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Fran & the FAI: a marriage made in hell
Conor Keane 8th November 2004
Football Association of Ireland Chief Executive Fran Rooney resigns after weeks of infighting and acrimony
“The FAI has an honourable past, is experiencing a confused present and faces an uncertain future. 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.”
Sound familiar? You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a quote straight out of Genesis. Sadly, no. In 1996, following the “Merriongate” crisis over ticket purchasing, management consultants Ray Cass carried out an investigation into the operations of the Association. Cass criticised the FAI for its “lack of vision, direction and planning, its fragmented and indecisive structures and its marked reluctance to consider necessary change.” The blueprint, uncannily similar in content to Genesis, outlined just how the FAI could, and needed to, implement reform so as to become a competent, competitive body. Yet the people entrusted to implement these changes were the very ones cited in Genesis six years later.
The Saipan debacle took its pound of flesh. The nation was divided. Roy Keane sacrificed a place in the World Cup finals. Mick McCarthy fell on his sword after a pretty decent spell in charge of the national team. So just how was it possible that, bar general secretary Brendan Menton’s decision to step aside from his £150,000-a-year job (to take up other duties within the FAI), not one of the officers in Merrion Square initially felt the Genesis report warranted resignation? How did the game’s incompetent administrators avoid the axe?
The simple answer is that they control, regulate and discipline themselves. They play the game patiently, politically. It can be a long, 20-year journey to the illustrious ranks of the FAI senior council.
Upon publication of Genesis the report was welcomed in general terms by most of the FAI. What some of them refused to accept, though, was the nitty-gritty. When Milo Corcoran spoke in Athens in November 2002 about the association’s enthusiasm to implement the report over a period of five years, it startled FAI Treasurer John Delaney. He had been talking about getting much of Genesis done in 12 months, knowing too well the fate of those reformers in the past who had stalled for consultation after consultation and watched their modernisation get bogged down, as the Hollywood saying goes, in “development hell”.
“It seems to me,” Saint Patrick’s Athletic chairman and committed reformer Andy O’Callaghan said at the time, “that some of the forces lined up on this are the forces that are against Genesis. That is a perception I and others would have.”
The Genesis report recommended five senior professional appointments to be made to manage the FAI – a chief executive, a director of finance, and a director of communications, director of performance and director of football operations. When he took the chief executive’s role, Fran Rooney was hailed as the business-savvy entrepreneur who would turn the association round. But in the FAI change comes with a walking stick. The programme of reform did indeed get off to a good start when a number of senior personnel were replaced and Brian Kerr was appointed as manager, but the FAI didn’t take steps to address long-term reform. The bickering that was a feature under the old regime returned in force and the time scale of key reforms was allowed to slip. The appointment of a Chief Executive officer was supposed to have taken place in the first 3 months of the publication of the report in the summer of 2002. Rooney wasn’t given the job until June 2003.
The key thing for Rooney was getting the senior management in place. Yet his determination to have the positions filled met with fierce resistance from the board of the FAI. Of particular concern was the fact that no moves were made to appoint a director of performance who would liaise with the senior international team manager. That was the most important missing ingredient when Keane’s relationship with Mick McCarthy soured in Saipan.
His bid to revolutionise the administrative structures governing Irish soccer by bringing the previously stand-alone eircom league under the administrative wing of the FAI led to a hostile reaction from the league’s two most powerful officials. The eircom League at the time was receiving little or no investment and Rooney’s efforts were a genuine attempt to put in place structures to make the league a viable entity in the future.
Yet despite this, league chairman Brendan Dillon and general manager Tommy Allen resigned, with the former insisting that he would never again work with the
FAI as long as Rooney and Treasurer John Delaney were involved. The league was their route to the senior council and Rooney’s proposals jeopardized this.
Rooney’s strength of character to make decisions and face up to the guys who had presided over years of mediocrity in the FAI made him many enemies within its ranks. His resignation last Wednesday, after a long and protracted offensive against him, was the inevitable outcome of this episode of the Genesis war. The politics of Merrion Square were foreign to him as an outsider to the administrative side of football (Rooney once managed Ireland’s women footballers). By taking on the men in charge he was taking on men who knew how to fight and knew the ground they were fighting on.
Despite his faults, and he had many, Rooney tried to bring some structure to an organisation where, according to the Genesis report, there was “no culture of discipline” in FAI management, and basic management techniques were non existent. “The present structure, which includes voluntary leadership and professional management, is incompatible,” it said. “Sweeping change” was what was recommended, was what Rooney was mandated to bring.
Liam Brady said on Tuesday night: “the suits will keep their suits”. And so they have. On Thursday the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, John O’Donoghue warned the FAI to get their house in order or risk losing up to €2 million in funding. It may just be the only way to get them to allow their next chief executive to implement the changes that are long overdue.
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Indo: 11/11/04
THE FAI will decide today if it is going to go against the Government's wishes and appoint an interim chief executive for an 18-month period.
The association's Board of Management and National Council will hold back-to-back meetings at Citywest this afternoon to discuss how they should proceed in the wake of Fran Rooney's resignation last week.
President Milo Corcoran indicated last night that there will be a proposal on the table to appoint Honorary Treasurer John Delaney as an interim chief executive for a period of 18 months.
"We will advertise the post of Chief Executive in a year's time because at the moment there is a need to stabilise the association by appointing an interim Chief Executive. As far as I, and the people I have sounded out, are concerned John Delaney is the man to fill that position," said Corcoran.
But while Delaney is a shoo-in as interim Chief Executive there is likely to be some heated debate at both meetings over the length of time he will be in place for.
Delaney is believed to be only interested in the position if it is for an 18-month period but some directors and council members are understandably wary about going against the Government's wishes.
Today is D-Day (Delaney Day?). Today is the day that representatives of the clubs (and their fans!) will decide if it is time for a fresh start or to continue like lemmings and support Delaney. The arrogance of this guy is amazing. No doubt the Board of Management will recommend Delaney's appointment. but hopefully, common sense prevails among the National Council and the future of Irish football is put before the whims of certain individuals.
If the Government's wishes are ignored we must hope John O'Donoghue will be firm and take the appropriate action. If the proposal to install Delaney for 18 months is defeated, then the Board of Management should do the honourable thing and resign en bloc.
What is needed is a clear outcome, but I fear what will emerge will be a fudge, something at which the FAI have traditionally excelled.
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The FAI board met on Thursday and ignored the Government's wishes that it implement the Genesis Report, by bringing in fresh blood at the top, and proceeded to ask treasurer John Delaney to take over the CEO position on an interim basis. The proposal went to a meeting of the full council and was approved unanimously - although it was debated for 90 minutes. Delaney wanted time to think it over, and may be still thinking, but Minister for Sport John O'Donoghue stepped in and told the FAI that under the circumstances he would have no further discussions with the association and it would not be receiving any further Government funds. By Sunday the FAI had issued a statement saying that it would advertise the CEO and Finance Director positions before the end of the year. This change of heart was welcomed by the Minister.
