2020 is a crunch year for FAI but fresh 20/20 vision is badly needed for growth of Irish football

WHEN John Delaney sits back in his plush seat, among the 800 guests and media in the Convention Centre tomorrow for the Euro 2020 draw, he can do so in the knowledge that the FAI at least got one over the IRFU. Their Lansdowne Road co-habitants have been doing a fine job of unintentionally highlighting the FAI’s bleak picture with Irish rugby’s relentless winning, selling out of matches and hijacking of the FAI’s new succession plan with one of their own.

But the FAI did manage to score one over the IRFU: they won a bid. Well, a bid to host tomorrow’s draw in Dublin ahead of the 11 other host cities of Euro 2020. Delaney and Co will welcome delegates from the 55 participating countries as well as UEFA’s roster of VVVIPs. For this soiree, never must a ‘plus one’ have seemed more comforting to the FAI than Delaney’s wingman tomorrow.

When the Republic of Ireland is drawn from Pot 3, the camera will most likely pick out a dapper Delaney dressed in a smart suit with a green tie and Mick McCarthy sitting beside him. Delaney may have to swerve an encroaching TV camera but McCarthy won’t be able to resist, and will probably offer a cheeky smile.

Seven days previously Delaney and McCarthy had a dry run on how to manage media attention at McCarthy’s announcement as the returning Republic of Ireland manager.

As soon as Big Mick stepped into the press conference room at the Aviva Stadium, there was 82 seconds of incessant flash photography before Delaney, sitting beside him at the top table, tried to calm the fuss.

He offered the kind of words that will haunt any disgruntled, petition-signing Irish football fan. “Ok lads, we won’t be going anywhere,” he promised the snappers.

It would have been very easy for Delaney to skip off after official re-introductions were made between McCarthy and the media, but he opened the questions to the floor about matters beyond the next two managers.

Delaney was asked if he would appear before an Oireachtas Committee to explain the FAI’s finances and governance after Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy’s call for his appearance.

Maybe Delaney had a point when he said he wasn’t interested in “sideshows and people making comments for the sake of publicity”. So uninformed are some of the questions at these Oireachtas hearings that they come off as nothing more than window-dressing to try and appease the public.

Salary

Delaney (right) denied there was any issue over the FAI’s transparency. “I’ll give you one example, even my own salary is transparent,” he said. “There’s other sports bodies who, for their own reasons [don’t disclose such figures], and they’re quite correct not to reveal the CEO’s salary. I’m probably one of the very few whose salary does get disclosed.”

Anyone looking for a more detailed breakdown of wages and salaries – which was noted as €10,327,248 under staff costs in the FAI 2016/17 Annual Report, for example – might be reminded of that infamous phrase used by English branding expert Jonathan Gabay, whose services were employed by the FAI two years ago.

In December 2016, Gabay did a presentation of his 18,500-word report on how to improve the League of Ireland as a brand. On the issue of how the FAI’s sponsorship deals with the league should be treated, Gabay said “there should be confidential transparency”.

Confidential transparency – you almost need to say it twice to appreciate its full comedic effect.

In case you’ve forgotten, this was the same brand report which included suggestions to promote the league like a special FAI-branded bus to drive around the country, the scores from matches being displayed on electronic signs at bus stops and an idea that footpaths should feature special slabs like the Hollywood walk of fame. What a truly outstanding use of FAI money.

The FAI is midway through its fouryear 2016-20 Strategic Plan. 2020 isn’t just a big year for the FAI in terms of hosting four matches in Euro 2020, but it will also be the year that the association celebrates a century in existence.

In his message in the strategic plan, Delaney said he was “confident that with the support and goodwill of all the stakeholders in the game, the future, as we approach our centenary year, can be very bright”.

Very bright? With two years remaining for all those aims to be fulfilled in that strategic report, the past week has seen two highly experienced figures within Irish football strongly question the way the FAI does its business.

“We need better pathways at all levels of the game,” Niall Quinn said on Virgin Media Sport on Tuesday night. “Down at the bottom of the game we

have to work out what are the best routes to try and bring investment into the game.

“The league has to do what every other league in the world does and stand up for itself, promote itself, market itself, bring in money from all over the world if it can, put an office in Dublin with people who are owners of the league, make the league bigger and better.

“It cannot survive owned by the FAI or even half-owned by the FAI. They shouldn’t have anything to do with it.”

2020 is also a significant year for the FAI because it is by the end of that year that Delaney has often stated how he wants the association to have cleared its Aviva Stadium debt. But at what cost to every other part of the game?

Contract

“Sponsorship renewals, TV contract extensions and grants available in 2019/20 make it clear to the board that a debt-free position can be achieved by the end of 2020,” a briefing document stated in July of this year.

Brian Kerr told Off the Ball last week: “They (FAI) seem to be hell-bent on paying off the debt whatever that is, whether it’s €30m or €40m and you hear regular references to being debtfree by 2020.

“What’s the rush? Why not invest the €30m or €40m into the game instead of having half-baked projects like the underage league every second year, a coaching structure that isn’t strong enough or isn’t developed well enough and doesn’t have the broad facilities?

“We don’t have a proper academy in Ireland; it’s ridiculous in this day and age, we’ve no proper academy base or academy structure.”

In response to criticism of structures, Delaney said last weekend that the FAI have “gone about it in a very robust way in the last number of years” to “have a player pathway in place under Ruud (Dokter, FAI high performance director) with the national leagues, with some very good coaches”.

Last night in the Mansion House there was a reception for the glorious Euro 88 Ireland squad. It was a tournament which truly got the nation hooked on what’s possible for Irish football. That was 30 years ago. And here we are, with serious questions still being asked about the governance and structure of Irish football. No amount of spin or guff from the Minister of Sport Shane Ross and the fine work he believes the FAI are doing will wash.

Bring on 2020 alright, but we’re well past the point of needing a fresh 20/20 vision for Irish football.