Governance of the FAI

“ In 2012/13, 30 Irishmen played 44,205 minutes in the top five European leagues. Last season, 16 Irish players registered 9,818 minutes between them at that elite level.”

I also wonder to what extent that’s about our inability to convince players from England, Northern Ireland and Scotland who would have previously been inclined to play for us.

Am I right in thinking that of our current squad, only Josh Cullen (and to a very minor extent Nathan Fraser) are guys who grew up outside the system and played in the top flight. In another world, all of Declan Rice, Jack Grealish, Conor Bradley and Andy Robertson are contributing to that number.

The likes of Gibson, McClean, Duffy, McCarthy, McGeady, Walters, Westwood, Cox would have all contributed to those numbers since 2012 and at least as far as i can see we’ve got significantly worse at converting irish eligible players to playing for the national team.

I know it’s just one element but I don’t think it’s insignificant

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Originally Posted by elatedscum

In another world, all of Declan Rice, Jack Grealish, Conor Bradley and Andy Robertson are contributing to that number.

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I don't think there's any world where that's happening to be honest.

When you compare them to the capped dual national players you list (plus McClean, which is a bit strange!) the gap in ability is huge. Who was the last English player to play for us who was genuinely good enough to play regularly for England for example?

And should you not factor in similar players who were playing in 2012/13, which would re-open the gap between the two years?

Ciaran Clark is usually the answer to that. Capped, and captained, England at every underage level up to U20 before switching allegiance to Ireland

Good example I think, but he was never really in the same grouping as Robertson, Grealish and Rice. (Too early to tell with Bradley I think). I'm not sure he'd ever have been capped by England tbh. Never even played for their 21s

If that's the best example, then I think it backs up my point

He didn't play for their U21s because he'd changed allegiance when he was in the U20s
I'm not saying he'd have gotten 30+ caps, but he probably would have gotten a few caps before Villa were relegated, or while he was still with Newcastle

Remember meeting Clark and his family in a pub in Letterkenny a few years back. His alliegance was never in question, and a family that seemed properly proud of their Irish roots.

During a time when England were struggling a little with centre backs, he would almost certainly have got a few caps there. I think he was a consistently under-rated player for us and done very well when called upon. It's a pity his career has nose-dived a little in recent seasons.

Interview with Gareth Farrelly on the42
https://www.the42.ie/gareth-farrelly...74415-May2024/

https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soc...stown-33025625

Guessing most of you have seen Minister of Sport Thomas Byrne on OTB yesterday about the FAI pitch for development monies but for those who haven't, it got this response, so far.

Probably the worst possible time for football to be looking for money at the moment, just coming out of the Olympics. Every second minority sport in the country is at it's highest profile point in the four year olympic cycle right now and has it's hands up looking for cash. Remember that right now our Olympians are "heroes", and our footballers are "overpaid failures".

Government spending on sport in total is the real issue, no? We rank near bottom in the EU.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statis...s&oldid=637614

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Originally Posted by Eirambler

Probably the worst possible time for football to be looking for money at the moment, just coming out of the Olympics. Every second minority sport in the country is at it's highest profile point in the four year olympic cycle right now and has it's hands up looking for cash. Remember that right now our Olympians are "heroes", and our footballers are "overpaid failures".

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There's never going to be a good time though.
It remains a valid request based on participation and potential employment, at any stage, whether else is going on. The manager search extended farce shedding a CEO & what looks very like an absolute charlatan remaining in situ are just as damaging.

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Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke

There's never going to be a good time though.
It remains a valid request based on participation and potential employment, at any stage, whether else is going on. The manager search extended farce shedding a CEO & what looks very like an absolute charlatan remaining in situ are just as damaging.

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Id imagine that the absolute farce of the last year or so is the biggest factor in Governments attitude to the FAI right now. On the day that they were supposed to present their case to the Oireachtas Committee for a increase in government funds they got bogged down with the farce of the redacted emails and never even had time to move on to the reason they were there in the first place. Now we have a situation where they CEO recruitment might take as long as the manager hunt, but at least the Interim CEO continues to "airgap" as necessary.

I hate the amount of money that goes to Greyhounds etc, but right now the FAI need to get their own house in order before they can quibble about the Governments attitude towards them.

D McD reporting that Canham was promoted to stave off interest from the UK. Personally I'd have booked him a first class flight to the nearest airport to whatever city the supposed interest came from, but it seems the suits on the board actually rate the man.

When the manager search was ongoing Canham said the following “I think as part of the process, we do want a coach who will come in and work with us in partnership and create that coaching team around it”. https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...265339996.html

Was thinking the new role Canham has given himself had something to do with this partnership vision. Unclear what his ultimate personal ambitions within the FAI are.

However, looking at his Linkedin, his new role Chief Football Officer is “Leadership and responsibility of all Football Development from Grassroots through to our Senior International Teams across the Men’s and Women’s game. Providing leadership of all Football related strategies to maximise our potential and grow pathways for all at every level of the game.”

His previous role as Director of Football was “Responsible for Irish Football Development, creating pathways for all from Grassroots through to International across the Men’s and Women’s game.”

It’s basically the same responsibilities, no? Except the addition of word leadership. Note when first appointed by the FAI his job description was very much leadership intended https://www.fai.ie/latest/fai-appoin...football-role/
The words leader or leadership are used 7 times in that FAI press release.

So can only conclude, it’s not a promotion per se – but a title change, and this, and supposed interest from the UK, is being used as a justification for a pay increase.

I wouldn't put much stock in what people write on linkedin. CEO is a well defined role in corporate governance. He'll have broader responsibilities in terms of the commercial side of the organization. All of the other C-suite people now report to him. It's more than a pay bump. It's significantly more responsibility than Chief anything else.

He's not the CEO. His new title is Chief Football Officer which I believe is a new title within the FAI's corporate structure. Maybe he has more responsibility now than before, not sure where.

I misread something there, all right. So he's gone from Director of Football to Chief Football Officer. The difference there seems murky as you say.

For some reason Chief Wiggum is coming in to my mind !

I was thinking Judean People's Front v People's Front of Judea

i believe they basically said it reflected the fact that both senior managers were reporting directly to him. assume it comes with a 70k salary bump or whatever (FAI refused to comment if there was a salary increase)

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

I was thinking Judean People's Front v People's Front of Judea

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Not forgetting ~ The Front People of Judea ! ! !

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Originally Posted by elatedscum

i believe they basically said it reflected the fact that both senior managers were reporting directly to him. assume it comes with a 70k salary bump or whatever (FAI refused to comment if there was a salary increase)

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Refusing to comment on whether there is a salary increase shows that they know that this is as popular as a wet fart. Its stuff like this that proves why these guys dont deserve any extra government funds and shows why that in turn hurts football in the country.

Announcing a pay rise for Canham on the same day they announced the cancellation of the emerging talent programme wouldn't have been a good look. But it seems very likely that is what has happened.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2024...nt-ceo-of-fai/

Interim CEO announced as permanent CEO

They air-gapped that nicely.

These cnuts love appointing the interim, JOS would have been a shoe in for the manager gig if he had managed to do a half way competent job in the 4 games.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...075345608.html

More worrying times for FAI staff with further redundancies and cutbacks. I genuinely can’t get my head around how the organisation running a sport so popular in Ireland is consistently in such a bad place.

Champagne Rugby

https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-unio...s/cy0gxjl4e5eo

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Sweeney's basic salary has grown hugely in the five years he has been in the job, from £430,000 to £742,000. While the RFU says his salary is in line with other companies of a similar size, Sweeney remains one of the highest paid administrators in UK sport.

He has spent much of his tenure firefighting - whether due to the performance of the men's senior side, his decision to hand Eddie Jones a new contract in 2020, the botched handling of tackle heights at community level, the future of the second-tier Championship, or four professional clubs going bust on his watch - but there is no doubt Sweeney has an unenviably wide brief and a huge amount of responsibility.

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Dear RFU,

My name is Jawn. I used to run a football organisation in Ireland and if you think your CEO has a habit of ****ing things up proper-like, you should see what I'm capable of…

Mark Canham has left. Not sure how bothered I am about this really. The FAI joint statement effectively says in three years he developed a pathway plan. (Yet is now the time for sections to kick back against it? The calendar switch in particular)

Remember Richie Sadlier implying there was a bit more to come out regarding the FAI in the context of the Canham/Healy issue. The fact that Canham's departure has been announced before they have identified a successor seemingly could imply that this isn't simply a case of Canham wanting to move back to England.

Himself and Hill have taken the guts of €1 million from the FAI through salaries in the past few years and you’d wonder what we have to show for it.

Certainly strange timing as well given all the recent strategies and plans released, with Canham heavily involved

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Originally Posted by Olé Olé

Remember Richie Sadlier implying there was a bit more to come out regarding the FAI in the context of the Canham/Healy issue. The fact that Canham's departure has been announced before they have identified a successor seemingly could imply that this isn't simply a case of Canham wanting to move back to England.

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The FAI having no successor lined up suggests he wasn't sacked.

Yet the fact that he has no new job to go to, and presuming that he will only receive the minimum payout of his contract, suggests that Canham saw some reason up ahead to persuade him that it was time to "get out of Dodge".

It could be the Healy business, as you say, though a quiet NDA payout could maybe settle that one? Alternatively, the FAI's Football Pathways Plan is clearly identified as being Canham's project. If, having seen the figures, he's worried that he might not be able to get 20 viable teams for the new National League; and/or the shift to Summer football for all is proving trickier than first thought, maybe he doesn't want to be still there should it subsequently fall apart? He has to think of his Linked-In page, after all.

There won't be many going out of their way to express much disappointment that he's gone I suspect. Pretty much everything he touched seemed to go pear shaped, and his only notable achievement - if there ends up being one - could be bringing in Hallgrimsson, which possibly happened by accident more than anything, after what appeared to be a shambolic recruitment process looking in from the outside.

There's always a concern about what comes next with these things though. No guarantee that the next person in will be any better.

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Originally Posted by EalingGreen

The FAI having no successor lined up suggests he wasn't sacked.

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I think you might be overestimating the capability of the FAI here.

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Originally Posted by Olé Olé

Remember Richie Sadlier implying there was a bit more to come out regarding the FAI in the context of the Canham/Healy issue. The fact that Canham's departure has been announced before they have identified a successor seemingly could imply that this isn't simply a case of Canham wanting to move back to England.

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Yeah, this is about that. Think he also said there were things he couldn't talk about but football wasn't about power point presentations, or words to that effect, and that was at Canham IMO. This is a heave against him having succeeded and I guess more will emerge now, and it will be interesting reading. He was knee deep in a well paid overhaul of structures, while WFH in England mostly, AFAIK so its not about homesickness :D

Wasn't he living in Ireland? Remember it being mentioned after he got the job that he and his family had relocated to live here.

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Originally Posted by ~YTM~

Wasn't he living in Ireland? Remember it being mentioned after he got the job that he and his family had relocated to live here.

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Malahide

This paragraph from Dan McDonnell this morning is probably the most damning of all on Canham in my view:

"Hallgrimsson’s contract is up at the end of the year after the World Cup campaign so he will now be unsure about who holds the power. His assistant John O’Shea might also be wondering what Canham’s departure means as he was viewed as the heir apparent to the Icelander. A new face could see it differently."

What kind of football mind would look at O'Shea's time with Ireland and think he's the man for the job next time around? He'd potentially have gotten it this time if the team hadn't been absolutely awful during his caretaker period in charge. Suspect that's why O'Shea has been hanging around rather than moving on and taking a manager job elsewhere, he thinks the FAI will just hand it to him if he stays there long enough. He might still be right.