Are the FAI really that bad?

[GavinZac]

FAO UCD Fans: I know its a study week, but please ease up on the essays.

[Bald Student]

This discussion is going down a bit of a cul de sac. Superhoops' point is that there has been a lot of good change in the FAI these last few years and Pineapple's is that no one knows for sure what was in the Genesis Report since the document is kept secret. Both opinions are valid and they don't particularly contradict one another.

[pineapple stu]

You're an awful spoil sport...

[CollegeTillIDie]

The FAI was for years an organisation run exclusively by volunteers in the evenings after work. At one point the only professionals working in the organisation were the office staff dealing with the correspondence. A lot has changed, not just the location of their offices. However at the risk of sounding like the tail end of an election slogan '' they have a lot more to do''.

This past season they took over the EL for the first time.
It wasn't a bed or roses for sure the asterisk returned to the League table again, petty fines were issued for seemingly trivial things. However, overall the fact that time effort and money was put into promoting the League, the fact that they negotiated the best TV deal on behalf of the League in it's history to cover the next 5 years or so, indicates that some improvements have been made. Noel Mooney and the Club CPO's have been an improvement. Fran Gavin former player and PFAI chairman is now the very visible person running the affairs of the League employed by the FAI. He has been at games every weekend of the season and was at Belfield on numerous occasions.

At grassroots level while they have problems in terms of disaffection with clubs at some levels of the game , there have been improvements in terms of grants being made available for facilities and the extra Coaching back up provided by the Technical Department under Packie Bonner.

At international level the biggest disaster is the senior team without question. And they seem to be unnecessarily prolonging the process. However I will point out that in 1985/86 they accidentally got the best candidate at the time. They are being a bit more methodical with the process today.

So the FAI is a mixed bag, but to deny there have been some positive things done would be to reduce oneself to a gutter press hack.

I am not a huge fan of John Delaney, his trail of wreckage both in Merrion Square AND during his time at Waterford United stand against him. He is very Macchiavellian in his approach to behind the scenes Admin politics. He spent 10 years in the FAI behind the scenes getting even with those who caused his father to resign as far as I can see. However, he is doing SOME GOOD work and maybe when he does leave office the organisation will be in a better place than when he took over.