recent decline either, we've never been at a level equating to that of the EPL, nor has the standard of the league ever even really "kept up" with the level of our main international competitors' leagues in the past either. The historical disparity between our national team's performance, which has generally tended to be of a second or third-tier rating, and the level or quality of our national league, which would probably be rated around fifth-tier if leagues were seeded into pots or tiers like international teams are, has always been a bit of a European anomaly.
It is fair to say that we have fewer and fewer players playing in the top flight as the years pass though. At the same time, I do accept that that would be an inevitable consequence of the EPL's globalisation, as there are just so many more high-calibre options around the world now for EPL clubs from which to choose rather than just having the pick of the best players from the UK and Ireland. It probably is the case that you always had higher-calibre players scattered around the globe, but EPL clubs simply didn't have access to them in the past like they've always had with Irish players or like they do now.Quote:
Shoddy Premier League footballers for the most part, as it happens!
For me (and I'd assume many others who don't have much time for Delaney), complaints about him hiding away from the glare of the public arena in the aftermath of last Tuesday are really just a convenient stick with which to beat a dislikeable scapegoat and I resent you trying to curb our witch-hunt. :pQuote:
Big deal if he hasn't been in the public eye in the aftermath of the disappointment? Fair enough I can see the argument, but just because he gets involved in the celebrations doesn't mean he's obliged to criticise or defend what happened last Tuesday, what use would it be? He'd be damned if he did, damned if he didn't anyway.
No, in seriousness, the complaints are more an articulation or "bubbling over" of an enduring frustration over the man's brazen lack of accountability. As I said before, if I had a sense that he'd ever be properly subjected to scrutiny and legitimate questioning by the media or even his own organisation - those who profess to be custodians of the game and of whom the rest of us are (often paying) supporters with a stake in Irish football - his present ghosting wouldn't really bother me as much, but questions aren't even permitted at AGMs and dissent is pretty much non-existent.
Another thing I would note in conclusion is that our senior team is ageing. That and the fact we don't really have creative players coming through is an obvious concern and significant responsibility for that must rest at Delaney's doorstep.
You make good points otherwise though, as ever, that are difficult to refute. Fair enough, it's not exactly an emergency and we're not presently in free-fall, but there is a fear that recent successes paper over cracks. There's an ominous sense of concern that we're riding our "luck" a bit given our poor structural base and planning - we can't and won't get away with it forever - and that we're in for a rude awakening in the near future, the play-off result perhaps being the wake-up call for that. At the very least, we could be ensuring that things look a bit more certain or optimistic for the future, so we could always be doing better in that sense. :)
The bigger Cypriot teams are bankrolled by rich owners. Only about a third of the squads of the top two teams in their league right now are Cypriot
The cost of living is a lot lower there too, which helps. They're also known for not paying players, but presumably the up-front bundles of cash are enough to tempt players in the first place.
Heh, OK, ignore Cyprus. It was just one example I plucked out of the list of European leagues ranked around 20th. Based on our population and resources, I think we could realistically aim to be at a similar level to leagues like Belarus, Sweden, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Israel, Croatia or Denmark if a proper long-term development plan was put in place. All of those leagues are ranked between 16th and 25th. Obviously, it's very much idealistic given the neglect of the domestic game in this country, but that's the level we should be striving for and possibly could have been at were it not for the decades of neglect.
No, definitely not, but he seemed to think the FAI should have been able to keep up with the challenge globalisation of the PL presented. Impossible in my opinion, the FA can't even keep up with it.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
Yes, exactly. So what a ridiculous point he was making. Are we really expected to compete manfully with the talent from Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, etc.? Of course it has butchered our playing numbers at the top clubs and league generally.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
I don't know what the realistic expectation should be in terms of where our league should rank. I wouldn't know enough about the other leagues - attendance figures, financial support/sponsorship, etc. Top 20 seems extremely fanciful though, without thinking about it too deeply. Most of the countries you mentioned in post #754 have significantly higher populations than the Republic of Ireland, pretty much double in most cases bar Croatia & Denmark. I know that's slightly crude gauge of where we should or could be at, but it would obviously impact heavily on potential playing figures and attendances.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
Despite this, Dundalk and Cork City have beaten the top clubs from three of these leagues over the past couple of years (Belarus, Sweden & Israel), so at least we're competitive in that sense.
Like I said, there is plenty that can be thrown at Delaney. Conlon's piece is opportunistic nonsense though, having a dig just for the sake of it because the opportunity presented itself. There's no substance in the article and it's full of holes and hyperbole.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
O'Neill is the one choosing to play the more senior players though, I wouldn't blame Delaney for this either. Hopefully we have some creative players coming through and they just haven't got much of an opportunity yet, Liam Kelly an obvious example but even the likes of Hourihane could reduce the age profile and add an eye for goal. Clearly there are others too and at least we seem to be making inroads at underage level. I think we've enough to work with in the short-term anyway, obviously we're lacking a reliable goalscorer at the moment though.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
I think the cracks are well established. Hopefully better structures have been put in place at this stage. Time will tell I guess.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
How many of these countries have another football creed as their national game, also played in the Summer, and which for decades forbade its members to play soccer? For 6 decades soccer was played and supported primarily by working class people from urban areas. The rest of the country and much of the cities was owned by the GAA and was an integral part of the community. Soccer could not compete and by the time the ban was lifted, the BIG MATCH, MATCH OF THE DAY etc were being broadcast at the exact same time as the League of Ireland games were on. This is not an excuse. It's a fact and club soccer has been playing catch up and always will in this country behind the GAA. There is huge interest ok in soccer but because of expert way the GAA has sown up the country and parish scene, soccer is on a hiding to nothing as far as the clubs are concered. It's just too difficult to break that stranglehold and whether it's John Delaney, Donald Trump, Pope Francis or whoever in charge of the FAI, it is an almost an impossible task to compete with the GAA because that's what it's about.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
This is a long way from getting anywhere but it seems to be picking up momentum. 8k signatures since this morning.
https://www.change.org/p/football-as...ead-of-the-fai
10.5k as of 0830.
Well said.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
Edit: i looked at the date - I didn't realise it was a year old :) I thought a whole load of stuff on JD had just been written above
I'd say it needs to get to 100k to make much difference. If it gets north of 20k the tabloids will maybe pick up on it which would get it going that bit faster.