‘Next Ireland boss must be the best person OFF the pitch too’
Telly’s Jacqui weighs in on future of Irish football after FAI link to Lennon is blasted
RTE sports commentator Jacqui Hurley has weighed in on the debate over the future Ireland manager.
Asked if former Celtic boss Neil Lennon should be ruled out, she said the FAI need “the best person on and off the pitch”.
In 2015 Lennon apologised for making a knife threat against his former mistress – something former TD Ruth Coppinger believes should eliminate him.
Jacqui told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “With any job there’s going to be a huge amount of scrutiny around it.
“They want to get the right manager in place who is going to guide this team to a major championship, that’s the most important thing for the FAI to get right.
“They need to look at the candidates to make sure the manager is the best person on and off the pitch.
“I think that’s probably what’s taking so long with this process.
“The fact that it’s dragged on so long would suggest there have been road blocks put in place. “Neil Lennon’s name started coming forward, and there seemed to be a bit of fight back on that in certain quarters.” Jacqui, 40, will provide commentary for RTE during Ireland’s Six Nations bid which got off to a storming start with a 38-17 win away to France on Friday night.
She believes Ireland can win the tournament outright – with outhalf Jack Crowley the one to watch.
She said: “The biggest question for everyone to answer is what does life look like after Johnny Sexton.
“There’s a long line of legacy of really big Irish rugby characters.
“For Jack Crowley to get a chance to step into that, it’s going to be an enormous opportunity for him.
“He’s proven so far he’s got the temperament to play at this level.”
Second row Joe Mccarthy, 22, is the “next bright light”.
Meanwhile, Jacqui said gender equality in sport can be achieved – but it requires bold moves.
She added: “The men’s game does create more revenue.
“There’s a chicken and egg scenario, we’ve seen even this week in the US, where the women’s college basketball figures were bigger than an MBA game that was on the same night.
“If you put it on and market it and make it a viable thing for people to go and support, I genuinely believe they will support it.
“But if you continue to put barriers out there and say nobody’s going to watch it, then you’re going to keep perpetuating that narrative.”
Commenting on the FAI’S gender equality stance she said: “Now that the men’s and women’s teams get equal pay for match fees, that’s because the men agreed to take a cut to allow the women to get more.
“That’s because of James Mcclean and Seamus Coleman who stepped forward to make sure they fought for equality for women.
“But until the men have a part to play in that then I don’t think it’s going to change.”
The Sunday Game host doubts she’ll see parity of pay in sports broadcasting in her lifetime.
She said: “The difficulty is that the fight is still ongoing, a lot of it is particularly in organisations like RTE there’s a lot of legacy issues that are going to take a long time to wash out.
“It will outlast my career before they get this thing changed.”
The Six Nations kicked off on Friday with every game live and free-to-air across RTE and Virgin Media Television.