Safe pair of hands Courell can stake claim with interim mission

It’s the John O’Shea factor at the top end of the FAI. With echoes from the football field, an interim appointment has been made in the boardroom, one instantly popular with the foot soldiers, that might not become permanent right now but could, in time, see that person return to take over.

Two wins from his two games last month would have left it hard for the FAI to ignore loyal servant O’Shea and import an outsider.

However, the tame nature of the display at home to Switzerland, some grumbles about the heavy training load, and confusion over Mick McCarthy’s surprise presence in the camp saw marks docked from O’Shea’s report card.

But O’Shea’s standing in the game and the appreciation in FAI circles for how he stepped in in trying circumstances, will do his cause no harm the next time the job is available if he can continue to expand his CV.

In asking David Courell to move over from his post of COO to interim CEO, following the confirmation that Jonathan Hill is to leave his role, the FAI have done the easiest thing, change one letter in his title and he won’t even have to move office and replace the Leeds United decor from the incumbent with the green and red of his native Mayo.

Courell is a safe pair of hands, capable of steering the FAI through the immediate tasks such as embedding the new manager of the men’s senior team, fronting up for the hosting of the Europa League final in Dublin next month, making plans for summer internationals, while carrying on with the tasks he’s already been performing, the boring but essential stuff like the strategy implementation, ongoing work for hosting Euro 2028 and, with a budget being drawn up and a general election within a year, trying to win back the faith of a political class after the recent shambolic Oireachtas appearance.

If an Ireland team managed by O’Shea had beaten Belgium and Switzerland he could have secured the job no matter what other plans were in place. Courell, as interim CEO, doesn’t have immediate targets like a 90-minute match to prove himself, but his work as caretaker CEO will be noted as the FAI board put a recruitment process in place.

It’s possible that by summer’s end, Courell will have done so much good work that overlooking the impressive, home-grown option already in situ in favour of a shiny new thing from abroad, will not be so appealing.

Differences under the interim CEO will be subtle but noticed. Courell is highly regarded in the football industry here and is popular with FAI staff. Few Abbotstown insiders would apply those labels to the outgoing CEO whose departure will not be missed or mourned. FAI staff who were in touch with this reporter since Hill’s exit was confirmed had only good things to say about Courell.

While Hill did avoid the chat show route to celebrity favoured by his fame-hungry predecessor John Delaney, the Yorkshire native did still have a profile and was a recognisable public face of the game, even if he was reluctant to deal with the media, with social media was his channel of choice.

Aside from FAI staff, to the general public Courell is Mr Anonymous. When his appointment as interim CEO was confirmed yesterday, his account on X had just 216 followers – Hill had 2,285. Courell’s posts were rare but informative and businesslike, while Hill often tweeted before thinking (like offering solidarity to Ireland’s football friends both in Russia and Ukraine in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion in 2022, a post long since deleted.)

Mayo native Courell was beginning his own journey into adulthood just as Ireland wrapped up their last appearance at a World Cup final as he began a commerce degree in UCD in 2022.

Graduating with a Master’s in business studies in 2006, a stint with Deloitte as management consultant opened the door to the sporting world as he was seconded to the planning team for the 2012 London Olympics, then worked for three years as director of operations for the British Paralympic Council. Courell’s LinkedIn profile says he was then “headhunted” for a role with the English FA where he worked from 2017 until the FAI came calling in 2022.

There was a worrying amount of inane PR guff around him getting the job, with the FAI press release resorting to empty marketing speak to describe the “truly world-class sporting organisation” he had come from and how he could “apply these learnings” to “bolster the FAI’s execution of its new strategy”.

Courell, however, soon emerged as a plain-speaker who understood sport at elite level. He had roles with huge responsibilities at the Olympics, Paralympics and in the FA but also worked well with people and understood Ireland and Irish sport, something that Hill, a commuter to Dublin from his English home, never got.

He also found out that long-term planning often has to take a back seat to rolling events in the FAI and knows that weeks and months of solid work in the background on an FAI project can be undone in minutes in front of the public, like the much-derided manager hunt and that dismal Oireachtas appearance.

Courell can curate the CEO role for the time being and the FAI board may decide that an outsider is needed to bring the association forward.

But caretaker managers can become managers in their own right and Courell deserves the chance at least to stake his claim, put his name on the door, put his native Mayo on the soccer map and bring Irish football to a better place.