FAI ADMIT MISTAKES IN PROBE
acted on a report lodged by at least one member in the 40-person audience of players and staff in the Wembley dressing-room.
The Ireland boss – who ended 2020 with no wins and one goal from his eight games at the helm – followed up his motivational video with a 20-minute monologue which touched on the mistreatment Irish were subjected to during an era when emigration to England was their sole choice.
Barrett (below) and his interim chief executive Gary Owens gained some valuable insights from the raft of staff and players they decided to contact just as the story broke in an English newspaper a week after the 3-0 defeat. An FAI statement at the time had confirmed they were “looking into the matter internally, as a matter of urgency”.
Ultimately, following three days of interviews and zoom calls, it was decided Kenny had no formal case to answer – prompting many to wonder why the manager’s authority was so publicly undermined.
Kenny has since blamed “people behind the scenes or elsewhere who want to cause problems”.
Speaking for the first time about the saga of six weeks, Barrett said: “Number one, it’s a shame that it happened.
“Secondly, it was a shame the way it played out in the media.
“I, as well as the FAI board, were made aware of some of the issues by our executive.
“I hate the word ‘investigation’ but we took a view to establish the facts because there is a lot of hearsay in life.
“When these things come at you, in the manner they did, they tend to get blown up a bit. People can tend to be emotional.
“I don’t think we should have been in the realm of where we were in terms of a big media discussion about it. What we discovered didn’t warrant it.
“The outcome was that things were said in the dressing-room that didn’t seem to be too offensive to anybody, to be frank.”
When it was pointed out that the association’s public utterances inflamed the situation, the independent chairman concurred.
He added: “I can actually see that and am not denying it.
“When I look at terms such as ‘investigation’, ‘urgency’ and all of that, that’s fine. I understand your point.”